The Empire usually strikes back

Saturday’s potential pitching duel between Logan Webb and Clayton Kershaw never materialized. Ace, past or present, was not the operative word to describe the manner or results of either arm. Neither starter recorded an out past the 4th inning. Kershaw was done after the 3rd, thanks in part to a 36-pitch 1st in which he gave up 4-runs — a first for the veteran in over 400 career innings pitched against San Francisco and owned a 1.69 ERA across 61 career games. Now that ERA has swollen to a ghastly 2.08 (ew!) — which would’ve been really fun to rag on and laugh about if not for the fact that the rest of the game happened.

What hurts most is not that the Dodgers won — worrying about preventing that from happening at least once in a series is foolhardy — it’s that the Giants let slip from their grasp a historic bungle by a long time thorn. The Giants got to Kershaw — a statement that has never been set in ink, digital or otherwise — and they still lost. Webb as the top of the rotation had the early lead and never put together a convincing frame. After authoring a 7 inning gem in mid-June against the NL West rivals, Webb has been peppered for 12 runs on 16 hits over 9.1 innings pitched. There were moments where it looked like the monkey on his back had been bucked. He escaped a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the 2nd with an infield fly and a classic 3-6-1 double play — but that momentum or confidence we hoped would embolden Webb through four or five more innings appeared to just fuel LA’s determination.

Shohei Ohtani annihilated a lead-off homer in the 3rd, and a 2-out RBI double by Teoscar Hernández that knuckled away from a scrambling Heliot Ramos in left. Webb’s last act was to freeze Ohtani on a sinker to end the 4th — he wouldn’t record another out. In the 5th, the first three batters reached base, two by way of the walk. The fourth ball to Max Muncy was already Webb’s 97th offering of the day. 10 hits, a dozen base-runners, pitching from the stretch in every frame had taken its toll. There would be no impossible escape in this one. Reliever José Buttó took over the mess and spread it around. In a 1-2 count he served up an awful 2-strike fastball to Hernández that the right-hander lined for a double. The back-breaker came when Buttó walked Miguel Rojas, allowing him to steal second before coming around to score on a 2-out, 2-RBI single by emergency catcher Ben Rordvedt.

Ten Dodgers would step into the box in the 6-run lead-flipping, game-defining inning.

The 6 earned in just 4+ innings was Webb’s shortest outing and most runs allowed in a game since his start against the Mets on July 25th. He’s pitched in a third of the games Kershaw has, a fourth of the innings, and his 4.69 ERA is more than doubled.

The comparison between the two is unfair but inevitable. Kershaw’s decade-and-a-half long haunt of the Giants is not what is required of an ace against a team’s rival — it’s the Platonic ideal. Kershaw’s numbers even after Saturday, are other-wordly. His career ERA against the Giants is a full point lower than Sandy Koufax’s, who I saw at Cooperstown this summer, and I can confirm, shimmers when he walks. No, it’d be unreasonable and unproductive to demand that kind of reciprocal domination (especially considering the opposing hitters Webb has to face in the coming years). Fairer marks might be franchise icons that also brushed throwing elbows with Kershaw: Tim Lincecum (3.54 ERA), Matt Cain (3.35), and Madison Bumgarner (3.05). Webb has had game success against LA. His 2021 was dominant against them, but since then he’s struggled to maintain that form. Consistency is the problem. It’s not necessarily the losses in general, it’s the smackdowns, these 6-run blow-ups, he’s been susceptible to. So no, Webb doesn’t have to pitch like Kershaw in this rivalry, because that’d be impossible — he just can’t become Anthony DeSclafani and go shaky at the knees when someone with an LA hat walks by.

After the 6-run beat-down, the Giants line-up did a pretty good Dodger impression by scrapping together three two-out runs of their own to regain their footing on the scoreboard. When Patrick Bailey scooped a 2-out, 2-RBI double down the line, hope mounted for Giants fans while dread quieted Dodger fans. Losing 9-7 wasn’t a 4-1 lead as it had been a couple innings before, but the 2-run deficit with plenty of opportunities against a flawed LA bullpen looked promising. The San Francisco bats could make something happen if the arms could hold up their end of the bargain.

It became clear almost immediately they couldn’t. Matt Gage beaned Max Muncy to lead-off the 6th. Clearly rattled by the moment, Gage’s 6th got out of hand. That HBP ballooned into another free base and another 90 feet on a wild pitch and another RBI knock from the bottom of the line-up, effectively erasing the work the offense had done in the previous frame.

The Dodgers were being the Dodgers to a certain extent with a lot of pesky, drawn-out at-bats, and it wore down the pitching, forcing them to fold, give in. An exasperating walk would be followed by a get-it-in first pitch that the next hitter jumped on. LA’s lead-off batter reached base in five of the first six innings. They bagged 17 hits while working 6 walks and a hit batter. They went 7-for-15 with runners in scoring position, while only striking out 7 times. Their offense dictated the pitching. It was like they’d ring a bell and then the ball would be thrown. No one from Webb to Keaton Winn had a backbone. By the time Tristan Beck pitched two scoreless innings in the 7th and 8th innings, it was too late.

13 - 7 final. The Empire usually strikes back.

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