Shohei Ohtani has 3 hits including a homer as Dodgers rout Giants – Orange County Register

SAN FRANCISCO — Things are not going that well for the Dodgers’ ancient rivals.

Since their 107-win season in 2021 – looking more and more like an aberration – the San Francisco Giants have a losing record. They changed managers for this season and former Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi has little job security as their president of baseball operations.

Among Zaidi’s sins are a failure to land the right free agents. The Giants have tried each winter. This past offseason, they were among the bidders for Shohei Ohtani and pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Zaidi said they even offered Ohtani the same $700 million package he eventually accepted from the Dodgers. Whatever level of flirtation Ohtani had with the Giants, he and Yamamoto went to L.A. – a double-edged blow for the Giants – leaving Zaidi to spread his team’s money around on pitcher Blake Snell (on the injured list), third baseman Matt Chapman (batting .210) and Korean outfielder Jung-Hoo Lee (also injured).

The Dodgers didn’t come to San Francisco to rub it in – Manager Dave Roberts called it “just another series for us” while acknowledging it means more to fans. But they started Yamamoto in Monday’s win and Ohtani had three hits (including his 12th home run) in a 10-2 dismissal of the Giants on Tuesday night.

The Dodgers had five doubles, three triples and Ohtani’s home run on the way to winning for the 17th time in their past 21 games.

But this run has been built on a solid foundation of excellent pitching. They have not allowed more than four runs in any of the 21 games, a franchise record for that kind of streak and the longest in MLB since Cleveland went 25 consecutive games without allowing more than four runs in a game during the 2017 season.

Gavin Stone took the baton and did his part to keep the streak going Tuesday.

Stone gave up a leadoff double to Mike Yastrzemski in the first inning but stranded him there. That became a theme. The Giants got runners to second and third against Stone in the third inning, put the leadoff man on base again in the fourth and had runners at first and second with one out in the fifth. Stone stranded them all, holding the Giants to 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position through the first five innings.

The Dodgers led 5-0 by the time Stone gave up a run in the sixth. During this 21-game run, Dodgers starting pitchers have averaged nearly six innings per start with a 2.35 ERA.

Stone himself has allowed just four runs in 26 innings over his past four starts.