LOS ANGELES -- A day later, Giants players and coaches still were buzzing about the excitement and weirdness of Friday night's extra-innings win. But when you're coming to the end of a road trip, sometimes you just want a nice, relaxing blowout.
The Giants jumped on the Dodgers in the middle innings Saturday, scoring four runs in the fifth and five in the sixth. They ran away with a 15-0 win, their eighth straight on the road and 21st in the last 30 games.
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With the latest win away from home, they climbed back within half a game of the Dodgers in the division standings and set themselves up well for a sweep, which would clinch a perfect road trip. They'll send ace Logan Webb to the mound on Sunday.
The win came on a night when the Dodgers hoped to lean on a right-hander who could be the ace of their vaunted staff at some point. Bobby Miller had a run of 20 straight scoreless innings going into the top of the fifth, but Luis Matos got the Giants going and they ended up sending eight to the plate. The big blast was a three-run homer by LaMonte Wade Jr., who got a hanging curveball and sent a no-doubter out to right.
An inning later, J.D. Davis hit a pinch-hit grand slam on the first pitch he had seen since injuring his ankle in St. Louis. It was all downhill from there. With two wins in this series, the Giants already have exceeded their 2022 win total at Dodger Stadium.
Just (Pinch-hit) Dingers
San Francisco Giants
Davis hurt his ankle a couple of minutes before Mitch Haniger hurt his forearm on Tuesday, but the initial diagnosis was about as good as the Giants could have hoped for. Davis expected to be out just a few days with a minor sprain, and by Friday night, he was pretty close to being ready to contribute.
The Giants wanted to use Davis in the extra-innings win, but he still was having trouble running, and with a short bench they didn't have anyone to pinch-run if he reached base. A day later, Davis felt much better, so Kapler turned to him in a big spot.
With lefty Alex Vesia on the mound, Davis replaced Joc Pederson. He got a 95 mph fastball that was poorly located and crushed his third career grand slam over the wall in center. It was his second slam of the season and his fifth career pinch-hit homer.
Davis became the first player to hit a pinch-hit slam this season and the first Giant to do it since Austin Slater in 2019. Slater's slam came while hitting for the pitcher, and he drove in Kevin Pillar, Pablo Sandoval and Joe Panik.
Early Evening LaMonte
A day after Wilmer Flores suffered a left foot contusion and went on the IL because of a ball that was fouled off his foot, Wade was checked by trainers after doing the same thing in his first at-bat. He stayed in, and while he didn't homer right away like Flores did, he did get his jog around the bases.
The three-run homer was Wade's ninth of the season, giving him one more than he had in 77 appearances last year. Wade is on pace to pass the career-high 18 he hit in a breakout 2021 season.
Do You Respect Wood?
In his return from the IL, Alex Wood allowed just three hits in five scoreless innings and struck out four. Wood picked up his second win of the season and first against his former Dodgers teammates since signing with the Giants.
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Wood was on a pitch count, but he needed just 67 of them to get through his five innings. His changeup was particularly nasty, with all nine of them landing for strikes.
The blowout allowed the Giants to rest a bullpen that carried a heavy load on Friday and lost John Brebbia to a lat strain. Long man Tristan Beck took over for Wood in the sixth.