Will Smith drove in two runs to start a seven-run 11th inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Francisco Giants 14-7 on Saturday night.
Smith, who led off the inning after Shohei Ohtani was walked intentionally, scored two runs with a hard double into the left-center field gap by Sean Hjelle (3-2). The Dodgers had five straight hits, with Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández, Chris Taylor and Jason Heyward reaching base against Hjelle.
The game was close until the 11th inning barrage, with both teams scoring their automatic runners in the 10th inning. Miguel Rojas hit an RBI single for the Dodgers and David Villar tied the game for the Giants with a double. But Daniel Hudson (5-1) escaped a bases-loaded-one-out jam to send the game to the 11th.
“Long game, but the team effort was remarkable,” Rojas said. “And I feel like this is the team that we have. We’ll always fight and we’ll always be in games.”
The Dodgers have won five of six and are 6-2 against the Giants this season. The seven-run victory was the Dodgers’ second-largest win since at least 1901.
“It was definitely unexpected,” Dodgers manager Dave Robert said of the offensive outburst. “You just don’t see that.”
The Giants scored four runs in the bottom of the third, but the Dodgers responded with four runs of their own in the fourth to take a 6-5 lead. Brett Wisely tied the game in the fifth with a broken-pitch RBI single.
Matt Chapman had three hits for the Giants, along with a walk.
Ohtani homered in the third to give Los Angeles a 2-1 lead.
Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow allowed five runs in three innings, his shortest outing of the season. Los Angeles used nine pitchers and seven pitchers pitched for the Giants in a bullpen game, which they had to do more often with multiple starters injured.
“I feel like the whole team pitched today and they picked me up,” Glasnow said. “I am very grateful.”
According to Roberts, the Dodgers were increasingly short-handed and needed every run they could score to narrow the lead.
“Exhausting all your arms feels a lot better when you win,” Roberts said.
Spencer Howard, who took over after Erik Miller threw the first, gave up six runs in 2 2/3 innings. San Francisco came into the game leading the major leagues with 340.2 innings pitched by the bullpen.
Giants manager Bob Melvin said he kept Hjelle in the game for a second inning even though he “really had one inning in him today” because the Giants were out of options.
“It’s unfortunate he gave up so many, but we couldn’t use another pitcher at that time,” Melvin said.
Before the game, Melvin lamented having to assemble a makeshift rotation that saw key starters in Blake Snell, Robbie Ray, Kyle Harrison and Alex Cobb deal with injuries.
“It’s hard, but we have no other choice,” Melvin said. “We’re going to get guys paying taxes. That’s not the intention. We don’t want that. But we’re just trying to get it together until we get some of these guys back.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Giants: LHP Blake Snell (groin) will make one more rehab start Wednesday at Triple-A Sacramento and is expected to rejoin the rotation after the team returns from its road trip next week. … LHP Kyle Harrison (ankle) will throw one more bullpen session before rejoining the rotation. … Both IF Wilmer Flores (knee) and IF Thairo Estrada (wrist), who were placed on the injured list Friday, will be out of baseball for four to five days. There is no structural damage to either injury, manager Bob Melvin said.
NEXT ONE
LHP James Paxton (7-1, 3.39 ERA) is expected to start for the Dodgers to round out the series. The Giants have not yet announced a starter.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
