Eleven months ago, the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants seemed like two franchises headed in slightly different directions.
In June, a surging Giants team came to Dodger Stadium, won a three-game series in dominant fashion and defeated their intradivision rivals in the National League West – marking the clear low point of the Dodgers’ slow start in 2023.
A year later, the clubs still appear to be heading in opposite directions.
Only now it’s the Dodgers cruising with a big lead in the division, and the Giants struggling to gain traction, putting them in danger of enduring another wasted year in the shadows of their Southern counterparts California.
The Dodgers’ 10-2 loss to the Giants Tuesday at Oracle Park served as the latest example.
The Dodgers had more hits (13 to nine), fewer errors (none to the Giants’ two), a better starting pitching performance (thanks to a six-inning, one-run effort from Gavin Stone), significantly more production from their star players ( culminating in Shohei Ohtani’s 12th home run and three total hits), and even a more vocal presence in a divided audience of 33,575.
Read more: See every home run Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani has hit this season
Looking back at last year, the Dodgers (29-15) have won six games in a row against the Giants (19-25). They have won four straight series in a suddenly one-sided rivalry. And less than two months into this season, they are already ten games ahead of San Francisco in the standings.
Rarely in the recent history of this series has one club’s stock price risen so much while another’s has fallen so horribly.
The Dodgers’ superiority over the Giants was expressed in virtually every facet on Tuesday.
Take a look at the team’s biggest offseason signings.
The Giants saw their $54 million third baseman, Matt Chapman, go just one for four, dropping his batting average to .210; and their currently injured $42 million designated hitter, Jorge Soler, are drilled in the head by a ball ricocheting off the batting cage during pre-game batting practice.
Ohtani, meanwhile, hit a home run in the fourth inning just in front of McCovey Cove in right field, added a single in the fifth and a double in the seventh, and finished the night leading the MLB in batting average (.361), extra base hits . (29) and OPS (1.107).
Or look at the club’s new starting pitchers.
Giants right-hander Keaton Winn was repeatedly punished for errant throws over the heart of the plate, giving up five runs in less than five innings.
Stone, on the other hand, continued his promising start to 2024, lowering his ERA to 3.27 by again generating soft contact (he struck out just two, but gave up just five hits) and working in and out of foul trouble.
The differences didn’t stop there.
Read more: ‘It’s tough’: Chris Taylor’s playing time reduced as Dodgers face roster questions
The Dodgers got production from both their big stars (Mookie Betts also had two hits) and deep-order depth (including a triple from Gavin Lux and doubles from James Outman and Miguel Rojas).
They got three stress-free innings from the underbelly of their broken bullpen, a group that continues to shine even without several key relievers.
And as the Dodgers scored four insurance runs in the ninth inning, chants of “Let’s Go Dodgers” rang through the ballpark as almost nothing but blue-and-white-clad spectators crowded the stands.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
