LOS ANGELES — A week ago exactly, the Giants scored four runs in the first against Clayton Kershaw in what ended up being his final start at Oracle Park. On Tuesday in Phoenix, the Giants scored four runs in the first. On Saturday in Los Angeles, the Giants scored four runs in the first — three being the product of Bryce Eldridge’s first career hit.
For the third time in the last eight days, the Giants (76-79) began a ballgame with a crooked number. For the third time in the last eight days, the Giants watched an early lead slip away and ended a day in defeat, the latest being a 7-5 loss as the Dodgers clobbered four homers.
Eldridge, 20, hadn’t been rewarded for the hard contact he made in his first three games in the majors. In his third career plate appearance, he smashed a 409-foot, 105.9-mph line drive that got caught. During the first game of this series, his 102.4 mph line drive found a glove. In his 11th plate appearance, Eldridge finally earned a batting average.
The Giants loaded the bases in the top of the first against Tyler Glasnow on a pair of singles from Heliot Ramos and Willy Adames, as well as a walk drawn by Matt Chapman. That brought Eldridge to the plate with an opportunity to make his first mark on the rivalry.
Glasnow challenged Eldridge with a 96.5 mph sinker; Eldridge let the heater travel and sent it off the base of the left-field wall. Ramos scored easily, as did Adames. Chapman, with the help of a bobble and bad throw by left fielder Michael Conforto, scored from first. Eldridge, himself, scored several batters later when Drew Gilbert drew a bases-loaded walk.
With the double, Eldridge (20 years, 335 days) became the youngest Giants player with multiple RBIs in a game since Jack Clark (20 years, 307 days) on Sept. 12, 1976.
With the Giants leading 4-0, the Dodgers proceeded to reel off seven unanswered runs.
Max Muncy hit a two-run homer off Kai-Wei Teng in the bottom of the first. Los Angeles tied the game on a solo homer by Michael Conforto and an RBI single by Freddie Freeman in the fourth. Tommy Edman’s solo homer in the fifth gave the Dodgers the lead. Shohei Ohtani hit his 53rd homer of the season in the sixth, a solo blast that preceded Teoscar Hernández’s RBI single.
The Giants had Glasnow on the ropes after making him throw 43 pitches in the first, but they couldn’t manufacture any offense against Glasnow over the next four innings. Instead of getting to Los Angeles’ bullpen early, Glasnow rebounded to toss five innings before handing the baton to his relievers.