When it started, the Giants’ final road trip could’ve served as a route to the postseason. After a series loss in Arizona and dropping the first three in LA, the journey proved to be a road to nowhere — a week of spinning their wheels, leaking oil, and running into dead ends. The overall season against the Dodgers was equally a bust, with Saturday’s loss ensuring the team would drop all four of 2025’s series match-ups against their historic rivals.
Sunday’s 3-1 win only didn’t do much to alter the
optics of the season series against LA. 4-9 or 3-10 — whatever. Nor did the victory move the needle for playoff contention — just staved off mathematical elimination for another day. Nothing in the big picture, or the grand scheme of things, changed for the San Francisco Giants other than the small pleasure of getting to watch the good guys come out on top in a well-played baseball game.
Considering the week we just had, I’ll take it.
24 year old Trevor McDonald, making his first career start, traded zeroes with Dodger righty Emmet Sheehan for 6 innings. Both starters strolled through the opposing team’s lineups. Hits were at a premium. The first extra basehit for either team and the first at-bat with a runner in scoring position didn’t come until two outs in the bottom of the 5th.
The only hit Sheehan gave up over 7 innings was a first inning single from Rafael Devers. The only other baserunners were two hit batters in the 2nd and 3rd innings that didn’t advance past first base. Other than that, Sheehan and his rising fastball cut through bats like a warm knife through butter. The 10 strikeouts tallied were a season-high.
The LA starter was the more dominant, but McDonald was just as effective and efficient for most of the afternoon. He toggled between his curveball and sinker. If there was any adrenaline from his debut, it didn’t affect his command, only manifesting in some impressive horizontal run on his sinker. Shohei Ohtani was the offering’s first victim.
While Sheehan worked the North and South, McDonald pushed East-West. He only K’ed three Dodgers, but kept them in the park with nine groundouts, including one off the bat of Mookie Betts in the 6th that Willy Adames and Christian Koss tag teamed for a 6-4-3 double play.
It was the defense that picked up the slack in the late frames when McDonald started to flag. The first two Dodger hitters reached base in the bottom of the 7th. A lead-off walk by Max Muncy could’ve easily been a lead-off strikeout if the home plate umpire hadn’t blinked on two dotted offerings from the Giants young starter. The walk was followed quickly by two opposite field singles with Michael Conforto, continuing his MVPAG (Most Valuable Player Against the Giants) campaign, slapping a run-scoring single to the opposite field.
Just like that McDonald’s impressive day ended with it teetering on the brink. He had to watch from the dugout as a sacrifice bunt pushed Andy Pages and Conforto to second and third. A second run scoring seemed guaranteed. Based on how the weekend’s games had played out, an onslaught was anticipated.
The infield drew to the cut of the grass behind Spencer Bivens. Anything on the ground, they’d make a play home. Bryce Eldridge, debuting at first base, straddled the line — perfectly positioned to fall on top of Tommy Edman’s low liner before throwing out Pages at third.
Eldridge might not have the style as Adames and Air Koss, but he knows how to use his wing span. The inning-ending, rally-killing two-fer stole the wind from LA’s sails. Great defense turned into great offense. In the 8th, the Giants responded with some immediate pressure of their own against struggling reliever Blake Trienenenenenen.
Koss, a Riverside-native with the eyes of friends and family on him, dribbled a lead-off single to start the rally. Drew Gilbert followed with his first hit of the series, setting up runners at the corners with nobody out, for Patrick Bailey, who skipped a double into the bleachers to tie the game.
Trying to mitigate the situation, LA elected to intentionally walk Devers to load the bases — a solid strategic decision with success completely dependent on your pitcher throwing strikes. Treinenenenene couldn’t. Or he could at first until an uncharacteristically stubborn Adames wore him down after nine pitches, flipping an 0-2 count into an RBI, the lead, and eventually, the game.
The three runs allowed inflated Trienenenen’s ERA to a career-worse 5.55. He recorded just two outs before being asked to leave the mound by his manager. A chorus of 46,000 hometown boo birds accompanied him on the walk back to the dugout.
Given a two-run lead to protect, Joey Lucchesi held the line for four outs, bridging the gap between the 8th and 9th innings. He worked around a lead-off single by Dalton Rushing by striking out Ohtani then retiring both Betts and Freddie Freeman. He went back out to face the lefty Muncy in the 9th and got him to chase a curveball in the dirt for the first out. Ryan Walker handled the next two, poetically retiring the most-feared bat in the Dodger order with a 3-2 sinker over the heart of the plate.
Let’s go home, everybody.
