SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants and Dodgers enter their three-game set to end the first half on different trajectories.
San Francisco (51-43) bounced back from its worst stretch of the season and has won six of its last eight games, catapulting back to second place in the NL West. Los Angeles (56-38), by contrast, has lost six straight after being swept by the Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers.
Manager Bob Melvin, though, isn’t taking much stock in which team is surging and which team is slumping.
“When we play them, I think everything’s kind of thrown of the window,” Melvin said. “I don’t think catching them after a series that they were down really matters one way or the other.”
“I’m sure it’ll be pretty rowdy,” Justin Verlander said after taking the loss Wednesday to the Phillies. “I hope we can move on from this one today. We’ve been playing some pretty good baseball the last week.”
Less than a month ago, these teams were briefly tied for first place in the NL West after Casey Schmitt kicked off the Giants’ three-game series in Los Angeles with a grand slam off Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Los Angeles rebounded to take the following two games of that series and is currently leading the division by five games.
Melvin will deploy his three best starters to close out the first half. On Friday, two-time All-Star Logan Webb will face Dustin May on Friday to begin the series. On Sunday, fellow All-Stars Robbie Ray and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will battle before they both head to Atlanta for the Midsummer Classic.
As far as Saturday? Landen Roupp will start opposite Shohei Ohtani, who will make his first start against the Giants as a member of the rivalry.
Ohtani made his return to the mound on June 16 after undergoing surgery on Sept. 19, 2023 to repair a UCL tear in his right elbow.
The Dodgers limited Ohtani to one inning in his first two starts, then increased his workload to two innings in the following two outings. During his most recent outing against the Astros, Ohtani retired all six batters he faced while striking out three. Overall, he’s allowed one run over six innings (1.50 ERA) with six strikeouts.
At the plate, Ohtani is putting up another MVP-caliber season. Entering Thursday, Ohtani is leading the National League in homers (31) and OPS (.993) with 12 steals on 16 attempts. Ohtani has maintained his offensive output on the days he pitches, going 5-for-16 with a double, a triple, a homer, three walks and seven RBIs on his four start days.
This series will also mark Rafael Devers’ first experience in the Giants-Dodgers rivalry, as news of his acquisition broke just before the final game of the series at Dodger Stadium last month.
Devers is plenty familiar with decades-long beef between teams, having spent nine seasons with the Boston Red Sox. In 119 games against the New York Yankees, Devers put up a slash line of .270/.348/.533 with 31 homers and 78 RBIs. One of Devers’ first truly special moments was when he hit an opposite-field home run against Aroldis Chapman on a 103 mph fastball in his 15th career game.
Adding to the intrigue is the fact that the Dodgers’ roster features superstar Mookie Betts, Devers’ teammate on Boston’s 2018 World Series champion team. Betts and Devers haven’t been teammates in more than half a decade, but both are well aware of each other’s respective talents.
“Nothing really to say, it’s just crazy,” Betts told The Athletic last month on his reaction to the Red Sox trading Devers.
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Devers has yet to consistently look like a three-time All-Star since joining the Giants, hitting .225/.344/.363 with two home runs and nine RBIs over 22 games in San Francisco. The slow start can be attributed to Devers’ nagging back and groin injuries — both of which are preventing him from playing first base — as well as the general life adjustment that comes with being traded from the team that he signed with as a teenager.
The Giants expect that Devers will start looking like a star in due time. This upcoming series would be a great opportunity to break out.
“I know the potential that I have. My mentality is not just to make the Dodgers suffer, but every team that we play against,” Devers said during his introductory press conference last month.