LOS ANGELES — The Giants were crashing the party.
Friday night at Dodger Stadium was supposed to be about one man, and one man alone. Clayton Kershaw, following 18 seasons of excellence that will end with a plaque in Cooperstown, took the mound for one last regular-season start. The team in the first-base dugout couldn’t be bothered with the sentimentality.
Heliot Ramos began the game with a leadoff homer on Kershaw’s third pitch of the night. Wilmer Flores contributed an RBI single that gave the Giants a one-run lead. Robbie Ray only allowed one run through four innings. When Kershaw exited after striking out Rafael Devers to begin the fifth inning, being serenaded with love reserved for franchise lifers, the Giants led by a run.
But as has been the case so many times over the last 18 seasons, San Francisco couldn’t win a ballgame where Kershaw took the mound. On one last occasion, Kershaw had his role in a Giants lost, the latest — and last — being a 6-3 defeat that further sinks San Francisco’s chances of playing October baseball.
Friday night also served as a reminder that the Giants have another generational talent to contend with for the foreseeable future — not that anyone in San Francisco’s dugout really needed reminding.
Shohei Ohtani, the greatest player of his own generation, ensured Kershaw would not be stuck with a loss in his swan song. In the bottom of the fifth, Ohtani turned the Giants’ one-run lead into a two-run deficit with a three-run shot off Ray, affirming why he will soon be a four-time MVP.
Before the sellout crowd gathered themselves, Mookie Betts, a future Hall of Famer in his own right, sent Ray’s very next pitch into the left-field bleachers.
Ramos began the evening by eliciting a symphony of boos and groans. Kershaw tried to punch out Ramos on an 0-2 slider, but Ramos stayed back, extended his arms and sent a 431-foot blast into the left-center field bleachers.
Dodger Stadium did not remain tranquil for long. Kershaw picked up a pair of strikeouts in the first, getting Willy Adames to chase a slider below the zone, then getting Wilmer Flores to flail at one of his signature curveballs.
The lefty picked up his third strikeout of the night in the second inning, buckling Patrick Bailey’s knees with another Cooperstown curveball as he pitched a scoreless second. In the inning’s bottom half, Miguel Rojas ignited a crowd pop with a solo homer that tied the game at one.
San Francisco snatched that lead right back in the top of the third. Matt Chapman smoked a one-out opposite-field double, then Wilmer Flores followed with a single to center. Chapman easily scored, and the Giants owned a 2-1 lead. Following Ohtani and Betts’ home runs in the fifth, the Dodgers took a lead that they’d never lose.