Seager homers twice as Dodgers rally past Giants 6-4
LOS ANGELES -- For Corey Seager, the pitch he recognized allowed him to get over an error he wasn't about to forget.
Seager hit two home runs, including a go-ahead, two-run shot in the seventh inning that was followed by a surprise celebration as the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied to beat the San Francisco Giants 6-4 on Friday night.
"Yeah, I don't really know. It kind of came out of nowhere," Seager said of his animated response after crossing home plate. "That normally doesn't happen but that was a fun one."
Seager capped a four-run seventh with a towering drive over the right field wall on an 0-1 pitch from reliever Josh Osich (3-2) to lift the Dodgers to their sixth straight victory and their 37th win in their last 43 games.
"It was a curveball, but they had been throwing those pretty much all game after the first AB so I was ready for it, I guess," Seager said.
Seager's second homer came just a half-inning after he committed an error on a ball he tried not to throw but lost it into right field in the midst of a three-run inning that put the Giants in front.
"That one was hard to move on from," Seager said. "You can accept it if it was something you actually did and made a mistake, but when it slips out of your hand, that one hurts a little bit more. At the last moment I tried to not throw it and it came out of my hand."
Seager's first homer gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the first. He hit the first pitch from Giants starter Matt Moore deep into the left-centerfield bleachers.
It was Seager's second multihomer game of the season, and his sixth in less than two major league seasons. He hit two home runs against the New York Mets on June 20, and has 18 on the season.
The Dodgers recorded their 30th comeback victory, and their second in two games.
Dodgers starter Alex Wood (12-1) got the win despite giving up four runs and eight hits over seven innings. He was coming off his worst start of the season, having given up a career-high nine runs in 4 2/3 innings against Atlanta last Saturday.
Kenley Jansen struck out the side on 13 pitches in the ninth for his 26th save in 27 opportunities.
Brandon Crawford hit his ninth home run in the second inning for the Giants, driving a 0-1 pitch from Wood a dozen rows into the right field bleachers.
The Giants' bullpen was unable to hold a 4-2 lead as George Kontos gave up Yasiel Puig's RBI groundout and Chris Taylor's run-scoring single. The score was tied 4-4, setting the stage for Seager.
"It wasn't a good inning, was it?" said Giants manager Bruce Bochy of the seventh. "We just hung some breaking balls there and we paid for it. It started with the walk and that's never a good thing.
"That's a good hitting ballclub, and when you make mistakes you are probably going to pay for it."
The Giants took a 4-2 lead with three runs in the top of the seventh as Nick Hundley and Gorkys Hernandez stroked back-to-back, run-scoring doubles. Jae-gyun Hwang had tied the game 2-2 with an RBI single.
Los Angeles had taken a 2-1 lead in the fifth by converting two walks, a wild pitch, an error and a ground ball into an unearned run.
Austin Barnes walked, took second on a wild pitch, advancing to third on Hundley's wild throw to second. Joc Pederson walked and broke for second when Wood pulled back after squaring to bunt and hit a hard grounder to shortstop, scoring Barnes from third.
Moore held the Dodgers to two hits through his first six innings, only to surrender two runs in the seventh thanks to a walk and a double.
"You have to tip your hat to what they have been doing this season -- it has been pretty special for them," said Moore. "They battled and scrapped their way to get back to four runs."
TRAINER'S ROOM
Giants: 1B Brandon Belt was in the Giants' original starting lineup but was scratched about 90 minutes before the first pitch.
Dodgers: 1B Adrian Gonzalez and OF Andre Ethier both took early batting practice before Friday night's game. Gonzalez will hit in a simulated game on Sunday, and is expected to begin a rehab assignment next week.
UP NEXT
Giants: LHP Ty Blach (7-6, 4.50 ERA) comes off a losing effort in which he gave up five runs and eight hits over seven innings against San Diego. In his only appearance at Dodger Stadium, Blach threw three perfect innings in relief on Sept. 21, 2016.
Dodgers: LHP Rich Hill (7-4, 3.48 ERA) has limited opponents to four runs in 25 1/3 innings and posted a 3-0 mark over his last four starts, striking out 37, walking three. He's 3-1 with a 2.37 ERA in his last five starts at Dodger Stadium. Hill is 3-2 with a 2.62 ERA in nine lifetime starts against the Giants.
LAD win 3-0
Game Information
- Umpires:
- Home Plate Umpire - David Rackley
- First Base Umpire - Alfonso Marquez
- Second Base Umpire - Larry Vanover
- Third Base Umpire - Chad Whitson
2024 National League West Standings
Team | W | L | PCT | GB | STRK |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Los Angeles | 98 | 64 | .605 | - | W5 |
San Diego | 93 | 69 | .574 | 5 | L1 |
Arizona | 89 | 73 | .549 | 9 | W1 |
San Francisco | 80 | 82 | .494 | 18 | L1 |
Colorado | 61 | 101 | .377 | 37 | L3 |