Big days for Bivens, bats help SF Giants capture first series win vs. Dodgers since 2022
SAN FRANCISCO — From the very first pitch out of James Paxton’s left hand Sunday afternoon, the Giants jumped on the Dodgers starter and didn’t let up until they had secured a series win in their archrivals’ final visit to the shores of McCovey Cove this season.
Leading off the bottom of the first, Jorge Soler whacked a fastball off the center field wall, chugged into second base, and the Giants were off to the races in a 10-4 rout.
Soler’s leadoff double was one of 10 two-baggers from the Giants, a San Francisco-era record, and with a two-run shot from Matt Chapman provided more than enough firepower behind five surprise innings from Spencer Bivens, the 30-year-old right-hander only named the day’s starter hours before first pitch.
“It feels really good to take a series from an elite team like the Dodgers,” Soler said through Spanish-language interpreter Erwin Higueros. “After winning the series, it gives us more confidence that we can play to that level.”
Taking two of three games this week at Oracle Park, the Giants won their first series against the Dodgers since sweeping them in Los Angeles from June 10-12, 2022. They play four times at Dodger Stadium in the Giants’ first road trip after the All-Star break and don’t meet again for the rest of the season.
Before then, the Giants must navigate a difficult road trip against the leaders of the National League wild card race, the Atlanta Braves, and the top team in the American League Central, the Cleveland Guardians. They went 4-3 on their seven-game home stand against the Dodgers and Cubs.
“We have to start winning series,” Melvin said. “We’ve got to roll some games together leading up to the break. This was a good start in what is a tough stretch right now.”
On Sunday, the Giants needed two things and got them both.
Making his first major-league start after five relief appearances, Bivens gave them effective length to spare their bullpen a day after they exhausted seven pitchers in an 11-inning loss. And an early and unrelenting assault from their lineup ensured he could pitch without pressure against the Dodgers’ intimidating order.
“Everybody knows that (Paxton’s) pitch is the fastball,” Soler said. “So we were ready and expecting the fastball.”
The Giants loaded the bases twice and built a 9-0 lead by the time the Dodgers came to bat for a fifth time against Bivens, who hadn’t pitched more than three innings at any level this season but had no trouble cruising through five frames against a 1-2-3 trio that had combined for 56 home runs.
Limiting the Dodgers to one run — courtesy of Chris Taylor’s solo shot in the fifth inning — on four hits, Bivens needed only 60 pitches to earn his second major-league win. He finished with only three strikeouts but sure picked his spots to deploy his swing and miss stuff, making Shohei Ohtani his victim not once but twice.
“We were hoping to get five out of he and (Landen Roupp), something like that,” Melvin said. “To go five innings and strike out Ohtani to get the win? Pretty special day for him. I think everybody got goosebumps on that one.”
Against Paxton, who was charged with nine runs over four innings, it was the Giants’ lineup that looked powerful.
After scoring seven runs on 13 hits but surrendering seven runs in the 11th inning to fall the night before, they put up a 10-spot on another 16 hits to prevail in the series finale. All nine members of their starting lineup contributed hits, and they got run-scoring knocks from six different players.
The 21 runs scored over the course of the weekend were the Giants’ most in any series they’ve hosted against the Dodgers since Oracle Park opened in 2000.
“We’re resilient,” Melvin said. “After tough losses, we come out and do stuff like that it seems like almost every time. … To just keep putting pressure on him, a lot of times you get a starter — a good one — on the run early and then he settles in. But we kept him on the run.”
Back-to-back extra-base hits in the fourth broke the game open, with Patrick Bailey doubling home two runs and Chapman driving him in from second as well as himself with a two-run homer that sailed just clear of the left-field wall and foul pole.
The home run was Chapman’s third of the home stand to go with a pair of doubles, seven runs scored and nine RBIs while hitting safely in all seven games.
Heliot Ramos contributed a team-high three hits and was one of three players, along with Bailey and Soler, to notch multiple doubles, providing ample cushion for Bivens in his first major-league start.
Bivens’ winding baseball journey has taken the 30-year-old right-hander from France to West Virginia and almost out of the sport entirely until the Giants signed him out of independent ball a year and a half ago. On Sunday, he found himself standing 60 feet, 6 inches from the sport’s preeminent slugger with a man on second base.
One of two alumni of Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma, Bivens originally went undrafted and signed with a team in France because, he explained, “that was my only opportunity at the time,” eventually making his way back stateside in 2020, where he played for four different independent teams.
Signing a minor-league deal with the Giants toward the end of the 2022 season, Bivens split 2023 between High-A Eugene and Double-A Richmond but credited the 27 appearances he made with Culiacan of the Mexican Winter League this past offseason for setting up his success on the big-league stage.
“Just being in high-leverage situations all the time, with crazy crowds,” Bivens said, “I just feel very confident in my ability to just be able to handle the moment.”
The moment doesn’t get any bigger than a rubber game against their archrivals, in front of 40,458 fans, with Ohtani stepping into the box with a runner in scoring position. Bivens said the plan of attack against Ohtani was “just get ahead, try to hit some spots and execute pitches.”
Getting ahead on a pair of changeups, Bivens buried the next two pitches in the dirt before climbing the ladder, getting Ohtani to swing through a 95 mph fastball above the zone for strike three to end the inning, stranding Enrique Hernandez at second after one of the Dodgers’ only two hits in Bivens’ first four frames.
As if to show it was no fluke, he needed only three pitches to strike out Ohtani in their next battle, getting two quick swings and misses on a pair of fastballs before coaxing a third empty cut with a sweeping slider. An animated Bivens spun, shouted and punched the air in celebration.
It was the end of his day, shown moments later smiling while chatting with Melvin in the third-base dugout.
“The first career start,” Bivens said, “I’ve been waiting my whole life for that. It was really special.”
Up next
The Giants will spend their day off in Atlanta recuperating their pitching staff before beginning the first leg of their final road trip before the All-Star break with three games against the Braves. Right-handers Hayden Birdsong (0-0, 5.79), Jordan Hicks (4-4, 3.36) and Logan Webb (6-6, 3.12) will get the ball against righty Reynaldo Lopez (6-2, 1.70), lefty Chris Sale (10-3, 2.79) and righty Charlie Morton (5-4, 3.89) before the Giants head to Cleveland for three games against the Guardians.