Dodgers get rare bounty of runs against Logan Webb to beat Giants

The Dodgers found uncommon success against Logan Webb, hitting around the Giants ace to take Monday’s series opener at Oracle Park in San Francisco. The 8-2 Dodgers triumph is the first time in 10 meetings between these two teams won by the road team this season.

Max Muncy got the ball rolling with a two-run home run in the second inning, a shot to dead center just out of the reach of a leaping Alex Slater. Muncy has seven home runs in 30 career games in San Francisco, tied for 17th-most by a visitor in the 23-year history of Oracle Park.

Four hits and a sacrifice fly by the first five batters of the third inning plated three more runs, including doubles by Mookie Betts and Will Smith, and another hit by James Outman, who reached base four times and scored two runs in his second major league start.

Outman has an .875 on-base percentage.

Another double by Smith in the fifth was the sixth run against Webb, matching his total allowed in 30⅔ innings over five starts in 2021 counting the regular season and playoffs.

Andrew Heaney hit a batter and walked home a run in the first inning but was otherwise solid while pitching, the mantra of his season so far. Eased back into things in his second start after two long stints on the injured list with shoulder trouble, Heaney was lifted after 74 pitches in four innings, striking out seven.

Heaney in his five starts for the Dodgers has a 35-percent strikeout rate that leads the staff, and he’s only allowed four runs in 23⅓ innings. The final two months will be about keeping Heaney healthy in preparation for the postseason, but one wonders if shorter stints to facilitate his availability might be in the offing, especially if other pitchers are added, either via return from injury or trade.

Welcome aboard

The newly-acquired Chris Martin made his Dodgers debut in the fifth inning, but not before a fan yelled to the visitors bullpen as Martin warmed up, “Your pitcher’s got the wrong color glove,” as picked up on the SportsNet LA broadcast. He had an outing that sums up his season so far, with two ground ball outs, and one of his two fly balls leaving the park, with Wilmer Flores taking him deep.

Martin on the season has a 4.45 ERA with a 52.2-percent ground ball rate, the latter in the top fifth of major league relievers with at least 30 innings. But of the 26 fly balls he’s allowed, six have left the park, a 23.1-percent rate that ranks second-highest among those same 177 relief pitchers.

Hit kings

Trea Turner drove in two runs Monday, one on a sacrifice fly, and another on a seventh-inning home run, a 439-foot blast that extended his hitting streak to 19 games. He has six home runs during the streak and 17 on the season.

Turner also has 128 hits. That ranks second in the majors, behind only teammate Freddie Freeman at 131 hits. Freeman had three hits on Monday, including his major-league-leading 36th double and two run-scoring singles.

Monday particulars

Home runs: Max Muncy (10), Trea Turner (17); Wilmer Flores (16)

WP — Caleb Ferguson (1-0): 1 IP, 1 strikeout

LP — Logan Webb (9-5): 5 IP, 8 hits, 6 runs, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts

Up next

After a 1.11 ERA in July, Tyler Anderson makes his first August start on Tuesday (6:45 p.m.; SportsNet LA, TBS), with old friend Alex Wood on the mound for San Francisco.