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LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani blasted two home runs and Clayton Kershaw shoved for seven scoreless innings as the future Hall of Famers led a star-studded Dodgers team to an easy win over the Giants.
After the Giants owned the series opener, the Dodgers re-asserted their supremacy with a dazzling offensive eruption in an 11-5 blowout. Ohtani and Los Angeles chased starter Landen Roupp out of the game before he could get out of the second inning and Kershaw dominated with his veteran savvy as the Dodgers pushed the Giants back down to second place in the National League West.
The final score was only a six-run margin because the Giants (41-30) scored five runs off utilityman Kiké Hernández in the ninth inning, including Casey Schmitt’s second grand slam in as many nights.
“Weird game,” manager Bob Melvin said postgame. “Really weird game.”
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The Giants are always going to be at a talent deficit against the Dodgers — just like every other team in Major League Baseball. Friday night was a reminder that in baseball, stars aren’t everything in a one-game sample. But the Saturday night thumping proved just how tough it is to repeat performances like that.
Roupp entered Saturday night’s matchup with a 1.88 ERA in his past seven starts. But he’d only pitched 4 2/3 career innings against the Dodgers, and his overall inexperience was stark compared to the legend opposite him.
Roupp, 26, had made 17 career starts before Saturday. Kershaw started his 438th game and is only a few turns of the rotation away from 3,000 career strikeouts — what may become a near-impossible figure to reach in the future given how the position has evolved.
Whether or not Roupp was shell-shocked by the magnified opportunity, he got shelled. Ohtani blasted a leadoff home run on his fourth pitch of the night. Mookie Betts drove in two runs with a double to the base of the left-field wall and the bottom of Los Angeles’ order had no issues against the righty.
The four hits Roupp allowed registered exit velocities of 101.6, 103.1, 108.4, and 110.3 mph.
Roupp threw more balls than strikes and surrendered more runs (six) than he recorded outs (five) as Melvin lifted him in the second inning. Meanwhile Kershaw precisely located his arsenal — including his fastball that hovered around 89 mph — while Roupp walked four of the 13 Dodgers he faced.
“Just don’t think I had anything working for me,” Roupp said. “Could not find the zone with really anything, and when I did, it got hit hard. Take full responsibility for the game tonight. You can’t expect the offense to come out swinging after that kind of start.”
San Francisco’s lineup mustered just three hits through the first eight innings as Kershaw carved.
The Giants only put four baserunners on against Kershaw, who pitched to contact and deployed his looping curveball more than usual. He was so efficient, only needing 81 pitches to get through seven frames, and left to a standing ovation at the stadium he has called home for the past 18 seasons.
“It was special,” Kershaw said. “I honestly didn’t know if I was done or not, so I didn’t want to come out of the moment too much. I love pitching here, I don’t take it for granted. Who knows how many I’ve got left here. So I’m just going to enjoy it.”
He didn’t give the Giants anything to enjoy.
After Spencer Bivens relieved Roupp with 3 1/3 strong innings, Ohtani welcomed Tristan Beck into the game with his second homer. On a full-count outside curveball, Ohtani reached the head of his bat out and somehow flicked the pitch 384 feet over the right-field fence. Only a hitter as special as Ohtani is capable of pulling a pitch like that out of the yard.
Ohtani’s 25th home run gave the Dodgers an 8-0 lead. Teoscar Hernández put them up 10-0 shortly after with a two-run shot to the back of the Dodgers’ bullpen in the left-field corner.
Los Angeles’ lead was so large, manager Dave Roberts emptied his bench in the seventh inning, removing Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Teoscar Hernández.
Down 11-0, Melvin tapped backup catcher Logan Porter to take the ball in the bottom of the eighth inning. The next frame belonged to Kiké Hernández, who wore tinted glasses and a protective helmet on the mound as he walked the bases loaded for Schmitt.
Before Schmitt, no Giant has ever hit grand slams in back-to-back games. And perhaps no grand slam in franchise history was as insignificant.
A weird night, indeed.