LOS ANGELES -- The Giants knew that at some point during the 2024 season, they would cut Nick Ahmed to clear room for a young shortstop.
But this? This they never would have expected.
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A day after he came off the couch in Arizona to sign with the banged-up Los Angeles Dodgers, Ahmed smoked a solo shot to left-center off former teammate Tyler Rogers, giving the Dodgers the lead in the eighth inning. Shohei Ohtani followed with his 30th of the year and the Dodgers escaped with a 6-4 win in the final regular-season meeting between the rivals.
The Giants went 2-5 on a crucial road trip to open the second half. With just four games remaining until the trade deadline, they again are six games under .500.
The teams combined to leave 18 runners on base in the first seven innings, and both wasted golden opportunities. Tyler Fitzgerald tied it up in the third on a triple and scored the go-ahead run on a single, but the Giants would follow a string of four straight hits with one of three straight strikeouts.
The Dodgers retook the lead and had a chance to break the game open in the sixth after getting three straight singles off reliever Sean Hjelle. But rookie Andy Pages hit into a double play, keeping the lead at two runs.
San Francisco Giants
Michael Conforto got one back with an RBI double with two outs in the eighth and Jorge Soler tied it up with a two-strike single to left, which put him on base for a fourth time.
That sequence only set the stage for Ahmed, who had just one homer in 155 at-bats with the Giants.
Still Searching
Logan Webb's final start of the first half was one of the worst of his career, and he gave up four runs on Saturday at Coors Field. In between, he had a rough All-Star Game debut.
The staff ace has been searching for his form for a couple of weeks, and the Dodgers took advantage. They put four runs on Webb's line and notched nine hits, repeatedly taking him the other way. In two starts at Dodger Stadium this season, Webb gave up nine runs and 16 hits in 8 2/3 innings.
The damage could have been a lot worse Thursday, but Webb twice buckled down with an All-Star at the plate. With runners on the corners and a run already across in the second, Ohtani pounded a sinker right back to the mound. Two innings later, the Dodgers loaded the bases for Freddie Freeman, but he swung at ball two and popped up.
Hello, Old Friend
Clayton Kershaw was making his 60th appearance against the Giants, and while the fastball has dipped into the upper 80s in his mid-thirties he still showed a lot of his old form over four innings. He threw his slider on 44 percent of his pitches, getting nine swinging strikes and several huge strikeouts.
Kershaw's best sequence came in the third after the Giants scored a couple of runs. With two on, he struck out Patrick Bailey and Thairo Estrada on sharp sliders and got David Villar looking on the same big looping curveball he has been throwing for 17 years.
In those 60 appearances -- 58 of which have been starts -- Kershaw has a 2.04 ERA against the Giants. The next time he faces them, if there is a next time, he likely will go over the 400-inning mark in rivalry games.
The New Guys
There were a couple of new/new-ish faces in the lineup Thursday. Derek Hill made his first start after being claimed off waivers and Villar returned from Triple-A to replace Wilmer Flores, who will get a PRP injection in his aching right knee.
Hill started in left and flew out on the first pitch he saw from Kershaw. He later popped up and Conforto hit in that spot the next time it came up.
Villar struck out in his first three at-bats before lining a 3-2 pitch into the corner for a leadoff double in the eighth. He figures to get plenty of playing time over the coming weeks, as the Giants anticipate this being a more extended absence for Flores than his previous one.