SAN FRANCISCO – Matt Chapman hit his team-leading 11th home run and drove in three runs, leading a parade at the plate for the Giants as they thumped the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-4 on Sunday for their first series win over the NL West leaders at Oracle Park in two years.
Spencer Bivens spun five strong innings as the opener, giving San Francisco’s weary bullpen a much-needed break. Bivens (2-1) scattered four hits and allowed one run with three strikeouts.
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The resurgent Giants, who have won five of seven since losing five in a row, did the bulk of their damage against Dodgers starter James Paxton.
Paxton was unbeaten in three previous starts against San Francisco and carried a 7-1 overall record into Sunday before getting knocked out of the game after four innings. The Dodgers lefty was tagged for nine runs, matching the most that Paxton has allowed in one game during his career.
The Giants (41-44) still are 10 games in back of the division-leading Dodgers.
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Unlike the first two games of the series, which were decided late, this one was over early.
San Francisco scored in each of the first four innings and led 9-0 before the Dodgers scored their first run on a home run by Chris Taylor in the fifth.
It was the perfect recipe for the Giants on a day when they didn’t have a full complement of relievers available.
Bivens set the tone early in his first start in the majors.
Bivens retired the first seven batters he faced in order before Enrique Hernande’s one-out single in the third. Bivens then struck out the next two Dodger hitters, including Shohei Ohtani, who whiffed at a 95-mph fastball.
Bivens K’d Ohtani again to end the fifth, getting the Japanese slugger to fan on a 82-mph sweeper.
Here are the takeaways from Sunday’s game:
Offense, And Lots Of It
It was a beautiful Sunday at the yard, and the Giants’ bats were just as pretty.
Every starting player in the lineup had at least one hit. Four Giants (Jorge Soler, Heliot Ramos, David Villar, Tyler Fitzgerald) had multiple hits in the game. Ramos matched Chapman with three RBI while four others drove in one run, and seven scored.
Most of the hits were bullets off the bat. San Francisco tallied 10 doubles -- a San Francisco franchise-era record -- and a home run. The 11 extra-base hits are the most this season by the Giants.
Bullpen Help Arrives
Back from his rehab stint, Landen Roupp handled some of the mop-up duties for San Francisco after being called up from Triple-A Sacramento before the game.
It wasn’t a perfect outing by any means, but the Giants needed someone to eat up some innings, and Roupp was the guy.
Roupp pitched 2 2/3 innings, allowing three hits and three runs. He struck out three and walked two before being replaced by Tyler Rogers with two outs and two on in the ninth.
In a corresponding move to Roupp's call-up, Spencer Howard was designated for assignment. Howard threw 134 pitches over 7 2/3 innings covering his last two outings, including 54 on Saturday.
That left the Giants’ already thin bullpen in need of able arms, so Howard – out of options – was the guy to go.
It wasn’t an easy decision, either.
“Obviously as an organization we didn’t want to have to do that, but today is kind of an extreme day based on what we’re dealing with,” manager Bob Melvin said before the game. “He wasn’t going to be able to pitch today, and unfortunately it’s a byproduct of that.”
Basepath Blunder
A day after running themselves out of multiple scoring opportunities, the Giants continued to stumble on the bases.
This time it was Nick Ahmed who ran into trouble. Ahmed singled in the second inning then took off for second when Tyler Fitzgerald lined a single to right. But Ahmed took a few steps toward third after reaching second and was thrown out 9-3-6 while trying to scramble back to the bag.
That wound up being critical because the next batter – Soler – crushed an RBI double to center. Ahmed almost certainly would have scored on the play had he still been on base.
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