LOS ANGELES — The most impressive number of the Giants’ trip to Los Angeles has nothing to do with runs, hits, walks or homers. It was 130.
This is the number of Disneyland tickets that have been purchased for players, coaches, wives, girlfriends, team employees and, most importantly, children to spend the day there. A night later, as a Dodgers rookie scrapped the lineup for six innings, a high-ranking staffer wondered if that trip would be blamed for a lackluster streak.
Sunday afternoon, there was absolutely no concern.
The Giants scored 29 points, their most in a three-game series at Dodger Stadium, capping the huge weekend with a 7-3 victory. The third consecutive road sweep notched a perfect 6-0 road trip and propelled the Giants to second place in the NL West.
Sunday’s lineup was slightly different, but the story was exactly the same. The Giants made the right adjustment against a strong Dodgers starter, once again breaking through mid-inning to land their first sweep in Los Angeles since 2012.
The Giants have just six sweeps at Dodger Stadium since the teams moved to California. Here’s what you need to know about the latest:
Powerful Gear
Luis Matos’ first series at Dodger Stadium couldn’t have gone better. He walked three times on Friday, had two hits and two walks on Saturday, then had a two-run double in the final. It was his first extra-base hit and gave him his first two RBIs.
In four games, Matos has already reached base nine times and scored seven runs. He also scored his first career stolen base and his first highlight catch over the weekend.
Matos became only the second giant to score at least seven points in his first four major league games. The other? Willie McCovey.
Bend but don’t break
Logan Webb looked frustrated coming off the mound after round five of a somewhat sloppy start. But again, he had found a way to make a big throw when needed.
Webb allowed eight hits, walked two and hit one, but he limited the damage. With the bases loaded in the first, he threw a perfect front door lead to freeze James Outman. With two in the goalscoring position in the fourth, he got back-to-back ground players in the second. An inning later, the Dodgers scored again and put runners in the corners. Webb got a late-inning double play.
Webb was charged with two wins in seven innings. As he pushes for his first MLB All-Star appearance, he has lowered his ERA to 3.11.
Finally!
When Tony Gonsolin went up nine, nine down, Webb must have thought, “Here we go again…”
Even though they’ve changed their season over the past month, the Giants have been pretty consistently quiet behind Webb, who threatens to become Matt Cain 2.0. In his 23 previous starts, Webb has received one or fewer runs 11 times, with the Giants going 11-12 despite Webb having a 2.80 ERA during that streak.
After Webb prevented the Dodgers from a big fifth, the roster finally rewarded him in the sixth. Matos’ two-run brace was the blow, but Blake Sabol and LaMonte Wade Jr. added RBI singles, with Wade landing his final shot on a left-handed reliever, which became a trend as he surged this season.
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