Two second-inning homers and a three-hit shutout carry Dodgers past Giants at Oracle Park

The inning that did all the scoring

This matchup turned on one inning and two clean swings. Hernández opened the scoring in the second with a 412-foot drive to left, and Pages followed later in the frame with a 389-foot homer to the same side. That was all the Dodgers would need, and, in the end, all they would get.

The interesting part of the Dodgers’ offensive line is how narrow it looks once the home runs are isolated. Los Angeles finished with seven hits and one walk but stranded nine runners, so this was not a night of constant conversion. Will Smith did his part with a 3-for-4 game, yet the bigger names around him were mostly quiet: Shohei Ohtani went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, Mookie Betts went 0-for-3 with a walk, and Freddie Freeman finished 0-for-4.

That left the second inning carrying almost the entire weight of the night. Our take: for the Dodgers, the encouraging part is that they won even with an incomplete lineup performance. The caution is just as clear. When seven hits and a walk produce only two runs, the margin stays thin, and relying solely on solo power can make a controlled game feel closer than it should.

Skubal’s command made the score feel even smaller

If the Dodgers’ offense was brief, their pitching was relentless. Tarik Skubal worked seven scoreless innings, allowed three hits, walked nobody and struck out 10. He needed only 75 pitches, 60 of them strikes, which says plenty about how little room San Francisco had to breathe at the plate.

The late innings kept the same tone. Roki Sasaki added an inning with two strikeouts, and Tanner Scott was charged with the remaining scoreless work while recording two more strikeouts. However the final outs are logged in the official line, the larger truth is simple enough: Dodgers pitchers gave up three hits, no walks and no runs while piling up 14 strikeouts.

Our take: that is the sort of pitching line that leaves almost no avenue for an opponent. San Francisco did not draw a walk, did not collect an extra-base hit and got singles only from Victor Bericoto, Bo Davidson and Scott Bandura. When a club is forced to build everything from isolated singles against pitchers who are living in the zone, the scoreboard tends to stay frozen.

A close game, but not an even one

There is still a reasonable case that the Giants pitched well enough to stay alive. Yunior Marte gave up the two solo homers and six hits over five innings, but he also kept the damage contained to two runs. After him, Sam Hentges, Joel Kuhnel, Dylan Smith and Tristan Beck combined for four scoreless innings and allowed just one hit. For most of the night, San Francisco prevented the game from becoming a runaway.

The bigger problem was the offense, and the numbers are blunt. The Giants struck out 14 times in 28 plate appearances, did not walk, and finished with three total bases because all three hits were singles. They also left only two runners on base, which is another way of saying they rarely put enough men aboard to create pressure. If there is a place to improve, it starts with extending at-bats into something more productive than strikeouts; seeing 103 pitches without drawing a walk is a hard way to manufacture scoring chances.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, can treat this as both a successful road result and a reminder that their lineup can still be cleaner. They had more than enough pitching to win comfortably, but the batting line still reads like a missed opportunity in spots: two runs, seven hits, one walk, nine left on base, and an 0-for-11 combined night from Ohtani, Betts and Freeman. On this night, Hernández and Pages supplied the decisive swings. On most nights, Los Angeles will want a little less dependence on two second-inning drives and a little more separation everywhere else.

Scoring moments

1. 2nd Inning

   T. Hernández homered to left (412 feet).

2. 2nd Inning

   Pages homered to left (389 feet).