Tommy Edman’s sixth-inning homer sparks Dodgers’ 3-1 comeback over Giants

Wilkinson held the line until Edman didn’t

San Francisco did its scoring immediately and then spent the rest of the afternoon trying to protect a vanishing margin. Victor Bericoto’s first-inning single to right brought home Jonah Cox for a 1-0 lead, and that turned out to be almost the full extent of the Giants’ attack. They finished with only two hits, no extra-base hits and 14 strikeouts, a combination that leaves almost no room for a pitching staff to blink.

For a while, Wilkinson gave them exactly what they needed. His five scoreless innings, with three hits allowed and six strikeouts, kept the Dodgers from cashing in early traffic. Los Angeles had runners on often enough to finish with 11 hits and 14 men left on base, but through five innings the Giants’ starter had made all of that feel wasteful rather than dangerous. That is a hard trick against this lineup, and Wilkinson nearly stretched it into a winning formula.

Los Angeles never found one big inning — just the next hit

The game turned in the sixth because Edman removed the tension all at once. His 400-foot homer to right tied it 1-1, and from there the Dodgers stopped looking like a team wondering when the breakthrough would come. They looked like one that understood a single run at a time would be enough if the pitching held.

That is exactly how the next two innings unfolded. In the seventh, Enrique Hernández doubled to center to score Max Muncy and move Josue De Paula to third. In the eighth, Muncy came through himself, singling to center to score Teoscar Hernández and send Freddie Freeman to third. It was not a barrage; it was a steady squeeze. Freeman had two hits, Teoscar Hernández had two, Muncy had two, and De Paula had two. The Dodgers never drew a walk, so this comeback had to be assembled through contact, and they kept finding just enough of it.

Sheehan and the bullpen erased the first inning

If Edman supplied the jolt, Emmet Sheehan supplied the calm. After Jack Dreyer was charged with the Giants’ lone run in his inning of work, Sheehan covered 5.1 scoreless innings and allowed only one hit while striking out nine. That outing changed the tone of the game as much as the homer did. A one-run deficit can linger when the middle innings get messy; Sheehan made sure they did not.

The finish belonged to the rest of the Dodgers’ relief work. Kris Bubic, Brock Stewart and Tanner Scott combined for the final 2.2 innings without allowing a hit, and Scott closed out the save. Altogether, Dodgers pitchers struck out 14 Giants and held them to a .067 team average. San Francisco did work counts — 162 pitches seen across 33 plate appearances is a healthy number — but patience only matters if it leads to hard contact or sustained traffic. Here, it mostly led back to the dugout.

Our take: useful warning signs inside a Dodgers win

This was a deserved Dodgers victory, but not an immaculate one. Two defensive errors and 14 runners left on base kept a comfortable edge from ever truly appearing on the scoreboard. Our take: Los Angeles will like the persistence, especially from the Edman-Freeman-Muncy-De Paula stretch of contributors, but there is also a lesson in how thin the margin stayed despite 11 hits. With no walks at all, the offense relied on sequencing rather than pressure from multiple directions. On another day, that can make a game harder than it needs to be.

The Giants, meanwhile, have a clearer problem and a more encouraging consolation. The problem is contact: two hits, no extra-base hits and 14 strikeouts will bury almost any otherwise competent pitching performance. The consolation is that the pitching was, in broad terms, good enough to keep the game alive. Wilkinson was sharp, and San Francisco pitchers did not issue a walk all day while limiting the Dodgers to three runs. Our take: if the Giants can pair that kind of strike-throwing with more balls in play, they give themselves a chance. If the bats stay this quiet, even a 1-0 lead will feel temporary.

Scoring moments

1. 1st Inning

   Bericoto singled to right, Cox scored.

2. 6th Inning

   Edman homered to right (400 feet).

3. 7th Inning

   E. Hernández doubled to center, Muncy scored, De Paula to third.

4. 8th Inning

   Muncy singled to center, T. Hernández scored, Freeman to third.