Monday night’s series opener between the National League West first-place San Francisco Giants and the second-place Los Angeles Dodgers pretty much went as expected.

Resembling a heavyweight title fight, the two powerhouse teams began the night exchanging blows, with both teams slugging back-to-back home runs in the first inning; the Giants by catcher and longtime Dodgers nemesis Buster Posey and third baseman Wilmer Flores, and the Dodgers by well-established Giant-killer Max “Go Get It Out of the Ocean” Muncy and Dodgers unofficial team captain Justin Turner.

But when the dust finally settled three hours and 45 minutes later in front of a Dodger Stadium crowd of 50,970, it was the Giants who emerged still standing – at least in Round-1 of this four-game title fight.

Although the Giants collected five extra-base hits on the night and the Dodgers three, it was – as it usually is – the pitching that settled this one. On San Francisco’s side of the scorecard, six Giants pitchers gave up two runs (both earned) on four hits with four walks and 11 strikeouts, while Dodgers hurlers allowed seven runs (all earned) on 12 hits with four walks and six strikeouts, with 25-year-old and just recalled left-hander Alex Vesia recording two of those strikeouts against the six batters he would face in the eighth and ninth innings. Vesia had been recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday.

“I think with Alex, it’s the confidence, which I think is evident with pretty much all major-league players,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts answered when asked about his young left-hander and Alpine, CA native, who was initially drafted by the Miami Marlins in the 17th round of the 2018 MLB Draft from out of Cal State East Bay in Hayward, CA. “And that second or third time here, he’s just way more comfortable. He’s filling up the strike zone; he’s throwing his breaking balls in the strike zone; he’s flooding the zone with fastballs. So it’s really fun to see him compete out there, and he gave us two big innings tonight.”

Stay tuned for Round-2 of this heavyweight title fight between these two NL West powerhouse teams that will square off against one another six more times in the next nine days.

Play Ball!

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