Kurtenbach: Underdogs? Logan Webb, the SF Giants showed the Dodgers who the best team in baseball was in Game 1

SAN FRANCISCO — Game 1 was a tone-setter. A statement of intent.

These Giants are no underdogs.

Not in this series. Not against this opponent.

And not when they have this kind of lineup. Or when they’re playing at home, in front of these fans.

And certainly not when their new ace is on the mound.

The Las Vegas bookmakers might have expected the second-place in the NL West Dodgers to beat the first-place Giants in this best-of-five series, but I imagine those odds have flipped following the Giants’ wildly impressive 4-0 win Friday night at Oracle Park.

The spotlight of October baseball highlights every one of a team’s flaws.

It exposes greatness, too.

It shouldn’t need to be said — the Giants won 107 games in the regular season, more than any other team in baseball — but seeing as they are the bookmakers’ underdog in this series, it’s important to reiterate that the Giants are a great team.

Friday night was nine innings of reiteration.

The bright lights brought out San Francisco’s best.

The moment was anything but too big for them. They not only rose to it, they raised it.

They were loose and confident and played with a commensurate swagger.

Is it any surprise that the Giants who have rings on their fingers — Brandon Crawford, Buster Posey, Kris Bryant — who came through huge for San Francisco?

Posey’s first-inning homer — an opposite-field shot to the arcade in right field — ensured that the anticipation that permeated the ballpark at the start of the game didn’t turn into anxiousness. It’s always easier to play from ahead. Posey knows, he was swinging 3-0.

There was no subsequent offensive onslaught like in Sunday’s Game 162, but the buzz in the ballpark reached a new level in the fourth.

Crawford had a Gold Glove-caliber year at age 34, but a week off his feet between the regular-season finale and the playoff opener made him look like his 24-year-old self Friday. The double-play that he, Tommy La Stella, and first baseman Wilmer Flores turned in the fourth inning was the kind of thing others would never dare attempt in a game this important.

LaStella’s quick flip with the glove nearly airmailed Crawford, standing on second, but the Giants’ shortstop and MVP candidate was able to snag the relay, wind up, and fire a missile to first in enough time to beat Justin Turner.

The play was so audacious — everyone in Oracle Park so certain that it would only be a fielder’s choice — that the crowd of 41,934 was delayed in delivering its approval.

When it came, it was justly deafening.

Three innings later, Bryant came through. The Giants’ big-name trade deadline acquisition had been in a rut for the last few weeks, going 10-for-49 with a terrible .576 OPS, but Dodgers starter Walker Buehler threw him a 3-2 fastball down the middle of the plate and Bryant didn’t miss it. His homer to left-center field was a no-doubter and provided the insurance run the Giants had been craving since the first.

Crawford — who else? — added another one in the eighth.

All the while, Logan Webb was pitching the game of his life.

Webb doesn’t have the pedigree of a Posey or Crawford or Bryant, but he was the star of Friday’s game, going 7.2 innings, striking out 10, and allowing zero runs.

So, scratch that earlier statement — he didn’t have the pedigree.

Webb’s bulldog performance, mowing through the Dodgers’ lineup with ease, tossing sandbags, and dropping sliders and changeups off the table, was the stuff of legends.

At 24 years old, Webb’s back-to-back performance — Game 162 and Friday’s Game 1 — guarantee that he’ll never have to pay for another drink in Northern California.

Remember: the Dodgers’ lineup is supposed to be relentless. Webb made players worth well over a combined billion dollars look like a Double-A affiliate. L.A. had a few poked singles, a couple of dribblers, and a double — a byproduct of a hung slider to Will Smith in the seventh.

Signs of trouble? A crack in the foundation? Of course not.

Webb bore down, and threw a series of the nastiest breaking balls you’ll ever see to pick up outs Nos. 2 and 3 with strikeouts.

If San Francisco is going to win this series, Webb had to come out of the gate with a strong start. There aren’t many points of separation between these two teams, so whichever starting pitcher had the best Game 1 start — keeping the bullpen intact and not putting much pressure on their offense — would give their team not only a 1-0 lead, but an advantage that could well last throughout the series.

They picked up that advantage — both mental and physical — Friday.

Tyler Rodgers spelled Webb, picking up the final out of the eighth with two pitches, and the Iceman, Camilo Doval, mopped up the rest in the ninth to chants of “Beat LA.”

It was the Dodgers that seemed on the back foot all game. They were the ones missing the strike zone, bobbling grounders, complaining to the umpires. They were supposed to be the team that was peaking heading into the playoffs.

After eight years of division titles and rarely feeling the heat, they’re finally facing off with a worthy adversary.

They don’t seem to like it.

The good news is that if the Giants keep playing like they did Friday, the Dodgers won’t have to put up with it for long.