MLB playoffs: Dodgers lose patience vs. Giants' Logan Webb in Game 1 defeat

By Pedro Moura
FOX Sports MLB Writer

SAN FRANCISCO — Three hours before it began, Trea Turner correctly predicted the outcome of the first game of the National League Division Series. 

When asked about facing Logan Webb, the Giants’ second-half sensation and Game 1 starter, Turner said it would be essential for the Dodgers not to chase his offerings outside the strike zone.

"Over the series," Turner said, "whoever does that best will come out on top."

That was the story Friday at Oracle Park. The Dodgers, Turner very much included, repeatedly succumbed to Webb’s temptations, while the Giants waited out Walker Buehler. As follows, the Giants breezed to a 4-0 victory. There may not be a simpler game played this postseason.

For more up-to-date news on all things Dodgers, click here to register for alerts on the FOX Sports app!

The last time the Dodgers were shut out in the playoffs, Yasiel Puig was on the team. That was 38 postseason games ago for this seasoned crew. This iteration of their roster is supposed to be immune to over-aggressive nights like these.

"We just chased a lot more than we should’ve," said an unusually frank Dave Roberts, the Dodgers’ manager. "I just think, to be quite honest, we didn’t make adjustments. If you don’t make adjustments, they’re gonna keep going to the well."

Webb kept tapping off-speed pitches out of his well. He threw 73% changeups and sliders, a sizable increase over his usual rate of 51%. He walked no one and struck out 10. Of the 12 times the Dodgers put the ball in play, only once was it in the air. 

For more up-to-date news on all things Giants, click here to register for alerts on the FOX Sports app!

Behind the plate, Buster Posey thought back to his and Tim Lincecum’s postseason debuts in Game 1 of the 2010 NLDS. Lincecum was then the reigning winner of consecutive Cy Youngs, and he struck out 14 Atlanta Braves in a shutout that night. Webb has so far had a significantly less decorated career, but he is lately pitching like the star Lincecum once was. At least on Friday night, he and Posey together capitalized on the Dodgers’ desperation.

Because of Max Muncy’s absence, the bottom of Los Angeles’ lineup is weaker than it has been in postseasons past. But Roberts emphasized that some members of the lineup’s top also deserved blame. Turner, for one, struck out twice. But, yes, the bottom of the lineup struggled, and it particularly hurt because No. 5 hitter Will Smith was their biggest threat. Between them, Nos. 6-8 hitters Matt Beaty, Cody Bellinger, and A.J. Pollock swung at and missed 13 Webb pitches — more than San Francisco’s entire lineup missed against Buehler.

The Giants did not intervene while Buehler fought his command in the first inning. He threw four consecutive balls to walk leadoff man Tommy La Stella, then three consecutive balls to stake Posey to a commanding edge. Buehler’s 3-0 pitch wasn’t bad, as 3-0 pitches go: a 96-mph fastball over the outside part of the plate. But Posey was ready for it, and he nearly landed it in McCovey Cove on the fly.

For more up-to-date news on all things MLB, click here to register for alerts on the FOX Sports app!

By contrast, Webb was admittedly nervous for the first playoff inning of his career, but the Dodgers didn’t leave enough space for it to show. After Mookie Betts let two balls pass to begin the game, then singled, the next three Dodgers swung at four of Webb’s next six pitches. Three of those swings produced harmless grounders, and Webb was out of it.

The Dodgers did not produce another hit until Smith led off the fifth with a single. They were frequently unhappy with plate umpire Carlos Torres. Smith protested two sliders called strikes on him in the first inning. Both appeared outside the zone. In the second inning, Buehler challenged Torres when he called an 0-1 fastball at the top of the zone to Mike Yastrzemski a ball. Buehler bounced back to strike out Yastrzemski for his first strikeout of the game. From there, Buehler was his typical dominant self. It was just too late.

The Dodgers caught one of their few breaks when Webb mishandled Corey Seager’s fourth-inning dribbler down the first-base line. Then Torres called Webb’s first pitch to Trea Turner – a sinker outside the zone – a strike. Turner then chased a two-strike changeup in a similar spot and could not make contact. Four pitches later, La Stella and Brandon Crawford combined to turn a Justin Turner grounder into a splendid double play. Again, Webb was out of it. 

The right-hander fired three more scoreless frames before yielding to his bullpen in the eighth. The Dodgers mounted only one other threat, and it was minor: a Smith double on a hung slider in the seventh. Webb silenced that by striking out Beaty and Bellinger. He shouted his way off the mound as the Oracle Park crowd screamed with him.

Soon after, Buehler hung his head when Kris Bryant’s seventh-inning drive to left landed in the bleachers. He recorded only one more out before Dave Roberts replaced him.

"At the end of the day," said Buehler, a great postseason performer, "this game is on me."

It wasn’t. It was on the Dodgers’ lineup. And if they don’t alter their approach by the first pitch of Saturday’s Game 2, Buehler may not pitch again this season. There’s no reason they can’t. There have been All-Star teams with less hitting talent out of their lineup’s first five slots. But there was no reason for the Dodgers not to adjust all night Friday. And yet they didn’t.

Pedro Moura is the national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He most recently covered the Dodgers for three seasons for The Athletic. Previously, he spent five years covering the Angels and Dodgers for the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. More previously, he covered his alma mater, USC, for ESPNLosAngeles.com. The son of Brazilian immigrants, he grew up in the Southern California suburbs. Follow him on Twitter @pedromoura.