SAN FRANCISCO — A heated Gabe Kapler was ejected Thursday for his first time as a Giants manager as his team stumbled their way to an eighth straight loss to the rival Dodgers.
The incident that led to Kapler’s outburst came after Jarlín García struck out James Outman to end the top of the seventh and appeared to exchange a brief back-and-forth with Mookie Betts, who was in the on-deck circle. However, it was likely also a product of consecutive four-game sweeps at the hands of their rivals, who downed the Giants again Thursday, 5-3, to widen the gap in the National League West to a season-high 21.5 games.
The Giants led longer Thursday than they had in any of their past seven losses to the Dodgers, thanks to recently acquired J.D. Davis’ first home run as a Giant. Within an inning and a half, however, they trailed again.
By the time first-base umpire Phil Cuzzi tossed Kapler, the Giants were in a 4-2 hole.
Davis’ second-inning home run, an opposite-field shot just over the arcade in right, gave them a 2-1 lead. But Betts stole it right back with a three-run blast to left in the fourth, the first batter faced by reliever John Brebbia after starter Jakob Junis allowed Outman and Gavin Lux to reach.
In 72 innings of baseball with the Dodgers since the All-Star break, the Giants led at the conclusion of three of them. They were swept in a four-game series in San Francisco for the first time since 1979; lost eight straight to Los Angeles for the first time since 2006-07; and, including last week’s sweep at Arizona, have lost a franchise-record 11 straight games against NL West opponents. Over the eight-game skid against the Dodgers, they’ve been outscored 45-23.
García painted the outside corner with a fastball to get Outman looking for the last out of the seventh, then pointed at Outman and signaled at his head, an apparent reference to a Dodgers’ base-hit celebration. Betts, who was hit by a pitch in the final meeting of the four-game sweep in Los Angeles last week, appeared to take exception.
As Kapler escorted García back to the dugout, Cuzzi trailed him and got his attention. When Kapler turned around, the typically even-keeled manager began to unleash into the umpire with more fury in 45 seconds than he had shown in two-plus seasons.
Kapler had been ejected four times in two seasons managing the Phillies, but Thursday marked the first time he was tossed as San Francisco’s skipper. Bench coach Kai Correa, who tried to intervene but was shoed away by Kapler, took over as acting manager for the final two-and-a-half innings.
Any number of issues over these past eight games could have led to Kapler’s frustration boiling over. On Thursday, it would be easy to point to the decision to remove Junis with two outs in the fourth at 79 pitches.
Junis allowed a double to Lux and issued a walk to Outman. Kapler didn’t want him facing Betts for a third time and brought in Brebbia. Turns out, it didn’t matter who pitched to Betts, as he put Brebbia’s third offering into the left-field seats.
The home run negated any good vibes generated by a rare defensive highlight earlier in the inning, when Mike Yastrzemski and Wilmer Flores executed a perfect relay to nab Joey Gallo at home plate on Lux’s double into the right-field corner.
Trea Turner added on with another blast in the eighth, a solo shot off Yunior Marte that made it 5-2.
