Kapler tossed in Giants loss

The San Francisco Giants continue to make history in 2022, dropping their 8th straight loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers which topped the dubious mark set by the 1980 team and matched the 1979 team.

Final score: 5-3. It was L.A.’s third series sweep against the Giants this season. It was the first time they swept them in a four-game series in SF since 1977.

Newly acquired J.D. Davis had given the Giants a 2-1 lead off Clayton Kershaw in the 2nd with a 2-run homer that clanged off the arcade tin in right.

It was San Francisco’s allotted drive (singular) of the evening. The lead it provided short-lived.

The deciding hit: Mookie Betts’s 3-run homer in the 4th to take a 4-2 lead. The bash came after starter Jakob Junis was pulled with two outs in the inning after walking the number 9 hitter James Outman. John Brebbia came in and Betts elevated a wheelhouse fastball over the wall in leftish-center.

The Dodgers cashed in on the gift to Outman and the Giants nodded in agreement: yes, you are a better team.

In terms of game play, nothing was off script. It was a classic Giants loss sans defensive ineptitude. Akin to The Phantom Menace without Jar Jar Binks—it’s still a bad movie.

But is it unwatchable? Never! Why?

1) Baseball is never unwatchable!

2) Baseball is a game played by children, even when they’re well-paid and have health insurance, which means they sometimes do stupid things in front of thousands of people and its entertaining for all of us.

Jarlin García, who’s had some frustrating moments this season, let loose some of that frustration after striking James Outman for the last out in the 6th. Walking off the mound he gestured towards Mookie Betts in the on-deck circle and mockingly knocked his fist against his head.

Let me explain. Knocking their fist against the side of their head is the Dodgers chosen celebration after getting on base. Let me explain. This is in reference to a scene in the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jordan Belfort bangs a microphone against his head in the middle of a profanity-laden speech to pump-up a room full of money-crazed stock brokers/criminals.

Let me explain. Per Joe Davis, the Los Angeles play-by-play man, Trea Turner is very good at reciting this particular monologue and has, I imagine, after diligent study and rehearsal to hone his craft, performed this scene more than once for the boys in the clubhouse. Let me explain. This is (and I checked and there’s no other word for this) an incredibly douche-y thing to do.

The Dodgers also do this.

Just boys being boys being idiots.

Thank god the Giants don’t do anything stupid or embarrassing ever…

After the brief altercation with García and Betts and warnings issued to both teams, manager Gabe Kapler burst from the dugout spitting and flexing in crew chief’s Phil Cuzzi’s face, displeased at how Cuzzi chastised his pitcher on the field.

Over the top, performative, a little confusing in the moment—but something new and unexpected after this predictable series.

It was Kapler’s first ejection in a Giants uniform…maybe he just wanted to get a jump on the long weekend.