“Patrick Bailey Pummels One Into the Night”

Apr 23, 2026 | 2026 Season, Latest Post

by
Greek Giant

My favorite Giants announcer is Jon Miller. My second favorite is Dave Fleming and his call on Patrick Bailey’s three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Giants a 3-0 lead in a scoreless game was poetic:

“Patrick Bailey, Pummels one into the night….!”

Indeed.

The homer was hit as Bailey batted right-handed against Dodgers reliever Jack Dreyer, a lefty. The switch-hitting Bailey entered Wednesday batting only .145 with a .362 OPS and zero extra-base hits through his first 18 games of the year, but he came through with the swing of the night, driving a 1-2 slider from Dreyer a Statcast-projected 407 feet out to left field to put the Giants ahead, 3-0. To say Bailey was struggling would be an understatement. In fact his slump was so deep that he was benched a few games in favor of rising star, Daniel Susac.

“I’m happy to come through for the guys. Obviously, the swings have been feeling better. To be able to come through in those moments is huge.”

–Patrick Bailey

Bailey’s blast was majestic. It sent the 41,000 fans in attendance into a frenzy of good cheer. it followed a single by Lee and a double by Devers to put runners on second and third base with nobody out in a game dominated by the starting pitching of Tyler Mahle (his best start of the year) and Shohei Ohtani, who was awesome.

The Dodgers hit a few smashes in the infield and they were turned into outs thanks to great plays by Adames, Devers and Arraez, each of whom looked like gold glovers on this night. Matt Chapman too, made some beautiful plays, one to end a thread in the top of the third inning. This was a game to savor if you appreciate good pitching and defense as I do. The Arraez play was crucial as the Dodgers were rallying with runners on first and third base and two outs in the bottom of the fourth and Tyler Mahle on the ropes. Luis scooped a hard smash in between hop and fired to first base to end the inning as we all exhaled a sigh of Giant relief.

Mahle was mixing speeds very well and generally getting ahead of Dodger hitters with regularity. He only walked two Los Angelinos in his seven shutout innings of work while striking out five and allowing three hits against a Dodger team missing Mookie Betts but by no means a pushover. This was a major leap forward for Mahle, who entered the game 0-3 with a 7.23 ERA over his first four starts of the year. I mean, things were getting ugly for him. For Mahle to go toe-to-toe with Ohtani and the Dodgers says quite a lot about his abilities and his character.

Ohtani was equally masterful with his mixture of fastballs, tailing up and away to lefties, and offs-peed pitches. His command is something to watch. The Giants never really threatened against him except for one inning when they managed two base runners and Casey Schmitt nearly went deep on a loopy curve that would not travel farther than the left field warning track in front of the Jeff Kent Cars. That came in the bottom of the sixth inning, his final frame of work after throwing 91 pitches.

Caleb Killian pitched a quiet and strong eighth inning of relief and Ryan Walker earned his second straight save in as many nights and third of the season with a scoreless ninth that saw him yield only one walk. He looked good too.

The win gave the Giants a record of 11-13 as the Dodgers dropped to 16-8. It is important to remember that the Dodgers came to town flying high and just about running away with the NL West Division and with a Major League-best mark of 16-6. It has been quite an exciting two games for the Giants, who in the process, also stopped Ohtani’s remarkable 53-game on base streak in the process. The Dodgers were limited fo four hits in the game. This has been an impressive stretch of defense and pitching for the San Franciscans in the past two games against their arch-arch-rivals from Hollywood.

The Highlights

Today’s Game

The Giants take on the Dodgers for the sweep of their three-game series with Logan Webb (2-2, 5.10 ERA) facing Tyler Glasnow (2-0, 3.24 ERA) at Willie Mays Field at 12:45 PM.