The importance of the rivalry will never diminish.
But in their first meeting of the season this week in San Francisco, the boiling intensity the Dodgers and Giants had shared the past couple years has seemed to be turned down to simmer.
“These games are always meaningful,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “You always want to win.”
But two years removed from their epic postseason meeting, and coming off a 2022 campaign in which the Giants faded from National League West contention, the division foes appear to be in more of a detente phase than they are used to.
The pregame scene Tuesday afternoon, ahead of a 5-0 Giants win that set up a rubber match for Wednesday, offered a few clues why.
Chris Taylor’s three strikeouts loom large in Dodgers’ first shutout of the season.
Where icy hostility has often existed between the two rivals, there is more of a friendly familiarity now, thanks in part to the prevalence of former Dodgers playing on the Giants’ side.
Outfielder Joc Pederson, for example, mingled with former L.A. teammates Austin Barnes and Trayce Thompson as they took early batting practice.
Ex-Dodgers right-hander Ross Stripling was also standing nearby, catching up with old coaches and trainers for the first time since being traded by the club at the 2020 deadline.
“They got a handful [of our former players], don’t they?” Roberts said this week of a Giants club that also features Alex Wood and Scott Alexander.
There’s an increasing similarity between the franchises, as well, stemming from the influence of Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, the Dodgers’ former general manager under Andrew Friedman, and manager Gabe Kapler, L.A.’s old director of player development.
“[Both teams] are very much player-driven,” said Stripling, whose ties to Zaidi and Kapler drew him to the Giants as a free agent this offseason. “I think both teams do a good job of spending on resources that just make their players the best they can be. I don’t know if that’s even above a Farhan or Andrew, or if that comes from them. But I definitely see that”
The biggest factor, though, might have more to do with the clubs’ other in-state rival.
The big-spending, unabashedly-confident San Diego Padres have emerged as the Dodgers’ biggest threat in the division this year, coming off their NLDS upset in last year’s playoffs.
“Success in general is fun. But I guess it does mean a little bit more when it’s here.”
— Dodgers’ Max Muncy after beating the Giants on Monday in San Francisco
That’s the matchup Roberts and his team was asked about ad nauseam this spring. Those are the most highly anticipated games on the Dodgers’ 2023 schedule, beginning with a weekend series at Petco Park May 5-7.
“I just think the fanfare, the media-fare for the Padres heightens [that rivalry],” Roberts said.
“But as far as us,” the manager added, “I don’t think it’s much of a difference.”
Indeed, this week’s series has still featured a typical edge.
Longtime Giants nemesis Max Muncy acknowledged it after hitting two home runs in Monday’s opener, grinning slyly at the mention of his “go get it out of the ocean” comment to Madison Bumgarner in 2019.
Max Muncy hit a grand slam and a three-run home run as the Dodgers ended their three-game losing streak in a 9-1 win over the San Francisco Giants.
“Success in general is fun,” he said. “But I guess it does mean a little bit more when it’s here.”
Prior to Tuesday’s game, Roberts offered a mixed review of the city he once called home, having finished his big league career with the Giants in 2007 and 2008.
“Great fanbase,” he said, before flatly adding: “The city was in a much better state when I played here.”
As the Giants evened the series Tuesday night, it was a pair of former Dodgers who fueled the win.
Pederson gave the team a quick lead with a two-out double in the first off Dustin May. Wood, meanwhile, spun 4 ⅔ scoreless innings to help the Giants become the first team to shut out the Dodgers this season.
“I mean, they’re our rivals,” Wood told reporters postgame. “Anytime you can get a win against a team of that caliber, they’re a great ballclub, much less a division opponent, too. So it’s a big win, especially coming at home. We’ve got a chance to win the series tomorrow. That’s all you can ask.”
Entering the week, Stripling noticed a different energy in his new home clubhouse, too — a reminder that, after spending the past three years in Toronto, the emotions of a Dodgers-Giants series still run deep.
“You can feel it’s a rivalry,” he said. “There’s a little bit more energy.”
Just not with quite the same animosity as the series has been accustomed to in the past.
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