Max Muncy, Justin Turner homer as Dodgers defeat Giants

Alex Vesia comes in to pitch the ninth for the Dodgers. This is not a save situation. David Villar walked. Austin Wynns struck out swinging. Luis Gonzalez struck out swinging. Joc Pederson flied to center.

Final score: Dodgers 7, Giants 3

Austin Barnes led off the bottom of the eighth with a single to left. He moved to second on Mookie Betts’ groundout. Trea Turner came to the plate and hit a full-count pitch over the left fielder’s head for a double, scoring Barnes. Freddie Freeman walked. Max Muncy homered to right, making it 7-3 Dodgers. Justin Turner flied to left. Trayce Thompson popped to first.

Score after eight: Dodgers 7, Giants 3

The Giants evened it up in the top of the seventh. Justin Bruihl replaced Clayton Kershaw on the mound and got Mike Yastrzemski to fly to center. David Villar, who seems to enjoy hitting against the Dodgers, then homered to tie the score. Austin Wynns flied to right. Luis Gonzalez singled. Pinch-hitter Joc Pederson walked. Wilmer Flores struck out looking.

The Dodgers got a leadoff walk in the bottom of the seventh, but Justin Turner was left stranded.

Score after seven: Dodgers 3, Giants 3

After squandering several scoring chances, the Dodgers finally broke through in a big way in the fifth inning.

Freddie Freeman led off with an opposite-field single to left. Max Muncy bunted to third and with the Giants in a shift, he easily reached first base with a single. Justin Turner followed with a home run to left center that gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead.

After Trayce Thompson flied out, Giants starter Alex Cobb was removed.

After five innings: Dodgers 3, Giants 2

Clayton Kershaw held the Giants without a run in the first four innings, but in the fifth he gave up a leadoff single to Mike Yastrzemski and a home run to David Villar to make it 2-0 San Francisco.

In the first four innings, the Dodgers are 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position.

After 4 1/2 innings: Giants 2, Dodgers 0

In the third inning, Freddie Freeman walked with one out and Max Muncy singled to right. But Justin Turner and Trayce Thompson struck out, leaving the Dodgers 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position through three innings.

End third: Dodgers 0, Giants 0

There’s no score after two innings at Dodger Stadium after the Dodgers failed to capitalize on a bases-loaded, no-out situation.

Justin Turner led off the second with a single against Alex Cobb of the Giants. Trayce Thompson doubled to right to send Turner to third. Joey Gallo was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

But the slumping Chris Taylor, after working the count to 3-0, grounded to a drawn-in shortstop Thairo Estrada on a 3-1 pitch. Estrada threw home for a force out and only Taylor’s speed to first prevented a double play.

Austin Barnes then struck out and Mookie Betts flied out to center to end the inning.

End second: Dodgers 0, Giants 0

Manager Dave Roberts used the word “alarming” on the last road trip to describe Chris Taylor’s strikeout and swing-and-miss rates. A week later, at the end of the team’s six-game homestand, the adjective still applies.

Taylor entered Wednesday’s series finale against the San Francisco Giants with a .165 average (13 for 79), .571 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, two homers, seven RBIs, 37 strikeouts and 11 walks in 24 games since the utility man returned from a foot injury on Aug. 5, dropping his season average from .238 to .221.

“There’s always been a lot of swing and miss in his game, but you can kind of reconcile that with some hard contact and slug,” Roberts said. “We haven’t seen that. But he’s an easy guy to bet on as far as preparation, the desire to compete, [being] a winning player.”

Taylor led the National League with 178 strikeouts in 2018, when he hit .254 with a .775 OPS, 17 homers and 63 RBIs, and he struck out 167 times while batting .254 with a .782 OPS, 20 homers and 73 RBIs in 2021.

He was also in a lengthy slump before hitting a walk-off homer to lift the Dodgers to a win over the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL wild-card game last October, which is one reason why Taylor remained in the lineup at second base for Wednesday’s game in Dodger Stadium.

“I’m trying to pick spots for him to get on track and give him opportunities to work through some mechanical things,” Roberts said. “Our hope, our expectation, is that he’s going to kind of find his way through it.”

Taylor, who signed a four-year, $60-million deal to remain in Los Angeles last winter, underwent offseason surgery on his right elbow to remove several bone chips and loose pieces of debris.

Could the elbow be a factory in Taylor’s recent struggles?

“There’s absolutely a chance, but we’re not going to get it from Chris,” Roberts said. “He will not divulge any semblance of an excuse.”

Here’s the Dodgers’ lineup for their final home game of the season against the San Francisco Giants. Austin Barnes is behind the plate as Will Smith rests after catching on Tuesday night.

Dodgers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer covers first base during a game against the Texas Rangers in June 2021.

(Alex Gallardo / Associated Press)

Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer has sued the San Diego woman who accused him of sexual assault, two media outlets that covered the case, and two journalists and one attorney who commented on it. On Tuesday, that attorney raised a question that could speak to public perception in the case: Just what does it mean to say one person “brutalized” another?

“The word ‘brutalize’ is commonly used to describe consensual beatings,” attorney Fred Thiagarajah argued in a filing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.

Thiagarajah formerly represented the woman, who since has filed a countersuit against Bauer for alleged sexual battery.

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As Joey Gallo rounded third, calmly blowing a pink bubble, his Dodgers teammates tapped their heads in the dugout.

It was a season-long tradition that originated from a scene in “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Dustin May, on his birthday, pounded his red hair with his right hand. Hanser Alberto took a two-handed approach, doing a little jig with his hips in the process. A normal celebration.

But the last time the Dodgers had faced San Francisco Giants left-hander Jarlín Garcia on Aug. 4, he mimicked the head-tapping gesture. Twice, actually — once after a strikeout of Cody Bellinger, once after he punched out James Outman, which he followed by pointing at Mookie Betts in the on-deck circle.

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Here’s a look at the Dodgers broadcast and streaming schedule for the remainder of the 2022 regular season: