Hjelle struggles in Giants' 14th loss to LA this season

SAN FRANCISCO -- Beloved outfielder Hunter Pence radiated positivity during his Wall of Fame induction ceremony at Oracle Park on Saturday, but by the end of the night, the good vibes had largely dissipated.

The Giants endured yet another lopsided defeat to the Dodgers, falling, 7-2, in their penultimate game of the season against their archrivals. San Francisco is now 4-14 against Los Angeles this year, matching the most losses the club has incurred in a single season against the Dodgers since moving to the West Coast in 1958.

One day after being held hitless through five innings by right-hander Dustin May, the Giants’ bats went cold again against lefty Julio Urías, who allowed only two runs (one earned) on five hits over six innings to propel the Dodgers to their 100th win of the year. San Francisco has now lost eight of its last 12 games, averaging only 2.5 runs per game over that span.

Here are three takeaways as the Giants dropped to 69-76 on the season:

1. Rough day for Hjelle

With Alex Wood on the injured list with a left shoulder impingement, the Giants called up rookie Sean Hjelle from Triple-A Sacramento to serve as the bulk-innings option behind opener John Brebbia on Saturday. Hjelle struck out six over five innings of one-run ball in his last appearance against the Brewers earlier this month, but he struggled to replicate that success against the Dodgers.

The Giants hoped having Brebbia take down the top of Los Angeles’ order in the first inning would help create a softer landing spot for Hjelle, but the plan quickly went awry. After taking over in the second, Hjelle gave up a one-out single to Justin Turner, followed by a two-run blast to Trayce Thompson that put the Dodgers ahead, 2-1.

Hjelle returned to the mound in the third, but he faced six batters without recording an out, yielding five consecutive singles and a walk before departing after throwing 50 pitches. The 25-year-old right-hander was charged with six runs on eight hits over one-plus inning, causing his ERA to balloon to 9.75 over five appearances with the Giants this year.

“I couldn’t throw any offspeed pitch for a strike,” Hjelle said. “I basically just had my fastball. Even that wasn’t really working and moving the way I wanted it to. You’ve got one OK pitch against the best team in baseball, they’re going to make you pay, and they sure did.”

2. Career mark for Flores

It’s been a memorable week for Wilmer Flores.

On Monday, the versatile infielder signed a two-year, $13 million extension with a player option for 2025. He added a second notch in his belt by appearing in his 1,000th career game on Friday night and then logged another big milestone on Saturday, when he set a career high with his 19th home run of the year.

Flores entered Saturday batting only .080 (4-for-50) over 14 games this month, but he snapped out of the funk by blasting a towering solo shot to left-center field off Urías in the third. Despite his recent slump, Flores still leads the Giants in games played (137), RBIs (66) extra-base hits (46) and runs scored (67).

With 17 games left to play, Flores will have a chance to add to his homer total and potentially catch Joc Pederson (22) for the team lead.

“You don’t have to ask me twice to rave about the work that Wilmer has done,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “I’m really happy for him. It’s nice to see him set a career high in home runs. I don’t think it’s going to be his last home run of the season. It’d be cool to see him get to 20 as well.”

3. Ramos returns

With the Dodgers sending two lefties -- Urías and Andrew Heaney -- to the mound over the final two games of this series, the Giants decided to promote outfield prospect Heliot Ramos from Triple-A Sacramento on Saturday to add another right-handed bat to their lineup.

Ramos started in right field and batted ninth against Urías, but he went 0-for-4 with one strikeout in his eighth career Major League game. The Giants are using September to evaluate several young players who have performed well in the Minors this year, but Kapler has been open about the fact that Ramos isn’t in the same category as someone like David Villar, who earned an extended look after putting up huge numbers at Sacramento.

Ramos, 23, has hit only .223 with a .636 OPS and nine home runs over 101 games with the River Cats and will likely be sent back down to the Minors once Austin Slater (dislocated left pinkie) is ready to come off the IL early next week.

“It hasn’t been great,” Kapler said. “We were hoping for a year that put him in the big leagues potentially regularly from the middle of the summer on. I know that was his ambition. In fact, I think even dating back to Spring Training, his thought was, ‘I’m going to make an impact and stick on this team early in the season.’ He just hasn’t performed enough at the Minor League level to warrant that.”