LOS ANGELES -- Ever since the calendar flipped to September, Giants manager Gabe Kapler has spoken often about the importance of giving young players enough runway to seize the opportunities that are placed in front of them. To drive this point home, he recently turned to an analogy about digging for treasure.

“If you’re digging for that treasure chest with a shovel and you stop just short of hitting the top of that treasure chest, you don’t know that you’re this far away,” Kapler said. “You take one more swipe at it, and you might hit the top of that thing and get ready to dig it out. We want to get as many swipes at that treasure chest as possible.”

In this case, the treasure chest in question was rookie David Villar, who the Giants believe has the potential to develop into an impact player in 2023 and beyond.

Villar showed that promise in the Giants’ 7-3 loss to the Dodgers in Wednesday afternoon’s series finale at Dodger Stadium, going deep twice to secure his first multi-homer game in the Majors.

The 25-year-old infielder accounted for all three of San Francisco’s runs, opening the scoring with a two-run homer off Clayton Kershaw in the fifth before adding a game-tying solo shot off lefty reliever Justin Bruihl in the seventh.

“We’ve talked for the last couple of days about how instrumental David could be to the future of this franchise,” Kapler said. “We see him as a guy who is kind of setting the stage for what might happen next season. He’s got a lot of work to do and a long way to go, but today is an indication that he can handle some of the best around the game.”

Villar couldn’t get the job done alone, as the Dodgers ultimately snapped a 3-3 tie with a four-run rally in the eighth that was highlighted by Max Muncy’s three-run blast off Zack Littell. After dropping two of three to their archrivals, the Giants finished 1-7 in their eight games at Dodger Stadium this year, matching the 1979 club for the lowest single-season winning percentage at the park in franchise history.

With Kershaw on the mound, the right-handed-hitting Villar earned his third consecutive start at first base and gave the Giants a 2-0 lead by driving a misplaced slider from Kershaw over the right-center-field wall in the fifth for his third home run of the year.

“Yeah, that one means a little bit more,” Villar said. “Obviously, it’s a guy that I grew up watching, seeing him every day on TV wearing the Dodgers uniform. It’s a historic pitcher, but my job is to do exactly what I did. I’m glad I was able to get my 'A' swing off.”

Justin Turner put the Dodgers ahead with a three-run blast off Alex Cobb in the bottom of the fifth, but Villar took the veteran right-hander off the hook for the loss with his second homer of the game in the seventh. Villar continued to flash his opposite-field approach, banging a first-pitch cutter from Bruihl out to right-center for his fourth homer on the season and his third in the last three games.

“He’s got a great swing,” Cobb said. “For us to be successful next year, we’re going to need bats like that to be able to sustain us through a full season. I’m sure as an organization we’d be happy if he stood up and had a lot of production like that.”

An 11th-round Draft pick of the Giants in 2018, Villar never featured prominently on the club’s top prospect rankings, but he burst onto the scene with a breakout season at Double-A Richmond in 2021. He followed that up with another monster campaign at Triple-A Sacramento, where he hit .275 with a 1.021 OPS and 27 home runs over 84 games this year.

Villar earned his first big league callup with the Giants on the Fourth of July, but he struggled to carry his momentum over into the Majors, batting only .175 with a .623 OPS over 23 games before being optioned to Sacramento. Still, Villar found himself back in the Majors as soon as rosters expanded in September, with Kapler emphasizing that he wants to see “as much of David as possible.”

“David for two consecutive years has been the best offensive player at his level,” Kapler said. “He has earned this chance. We want to make sure that we give it to him.”

Villar has primarily started against lefties thus far, but he posted relatively even splits in the Minors, stoking optimism that he could end up developing into an everyday player for the Giants, who will have plenty of holes to fill around their infield with Evan Longoria, Brandon Belt and Wilmer Flores potentially heading for free agency this winter.

“I’m here to do whatever the Giants ask me,” Villar said. “Whatever I can contribute to the team, whether it’s as an everyday player or a guy that doesn’t play every day, I’m going to give it my all every day and just get ready for whatever is in store for the rest of the season and next season as well.”