LOS ANGELES – For the second consecutive night, the Giants found themselves on the wrong end of a decisive eighth-inning blast at Dodger Stadium. 

Cody Bellinger delivered a tiebreaking grand slam off left-hander Sam Long in the bottom of the eighth to lift the Dodgers to a 5-1 win on Friday night. It was another deflating loss for the Giants, who have now dropped two straight games to open the second half of the season.

• Box score

A critical error by first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr., who allowed Max Muncy’s grounder to roll under his glove, put runners on first and third for the Dodgers. One out later, Long hit Jake Lamb with a first-pitch changeup to load the bases with two outs for Bellinger, who promptly hooked an 0-2 curveball inside the right-field foul pole for a grand slam. 

“I wanted that curveball down,” Long said. “It caught a little too much of the plate. Looking back, I told myself not to give him too much to hit there in an 0-2 count, and I just didn’t execute.”

The Giants squandered an impressive effort from right-hander Logan Webb, who managed to rebound from an erratic first two frames to deliver six innings of one-run ball and record his eighth consecutive quality outing.

The 25-year-old right-hander uncharacteristically struggled with command issues in his first start of the second half, issuing more walks (four) in his first two innings than he had in a single outing all season (three). His pitch count stood at 51 at the end of the second, but Webb eventually found a way to course correct and pitch deep into the game.

“I think his command was a little bit lost in the early innings,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “I think he was trying to find the strike zone. Once he found the strike zone, he settled in nicely.”

Webb pitched on normal rest after starting the Giants’ first-half finale on Sunday, but he looked out of whack early against the Dodgers. He surrendered a single to Mookie Betts on his first pitch of the game and then issued three consecutive two-out walks to load the bases and force in a run, giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.

“One of those things is me as a starter coming out of the gates and pounding the zone and throwing strikes and trying to set that pace and that tone for the game,” Webb said. “I didn’t do a very good job of that.”

Webb continued to labor in the second, when No. 9 hitter Trayce Thompson climbed out of an 0-2 hole and worked a nine-pitch walk with one out. Thompson advanced from first to third base after Yermín Mercedes bobbled Betts’ single to left field, but Webb managed to escape the jam by getting Trea Turner to bounce into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.

The Rocklin, Calif., native found his footing after that, settling in to retire 11 of the final 14 batters he faced. Webb was at 94 pitches at the end of the fifth, but he needed only nine pitches to retire Muncy, Gavin Lux and Lamb in order in the sixth and cap his strong outing.

Webb admitted that he likely could have benefited from some extra rest over the All-Star break, but he blamed himself for asking to take the ball on Friday night.

“Looking back now, I probably did, but it was my fault,” Webb said. “I was the one who said I wanted to pitch. I thought it’d be good to start the second half with Carlos [Rodón] throwing first and me coming out right after him. I still think that’s going to be great the whole second half. I know Carlos wasn’t happy with his outing yesterday, and I’m not very happy with my outing today.”

Mercedes tied the game with an RBI single off lefty Tyler Anderson in the fourth, but the Giants couldn’t break the deadlock after putting a pair of runners on with two outs in the top of the eighth. Kapler sent rookie David Villar up to pinch-hit for veteran Brandon Belt to try to get the platoon advantage against lefty Alex Vesia, but Villar grounded out softly to end the inning. 

“It’s just the way that we’ve been doing it,” Kapler said of the Giants’ platoon systems. “It’s been overall, I think, a very successful venture. It’s not always going to work.” 

Bellinger subsequently delivered the knockout blow in the bottom half of the inning, hitting the second grand slam in as many days at Chavez Ravine. Darin Ruf’s first career grand slam helped the Giants erase a five-run deficit in Thursday night’s series opener, though the Dodgers ended up pulling out a 9-6 win on Betts’ three-run shot off Jarlín García in the eighth.  

“It’s an All-Star team over there,” Webb said. “We’ve just got to be more crisp with everything we do. It’s the little things that win you ballgames, especially against these guys.”