Giants' top prospect Eldridge laces bases-clearing 2B for 1st MLB hit

LOS ANGELES -- With the Giants’ playoff hopes nearly extinguished, the final week of the regular season is shaping up to be less about the present and more about the future.

Bryce Eldridge is certainly giving them plenty to dream on.

The Giants’ No. 1 prospect delivered a bases-clearing double to record his first career hit and kick off a four-run first inning against Tyler Glasnow, but the early lead wouldn’t hold against the Dodgers, who cranked four home runs to rally for a 7-5 win at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night.

After dropping the first three games of this four-game series, the Giants (76-79) are now three games below .500 and four games behind the Mets (80-75) for the third National League Wild Card spot with seven games left to play.

Given where they are in the standings, the Giants could opt to give Eldridge more opportunities to showcase his talent down the stretch. The 20-year-old slugger has been limited to serving as San Francisco’s designated hitter against right-handed pitching thus far, but he could get a look at first base or start against lefties if the club decides to shift further into development mode.

Eldridge entered Saturday 0-for-9 with five strikeouts through his first three games, though he consistently made hard contact and just missed a pair of home runs at Chase Field earlier this week.

He finally broke through when he stepped up to face Glasnow with the bases loaded in the first inning, driving a 2-1 sinker off the left-field wall to knock in three runs and collect his milestone hit in front of his mom Beth and her twin sister Alison, who happened to celebrate their birthdays on Saturday.

“I’ve been hitting the ball hard, doing the right things,” Eldridge said. “Obviously, I kind of wanted it to be like that. I had to really earn it. I wouldn’t want it any other way than in a big spot like that here, off a guy who’s got a lot of success in this league. On my mom and my aunt’s birthday. It’s pretty cool.”

Eldridge said he plans to give his first-hit ball to his mom, though she already came away with another keepsake on Saturday, as she also caught Matt Chapman’s foul ball in the top of the fifth.

“I don’t know how that happened,” Eldridge said. “I think she said someone was trying to wrestle her for it. She kind of whacked their hand out of the way. She’s feisty. She gets what she wants. I told her I was going to do something special for her. I had a feeling. It was bound to happen.”

At 20 years and 335 days, Eldridge became the youngest Giants player with multiple RBIs in a game since Jack Clark on Sept. 12, 1976.

“It’s a big hit against a really good pitcher in a big moment,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He’s shown that he processes pretty cleanly and thinks well. Not off balance. He drew a walk a little bit later, too. His at-bats have been really good. It’s nice to get that first hit out of the way, especially a big one like that.”

Fellow rookie Drew Gilbert later drew a bases-loaded walk to extend the Giants’ lead to 4-0, but the Dodgers immediately halved the deficit after right-hander Kai-Wei Teng served up a two-out, two-run homer to Max Muncy in the bottom of the first.

Teng struck out six and allowed only one hit over three innings, but he was also extremely erratic, issuing two walks and hitting three batters in the 74-pitch outing. Melvin decided to turn to his bullpen in the fourth, but the Dodgers pulled within one on Michael Conforto’s solo shot off José Buttó and then tied the game on Freddie Freeman’s RBI single off Matt Gage.

The Dodgers took their first lead of the night in the fifth, when Tommy Edman delivered a go-ahead blast off Joel Peguero that hit off the left-field foul pole. Shohei Ohtani then padded Los Angeles’ lead with his 53rd homer of the year in the sixth, which tied him with the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber for the NL lead.

“It’s a little different complement of pitchers we have right now,” Melvin said. “Teng was really good at times and then ineffective at times with some walks and some hit batters. Obviously, in the fourth inning, Buttó didn’t have his best stuff. Gage gave up the hit to Freeman, even though it’s a ground ball. That’s kind of when the game went the other way.”