Eric Haase ruins Ice Cube Night in Giants’ 6-2 win over Dodgers

Eric Haase is no kid, but he can definitely play.

In his sixth game with the San Francisco Giants, the veteran catcher hit two home runs off Yoshinobu Yamamato (3-3), the second happening one pitch after Harrison Bader took Yamamoto deep in the 5th inning. That put the Giants up 3-2 and they went on to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers for the fourth time in five games.

The Giants ruined Ice Cube Bobblehead Night at Dodger Stadium thanks to a strong start from Adrian Hauser (1-4), who got his first win of the season. Hauser had to check himself during a difficult first inning where the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out, but avoided wrecking himself when he escaped with one run after a sacrifice fly.

His only hiccup after that came when Shohei Ohtani jacked him for ~~beats~~ a leadoff home run with Cube sitting in the broadcast booth.

For Hauser, struggling through a difficult start of the season, giving up three hits and two runs in 5.2 innings certainly qualifies as a good day, and we hope someone gets him a Fatburger.

Yamamoto was mowing down the Giants to start the game, retiring eight straight and striking out four of them, before leaving a cutter to Haase out over the plate. He was greeted by a resounding chorus of boos from the crowd, which had likely only just reached their seats in the top of the third.

Yamamoto continued to pitch effectively to Giants not named Haase, until Bader hit a two-strike bomb to left and Haase followed with a home run eerily similar to his first blast. It was the first time the Giants have hit back-t0-back dingers in 2026.

You could argue that Dave Roberts left Yamamoto in too long, though he’d thrown only 84 pitches through six innings, and Haase was five batters away in the 7th. But Heliot Ramos doubled to left, then Willy Adames drilled a single that was hit too hard to score Ramos from second. Yamamoto then got Bryce Eldridge to line out on a play where only a leaping Hyeseong Kim prevented an RBI single.

Eldridge’s swing is like a Judd Apatow comedy: It’s too long, but it also leads to hits. In theory; he’s still hitting .118.

Roberts brought in Blake Treinen with one out, and he did not Make The Seventh Inning Great Again for the Dodgers. Drew Gilbert delivered a beautiful pinch-bunt on a safety squeeze that handcuffed Freddie Freeman and brought home Ramos.

Haase nearly added his third home run with a drive that went to the center field wall, but had to settle for being the fourth Giants catcher in history and the first since Bob Melvin to have a two-homer game against the Dodgers. He now has twice as many home runs in 2026 as Patrick Bailey.

Jung Hoo Lee gave the Giants two key insurance runs with another two-strike hit, driven to the same area of right-center where Lee would make a nice running catch in the bottom of the inning.

Reliever Sam Hentges got a big challenge in his second appearance of the season, entering to face Ohtani with two out and a man on first after a possibly-mythical hit-by-pitch on Andy Pages. Hentges struck him out, then got in trouble in the 8th when he sandwiched walks to Freeman and Will Smith around a Kyle Tucker double.

But Tony Vitello left Hentges in to sink or swim with Max Muncy at the plate as the tying run. He struck out the Dodgers third baseman, who was 0-for-4 on the night.

Caleb Killian retired Pages to end the threat and worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his second save. And in a big departure from Monday’s thrust-fest, the Giants outfielders opted for a much classier victory celebration after Tuesday’s win.

There’s no word yet on whether Ice Cube heard Duane Kuiper’s pre-game challenge and a promise to “pour a Blanton’s” on top of an Ice Cube, but please prepare yourselves for what may be the weirdest diss track of all time.

Ohtnai may have broken out of his slump, which is bad news for the Giants the rest of the series. He hadn’t homered in two weeks and put up a slash line of .111/.220/.139, before going 2-for-4 with a walk and scoring both Dodgers runs Tuesday night. Even Ohtani’s game-ending groundout necessitated a diving stop by Luis Arraez to retire him.

Robbie Ray will have to deal with Ohtani in the batter’s box tomorrow night and the rest of the Giants will have to deal with him on the mound. After that, Thursday is Star Wars Night. We can’t wait to hear what Kuiper has to say about Chewbacca.

Read the full article here