The NLDS Game 3 Dodger Stadium crowd will be the loudest the Giants have ever faced. Here’s how they can silence it

In technical terms, Game 3 is not a must-win for the Giants.

But baseball is a game played on grass, not draft paper. The practical terms are what matter here, and as a practical matter, the last thing the Giants want to do is fall behind in this best-of-five National League Division Series. The last scenario they want is the pressure of prevailing in what would be an elimination Game 4 on the road to send the series back to San Francisco.

So … Game 3, then. All they have to do is end the Dodgers’ 12-game winning streak with Max Scherzer on the mound. And their 15-game winning streak at Dodger Stadium. And find a way to muzzle the noisiest, rowdiest, most hostile crowd that any Giants team has ever encountered in a postseason game. (Sorry, Pittsburghers. You were impressively loud in that 2014 NL wild-card game, but …)

As the Giants prepare to send left-hander and former Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood to the mound to oppose Scherzer, here are the three critical tasks they’ll probably have to check off if they want to emerge victoriously:

Get an early lead

This might be plucked from the “well, duh” bucket of baseball analysis, but it’s really, really true when you’re trying to take down the Dodgers. They’re 79-20 when they score first. And conveniently for them, they’ve outscored their opponents 118-63 in the first inning. (OK fine, they’ve outscored their opponents in every inning except extras, but the gap is most impressive early.)

But they’re 27-34 when the opposition scores first. The Giants might have the roster infrastructure to come back in the late innings and use their bench to create leveraged advantages, but the Dodgers don’t quite match up well in that department. Their bench is especially taxed after first baseman Max Muncy dislocated his elbow. The Dodgers’ viper pit of hitting stars are lethal to the game’s final out, but this might surprise you: the largest deficit the Dodgers have overcome this season is just three runs. (Beating you to the punch in the comments: How often have they trailed by more than that? A valid counterargument. I’ll stick with the point, though.)

Scherzer is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. He also has looked mortal in his last two starts. He’s given up a few home runs. Finding a way to play bingo against him, especially with a runner or two on base, would dramatically change the trajectory of Game 3.

And taking the crowd out of it would have its benefits, too. Just ask Brandon Crawford how silent it was when he rounded the bases after his grand slam against the Pirates in 2014.

Keep the line moving

Scherzer surpassed 3,000 career strikeouts last month. He’s fanned 89 in 68 1/3 innings since joining the Dodgers at the end of July. He has the kind of stuff that can induce swing-and-miss both inside and outside the strike zone. And he certainly knows that the Giants’ 28.2 percent chase rate is the second-best in the major leagues (behind the Dodgers, as if you couldn’t have guessed that).

So expect Scherzer to be aggressive. The Giants will plan for him like they’ve planned for every pitcher this season: look for a specific location to do damage and take the best possible swing regardless of the count. Against a strikeout machine like Scherzer, though, doing early count damage is of paramount importance. He’s held opponents to a .122 average with 236 strikeouts in 426 plate appearances that got to two strikes.

The Giants will be looking to make as much contact as possible, and if you’d like to see the matchup sheet, you might want to order it with a chaser. Evan Longoria is 2 for 19 against Scherzer with a home run. Kris Bryant is 2 for 16. Wilmer Flores is 0 for 17. Buster Posey is 1 for 12 with a double, which doesn’t count the homer he hit off Scherzer in Game 4 of the 2012 World Series in Detroit.

“That’s too long ago,” Scherzer said on Sunday. “That’s ancient in baseball terms — 2012 versus 2021, so nine years ago. But the guys that are still there (from 2012) on their team, obviously they’re good for a reason. They have evolved. They’re able to adapt to the league and continue to make changes and I’m sure they’re going to be as prepared as heck to face me and understand what I can do with the baseball. So it will be a heck of a challenge to go up against them.”

How much stock does Giants manager Gabe Kapler put in batter-pitcher matchups when he writes the lineup? Almost none when he was in Philadelphia. But like many topics, his thinking has evolved over time. Sure, there’s folly in over-inflating the importance of a small sample, especially when a lot of the numbers on the page are as dated as an Affliction T-shirt. (Longoria and Flores haven’t faced Scherzer since 2018; Bryant was 0 for 2 against him with a walk and a strikeout earlier this year.) But those confrontations also remain fresh in the minds of those players, especially when they’ve had success. So there’s an advantage to be derived in starting a player who can visualize getting hits against a specific pitcher, even if they’re more psychological and less quantifiable.

It can go in the other direction too, of course. Longoria and Posey have the memory of a home run, at least. Flores has no memory of anything other than making outs.

So it wouldn’t be a surprise if Flores began the game on the bench. But not Longoria. Because the Giants really have to …

Catch the ball

The Dodgers like to launch. Alex Wood likes to keep things grounded. And if the Giants have any hope of a competitive to highly effective start from their left-handed pitcher, they’ll need those ground balls to be 1) actually hit on the ground and 2) scooped up without incident.

So while it might be a tempting thought to start Tommy La Stella at second base and a contact hitter like Donovan Solano at third, Longoria’s stabilizing and playmaking defense will be too darn valuable.

If Kapler sits Flores, that would leave him with a few options at first base. Darin Ruf has been one of their best offensive players, but he hasn’t had many at-bats since coming off the injured list in the final weekend of the regular season.

So here’s one way the Giants could go: start Kris Bryant at first base.

Bryant has only played 12 games at first base this season, all with the Chicago Cubs before he arrived in a trade at the end of July. But he’s a bigger target and his hands work at the position. He has taken a noticeable number of ground balls at first base in recent days. So this might be more than just a wild hunch on my part.

Starting Bryant at first instead of left field would also allow Kapler to go all left-handed in his outfield. In addition to LaMonte Wade Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski, he could throw a start to Steven Duggar or Alex Dickerson. Duggar would give them the superior defense, and hey, he’s bound to hit a ball that isn’t caught at the top of the fence eventually.

If that happened in his first at-bat, that would be preferable. And also in the first inning, if the guys hitting in front of him could manage to be so courteous.

The Giants are about to play in the loudest environment they’ve ever experienced in the postseason. This is a subjective statement to some degree, but you know it to be true in your bones and especially in your eardrums. They don’t want to come back to this same environment Tuesday night for Game 4 with their backs against the wall here. There would be 50,000 screaming fans all too eager to light their cigarette.

(Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)