But then the Dodgers showed up

SAN FRANCISCO — Days and a night of reckoning. Those were the real Dodgers. The question is whether those were the real Giants.

That was great, living large against the Rockies and Reds, scoring big, thinking big. Hey, first place. It doesn’t get any bigger or better, particularly for a team some suggested should be closer to last place.

But then the Dodgers showed up. And how. Three games at Oracle, where the crowd was large — 13,446, the largest of the spring, and maybe a third cheering for the dreaded Dodgers.

Three games, and three wins for L.A., the last one Sunday, 11-5; the Dodgers, who were beat up and getting beat, turning into the dominant World Series champions they are.

What the young, low-payroll, overachieving Giants will turn into will be learned quickly enough.

Which is the more accurate representation of the Giants, the team that until Friday had pushed the right buttons, made the timely swings and won five in a row? Or the team that was stymied by the L.A. pitching until it was pummeled by the L.A. hitting and has dropped three in a row?

For sure, the Giants understand why the Dodgers won the championship, not that they didn’t previously.

“We got beat every which way in this series,” was the candid assessment of Giants manager Gabe Kapler. “They made more pitches than we did. They got more big hits than we did. They played better defense, converted more plays and outs than we did. 

“When that happens, the only thing to do is get back up quickly off the mat and quickly turn the page and get ready for the next game.”

Yes, a bit of a mixed metaphor, but when you’re behind 11-0 in the third inning against your historic rival at your home park, one is allowed a grammatical slip or two.

At least the Giants made it competitive, if they couldn’t make it close. Had they not scored at all and had a few runners on base, the manager was going to bring in outfielder Darin Ruf to pitch, saving relievers who, with starter Anthony DeSclafani not making it through the third, were overworked.

DeSclafani conceded he was awful, a bad combination when your hitters, facing Julio Urias, also were awful until it didn’t really matter. That a major league team would have an occasionally terrible game isn’t the worst thing — if the game is occasional and not against the team you need to beat.

Particularly since after two games at Arizona, the Giants play four more against the Dodgers in L.A. Three losses down there would pretty much delete the joy out of what until days ago was a joyful beginning.

The Dodgers have those two Cy Young Award pitchers, Trevor Bauer — who won Frlday night — and Clayton Kershaw. On Sunday, it was Urias. But no matter who’s on the mound, it’s the guys in the batter’s box who destroy the Giants, notably Max Muncy and Justin Turner.

The truism in baseball is good pitching stops good hitting. So the Giants were upbeat knowing DeSclafani was going be facing L.A. on Sunday. When the Dodgers’ Gavin Lux lined the first pitch of the game for a hit, that was an omen of what was about to come. Whoosh.

“I actually felt pretty good today,” said DeSclafani, an observation that couldn’t be repeated by Giants partisans. “It’s weird to say that, giving up 10 runs.”

It was weird to say that for a couple of weeks the Giants were ahead of the Dodgers. But as we know, weird things happen in the game, not always the way you would choose.

“At the end of the day,” DeSclafani said of his unexpected performance, “sometimes that’s baseball, just the way the game goes. It’s just important to forget about this game as quick as I can ... I’ve had a good season to this point.”

Before the Dodgers.