Backup catcher Haase's two homers power SF Giants to win over Dodgers

LOS ANGELES - With Daniel Susac nearing his return from injury, a significant decision looms for the Giants: Do they carry veteran backstop Eric Haase along with Susac and Jesús Rodríguez? On Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, Haase provided two reasons to stay - and etched his name into rivalry lore in the process.

Haase powered San Francisco to its third straight win, a 6-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers by blasting a pair of home runs off 2025 World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto. With those two solo homers, Haase became the first-ever Giants catcher with a multi-homer game at this Chavez Ravine.

“I didn’t have that on a bingo card, I’ll tell you that,” Haase said of becoming the first Giants catcher to hit two homers at Dodger Stadium. “I’ve definitely had a lot worse days on a baseball field.”

The Giants have won four of their first five matchups against the Dodgers this season, matching the four wins they had against Los Angeles all of last season. In these five games, San Francisco has outscored its rivals 21-9.

For Haase, Tuesday night marked the seventh multi-homer game of his career. He becomes the first Giant (18-24) with a multi-homer game at Dodger Stadium since David Villar on Sept. 7, 2022.

The most fun stat to come out of Haase’s two-homer day is that he became the first Giants catcher with a multi-homer game against the Dodgers (while catching) since Bob Melvin, the team’s former manager, on Sept. 22, 1987.

Haase nearly hit a third home run in the seventh, hitting a 399-foot fly out to dead center field that faded at the warning track. Along with Haase, center fielder Harrison Bader hit his second homer of the season in his second game back from the injured list.

“I just think the chemistry in the room now is what we’re searching for for a lot of the season,” Haase said. “You can argue which pieces are to blame for that, but all we know is it’s nice to finally feel that shift of momentum and energy. To do it in L.A. is obviously this big for the boys, and that’s obviously what we’re going to try to keep building.”

For Yamamoto, the 2025 World Series MVP, this marks the first time in his career he’s allowed two homers to the same player in the same game, as well as the first time he’s allowed three homers in a single game.

This also marks the third time this season that the Giants have hit three homers in a single game.

Right-hander Adrian Houser surrendered a homer and allowed two runs over 5 2/3 innings with four strikeouts, picking up his first win of the season.

The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the first with a sacrifice fly from Will Smith to drive in Shohei Ohtani. Los Angeles could’ve put up a crooked number if Smith’s line drive landed for an extra-base hit, but right fielder Jung Hoo Lee made a difficult, leaping catch to minimize the damage.

Haase tied the game at one apiece in the top of the third with a solo shot, his first homer of the night, but Ohtani gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead in the bottom half of the frame with a solo homer of his own.

Yamamoto continued rolling after allowing the homer to Haase, but in the top of the fifth, the bottom of San Francisco’s order turned a one-run deficit into a one-run lead in a span of two pitches.

After Bader tied the game at two with a solo homer, Haase ambushed Yamamoto’s very next pitch and stunned Dodger Stadium with his second solo shot of the night, giving San Francisco a 3-2 lead.

“It was an incredible night offensively, and we needed something because we just didn’t have anything cooking,” Vitello said.

San Francisco added some much-needed insurance in the seventh, bringing their lead to 6-2. Drew Gilbert entered as a pinch-hitter for Bader and manufactured a run with a bunt, then Lee drove in a pair of runs with a double to the right-center field gap.

The Dodgers had a chance to tie the game with one swing in the eighth when they loaded the bases with one against left-hander Sam Hentges on two walks and a double, but the Giants’ bullpen slithered its way out of trouble.

Hentges struck out Max Muncy looking on a fastball that was barely out of the zone (Muncy didn’t challenge), then Caleb Kilian entered with two outs and got Andy Pages to hit an inning-ending fly out.

Up next

The Giants will aim to win a season-high four straight games as left-hander Robbie Ray (3-4, 2.76 ERA) is set to face Ohtani (2-2, 0.97 ERA).

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This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 10:05 PM.