LOS ANGELES — Two nights after Eric Haase etched his name in the lore of the Giants’ rivalry with the Dodgers as the first San Francisco catcher to homer twice in one game at Dodger Stadium, his teammate made more history in the same venue.
Only, Jung Hoo Lee took the long way.
What looked like a bloop hit that landed on the warning track down the left-field line morphed into the first inside-the-park home run by a Giant inside their arch rivals’ ballpark, rounding the bases while Teoscar Hernandez gave chase as the ball careened away from him in the left-field corner.
The Giants outfielder dove across home plate as the throw from cutoff man Miguel Rojas sailed over catcher Dalton Rushing’s head, completing his 360-foot sprint around the base paths that tied the score at 2 in the fifth inning of the finale of the four-game series Thursday night.
That, however, proved to be the only highlight — and one of just two Giants hits — in a 5-2 loss, splitting the series two games apiece.
“It was fun. I mean, it was a meaningful moment because it tied the game,” manager Tony Vitello said. “[We] were doing anything to fight and get on base.”
JUNG HOO LEE INSIDE-THE-PARK HOME RUN!
— MLB (@MLB) May 15, 2026
TIE GAME! pic.twitter.com/Bu2CkdQvVv
Despite Hernandez’s misplay, there was no error assigned on the play, resulting in a rulebook inside-the-park home run — the first-ever by a Giant inside Dodger Stadium and the first by a San Francisco player since Patrick Bailey walked off the Phillies at Oracle Park last July.
“I got lucky, for sure,” Lee said through a team interpreter.
The Giants caught a break in more ways than one on the play.
Lee fought off a tough 0-2 fastball at the top of the zone from Emmet Sheehan with an inside-out swing that resulted in an exit velocity of only 73.2 mph. It would have been a difficult play to make on the fly, and when the ball bounced on the warning track dirt, it came up inches short of going into the stands, which would have put an end to the play and resulted in a ground-rule double.
Instead, the ball bounced off the wall in foul territory and away from Hernandez toward the Dodgers’ bullpen. Hernandez recovered and made a strong throw to Rojas, but the relay was late and off-line.
Giants third base coach Hector Borg windmilled Lee home. Catcher Eric Haase, who started the play on first base, scored easily. Luis Arráez, who was standing on deck, laid prone on the ground, signaling to Lee to get down. The headfirst dive ended up only as an unnecessary flourish.
Lee showed more emotion than usual upon returning to the dugout, emphatically slapping hands with his teammates, a few of whom had poured out to greet him.
“I’m not one of those players that show a lot of emotion on the field,” Lee said. “But that two-run home run tied the game. It just came out from inside of me.”
The third-year outfielder from Korea displayed more fire earlier in the series, uppercutting the air with his right fist and letting out a yell after a two-RBI double in the Giants’ win Tuesday night.
“Jungy’s really come out of his shell I think the last couple months,” Vitello said. “Anytime you see him emotional, it’s pretty fun.”
The inside-the-parker was Lee’s third homer of any variety this season and the first time in his career — dating all the way back to youth ball, he said — that he recorded one in that fashion.
There hadn’t been an inside-the-parker from anyone at Dodger Stadium, let alone their chief rivals, since Nick Ahmed did it on May 9, 2018. The last Giants player to do it against the Dodgers came at Candlestick Park, all the way back in 1981, by Larry Herndon off Fernando Valenzuela.
The Little League-style home run resulted in the Giants’ only runs off Sheehan, who otherwise mostly breezed through six innings. Their only other hit came on an equally weak piece of contact — another bloop hit, a single that dropped into shallow left field off the bat of Rafael Devers.
“When [Sheehan] is mid-90s and it’s up in the zone, it’s a challenge to lay off,” Vitello said. “He combines it with a pretty good slider and a couple other pitches tonight. But it’s really about that combo. He was pretty good. We chased up and made him better.”
Sheehan also hit a batter and walked two, including the other run that came home to score on the play.
Hernandez, for his part, quickly made up for the defensive blunder with his bat.
The Dodgers’ slugger had already doubled twice when he came up for a third time and proceeded to reach second again — although it was later ruled a single — putting runners on second and third and knocking San Francisco starter Landen Roupp out of the game with one out in the sixth.
Two batters later, Hernandez came around to score on two-run single to right from pinch-hitter Alex Call, effectively negating Lee’s two-run homer and giving the Dodgers the lead again, 4-2.
“It definitely got us back into the game, for sure,” Roupp said. “I kind of feel bad about giving it up.”
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