LOS ANGELES — When the San Francisco Giants dipped into the minor leagues last week in an attempt to rescue a listing season, they understood there would be growing pains.

Maybe not literal ones. Bryce Eldridge, at 6-foot-7, probably doesn’t have any more pituitary spurts left in him. But there will be days when the slugging first baseman goes 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. There will be days when bat-first catcher Jesus Rodriguez allows a passed ball or gets picked on by opposing base stealers or both.

All of the above happened in the Giants’ 4-0 loss at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night. But none of those growing pains counted as the most damaging or disappointing mistake of the evening. That belonged to Willy Adames, whose flub on the bases fizzled a potential rally in the seventh inning of a loss that snapped the Giants’ three-game winning streak.

You understand when rookies are learning on the job. The basic mistakes tend to feel a little more destabilizing when they come from one of your clubhouse leaders and core players.

Adames, who was doubled off second base on Drew Gilbert’s deep out to center field, acknowledged that he misread the fly ball and assumed it would land for a double. He could have stopped his explanation there and thanked reporters for their time. But Adames copped to the rest of it: He lost track of the outs, too.

“That mistake is probably the most ashamed that I would feel on the field,” Adames said. “So I know that that can’t happen. It was my fault. That’s on me.”

Oh man. Unless there’s another explanation, Willy Adames just straight up forgot how many outs there were and gifts the Dodgers a double play. pic.twitter.com/8vFj3xdneh

— Justice delos Santos (@justdelossantos) May 14, 2026

Adames didn’t realize his mistake until he had rounded third base and heard the crowd reaction. By then, it was too late to make any real effort to go back, and there was nothing third base coach Hector Borg could do. The double play ended the inning and extinguished the most promising rally of the night against Shohei Ohtani, who gave up four hits in seven innings, extended his personal streak to 23 scoreless innings against the Giants, and fattened his war chest as he campaigns to add a Cy Young Award to a hardware collection that’s already big enough to fill every aisle of your neighborhood True Value.

Ohtani’s 0.82 ERA is the second lowest by a Dodgers pitcher after seven starts, trailing only Fernando Valenzuela (0.29) in his sensational 1981 season. Ohtani is also just the second pitcher in 17 seasons to post 50-plus strikeouts with an ERA as low as 0.82 through seven starts, joining Jacob deGrom (with the New York Mets in 2021).

If you’re facing Ohtani on the mound this season and you think you’re getting a break because the Dodgers aren’t always asking him to pull double duty in the lineup, you should probably think again.

“Everybody’s been watching how he’s been pitching this to this year and executing pitches, attacking in different ways,” Adames said. “And obviously, that inning was the most pressure we put on him. And then I messed up.”

Adames denied that he was distracted by what appeared to be an animated and cheerful back-and-forth conversation with Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts between pitches, saying, “I do that every time. If it’s because of that, then I would make mistakes every two days, you know?”

Although Giants president Buster Posey has publicly stated his disdain for fraternization between opponents, there’s an understanding that Adames is who he is. There should be room for a social butterfly to exist even in an organization that hired manager Tony Vitello to instill the kind of fighting spirit that could antagonize opponents at times.

But how does Vitello, a college head coach who had no professional baseball experience prior to this season, begin to discipline a veteran for making an inattentive, rookie mistake?

By moving on, from the sound of things.

“There’s no sense on dwelling on it,” said Vitello, who hadn’t talked to Adames before he met with reporters but correctly surmised that his $182 million shortstop lost track of outs. “We all know Willy. He’s always intense. He’s always going to play with high energy. He’s always going to play aggressive. So I don’t know if any of that played into it, but obviously, it’s a misread there. Your fantasy scenario is that ball gets down and we’re in a really good position to strike in a game that, up until that point, seemed pretty lopsided.

“Whatever the mistake was there, we’ll clear it up.”

The Adames play might be an isolated mistake, but there have been others. The Giants were fortunate in the 12th inning last Sunday when Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Ryan O’Hearn didn’t immediately notice that Heliot Ramos had inexplicably gone back to tag on Rodriguez’s bases-loaded single. If O’Hearn had, his throw to the plate would have resulted in a forceout instead of a walk-off victory.

Borg has been caught in between on several reads in his initial season as a major league coach, to the point where Adames trusted his own instincts and blew through a very obvious stop sign while scoring a run on the last homestand.

Two things can be true. The baserunning has been better than last season. It also needs to get better from here.

Giants starter Robbie Ray allowed back-to-back homers in the third inning Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. (Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)

Baserunning wasn’t the reason that the Giants lost Wednesday night. The Dodgers had better at-bats against left-hander Robbie Ray, including consecutive homers from Santiago Espinal and Betts in the third inning. A passed ball meant that one of the runs that Ray allowed in the fourth inning was unearned. Although it didn’t cost the Giants a run, it wasn’t a great sign when Freddie Freeman, whose average sprint speed should be colored tortoise shell brown on his Statcast page, easily stole second base on Rodriguez even though he didn’t get a good jump.

Now Vitello and his coaches must gather up and concoct a lineup for Thursday, when they’ll try to take a three-of-four series victory from their archrivals. Casey Schmitt and Matt Chapman have taken days off on the days that Eldridge has cracked the starting nine. You might argue that it’s time for Adames to make way for Schmitt to make a start at shortstop. The Giants will have a very late arrival in Sacramento prior to Friday’s series opener against the A’s, too.

But Adames is also finding success after a miserable April. He went 3-for-6 on Wednesday and has recorded four consecutive multi-hit games.

“He worked hard to get to the point where he’s in a pretty good rhythm at the plate,” Vitello said. “The guy works his ass off and plays his ass off every day. And some mistakes come, and we need to correct mistakes so that as the season goes forward, there’s fewer and fewer and fewer mistakes, no matter how they’re coming. And I’m not just talking about him. Same with anybody else.”

If the result at Dodger Stadium wasn’t to your liking, you might gain more enjoyment from the result Wednesday in the Arizona Complex League. The final score: Giants 29, Dodgers 2. Shortstop Luis Hernández, the top ranked player in this year’s international signing class, went 5-for-5 with three doubles, a home run and nine RBIs. Second baseman Josuar Gonzalez, the top ranked player in last year’s international signing class, went 3-for-3 with a double, a stolen base, three walks, four RBIs and six runs scored.

Hernández and Gonzalez are teenagers whose age cohort in the U.S. should be studying for their PSATs. They are a long way from making an impact against the Giants’ major-league rivals. But it’s perfectly acceptable to look at those beautifully crooked numbers in the box score and feel a flutter of hope in your chest.

It’s also a good reminder: not all growth involves pain.