And then Roupp walked Kim, putting the Dodgers on the board and doing nothing to ease the danger of the situation. But after falling behind to Call 2-0, Roupp battled back and, thanks to an infield defense that lived up to its potential and paycheck, got a gorgeous inning-ending double play.

Roupp’s fifth inning was much cleaner, as he took down the side in order, sandwiching an Ohtani fly ball with Freeland and Tucker strikeouts. It was an outing that, true to the Bumgarner comparisons, was as steeped in grit as it was in talent. He needed a career-high 106 pitches to get through just five innings. He threw just 58 of those pitches for strikes. He walked five batters, including a run home.

But he gave up just one hit — a soft two-out line drive by Kim — and that one run was the only one he would allow.

Against the Dodgers.

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Baseball enthusiasts and keen eyes alike will note that Roupp pitching five innings still left four innings unaccounted for, and the Giants were legally required to give those innings to the bullpen, which really added to the Caining/Webbing of the Yamamotoing. No Dodgers fan will sleep well tonight with the thought that the Giants bullpen preserved a lead for four innings, and, armed with that knowledge, you should sleep well tonight.

But Vitello pressed the right buttons, and, more importantly, the arms delivered.

Against an almost entirely left-handed lineup, Vitello turned to lefty killer/killed by righties southpaw Ryan Borucki for the sixth, and it was the perfect time to go in that direction. Borucki easily dismissed of three lefties — Freeman, Muncy, and Rushing — and did so with such comfort that you barely noticed that a righty (Hernández) snuck in there to bop a double that went nowhere (righties are now hitting 8-15 with four extra-base hits against Borucki this season).

Vitello stacked his lefties, turning to Matt Gage in the seventh, who got two quick outs before walking Freeland.

That brought up what was, at the time, the most intriguing bullpen decision by Vitello, and one that you rarely ever see. With his lefty reliever cruising, looking good, and having thrown just 14 pitches, and with a trio of left-handed hitters up next, the Giants skipper trudged out to the mound, took the ball, and brought in a different lefty. The oh-so-rare lefty-replacing-lefty.

But if you know anything about Erik Miller, it’s that no one on earth has proven as capable of getting Ohtani out, and so Vitello turned to his secret weapon. And in a cruel twist of fate, Ohtani hit a soft infield single to keep the inning going.

Just long enough for Tucker to strike out swinging.

Vitello’s decision to turn to Miller was unconventional, but it was both savvy and analytically sound. What happened in the ninth, however, was a bit more controversial.

After a smooth eighth — Miller retired two batters, and left one runner on for Keaton Winn, who absolutely obliterated pinch-hitter Will Smith, with a nasty sequence of sinkers and splitters — Vitello had a choice to make. I assumed it would be a four-out save opportunity for Winn, who has had perhaps the most electric stuff of anyone in the bullpen this year.

But no. Vitello turned to Ryan Walker. The same Walker who was fresh off a blown save in a similar opportunity. The same Walker who has flirted with disaster enough recently that you can hear — even through the TV — the reaction in the stands as the nerves kick in.

Arguably the biggest selling point of Vitello was his ability to manage players and get the most out of them. Bob Melvin lost his job because once the Giants started slumping they simply couldn’t stop, and that wasn’t just a team issue: it happened at the team level because it happened so frequently at the individual level.

That’s why Vitello is in San Francisco where, he admitted before the game, he finally stepped out to enjoy the local culture on Monday night.

I don’t want to give all the credit for good baseball plays to one of the few people in uniform who wasn’t making baseball plays, but I had to wonder: had Vitello’s motivational ways worked some magic on Walker?

He looked fantastic striking out pinch-hitter Andy Pages, who has been one of the best hitters in baseball this year, on just four pitches. Perhaps Vitello’s show of trust was helping him settle in.

He looked excellent getting Call to fly one out to left field, never falling behind in the count. Maybe Vitello, who has refused to name a closer publicly, has said the perfect things privately.

He looked dynamic striking out Freeland with an other-worldly sinker, then unleashed the roar of someone who felt like himself for the first time in a while. Like someone who has made no attempts to hide that they want to be the closer, and that they believe they should be the closer.

The buttons correctly pressed. A Caining on the other foot. Another data point suggesting Roupp is That Guy. Some timely hits. And a bullpen that maybe isn’t so bad, after all.

Most importantly, LA beaten. By a delightful 3-1 margin.

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