Dodgers return favor to San Francisco Giants-even series

Baseball being baseball it should come as no surprise to hear that the San Francisco Giants, after taking the series opener Friday night from the Dodgers, 9-0, turned around Saturday night and gave the second game right back to L.A, 17-0, returning the Giants to two games behind the division-leading Dodgers. The seventeen runs are the most ever given up by the Giants in San Francisco.

Zack Greinke, 3-0 against the Giants coming into the game, not only stifled the Giants’ bats, he doubled and homered to add emphasis to his performance. Just as the Giants did Friday night, the Dodgers hit three doubles in the first inning and scored the same number of runs in the opening frame as the Giants had scored, four. They went on to score four more in the second, one in the third, two in the fourth, four more in the sixth, and two in the seventh, bringing the total to 17. 

Tim Hudson left the game almost as rapidly as Hyun-Jin Ryu did Friday night, except that Hudson was not hurt. His pitches looked as effective as always, only the Dodger bats were finding the holes. His final line, after one inning plus read six earned runs on eight hits with two K’s. Tim Lincecum relieved him with no outs in the second and two runners on base, both of whom scored. Lincecum ended up surrendering a total of five earned runs on seven hits with a walk and a strike out in three innings of work.

Mike Kickham, called up with the September arrivals, pitched one-and-two-thirds innings, giving up four runs on six hits, and manager Bruce Bochy’s son, Brett, made his major league debut, pitching an inning and a third, giving up two runs on one hit, with a walk and a strikeout. Erik Cordier pitched the eighth, and managed to do so without giving up any runs, only the second inning in which the Dodgers did not score up until that point. Chris Heston pitched the ninth, giving up a walk but no runs. 

The 24 hits are the most hits by the Dodgers against the Giants since 1935. Every LA starter except Adrian Gonzalez had two hits, including Zack Greinke. Hanley Ramirez led the attack, going 4 for 5 and Dee Gordon and Yasiel Puig had three hits apiece. There were three home runs, a solo shot by Juan Uribe and two-run blasts by Zack Greinke and Scott Van Slyke, and five doubles, two of them by Matt Kemp.

To put the game in perspective, Matt Kemp had three hits before Brandon Crawford or the pitcher’s spot even came to the plate for the Giants. However, in case you think this is the worst drubbing between these two clubs, you only have to go back to a year ago on September 14, when the Giants did a similar thing to the Dodgers, by scoring nineteen runs against them, in Los Angeles.

So the game was a blowout, but the Giants still only dropped a single game in the standings. They now stand two back of the Dodgers with the finale on Sunday. Clayton Kershaw goes for LA, while the Giants counter with Yusmeiro Petit.

File this game under forgettable and move on. Conventional baseball wisdom dictates that Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers have the edge in tomorrow’s game but I’m not buying that. Stick around. One of these games is going to feature two pitchers showing up and I want to see that.