San Francisco Giants blanked by Dodgers 5-0

After back to back shut-outs of the team that lost the World Series, the San Francisco Giants looked to keep the streak going, but maybe with a little more offense. 

Well the streak would end pretty much immediately, because the Dodgers would score two runs in the top of the first off Derek Holland. A walk, double, sac-fly and a single would be the damage done right off the bat. Alright so that was fun while it lasted.

Holland settled down for a couple innings, but would give up another run on a bloop hit to right by Chris Taylor which was missed on a dive by Andrew McCutchen. A sac-fly from Hernandez would score Taylor to make it 3-0 Dodgers in the third.

The crisp, clean defense of the Giants decided to take a night off tonight. After a Cody Bellinger walk, Brandon Belt botched a back-door pick off throw from Buster Posey, as the ball rolled into right field and Bellinger moved up to second. After another walk to Austin Barnes, Kyle Farmer flied a ball out to right center field where Andrew McCutchen and Gregor Blanco collided, causing Blanco to drop the ball and allow both runs to score. Despite Derek Holland actually pitching pretty decent so far, he finds himself in a 5-0 hole.

Instead of the ugly play by McCutchen and Blanco, heres an awesome sliding catch McCutchen made two innings later

Giants had nine hits tonight. They didnt score a single run. After shutting out the Dodgers back to back games, the Giants get a taste of their own medicine and go very quietly.

Derek Holland goes five solid innings, giving up three runs. Definitely a serviceable start from the veteran lefty. Giants bats remain ice-cold though, scoring just two total runs in three games this season.

Takeaways from tonights game

• The offense will be pretty good. Right now they’re pretty bad, but that will definitely change soon. Its hard to score runs when Longoria, McCutchen, Posey, Belt and Crawford are all making very weak contact when they arent striking out. So unless your name is Joe Panik or even Hunter Pence, you’re looking to turn it around.
• The defense tonight was just a fluke. Gregor Blanco, Andrew McCutchen and Brandon Belt are all very fine defenders at their respected positions. They wont be making many of these errors at all.
• The bullpen looked great once again. Pierce Johnson, Sam Dyson and Reyes Moronta all pitched shut-out innings to keep the Dodgers at five runs. Definitely very good results from the Giants bullpen thus far, and they keep it going for a third straight game.
• Derek Holland may not get recognition from the official scorer, but i liked what i saw tonight. Had the rough first inning, but after that looked pretty decent other than that bottom of the fourth where we walked a couple batters. He could make a nice addition to the back end of the rotation, and so far the Giants are three for three with decent starts from their starters.