LOS ANGELES—The San Francisco Giants continue to be a thorn in the side of their rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers. After coming within one game of the division lead, the Dodgers lost to the Giants 2-1 making it their second consecutive loss to the Giants, and their third overall. They now stand at 3-6 against San Francisco, with four of those losses coming by one run.
The loss spoiled Rich Hill’s return to the lineup, who was out due to a blistered finger. He delivered a serviceable performance, striking out six batters through five innings while only giving up one run off six hits. His return was overshadowed though by San Francisco’s Ty Blach getting his first win of the season.
“He’s one of those guys that’s unflappable, he just keeps coming at you,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy of Blach. “He was on top of his game. He’s just a good pitcher that knows what he’s doing and he’s got a little more stuff than he gets credit for.”
Blach outperformed Hill, going seven innings and only surrendering one run off five hits. Blach was quick to give credit to his catcher for the win though.
“Buster does a great job behind the plate against these guys,” said Blach. “He knows these hitters so well, so just being able to know that you’ve got confidence in him, that makes it a lot easier for you.”
The difference in the game came in the fourth inning, via a heads up play by Carlos Arroyo, making his first major league start at second base. Austin Barnes sent a ground ball his way and Arroyo showed off his arm strength by throwing out a hesitant Justin Turner at home plate. Brandon Belt proceeded to break the 0-0 tie when he belted a solo homer in the bottom of the inning. Chris Taylor tied the game up with a solo homer of his own in the sixth inning. The Giants were able to deliver the final blow in the bottom of that same inning. Brandon Crawford hit an RBI single that was set up by none other than Buster Posey himself, earning the praise of his teammates.
“For a guy who’s hitting close to .400 to give up his at-bat to move the runner, it just shows you what kind of team player he is,” said Giants first baseman-outfielder Michael Morse of Posey. “Not only that, but he also has faith that the guy behind him is going to do his job.”
The Dodgers, now third place in the NL West, three games behind the Rockies, will look to rebound with their Cy Young pitcher on the mound Wednesday night. Clayton Kershaw will be looking for his 20th career win against the Giants as he faces off against Johnny Cueto for the second time this season. Like the Dodgers, he will need to rebound his most recent loss came against Johnny Cueto and the Giants on May 1.
