The San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers were looking to close out their regular seasons in style Wednesday night as Clayton Kershaw made his last start of the year for L.A. And in the end Kershaw and the Dodgers proved too much, taking their last game of the year, 5-1.
San Francisco got on the board first with an RBI groundout from Buster Posey, who locked up the NL batting title this evening with an 0-for-2 night to finish the year with a .336 average. That would be all the Giants could muster against Clayton Kershaw, who tossed eight innings of three-hit ball along with three walks and eight strikeouts, and even helped himself with an RBI single.
Los Angeles took the lead in the sixth after Adrian Gonzalez's RBI single extended his hitting streak to 15 games, while Alex Castellanos and Juan Rivera's homers in the eighth off of Jean Machi would put the game out of reach. It was Castellanos' first major league home run.
Ryan Vogelsong was outstanding in his five innings of work, allowing one unearned run and seven strikeouts. Marco Scutaro finished the regular season with a 20-game hit streak after his 1-for-3 night.
San Francisco will now head home to prepare for the NLDS matchup with the Cincinnati Reds, starting on Saturday evening at AT&T Park.