The San Francisco Giants came to L.A. with a two game losing streak in their rear view mirror, but got out to an early lead against the Los Angeles Dodgers behind Matt Cain’s great start. Brian Wilson and the bullpen made it interesting though, allowing L.A. to tie up the game in the eighth. But Cody Ross blasted a 3 run jack in the ninth, leading the Giants to an exciting 8-5 victory at Dodger Stadium this evening.
Matt Cain had a perfect game going until it was broken up by a Matt Kemp homer in the fifth, his ninth of the year. Aside from that Cain had a very strong outing, allowing only three hits, two earned runs, three walks, and seven punch-outs in seven and 1/3 innings pitched. Skipper Bruce Bochy used Javier Lopez and Sergio Romo in the eighth who each gave up single, forcing Boch’s hand to bring in Brian Wilson for a 4 out save. Wilson gave up a 2 run double to Juan Uribe and an RBI single to James Loney to tie the game at five apiece. But Cody Ross bailed everyone out, including the Giants offense as it was the lone extra base head the G-Men had tonight.
Wilson (W 4-1) blew the save but got the win, and unfortunately rolled his ankle during a pitch in the ninth. He fought through it, but it didn’t too look good for the bearded savior. Hopefully he won’t be too injured or miss any time.
All of the Giants starters got a single tonight except for Mark DeRosa, who left the game in the fourth after a bizarre injury to his damaged left wrist. DeRo cocked back to make a swing and something tweaked in his wrist, and immediately dropped the bat is some serious pain. The team says it is just a sprain and he is day-to-day, but if you watched the play happen, it looked much worse than that. The injury bug bit a third Giant tonight as well in Aaron Rowand, hurting his back running out a grounder to first.
Amongst those 12 Giants singles were RBI’s by Miguel Tejada in the fourth and eighth and Freddy Sanchez in the fourth, while Aaron Rowand had an RBI sacrifice fly. Mike Fontenot drew a walk that plated a run as well after taking over for DeRosa at the plate with a 2-2 count and the bases loaded.
The Giants small-ball approach knocked Clayton Kershaw out of the game early, completing only five innings with 7 hits, 4 earned runs, one walk, and six strikeouts. Lance Cormier (L 0-1) was tagged with the loss.
With the win the Giants move to 23-19 on the year, and 4-4 against the Dodgers in 2011. Full box score can be found here.
The Giants will wrap up their two game set at Dodger Stadium tomorrow as Madison Bumgarner (0-6 4.25 ERA) will still be looking for his first win against Chad Billingsley (2-3 3.36 ERA) for the Dodgers. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PT with coverage on CSN Bay Area and KNBR 680 AM.
For more discussion and analysis of the Black and Orange, head over to McCovey Chronicles to get in on the action.