Vin Scully was honored by the San Francisco Giants and their fans prior to Sunday afternoon’s regular-season finale, receiving a standing ovation and having a video recording announcing his famed, ‘It’s time for Dodger baseball.’
Matt Moore walked Howie Kendrick to open the game, but induced Justin Turner into a fly out, and got Corey Seager to ground into a double play. In his 32nd start of the season, which triggered a $1.5 million bonus, Kenta Maeda was knocked around early.
Denard Span hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the first and Brandon Belt followed with a double. Buster Posey lined an two-run single down the right-field line that landed on the chalk.
Hunter Pence and Brandon Crawford struck out, and Yasmani Grandal came out from behind the plate to catch Posey stealing. Grandal ran toward second base, forced Posey back toward first, and tossed to Adrian Gonzalez for the tag.
Moore walked Grandal with two outs in the second but ended the inning by hitting the outside corner for called-strike three on Joc Pederson. A Joe Panik base hit and Conor Gillaspie double in the second inning again gave the Giants runners on second and third, though this time with one out.
The Giants’ squeeze play failed as Maeda fielded Moore’s bunt and flipped the ball to Grandal at the plate for the second out. But Maeda wouldn’t get out of the inning unscathed as Span hit a two-run triple on a full count.
Belt walked to keep the inning alive for Posey, who lined an RBI single into right-center field. Gillaspie made a catch while going head-first into the camera well off third base, and Moore retired the next two batters to get through a third inning without allowing a hit.
Josh Reddick entered the game in right field in the bottom of the third, which moved Yasiel Puig to left in place of Kendrick. Angel Pagan doubled with one out and two batters later Gillaspie was intentionally walked to bring Moore to the plate with two outs.
His routine grounder to shortstop was bobbled and double-clutched by Seager, allowing Moore to reach on a generous ruling of an infield single. That marked the end of the afternoon for Maeda at 2.2 innings pitched.
He exited having allowed five runs on nine hits, but responsible for all three men on base. Luis Avilan prevented any damage from being done by striking out Span. Turner broke up Moore’s no-hitter with a leadoff single to center field in the fourth inning that skipped under Panik’s backhanded attempt.
Moore struck out Seager and Puig before allowing consecutive base hits to Gonzalez and Grandal, with the latter getting the Dodgers on the board. Pederson nearly changed the complexion of the game but his fly ball was caught in front of the wall in center field.
Josh Fields replaced Avilan after he allowed a leadoff single to Belt in the bottom of the fourth. Fields induced a force out and struck out Pence and Crawford to end the inning, further strengthening Fields’ case to make the Dodgers’ postseason roster.
Similarly, Alex Wood worked issued a one-out walk in the fifth but ended a scoreless inning in relief with a strikeout. Grant Dayton allowed a two-out single to Posey in the sixth before completing a shutout inning out of the bullpen.
Meanwhile, Moore set the Dodgers down in order in the seventh to keep the Giants’ 5-1 lead intact. He then tossed a 1-2-3 eighth inning, extending his streak of consecutive batters retired to 13.
Pence connected for an RBI single off Joe Blanton in the eighth, and so did Crawford. Pederson nearly made a diving catch on the flare in right-center and on top of failing to do so, appeared to bang himself up on the play. Pederson was slow to get up but remained in the game.
Sergio Romo allowed a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Andre Ethier in the ninth before recording the final three outs. The Giants’ 7-1 victory locked in a matchup with the New York Mets at Citi Field on Wednesday in the National League Wild Card Game.
