The Los Angeles Dodgers overcame an early deficit and were poised to begin their 11-game road trip with a win, but the bullpen faltered in the seventh inning, and the San Francisco Giants pulled out a 6-4 victory.
The loss was the Dodgers’ third in a row, marking a third time this season they’ve dropped as many. Some have come in frustrating and laughable fashion, and such was the case Friday night at AT&T Park.
Tony Cingrani took the mound in the bottom of the seventh with a 4-2 lead and immediately faced trouble. Brandon Belt beat the shift for a bunt single, then moved in to scoring position on a wild pitch.
Cingrani was checked on by the trainer after shaking his left arm, but remained in the game. That decision proved futile, as he allowed an RBI single and game-tying double. Pedro Baez inherited runners at second and third base.
In what could best be described as a microcosm of his season, Baez slipped on the mound, preventing him from delivering a pitch. The balk brought in the go-ahead run. Joe Panik’s sacrifice fly tacked on an insurance run.
The Dodgers had a look at the game in the eighth, when Kyle Farmer’s third hit and Corey Seager’s pinch-hit put two on with one out. But Tony Watson wiggled out of trouble by retiring Chris Taylor and Austin Barnes.
Before the Dodgers saw their lead evaporate, Hyun-Jin Ryu settled in after allowing solo home runs to Evan Longoria and Brandon Crawford in the second inning. He retired nine in a row and 10 of 11 faced, including five by strikeout, through the fifth.
The lone hit during that stretch was Gorkys Hernandez’s two-out bunt single in the bottom of the fifth. Ryu then allowed a two-out infield single to Buster Posey in the sixth.
The comebacker struck Ryu in the leg, he was checked on by a trainer, and though Ryu came out, it didn’t appear to be injury-related. Josh Fields retired Longoria to end the inning, only for Cingrani and Baez to allow it to wilt away.
After stranding a runner in the first inning and two in the second, Holland’s trouble began with a leadoff walk of Matt Kemp in the fourth. Yasmani Grandal’s RBI double cut the Dodgers’ deficit in half, and two batters later Yasiel Puig pulled a game-tying double down the left-field line.
Although Grandal scored on the play, Bellinger was prevented from possibly doing so because of fan interference. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts asked that the play be reviewed, but the original ruling was upheld and Bellinger remained at third base.
The potentially lost scoring opportunity was offset as Ryu helped his cause with a two-run, go-ahead double on the ninth pitch of his at-bat. He was the final batter Holland faced.
In addition to the Dodgers losing and Cingrani not appearing 100 percent, Kemp was removed due to tightness in his left quad.
