The wheels kept turning for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday, even if it meant squeaking out a 2-1 win over the San Francisco Giants to extended their winning streak to seven games.
What’s more, the Dodgers are now in the midst of a 38-6 stretch, and have won 51 straight games in which they’ve held a lead. The previous MLB record was held by the 1906 Chicago Cubs who notched 43 such victories in succession.
Rich Hill was battling a cold but managed to hold the Giants to just one run on two hits over 5.2 innings. He retired the first 11 batters faced before surrendering a solo home run to Hunter Pence with two outs in the fourth inning.
His effort was aided by Yasiel Puig’s impressive sliding catch on Buster Posey’s fly ball down the right-field line.
Hill finished 5-0 with a 1.45 ERA, five walks, 40 strikeouts, and held opponents to a .171 batting average over five July starts.
While the Dodgers managed eight hits in the second of a three-game series against the Giants, they only managed to push across two runs. Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger were at the center of both instances.
Seager legged out a double in the bottom of the first inning, which was followed by a Justin Turner walk and Bellinger’s RBI single. Seager then led off the third with another double to right field, and after advancing to third on Turner’s fly ball, scored on Bellinger’s base hit.
The 22-year-old Bellinger leads the Dodgers with 69 RBI this season, and paces all left-handed hitters in the Majors with 27 RBI off southpaw pitching.
