Brandon McCarthy’s return from the disabled list and first start since April 29 was going well, until it wasn’t. The San Francisco Giants have an odd magic at home, and it carried them to an 8-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night.
The Dodgers were in position to get to Matt Cain early on, with Joc Pederson opening the game with a double. However, Cain proceeded to retire the next three batters, including two by strike out.
Yasiel Puig led off the second inning with a walk, only for Chase Utley to line into an unassisted double play at first base. Cain walked Chris Taylor before getting through the frame unscathed.
The Dodgers scratched in the third inning, sparked by a Corey Seager two-out single. Yasmani Grandal followed with an RBI double, extending his hitting streak to nine games in the process.
McCarthy’s string of consecutive batters retired was snapped at seven on Mac Williamson’s one-out base hit in the bottom of the third. He was advanced on Cain’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Denard Span’s blooper to left field.
The prohibitive wheels came off for McCarthy in the fourth inning. The Giants strung together four straight hits, capped off by an Eduardo Nuñez two-run single to shortstop. It was preceded by a Brandon Crawford RBI double.
Christian Arroyo’s sacrifice fly extended the Giants’ lead to 5-1. To his credit, McCarthy managed to pitch into the sixth inning. But he surrendered an RBI base hit to Williamson with two outs.
Cain kept the inning alive with a single of his own, knocking McCarthy out of the game. The six runs McCarthy allowed were a season high. Cain struck out Kiké Hernandez after allowing a one-out base hit to Taylor in the seventh.
Cain’s night came to an end at 6.2 innings and 112 pitches, his most in a start since April 2014. Including a start this season on April 24, Cain allowed just one run to the Dodgers in 12.2 innings pitched.
Against all other opponents in 2017, he’d allowed 18 runs in 29.2 innings. Giants reliever Bryan Morris struck out Scott Van Slyke on three pitches to end the seventh. Buster Posey’s solo home run off Grant Dayton in the seventh put the Dodgers in more of a deficit.
Nuñez’s RBI double extended the Giants’ lead to 8-1. Chris Hatcher finished the seventh inning on one pitch, and struck out the side in the eighth. Taylor hit an RBI double in the ninth, and Franklin Gutierrez a pinch-hit, run-scoring single.
The rally ended there as Giants manager Bruce Bochy called on Derek Law, his third reliever in the inning, to put an end to the rally. Though, a final run did score on a wild pitch.
The Dodgers dropped to 3-5 against the Giants this year and 4-11 at AT&T Park dating back to last season.
