Winners in three of their last four against the San Francisco Giants, the Los Angeles Dodgers looked to guarantee themselves a series on Saturday afternoon.
Chase Utley made Jeff Samardzija work to open the game, with the right-hander throwing needing pitches to get a strikeout. Justin Turner lined a fastball to right-center field with two outs, but was stranded as Samardzija jammed Adrian Gonzalez to get a grounder that end the inning.
Scott Kazmir needed just four pitches to retire the first two batters faced, but then ran into trouble. Brandon Belt and Buster Posey both drew a walk, then Matt Duffy lined Kazmir’s first pitch into right field for an RBI single.
Brandon Crawford added an RBI single of his own before Kazmir could get out of the inning. Trayce Thompson led off the second with a base hit to center, then aggressively tagged from first base on a fly ball to left field.
Thompson’s heads-up baserunning paid off as Yasmani Grandal knocked a one-out base hit into center that cut the Giants’ lead in half. After Howie Kendrick worked a walk, Kazmir was unable to get a sacrifice bunt down.
Samardzija then struck out Utley a second time to keep the Giants’ lead at 2-1. Grandal erased a leadoff walk in the bottom of the second by quickly coming out from behind the plate on Samardzija’s sac-bunt attempt to start a double play.
Kendrick then did his part to aid Kazmir by laying out for a diving catch on a slicing fly ball to end the inning. Both pitches tossed a 1-2-3 third inning, marking the first time either had done so on the afternoon.
CONTINUE READING: Adrian Gonzalez’s home run all for naught
