The Los Angeles Dodgers were no-hit by Johnny Cueto through five innings and Clayton Kershaw was knocked around in a 5-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants. The loss snapped the Dodgers’ winning streak at three games.
Prior to the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said his team needed to force Cueto into the stretch. The savvy right-hander then went out and retired the first six batters faced and yielded just one walk through five no-hit innings.
Cueto’s no-hitter was broken by Kiké Hernandez on a routine fly ball to left field that Hunter Pence lost in the lights. The ball landed well behind him, resulting in a leadoff triple for Hernandez.
Austin Barnes’ RBI ground got the Dodgers on the board and led to more trouble for Cueto as he issued a pair of walks. They were sandwiched between a Mookie Betts pop-up that Cueto began to track before limping and giving way to the infield.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler checked on his starter and allowed him to remain in the game. That decision proved costly as Justin Turner connected on his first home run of the season, a three-run blast that pulled the Dodgers to within 5-4.
However, they never got any closer against the Giants bullpen. The Dodgers had fallen into a 5-0 deficit as Kershaw failed to miss bats throughout his outing.
The Giants turned loud outs into runs, beginning with Austin Slater and Mike Yastrzemski hitting solo homers in the third inning. The duo did more damage in the fifth, as Slater connected on a second home run and Yastrzemski hit an RBI double.
That marked the end of the road for Kershaw, who allowed seven hits and had six strikeouts over 4.1 innings. For as much as Kershaw struggled, Mauricio Dubón’s sacrifice fly off Brusdar Graterol in the sixth inning wound up being the difference in the game.
Corey Seager improving but sits
Corey Seager was removed Friday night due to lower back tightness and underwent a “scan” that Roberts said came back “clean.” He added that discomfort had already started to subside but Seager remained day-to-day moving forward.
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