Dodgers 3, Giants 4: At Least They Got a Hit?

After coming off a win last night, the Dodgers struggled against the Giants tonight.

Scott Kazmir started the game and struggled right away. In the first inning Kazmir gave up a single to Denard Span and then allowed him to advance to second on a wild pitch. Joe Panik singled to center and Span came in to score the Giants first run. Kazmir had a quick 1-2-3 inning in the second, but things picked back up again in the third and fourth in the favor of the Giants. Kazmir loaded the bases. In the third inning, the Dodgers got out of it scoreless, but in the fourth the Giants tacked on another run. With the bases loaded again in the top of the fifth, the Giants scored one more. Kazmir pitched four complete innings, gave up seven hits, four walks and four earned runs. (One of those runs scored after Adam Liberatore replaced Kazmir).

The Dodgers went no hit until the bottom of the fifth. Johnny Cueto had the offense shut down. Yasmani Grandal had the first hit of the evening for the Dodgers with a lead off double, but the Dodgers could not capitalize on it. The Dodgers would not score their first run until the bottom of the seventh. Justin Turner led off the inning with a double and Enrique Hernandez singled to right and drove in the run.

A.J. Ellis pinch hit for Chase Utley in the bottom of the eighth and walked. Up to the plate came Corey Seager. Seager crushed a ball over the center field wall and all of a sudden the Dodgers were only down one run with the swing of the bat!

Grandal again led off the ninth inning with a double. The Dodgers now had the tying run in scoring position. Hernandez came up to the plate and Dave Roberts made a questionable call. He asked Hernandez to bunt. However, I understand this. Hernandez could get a bunt down, move Grandal to third and hope that Joc Pederson could come up and hit a deep sac fly since there was only one out. With that being said, Hernandez has been swinging a hot bat, so the chances of him just getting a base hit and Grandal scoring was likely too. Sadly, Hernandez grounded out, which still moved Grandal over to third. Pederson fouled out and Yasiel Puig flied out to end the game.

Overall, it was a pretty depressing game. Watching the Dodgers struggle to get a hit and Kazmir not being able to get the outs effectively was hard to watch. The only bright side is that the bullpen has now thrown 12 scoreless innings in relief since losing the home opener on Tuesday. Who knew the bullpen would have been the best stat of the night?

Dodgers will face the Giants again tomorrow at 5:05PM and hopefully play much better than they did tonight.