Dodgers pulled off a feat not seen in 50 years in wacky, walk-filled win over Giants

For all of the problems the Dodgers have had lately, there's one part of their roster that's been unilaterally excellent: the rotation. Even in their worst losses, their starting pitchers have been totally exempt from criticism. The same cannot be said for everyone else.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto has more reason than any Dodgers starter to be critical of his teammates. Going into his Thursday appearance against the Giants, the offense had given him just eight runs of support in his last three outings and he was slapped with no-decisions for all of them despite giving the team between 7 and 8 2/3 innings and giving up just three runs in those starts.

But Yamamoto's command looked pretty shaky straight out of the gate against the Giants. He got his first two outs, then walked two batters before getting out of the inning. He walked two more in the fourth, one more in the fifth, and then another in the sixth before being pulled at 5 1/3. Six walks in one game is an MLB career high for him. He gave up just one hit and managed to pitch around all of the free passes to keep the Giants stuck at zero.

Michael Kopech, who took over in the seventh, walked two batters and was yanked after getting his first out. Blake Treinen immediately walked two more and let San Francisco's first run score before taking down the next two batters swinging. Neither of them, nor Jack Dreyer (who took over for Yamamoto), Anthony Banda, or Alex Vesia gave up a single hit.

All told, that was 10 batters walked and only a single run and hit given up. The Dodgers became only the third team to do that in 125 seasons, and the first since 1976.

Dodgers walk 10 batters, only allow one hit and one run vs. Giants on Thursday night

The Dodgers still barely offered Yamamoto any run support. Giants starter Logan Webb went seven strong innings, but LA got four hits and a walk off of him. Their first run in the sixth was unearned, when a Willy Adames error allowed Ben Rortvedt to score. Freddie Freeman followed it up with an RBI single for an earned run. It wasn't a lot, but it was good enough.

The win came on the heels of a much-needed victory against the Phillies with Blake Snell leading the charge. And to make it all even better, the Padres lost to the Mets, which brought LA's division lead back up to three and their magic number to clinch the NL West down to six.

Run support looks like it's going to continue to be an issue, but at least the bullpen was able to pitch around some sticky situations instead of completely blowing a game like everyone expected. Baby steps.