By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Madison Bumgarner knows what it is like to pitch in the postseason, and now he wants to lead the San Francisco back there for the third time in the last five seasons.

Luckily, the Los Angeles Dodgers were unable to score a run at all and the Giants took game one of this pivotal three-game series by the final score of 9-0 before 41,147, the 321st consecutive sellout at AT&TPark.

The 9-0 shutout by the Giants was the matched the largest shutout over the Dodgers since 1958.

In a game that was played on June 25, 1968, the Giants defeated the Dodgers 9-0 at CandlestickPark.

With the victory over the first place Dodgers, the Giants move within one game of their longtime rivals from Southern California.

Bumgarner pitched a great game, as he allowed zero runs on three hits, while walking just and striking out nine in seven innings of work on his way to his 18th win of the season.

By picking up his 18th win of the season, Bumgarner joins Johnny Cueto of the Cincinnati Reds and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers as the only pitchers in the major leagues with 18 wins.

When Bumgarner struck out Scott Van Slyke in the top of the second inning, it was a career milestone for Bumgarner, as he reached the 200 strikeout plateau for the first time in his big league career.

Former Giants infielder Juan Uribe was Bumgarner’s eighth strikeout victim of the evening, and with that strikeout, Bumgarner passed Ray Sadecki for the most strikeouts by a left-handed pitcher since the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958

Joe Panik and Buster Posey got the ball rolling in the bottom of the first inning, as they hit back-to-back doubles off of Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu.

Hunter Pence then singled to centerfield to score Posey, then after a Pablo Sandoval flyout for the second out of the inning, Joaquin Arias singled to score Pence.

Gregor Blanco then walked ,and then Brandon Crawford doubled down the right field line for the fourth and final run of the inning.

Ryu was forced to leave the game after just one inning with irritation in his left shoulder, but before he left, he went one inning, allowing four runs on five hits, walked one and struck out one, as he saw his record fall to 14-7 on the season.

With the chance to break the game wide open in the bottom of the third inning after loading the bases with one out, Dodgers reliever Carlos Frias was able to get out of the jam unscathed, as he got Crawford to popout to Adrian Gonzalez at first base, Bumgarner struck out for the second time on the night and then Angel Pagan flew out to left field to end the inning.

Brandon Crawford hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth, his first home run since July 18 against the Miami Marlins at MarlinsPark.

Travis Ishikawa hit a pinch-hit three run home run in the bottom of the seventh that landed into San FranciscoBay aka McCovey Cove.

It was the 67th Splash Hit by a Giants player since AT&TPark opened on April 11, 2000 and 102nd overall.