By Morris Phillips

If you’re going to send a message, why not eliminate room for interpretation.

The Giants did that, sweeping the Dodgers at AT&T Park again, without allowing a run, beating reigning Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw for the second time in less than two months after Kershaw lost only three games all of last season.

Delivering the message’s emphatic conclusion and acting as de-facto Giants’ team spokesman, Madison Bumgarner threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings, and effectively put the 4-0 win away in the third inning with a majestic home run off Kershaw.

“We kind of kid around with the pitchers sometimes that if you want to win the game, throw a shutout and hit a homer,” manager Bruce Bochy said of Bum’s feat.  “He was trying to do that.”

Beat the Dodgers single-handedly?  Yeah, Bumgarner was aiming for that.  But with a subtle dig thrown in.

“He’s the best pitcher in baseball,” the Giants’ ace said of Kershaw.  “To be able to do that and run into one, it’s pretty special.”

Best pitcher in baseball?  And what exactly was that message?  That Kershaw and the Dodgers may be in the conversation, but they still can’t claim to be champions or win big games like Mad Bum and the Giants can.

And now after a terrific start, the Dodgers can’t even claim a special place in the NL West.  Despite being the National League’s pre-eminent offensive team thus far, and being near unbeatable at home, the Dodgers can’t win in San Francisco or shake the Giants.  Los Angeles’ lead was 5 ½ games last week.  Now it’s down to 1 ½ games.

Clearly, the developments were hard for manager Don Mattingly to decipher.  Joc Pederson, the Dodgers’ leadoff man, doubled on one hop off the center field wall on the fifth pitch of the series on Tuesday.  Tim Hudson, the Giants’ starter that night, retired three of the next four batters and escaped.

That escape act continued for another 26 chapters.  The Dodgers compiled 23 hits, including nine hits on Thursday, but they couldn’t cash in.

“You don’t think you’ll come here and not score a run for three games,” Mattingly said.  “I actually thought we had some good at-bats.”