Photo credit: @PavlovicNBCS

By Morris Phillips

Clayton Kershaw was masterful–and the clear winner of the Bumgarner-Kershaw matchup–but he wasn’t around for the finish on Monday night. That allowed the Giants an opening, and they made the most of it, scoring four times in the ninth to escape with a 5-2 win over the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.

 

Prior to the ninth, the Giants were stymied by Kershaw, who was both different and the same, mowing down San Francisco hitters as usual but employing a confounding curveball, and changing speeds to keep the Giants at bay. Kershaw started 18 of the 27 hitters he faced with first-pitch strikes, struck out nine, walked none, allowed four singles and dominated the proceedings for eight innings.

“He was better than me tonight for sure, but we were better than they were,” Bumgarner said of Kershaw. “I think that is a good way to put it.”

But once again, after throwing 110 pitches, Kershaw wasn’t around for the finish. And the Dodgers’ bullpen, without closer Kenley Jansen, was on the spot after blowing leads in each of the previous, three ballgames at Colorado. And the Giants, on life support in the NL West, were desperate for any type of momentum-building moment.

And this time, fate swung the Giants way, and directly in the face of their 2-51 record in 2018 when trailing after eight innings.

Scott Alexander, needing just one more strike to end it, allowed a two-run single to pinch-hitter Nick Hundley. Gorkys Hernandez followed with an RBI single to increase the Giants’ lead to 4-2. Then after Hernandez stole second base, Max Muncy’s fielding error on Stephen Duggar’s grounder allowed Hundley to score from third.

“We had some really great at-bats there in the ninth,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “Hundley, it doesn’t get any more clutch than that.”

The Giants (60-60) shed their losing record with the win, and moved to .500 for the 22nd time this season. They trail the Diamondbacks by five games in the NL West with the Rockies and Dodgers nipping at Arizona’s heels as well.