San Francisco Giants starter Johnny Cueto leaves after pitching five plus innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Thu Jul 29, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–Johnny Cueto for the most part looked like he could have gone further as starter for the San Francisco Giants but was lifted in the sixth inning as he was throwing shutout ball against one of the best line ups in the majors the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The bullpen came in and finished off the Dodgers as the Giants secured the win in the second game of the four game series at Oracle Park for a 5-0 shutout. Cueto struck out five, walked two giving up four hits. He got great help from relievers Jarlin Garcia,  Dominic Leone, Tyler Rogers and Jake McGee.

Garcia, Leone, Rogers and McGee pitched 3 1/3 innings of perfect ball not giving up a single hit and kept the Dodgers off balance to complete the Giants 12th shutout of the 2021 season. The Giants offense started the game scoring two in the first and one in the second that got them a good jump on the Dodgers starter David Price after the Dodgers on Wednesday night shutout the Giants in a laugher 8-0.

Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford looked like he didn’t miss a step after coming back from an left oblique strain injury. Crawford was responsible for the two runs in the first inning after hitting a two run double. The Giants also got hits from Wilmer Flores, Austin Slater, LaMonte Wade Jr who each got RBIs.

The Giants win puts them three games in front of the second place Dodgers in the National League West. The Dodgers who have one of the best hitting line ups as the Giants know from Wednesday night’s experience have been shutout three times this season.

Dodgers manager and a former Giants player himself Dave Roberts said after the game that San Francisco is a very good ball club, “We have so much respect for those guys, obviously they’re a very good ball club. They’ve earned this right now to this point.”

A former National League team the Houston Astros who is first in the American League West are next to face the Giants at Oracle Park. The Astros will be starting Framber Valdez (6-2 ERA 2.97) against Giant starter Kevin Gausman (9-4 ERA 2.21) a 6:45 pm PDT first pitch.