Remember, all previous scripts are rendered useless when the Dodgers and Giants meet with something on the line. Unless they call for the unexpected and slightly unbelievable.
The Giants dragged into town Monday, fresh off being swept by the Padres and finding themselves 4½ games behind the Dodgers in the NL West division race in the final week of the season.
Naturally, the Giants won Monday, even if it took 13 innings and several missed opportunities before finally downing the Dodgers, 5-2, before baseball’s biggest crowd of the season, 53,500.
The loss cut the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West to 3 1/2 games and kept their magic number for clinching the division at three games.
The Dodgers, a regular offensive juggernaut during their 10-game road trip, returned home to manage four hits in 13 innings.
The Giants finally won it against Kevin Correia when pinch-hitter Andre Susac singled in Brandon Belt with the go-ahead run. Gregor Blanco, who had started the night’s scoring with a solo homer, doubled in one more and a final run came home when the Dodgers got a baserunner caught in a rundown.
By the end of Monday night, the Giants were given new life and the Dodgers were dealt a blow to their dreams of clinching the division by Tuesday.
The game started exactly the way the Dodgers did not want — Dan Haren giving up a home run and that mighty Dodgers’ road offense coming to a grinding stop at home against Jake Peavy.
Fortunately for the Dodgers, Haren gave up his nightly homer to the first batter he faced. Blanco led off the game with a home run to center field. It was the 28th home run Haren has given up this season, tied for second in the majors behind Milwaukee’s Marco Estrada (29).
Then the Dodgers’ defense got into the act, and that was all bad. The Dodgers committed three errors Monday and one cost them. In the third inning, Blanco sent a drive to right-center field that Yasiel Puig camped under while Matt Kemp signaled for the ball.
Kemp ran into Puig, the ball bounced off Kemp’s glove and Blanco ended up at third base. Kemp was charged with the error. Second baseman Joe Panik set down a perfect bunt down the first-base line to score Blanco and give the Giants a 2-0 lead.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers were doing nothing against Peavy.
Peavy had gone 6-1 with a 1.13 earned-run average in his last seven starts, and through four innings against the Dodgers he did not surrender a hit.
The Giant still lead, 2-0, when Carl Crawford led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a home run to right field. Juan Uribe doubled on a ball misplayed by rookie left fielder Chris Dominguez — making just his second career start — and A.J. Ellis singled Uribe to third.
Haren’s bunt sacrificed Ellis to second base before Dee Gordon lifted a fly ball to medium left field. Uribe tagged and Dominguez continued to help the L.A. cause, his throw flying about 20 feet over the head of catcher Buster Posey.
And the score stayed 2-2 as Haren continued to breeze through the Giants.
Haren never gave up another hit after Blanco’s homer. He went seven innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on the one hit. He did not walk a batter and struck out seven.
Pitching like that in a big game, and you deserve a reward. And Haren got one. By hitting the 180-pitch mark for the season, he triggered an automatic $10-million extension for next season.
Even counting his last start, when Haren gave up five runs in as many innings, he is 3-1 with a 1.89 ERA in his last six starts.
The Giants had all kinds of prime, late opportunities to score. The first came in the top of the ninth inning after Kenley Jansen walked Hunter Pence and Brandon Crawford singled Pence to third. Jansen, however, struck out pinch-hitter Travis Ishikawa on a 94-mph fastball.
They had an even better opportunity in the 10th inning when Panik singled after Gordon made a sliding catch of his bouncer but then dropped the ball. Brandon League came on in relief but Buster Posey singled to right to send Panik to third with one out.
League, however, induced Pablo Sandoval to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play, Gordon firing to first to nip Sandoval.
Their best chance came in the 11th when singles by Brandon Belt and Juan Perez off League put runners at first and second. Brandon Crawford then knocked what should have been the game-winning hit into center.
Except out in center was Puig.
Puig charged the ball and threw an absolute bullet to the plate. Catcher Drew Butera caught it on the fly, turned and tagged out Belt by a couple of feet. Belt lay there for a moment, seemingly in disbelief.
Belt, though, would get another chance in the 13th.
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
