SAN FRANCISCO — Hours after manager Bruce Bochy laid out the state of his bullpen, he leaned heavily on his relieving corps. after Jeff Samardzija’s (7-4, 3.36 ERA) shortest outing of the season. Highlighted by a five-pitcher top of the seventh inning, the Giants (37-26) used nine pitchers and still managed to pull of a 10th-inning comeback to beat the Dodgers (33-30), 5-4, for their sixth walk-off win of the season. Here’s how we arrived to the final score.
The big moment
After the Dodgers went ahead in the 10th inning, Denard Span lined a one-out double off closer Kenley Jansen. Joe Panik followed by shooting a ball into left-center to bring home Span, and pandemonium at AT&T Park. Brandon Belt blooped a ball into right field, where Trayce Thompson was stationed deep into Triples Alley. Buster Posey then came up with the winning run on second, and rolled a single past the dive of Corey Seager to complete the Giants’ comeback.
At the plate
Bruce Bochy tinkered with his lineup, putting Matt Duffy behind Buster Posey in the five-hole, and Brandon Belt No. 3. Bochy liked Belt’s recent on-base tendencies, and with a left-hander opposing them, wanted to protect Posey with Duffy’s right-handed bat. It took five hitters for the concept to come to fruition.
Kazmir quietly set down the game’s first two hitters, but issued consecutive walks to Belt and Posey. Duffy then looped a single to right field, scoring Belt and bringing Bochy’s idea full-circle. Brandon Crawford followed with another single to push the Giants’ out to two. But the early success was short lived, and the Giants next hit didn’t come until Joe Panik bounced a single to start the sixth inning.
He scored from third after Utley failed to turn a double player later in the frame, and the Giants went ahead, 3-2. The Dodgers bullpen, which entered the game boasting an MLB-best 1.44 ERA since May 22, neutralized Giant hitters. Adam Liberatore and Joe Blanton combined to retire seven straight until Brandon Crawford walked with one out in the ninth.
On the mound
Samardzija entered Saturday’s start coming off his worst of the season, when he allowed four home runs and nine hits to the Cardinals in five innings. He effectively kept the Dodgers in the yard, but ran his pitch count up by scattering nine runners across his 4.2 innings.
He first worked out of a jam in the second inning, a frame Trayce Thompson began by rolling a single up the middle with older brother, Klay Thompson, in attendance. The elder Thompson was clad in a Dodgers hat, and watched Trayce tag up on a fly ball Mac Williamson wrestled the sun for.
Yasmani Grandal scored him with a single to center, and Samardzija tightroped out of the inning by retiring Kazmir and Chase Utley.
The Giants right-hander worked through the fourth inning with some assistance, as Joc Pederson inexplicably tried to steal third base with one out. Buster Posey, who says he can throw fine on his irritated thumb, threw him out easily. The gaffe only magnified with Kendrik singled in the same at-bat Pederson was thrown out, a ball he could have scored on.
Bochy ended Samardzija’s day in the fifth inning, after Justin Turner and Adrian Gonzalez strung two-out hits together and tied the game, 2-2. It was a quick hook for Samardzija, who threw only 98 pitches in his shortest start as a Giant.
In the ‘pen
George Kontos came on with a runner at second, and struck out Thompson, the only hitter the Giants right-hander faced. Derek Law threw a spotless, 11-pitch sixth inning, but walked the only batter he faced in the seventh. It opened Bochy’s revolving bullpen door.
First he plucked Josh Osich, who allowed Utley to dribble one into center field. With runners on the corner and no out, Corey Seager bounced one back to Osich, who picked off Kike Hernandez at third base. Hunter Strickland was next in line, and he got Turner to fly out with two runners on. With two outs, Bochy brought in Javier Lopez to face Gonzalez, who walked on five pitches.
Rounding out the five-pitcher parade was Cory Gearrin, who Bochy praised before the game as one of the steadiest arms he has in the bullpen. In return, Gearrin ran the count 3-0 to Thompson with the bases loaded. He threw two called strikes before throwing ball four wildly, tying the game at three.
The inning mercifully ended when Pederson floated a 2-0 sinker into Span’s glove. Gearrin worked through the eighth inning and Casilla the ninth, both punctuated by inning-ending double plays. Turner grounded into the inning-ender against Casilla, the same pitcher he homered off in the ninth inning on Friday.
Making his AT&T Park debut, Chris Stratton didn’t warm the hearts of any Giants fans. Adrian Gonzalez blasted Stratton’s second pitch, a changeup, over Jarrett Parker’s outstretched glove in left field to give the Dodgers a 10th-inning lead. The Giants bullpen has now blown six of its last seven save opportunities. Stratton did come out of the mess with his first major-league win, however.
On deck
The Giants get a taste of the Dodgers’ teenage phenom, Julio Urias (0-1, 6.94 ERA), on Sunday Night Baseball. Jake Peavy (2-6, 6.41) is on the hill again during the national telecast, where he allowed four runs in five innings against the Cardinals last week. First pitch at 5:38 p.m. on KNBR 680.
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