Saturday was the game the Giants were supposed to lose in their final three game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Instead, 25-year old Ty Blach out-dueled a guy who is widely acknowledged as the best pitcher in baseball.
Blach dealt eight shutout innings, and even threw in a couple of hits, in just his second career start, toppling the Dodgers in a memorable 3-0 victory that at least guarantees San Francisco a one-game playoff against St. Louis on Monday. If the Giants win again tomorrow, they will clinch a NL Wild Card berth.
At the outset, it looked as if it was going to be a legendary Kershaw performance, with the Dodgers’ ace tossing just 28 pitches in a perfect first three innings. Angel Pagan gave Kershaw his first blemish of the game in the fifth inning, belting a 1-1 pitch just over the wall in left-field to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.
Dodgers’ third baseman Justin Turner helped the Giants break the game open in the seventh inning, when he wildly overthrew first base on a Brandon Crawford infield hit, allowing Pagan to score all the way from first and Crawford to advance all the way to third. Gordon Beckham then pitched in with his first RBI as a Giant, hitting a deep fly ball to center that scored Pagan, giving San Francisco a 3-0 advantage they would never surrender. It’s the sixth extra base hit Pagan has hit off Kershaw in his career. Other than Buster Posey’s career three hits, no other Giant in Saturday’s lineup has more than one.
Blach lasted only three innings in his first start last week, but opened the game on a tear by leveling the top of the Dodgers’ order on 12 pitches in the first inning. Blach then continued to deal, getting Chase Utley, Clayton Kershaw and Howie Kendrick to all strike out looking in consecutive at-bats in the third inning. He also got the best of Giants public enemy #1, Yasiel Puig, making him look foolish in a three pitch strikeout in the seventh.
The tall, wiry left-hander not only allowed just three hits and notched six strikeouts in eight innings of work for his first Major League win, he was pretty impressive with the bat too, going 2-for-3, joining Madison Bumgarner as the only pitchers to get two hits off Kershaw this season.
Kershaw also got off to a fantastic start, taking care of the Giants on just 46 pitches through five innings, but couldn’t outlast Blach in his all-world performance. Kershaw finished with four strikeouts, and three earned runs in seven innings of work. It’s the first time Kershaw has allowed more than two runs since returning from the disabled list on September 9th.
Sergio Romo closed the game out with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.
The Giants finish the regular season tomorrow when Matt Moore (4.21 ERA) faces off against the Dodger’s Kenta Maeda (3.26 ERA).