Martinez Tribune The website of the Martinez Tribune.
BY DANIEL GLUSKOTER
Austin Slater and Mike Yastrzemski jumped on Dodgers starter Julio Urias for first inning home runs to give the Giants all the offense they needed in a 2-0 win over Los Angeles Sunday afternoon at Oracle Park.
The game quickly developed into a pitchers duel, with Carlos Rodón (5-4, 3.18) and Dodgers starter Julio Urías (3-6, 2.80) both putting up zeroes the rest of the way thru the sixth. Rodón only allowed two hits while striking out eight in his scoreless outing. Tough luck loser Urías was almost as good, giving up three hits while striking out ten, but the two first inning long balls he surrendered sealed his fate as the Giants swept Los Angeles for the first time since 2016.
“He (Rodón) did a really nice job of attacking the zone with his fastball,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “The velo spike was certainly encouraging. He pitched the type of ballgame that we expect from Carlos and what we saw earlier in the season.”
John Brebbia, Dominic Leone and Jake McGee all came on to pitch a scoreless inning each for San Francisco with McGee recording his third save as Giants pitching held the Dodgers to just four runs in the three game series. The sweep moved the Giants to within 3.5 games of the slumping Dodgers, sending them to their sixth loss in eight games. Additionally, Los Angeles just learned yesterday that staff ace Walker Buehler is expected to miss a minimum of 6-8 weeks with a flexor tendon strain in his elbow.
“It’s a solid position to be in,” Kapler said. “But everybody has been around the game long enough to know that divisions aren’t won in June and they’re probably not lost very often in June, although it happens.”
The Giants will try to extend their momentum with Kansas City arriving for three games beginning Monday. Alex Wood (3-5, 4.23) is scheduled to take the mound for San Francisco against the Royals Brady Singer (3-1, 4.33) in tomorrow night’s opener.
GAME NOTES:
Giants relievers only allowed one run in 16 innings during the series.
San Francisco has now won five of their last seven series with the Dodgers.
The Giants celebrated the 10th anniversary of Matt Cain’s perfect game that took place on June 13, 2012 Sunday afternoon. Cain’s gem tied the Dodgers Sandy Koufax 1965 effort for the most strikeouts ever in a perfect game.
