The Los Angeles Dodgers welcomed the division-rival San Francisco Giants to town on Friday night, looking to continue their recent hot stretch of play.
Behind a strong performance from Ross Stripling, who has been the Dodgers best starter so far this season, the Dodgers were able to come away with a 3-2 victory to move to 36-32 on the season.
The Dodgers got Stripling an early run to work with as Kiké Hernandez hit a solo home run off Giants starter Derek Holland in the first inning.
They then added two more in the fourth on another solo home run off the bat of Matt Kemp. The second run was in large part due to an error when Giants center fielder Austin Jackson dropped a deep fly ball by Yasmani Grandal, resulting in him standing on third base. Yasiel Puig followed with a double to bring him home.
From there, it was all Stripling as he continued to make his case to be in Washington D.C. next month for the All-Star Game. He gave up just two hits in his first six innings of work, retiring 12 straight at one point.
He ran into some trouble in the seventh though, giving up a single and two-run home run to Pablo Sandoval to cut the Dodgers lead to 3-2. That marked the end of Stripling’s night with Josh Fields coming in to get the final two outs of the inning.
Fields then stayed in and got the first two outs in the eighth, including getting pinch-hitter Buster Posey to fly out to right.
Scott Alexander finished out the eighth, getting Sandoval to hit back to the box. Kenley Jansen then came in for the ninth and tossed a shutout inning to earn his 16th save of the season.
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