The Los Angeles Dodgers got back on track Sunday afternoon, breaking out the bats for 15 runs and 20 hits in the first game of their doubleheader.
They looked to keep that going in the nightcap but were unable to as the Giants came away with an 8-3 victory to earn the split of the doubleheader.
The offense got Alex Wood some early run support off Johnny Cueto, who came into the game with the lowest ERA in baseball among starters. Chris Taylor drew a walk to leadoff the game, and Corey Seager followed with a line drive home run to right to give the Dodgers an early 2-0 lead.
Wood was cruising early, facing the minimum through the first four innings. The only hit he gave up was a single in the second inning to Evan Longoria, although he was quickly erased on a double play ball.
Los Angeles had a chance to add to its lead in the top of the fifth after Alex Verdugo and Kyle Farmer both walked to begin the inning and then were moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Wood. They wound up being stranded though when Taylor struck out and Seager flew out to end the inning. Cueto settled in nicely after the first inning, getting through six innings allowing just the two runs.
Wood got into trouble for the first time in the fifth, giving up three straight singles with one out in the inning. He then gave up a bases-clearing double to Austin Jackson, resulting in the Giants first lead of the game at 3-2.
The Giants added another run in the six on an RBI-bloop single by Brandon Belt, but the Dodgers got that run back in the top of the seventh. They wasted a bit of an opportunity though, only scoring one run despite having the bases loaded with no one out.
Daniel Hudson came in to pitch the bottom of the seventh and got himself into trouble, giving up a leadoff single and then issuing back-to-back walks with two outs to load up the bases. He had Evan Longoria down 0-2 but grooved a fastball in there and Longoria smacked it to left for a two-run double.
J.T. Chargois came in and couldn’t put out the fire, giving up a two-run single to Kelby Tomlinson to extend the Giants lead to 8-3. The Dodgers offense was not able to make any sort of comeback, resulting in the loss.
