KERSHAW WINS 14TH CONSECUTIVE DECISION
Dodgers Rally in 8th, Hold Off Giants
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 14 (AP) – The Los Angeles Dodgers rallied for three runs in the top of the eighth and escaped a bottom of the ninth inning rally to defeat the San Francisco Giants 4-3 at AT&T Park. Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw allowed two runs (one earned) in seven innings and was credited with the win. Kershaw has now won a major league season high 14 consecutive decisions; his last loss came on June 8 against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver. In the 17 starts since, Kerahaw is 14-0 with a 1.62 ERA over 128 innings.
The Dodgers drew first blood, scoring in the top of the second. Carl Crawford singled with one out off Giants starter Yusmeiro Petit, then stole second and scored when Juan Uribe dumped a base hit into shallow right field. The Giants immediately tied the game in the bottom half of the inning. Andrew Susac blooped a one-out double just inside the right field line and, after Joaquin Arias grounded to short, Gregor Blanco singled to right, scoring Susac.
The score remained tied until the bottom of the seventh when some shoddy defense allowed San Francisco to take the lead. Travis Ishikawa led off with a single to center and then was forced at second on Arias’ fielder’s choice grounder. Blanco followed with a sharp single to right. Arias was initially held at third but when right fielder Matt Kemp misplayed the ball, Arias scored and Blanco ended up on second. The run proved to be unearned when pinch hitter Matt Dufy flied to shallow center and Angel Pagan grounded out to end the inning.
In the top of the eighth, Los Angeles rallied against Sergio Romo. Joc Pederson pinch hit for Kershaw and drew a leadoff walk. Miguel Rojas pinch ran for Pederson. Romo retired Dee Gordon, who saw his 18-game hitting streak end in this contest, on a pop to short, but Yasiel Puig picked out a hanging change up and drove it into the left field stands for a two-run home run. Puig’s 16th long ball of the year put the Dodgers on top 3-2. The Dodgers weren’t done. Adrian Gonzalez followed with a double to the gap in left-center. Kemp followed with a drive to the warning track in left-center for the second out, with Gonzalez advancing to third. Justin Turner then grounded a single through the box, scoring Gonzalez to give Los Angeles a two-run lead. Crawford grounded out to finally end the inning.
The score was still 4-2 when Kenley Jansen came on to close out the game in the bottom of the ninth. Jansen had converted 20 straight save opportunities, dating back to July 19, but got off to a rocky start when Ishikawa led off with a base hit to left. When Arias followed with a first-pitch single to right-center, the tying runs were on first and third. Blanco then really turned the screws, dropping a base hit into center field, scoring Ishikawa and leaving runners on first and second. Gary Brown pinch hit for the pitcher and grounded a single into right field. Arias tried to score but Kemp gunned him down at the plate, preventing the Giants from tying the game. Blanco and Brown each took an extra base on the play, so the Giants still had runners on second and third with one out. At this point, Jansen had faced four batters and failed to retire any of them, but the Dodgers were still clinging to a one-run lead. Jansen worked in front of Pagan 0-2 and then induced him to tap back to the mound. Blanco was trapped off third, but stayed in a rundown and was tagged out by catcher A.J. Ellis, with runners ending up on first and third. Joe Panik was the last hope for San Francisco and, on the first pitch, grounded out to Gordon at second to end the game.
The loss, coupled with Cincinnati’s 3-2 win at Milwaukee, drops San Francisco ½ game behind the Reds in the chase for the final wild card spot in the National League.
9/14/2014, LAN14-SF14, AT&T Park
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP
2014 Dodgers 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 4 9 2 5 0
2014 Giants 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 3 11 0 8 0
Dodgers AB R H BI AVG Giants AB R H BI AVG
Gordon,D 2b 4 0 0 0 .269 Pagan cf 5 0 0 0 .291
Puig cf 4 1 2 2 .284 Panik 2b 5 0 0 0 .274
Gonzalez,Ad 1b 4 1 2 0 .277 Posey 1b 4 0 2 0 .277
Kemp rf 4 0 0 0 .261 Pence rf 4 0 0 0 .280
Ramirez,H ss 3 0 1 0 .256 Sandoval 3b 4 0 0 0 .244
Turner,Ju ph 1 0 1 1 .338 Susac c 2 1 1 0 .188
Crawford,C lf 4 1 2 0 .308 Ishikawa 1b 2 1 2 0 .363
Uribe 3b 3 0 1 1 .345 Arias ss 4 1 2 0 .249
Wilson,Br p 0 0 0 0 .000 Blanco,G lf 4 0 3 2 .280
Elbert p 0 0 0 0 .000 Petit,Y p 2 0 0 0 .087
Guerrero ph 1 0 0 0 .000 Machi p 0 0 0 0 .000
Jansen p 0 0 0 0 .000 Duffy,M ph 1 0 0 0 .362
Ellis,A c 4 0 0 0 .167 Romo p 0 0 0 0 .000
Kershaw p 2 0 0 0 .250 Lincecum p 0 0 0 0 .086
Pederson ph 0 0 0 0 .071 Brown,G ph 1 0 1 0 .250
Rojas pr 1 1 0 0 .107 38 3 11 2
35 4 9 4
Dodgers INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Kershaw W 19-3 7.0 6 2 1 0 5 99 69 1.49
Wilson,Br H 13 0.2 1 0 0 0 0 3 3 3.78
Elbert H 2 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 5 3 0.00
Jansen S 43 1.0 4 1 1 0 0 15 12 1.73
9.0 11 3 2 0 5 122 87
Giants INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Petit,Y 6.0 5 1 1 0 8 101 70 2.51
Machi 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 10 7 1.27
Romo BS 6, L 4-3 1.2 3 3 3 1 2 31 22 3.54
Lincecum 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3.46
9.0 9 4 4 1 11 143 100
LAN: Pederson batted for Kershaw in the 8th
Rojas ran for Pederson in the 8th
Turner,Ju batted for Ramirez,H in the 8th
Turner,Ju moved to 3b in the 8th
Rojas moved to ss in the 8th
Guerrero batted for Elbert in the 9th
SF : Posey moved to c in the 5th
Ishikawa inserted at 1b in the 5th
Duffy,M batted for Machi in the 7th
Brown,G batted for Lincecum in the 9th
E-Kemp, Kershaw. 2B-Gonzalez,Ad(47), Susac(8). HR-Puig(16). RBI-Puig 2(71),
Uribe(48), Turner,Ju(42), Blanco,G 2(40). SB-Crawford,C(22), Turner,Ju(6).
CS-Crawford,C. K-Gordon,D, Puig 2, Gonzalez,Ad, Kemp, Uribe, Ellis,A 4,
Guerrero, Panik, Pence 2, Susac, Petit,Y. BB-Pederson.
GWRBI: Puig
Andrew Susac was ejected from this game
Temperature: 67, Sky: clear, Wind: out to center at 3 MPH.
Attendance: 41,956
Game Time: 2:59