*Photo from NBC Sports*
There are occasions in baseball where a game is won by who makes less mistakes, and who takes advantage of their opponents mistakes. Thairo Estrada homered, Joc Pederson scored the go ahead run, and the San Francisco Giants defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 3-2 victory on Saturday afternoon in San Francisco.
With the Giants up by one run late, there was a wild pitch thrown. That wild pitch scored the eventual game winning run, giving the Giants the win. Because of that, the Giants have now won two straight games and have won the series against their archrival Dodgers, improving to 6 games over .500, sitting at a 32-26 record.
Giants pitcher Sam Long said of the win that "Dodgers-Giants games, they never fail to keep you on your toes. You always know they're going to be good. Getting the chance to beat the Dodgers is something I'm always going to look forward to."
The Giants got on the board early in this one. In the second inning, Estrada got the Giants a 1-0 lead, blasting a solo home run to left field. That lead then became 2-0 when Luis Gonzalez singled to center field, scoring Brandon Crawford to double the lead.
It remained a 2-0 Giants lead until the top of the 8th inning. Then, Cody Bellinger got the Dodgers on the board, making it a 2-1 game with a double to left center field, scoring Will Smith on the hit. In the bottom of the inning, Pederson scored on a wild pitch to make it a 3-1 Giants lead. In the 9th, Freddie Freeman hit a solo homer to cut the deficit to 3-2, but the Dodgers couldn't score again.
Getting the start for the Giants was Long, who pitched 3 shutout innings while allowing just 3 hits. Tyler Rogers then came on and delivered two scoreless innings of his own. Dominic Leone and Zack Littell followed, and then came 1 1/3 innings from Jarlin Garcia, who allowed one run. Camilo Doval got the win by finishing off the 8th inning, and Jose Alvarez pitched the 9th for the save.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler said of his bullpen "That's why they're in those big moments, because both of them have the ability to slow things down. Garcia and Doval knew those were big moments in a game that very much felt like a playoff atmosphere, but they were able to settle and deliver strikes, and big ones at that."
Clayton Kershaw made his return from the IL to start for the Dodgers, allowing two runs on 3 hits over 4 innings, taking the loss. Yency Almonte threw 1 1/3 innings after Kershaw, followed by 2/3 of an inning from Alex Vesia. Caleb Ferguson pitched an inning, and Craig Kimbrel gave up the game winning run, forcing Evan Phillips to pitch as well.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that "The story of the game was we weren’t good at all with runners in scoring position. And it wasn’t needing to get a base hit with two outs. It was situationally today, all day. We just didn’t finish innings."
Up next, the Giants and Dodgers conclude their series on Sunday afternoon. Carlos Rodon will take the mound and start for the Giants, while Julio Urias goes for the Dodgers.
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