The Dodgers dropped the second game of the four-game weekend series to the Giants on Friday in a 4-2 contest. The bats were silent and Clayton Kershaw had one bad inning, but that was all it took to give him his ninth loss this season.
Madison Bumgarner of the Giants silenced the Dodgers for three hits through the first five innings, before giving up a lead off single to Micheal Young in the sixth. Juan Uribe then came up and bashed a two-run homer to break the scoreless tie.
Those were the only runs the bats could muster up, but they did have Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford on the bench, while Hanley Ramirez was out with a nerve issue. Even without those bats they had plenty of other chances late in the game, with runners in scoring position in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
Kershaw had one bad inning on the mound, but that was all it took to make him the losing pitcher. He gave up four straight singles to start the seventh inning with Joaquin Arias driving in one run and Brett Pill bringing in the second and third San Francisco runs of the inning.
He got out of the inning without any further damage, but the Dodgers offense could not produce any runs to overcome the 3-2 deficit. Kershaw finished with seven inning pitched with eight hits for two earned runs and six strikeouts.
Post-game, Don Mattingly had praise for his starting pitcher, "It was really just one bad inning. It's the best he's thrown the ball in probably three to four outings." The loss brings Kershaw's record to 14-9 on the season, and his league-leading ERA managed to stay a hair below 2.00 at 1.94.
The Dodgers threw Chris Withrow and Carlos Marmol out of the bullpen. Withrow gave up one hit, a solo home run to Hunter Pence to put the Giants up 4-2. Marmol pitched one scoreless inning with two strikeouts.
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Andre Ethier pulled up after hitting a double in the eighth inning, to continue the narrative of the Dodgers never-ending list of injuries. Mattingly believes it to be an ankle issue that he developed in their last trip to Colorado, and does not seem to find it serious.
Saturday will be game three of the four-game series with Ricky Nolasco taking on Tim Lincecum. With their magic number at four, if the Dodgers are to clinch the NL West at home they need to win the remaining two games against the Giants, and hope Colorado can win the next two games they play against Arizona.
