The sun was shining, the breeze was calm, and with the Giants on a roll of five straight wins, the fans at AT&T Park were fully expecting a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Unfortunately for Giants fans, Clayton Kershaw had other plans.
The dependable Dodger ace breezed through a lackluster Giants lineup. Kershaw allowed just three hits over seven innings on 89 pitches for his seventh win on the year as Los Angeles avoided a sweep and halted the Giants five-game winning streak with a 6-0 victory. Nothing seemed to faze the left-hander, not even a bench-clearing incident in top of the third.
Tensions flared when Giants starting pitcher Johnny Cueto sent a wild pitch high and inside past Yasmani Grandal. Grandal flew out to center to retire the side, but while returning to the dugout appeared to exchange some words with Cueto. Both he and Cueto started pointing and motioning towards one another as the dugouts emptied, but that was the extent of the drama as Kershaw parted through both teams on his way to the mound and began warming up for the bottom half of the inning.
That alone was indicative enough of Kershaw’s locked-in mindset. With a starting offense that was missing Brandon Belt, Denard Span and Brandon Crawford to days off, the Giants just could not figure Kershaw out. He retired 10 straight Giants to lead off the game before Justin Ruggiano singled to center in the bottom of the fourth. But Christian Arroyo would ground into a double play to end the inning and the Giants wouldn’t reach base again until the bottom of the sixth when Nick Hundley knocked a pinch-hit single to left.
Buster Posey singled in the second to raise his batting average in the month of May to .379.
The struggles weren’t just offensively for the Giants, however. Cueto (4-3) found himself in trouble early in the first, giving up back-to-back singles to Corey Seager and Justin Turner before Grandal sent an 0-2 pitch off the right field bricks for a two-run double.
The Dodgers would tack another run on in the third courtesy of the Cueto wild pitch that allowed Chase Utley to score from third.
The big blow took place in the fifth. Yasiel Puig, batting in the eighth spot, singled with the bases loaded, driving in Turner and Cody Bellinger to make it 5-0.
Cueto would finish allowing five runs and eight hits over six innings with six strikeouts.
Michael Morse, who moved from first to left in the sixth, misplayed Bellinger’s fly ball off Josh Osich on the warning track, allowing Seager to score once more and bring the score to 6-0.
But Sergio Romo entered in the bottom of the ninth and the Giants showed some life. With one out, Eduardo Nunez launched his first home run of the year, a solo shot to left, to get the Giants on the board. Romo would recover to strike out Ruggiano in the next at-bat and retire Arroyo on a grounder to third to end the game.
The Giants are off Thursday as they prepare to visit a pair of NL Central opponents on a seven-game road trip. They’ll face St. Louis for a three-game series beginning Friday and will visit Wrigley Field for a four-game series against the Cubs starting Monday.
