Giants clicking at just the right time to give Dodgers a fight for NL West
SAN FRANCISCO — Much as he did on his team's last trip to San Francisco in late July, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly tweaked his rotation so he would have his top three starters lined up for this weekend's crucial series against the Giants.
It made sense. Not only do Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu represent the winningest trio in the majors with 46 victories, but they led a sweep of the Giants last time, helping limit them to four runs in three games.
But it was evident from the very first inning of San Francisco's 9-0 shellacking of the visitors Friday that this would be a different series.
For one, Ryu gave up four runs in the opening inning and didn't come out for the second, leaving the game with irritation in his left shoulder. He will be further examined Saturday.
Just as significantly, the team that ran over the first-place Dodgers on Friday bore little similarity to the one L.A. faced a month and a half ago.
That club was in the final stages of a two-month collapse that knocked it out of first place, it was still awaiting the return from a back injury of leadoff hitter Angel Pagan, and it was still sorting out a muddled second-base situation.
Those issues are now in the past, and the current version of the Giants looks capable of putting up a fight for first place in the NL West the rest of the way. With their 10th consecutive home victory Friday, one shy of the franchise record at AT&T Park, the Giants trimmed the Dodgers' lead to one game.
"I feel like we've turned it on at the right time and things are starting to go our way," Madison Bumgarner said after tying Kershaw and Johnny Cueto for the major league lead in wins with 18. "We have a lot of guys who've been here and done this before, so they know what to expect, know what it's like coming up to finish off September and hopefully the postseason."
Bumgarner's presence was another major difference from the last time these teams met. He did not pitch in that series, but got the Giants off on the right track this time around with seven innings of three-hit ball to improve his career record against L.A. to 11-4 with a 2.36 ERA. He and reliever Juan Gutierrez combined to author only the fifth shutout of the Dodgers this season, fewest in the majors.
The 25-year-old Bumgarner, who has two World Series wins on his resume, struck out nine to run his season total to a career-best 208, the most ever by a San Francisco lefty.
"Bum's thrown a lot of these important games and he's a guy we want out there," manager Bruce Bochy said. "When you have a series like this, we had the right guy starting for us and he got us off to a great start, but the bats did it for us tonight too."
The Giants came in with the majors' most prolific offense since the All-Star break, averaging 4.74 runs a game, and nearly matched that figure in a first-inning explosion sparked by rookie second baseman Joe Panik's double. The four-run outburst featured RBI hits by Buster Posey, Hunter Pence, Joaquin Arias and Brandon Crawford.
Crawford and pinch-hitter Travis Ishikawa later homered to turn the game into a rout.
Ryu was long gone by then, and his availability for the rest of the season now becomes a major concern for a club that relies heavily on its Big 3.
Ryu said he felt some discomfort while warming up and it intensified when he faced Posey, who drove in the game's first run with a double. The pain and stiffness, he said, felt similar to the shoulder injury that sidelined him from April 28-May 21.
Another absence of that length would knock him out for the rest of the season and the early part of the playoffs, but Ryu didn't want to look that far ahead. Then again, looking back at Friday's game didn't make him feel much better.
"It's one of the most important games of the season today. I knew that very well," Ryu said. "As a starting pitcher, giving up four runs in the top of the first inning, giving that burden to my teammates, was a very ugly feeling. I feel very sorry that I couldn't do better, but I'm very motivated to come back and try to help my team win."
Follow Jorge L. Ortiz on Twitter @jorgelortiz.