Dodgers double up Giants to secure series win

SAN FRANCISCO – When the Los Angeles Dodgers win, there is a blueprint. Get a good six or seven innings out of your starter. Get ahead early. Feast on the bullpen. Shut down the opponents late. They pretty much checked every box in that playbook on Saturday afternoon at Oracle Park. Walker Buehler was sharp, they got two home runs and some timely hitting throughout the game, and Kenley Jansen shut the door with a slam in the ninth. Just like you draw it up on the blackboard. Their 6-3 win put them in a tie with the Giants, a game behind San Diego in the NL West.

Muncy puts it in the ocean

Just as they had on Friday night, the Dodgers called up Dr. Longball for an early lead. This time, it was Max Muncy who performed the honors in the top of the first against former Dodger Scott Kazmir, who was making his first big league start in five years. Kazmir, who is still pulling a Dodgers paycheck from his time with the club, actually pitched pretty well today. But in the very first inning, Max Muncy took a 1-1 changeup from Kazmir and ripped it deep down the right field line to land in the waters of McCovey Cove. The only question was whether or not the ball was fair. It was, and the Dodgers were on the board.

Paging Madison Bumgarner

The homer was very reminiscent of the time he took Madison Bumgarner deep a couple of years ago. He and Bumgarner jawed about the length of time necessary to admire the home run, and it was one of the more entertaining moments of the Dodgers/Giants rivalry of late. No fireworks today, but it was the start of another very good day for Muncy. The Funky Muncy went 3-4 on the day, and seemed to be on base every other inning. After a rough April, Muncy’s average is now .291.

Buehler goes seven

In his 25th consecutive start without a loss, Walker Buehler was once again sharp. He was efficient and relentless. He put up nothing but zeroes in the early going and allowed the Dodgers bats to get into the bullpen in the later innings and expand the lead. It was vintage Walker Buehler all afternoon.

Dodgers bat come alive against the pen

The score remained 1-0 while Kazmir was in the game for the Giants, but once the Dodgers got into the bullpen, they went to town. Austin Barnes started the fun in the fifth with a solo homerun. They added two more in the seventh with a Matt Beaty double to score Gavin Lux, and a nice RBI from rookie DJ Peters with a single to left that scored Beaty. Peters notched his second major league RBI, and his first ever two-hit game.

The Giants managed to push across a run against Buehler in the bottom of the seventh on an Alex Dickerson RBI single, but Buehler dug deep to finish his outing with back-to-back strikeouts of Mauricio Dubon and Darin Ruf to end the inning. Buehler had another quality start, scattering six hits on the day. Though he didn’t get quite as many strikeouts as he usually gets, he did induce a lot of soft contact, and got it done that way. The final line for Walker for the day: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 5 K.

Insurance in the eighth

The Dodgers continued to tack on in the eighth inning. Justin Turner reached on an outfield error to lead off the inning and was moved to third on yet another Max Muncy hit, this time a single. Then Albert Pujols (whose name I have typed a lot in his first week in blue) came to the plate. He muscled a single into left to easily score Turner. Then, after being lifted for a pinch runner, gave us one of the “awww” moments that we love in baseball:

The Dodgers put one more on the board before the inning was over when Austin Barnes laid down a perfect bunt to score Gavin Lux from third. It would turn out that the Dodgers would need those extra runs, as the Giants got two right back in the bottom of the eighth on a Buster Posey two-run jack off Alex Vesia. Though Vesia managed to settle down and get out of the inning with no further damage, he continues to struggle with his control. Definite low-leverage guy for now, and probably the first to be sent down once the pen is back to full strength.

Kenley. That’s it. That’s the headline.

In the ninth, we got another dose of Kenley Jansen, who came on to shut it down. And once again, he was a cold-blooded killer. It only took him ten pitches to put the Giants down in order, the last out coming on a harmless groundball to Gavin Lux. It was the 11th save of the season for the big man, and he hasn’t surrendered an earned run in May.

With the series victory in their pockets, the Dodgers send Julio Urias to the mound for the sweep on Sunday afternoon. The Giants counter with Anthony DeScalfani, who has been very sharp this year. Should be a great series finale before the Dodgers get an off day on Monday.