Los Angeles Dodgers at a Loss?
The misery continues for the Los Angeles Dodgers as they just can’t seem to catch a break or win a game. If you are in a slump or just need a win to get back on track, playing the Dodgers is just what is needed. For instance, Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants used Sunday’s contest against the Dodgers to end one streak and extend another.
Cain, who was winless in his last eight starts against Los Angeles, finally earned his first victory against his West coast nemesis and extended the Dodgers losing streak to five with a 2-0 win at AT&T Park.
“You're at the stage now where every win is big," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.
The victory completed a series sweep for the Giants and evened the season series. Los Angeles swept the Giants last time around, but these aren’t the same Dodgers and these aren’t the same Giants. Both clubs are headed in completely different directions.
Los Angeles has fallen into fourth place in the National League West and find themselves 6 1/2 games behind the Wild Card leader San Francisco and trail first-place San Diego Padres by eight games.
"We really can't worry about that," manager Joe Torre said of the standings. "Unless we play better, we are where we deserve to be. We've got to change that and change our personality and our confidence before we concern ourselves with how far back we are."
Conversely, the Giants are 1 1/2 games behind the Padres in the National League West and two games ahead of Cincinnati in the Wild Card race.
“It's so exciting being where we are, so close to first place," Barry Zito said. "We're not going for the Wild Card. We're going for the whole deal."
The Giants are heating up at the right time winning 20 of their last 25 games. They are playing at a high level as of lately and the key has been mistake-free baseball.
Cain has also upped his game and he was rewarded with a long-awaited win over a ball club that had his number in the past. It was going to take his best effort to finally get the monkey off his back and Cain threw a season-high 124 pitches in 7 2/3 innings.
At that point, San Francisco had a two run lead which would hold up against the Dodgers. “Two runs in seven innings, for the most part that should keep you in the hunt." said Torre. "Right now two runs, unfortunately, is really a very tall mountain for us to climb."
Clayton Kershaw had a strong outing allowing six hits over seven innings. The problem was that he didn’t receive any support from the offence, which is nothing new, as the Dodgers have mustered a pedestrian two runs or fewer in nine of their last 11 games. But Kershaw was diplomatic about it and gave credit to his opponent on the mound rather than bash his teammates.
"He just pitched better than I did," Kershaw said of Cain. "One pitch and Renteria put a good swing on the ball. What are you going to do? Plenty of times you pitch five innings, give up four runs and get a win. I'm not worried about what the hitting does. My job is to put up zeros and he put up one more zero than I did. Earlier in the year, the offense picked up the pitchers. Right now the pitchers got to pick the hitters up. You'd like both to be clicking at the same time."
Brian Wilson was called to close the game and did just that. He struck out two batters including James Loney in the ninth to secure the win for Cain.
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