The Dodgers swept the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday with a 4-2 victory. The win extends their current streak to five games and puts them six games back in the NL West and seven games under .500.
Clayton Kershaw dominated the Giants in eight-plus innings on 104 pitches, allowing two runs on four hits with seven strikeouts. The two runs he gave up came off of a Buster Posey two-run homer in the fourth, his ninth home run of the season.
It was Kershaw’s first win since May 20th when he threw a complete game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Since that win he is 0-3 in six starts with two outings allowing just one run. He is now third in the National League in ERA.
The Dodgers offense had 12 hits for four runs, with Yasiel Puig, Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez and Juan Uribe with multiple hits. Ramirez started the scoring in the bottom of the third with an RBI single, bringing in Mark Ellis from second base.
The sixth inning was home to three more Dodger runs, with four hits, two stolen bases, and a wild pitch. Andre Ethier and A.J. Ellis both had RBI hits and A.J. Ellis scored on the wild pitch making the score 4-2.
Hanley Ramirez went 2-3 and has a nine game hitting streak, going 16-35 with 11 RBI and a six-game streak with a RBI.
Kershaw came into the game in the ninth for the complete game, but was pulled after giving up a single to Marco Scutaro. With Buster Posey up to bat Don Mattingly brought in Kenley Jansen to close out the game.
Jansen gave up single to Posey, and had hard fought at bats against Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval, but he managed to strike out both batters. He got the final out of the game on a bloop fly to shallow left field, giving the Dodgers the 4-2 victory.
The sweep knocks the Giants two games under .500 and they are now on a four game losing streak. The Dodgers trail them by just 2.5 games, how sweet it would be to see the defending World Series Champs in last place of the NL West.
