May 15, 2017
Brandon McCarthy came off the disabled list on Tuesday for the Dodgers, but he endured a rough start as the Giants defeated LA 8-4 at AT&T Park on Monday night.
McCarthy (3-1) suffered his first loss of the season, pitching 5 2/3 innings and giving up 6 earned runs on 8 hits. That included a four-run fourth inning, when McCarthy allowed a 2-run infield single by Eduardo Nunez, and lost track of a base runner.
With the score tied 1-1 and runners on second and third, Nunez hit a broken-bat grounder up the middle, which Corey Seager fielded. Buster Posey scored from third on the play, but Brandon Crawford appeared in trouble when he didn’t stop at third and Seager hurried the ball to McCarthy on the mound.
However with his back to the plate, McCarthy didn’t see Crawford caught between third and home and instead focused on Nunez, who took a wide turn around first and didn’t stop. McCarthy had to wait to throw to second until Seager got back there and Nunez slid in safely, while Crawford easily scored the third run of the inning. Crawford began the inning with an RBI double as well.
Nunez then stole third when McCarthy failed to keep him close and scored on a sacrifice fly. The Giants would go on to add two more runs in the 7th inning on a solo blast from Buster Posey, off of Grant Dayton, and then an RBI double from Nunez.
The Dodger offense came very early and very late. Yasmani Grandal knocked in an RBI double to give LA a 1-0 lead, but the Dodgers wouldn’t score again until the 9th inning, when they were already down 8-1. Chris Taylor had an RBI double and Franklin Gutierrez added an RBI single, but the rally wasn’t nearly enough.
LA lost for the 5th time in 8 games against the Giants this season. Matt Cain (3-1) picked up his 2nd win of the season against the Dodgers. He gave up only 1 run on 5 hits in 6 2/3 innings. Cain also became the 12th Giants pitcher to reach the 2,000-innings mark with the franchise.
Game 2 of the series will be on Tuesday night at AT&T Park. Rich Hill (1-1) is set to come off the DL because of a blister to make the start for the Dodgers against Ty Blach (0-2).