© Jayne Kamin-Oncea | USA Today
After two late wins, the Giants ran out of juice Wednesday night, falling to the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3. The loss came in similar fashion as the wins the Giants took over the Dodgers for the past two nights.
In the 11th, Casey Kelly took the mound for the Giants, four days after his five-inning shutout relief performance. He got out of the 11th without a problem, but failed to continue that success into the 12th. He allowed a leadoff double to Yasmani Grandal and a single to Max Muncy, leaving Dodger baserunners at the corners with no outs.
Then Brian Dozier came to bat and hit a deep sacrifice fly to center field, ending the game with a 4-3 Dodgers win.
While the Giants lost, they received outstanding relief pitching from two players who have struggled this season in Ty Blach and Mark Melancon.
After Blach pitched two shutout innings, Melancon entered the game for the Giants. After retiring his first two batters, Melancon walked Dozier and allowed a single to Justin Turner. Then a red-hot Manny Machado – 3-for-4 with an intentional walk – stepped up to the plate. With the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Melancon got Machado to chase, pushing the game to the 11th inning.
This came after the Giants created some more late-game magic.
Through seven innings, the team was shutout and recorded just three hits. Then, Andrew McCutchen – who was 0-for-3 – stepped to the plate with Hunter Pence on second and Chase d’Arnaud on first. On a pitch high and over the middle of the plate, McCutchen belted a three-run home run to deep left-center field to tie the game at 3-3.
Gorkys Hernandez kept the Dodgers off the scoreboard until the sixth inning, thanks to an incredible throw in the fifth. Hernandez threw a bullet to home plate to catch Dozier from second after a Matt Kemp single. Dozier was initially called safe, but both Buster Posey and Brandon Belt signaled to the Giants’ dugout immediately. After review, Dozier was called out, and Reyes Moronta relieved Derek Holland to get out of the inning unharmed.
But the Dodgers tacked on runs in both the sixth and the seventh innings. Moronta came back out in the sixth and allowed a leadoff double to Yasiel Puig. He recorded a pair of flyouts to right field, but Puig tagged on both to put the Dodgers up 1-0.
In the seventh, Ray Black had a nightmare start to his outing. He threw six straight balls – walking Turner – before Machado drove in Turner with a double. Machado scored to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead a batter later after Kemp singled. Black finished the rest of the inning without allowing another run.
Holland pitched just 4 2/3 innings after running up a high pitch count, starting with a 28-pitch first inning. He allowed six hits and four walks (two intentional), but managed to leave the game without relinquishing an earned run. It’s worth noting that no Giants pitcher was able to secure a 1-2-3 inning in the game.
The loss moves the Giants (61-61) back to .500.