Dodgers continue their slow fade, shut out for 15th time in 3-0 loss to Giants
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
It could have been a gift from the baseball gods, the Padres’ sudden collapse. They’re playing like the team most suspected they were back in April, not the one seen the past five months.
And still the Dodgers could not respond, could not embrace their unexpected blessing and make one last, stirring charge.
The Padres have inexplicably lost 10 consecutive games. A huge door, suddenly opened to all in the National League West.
Only the Dodgers could not step through, going 4-6 during that same stretch after Sunday’s flat-looking 3-0 loss to the Giants.
The Giants, meanwhile, are now breathing down the Padres’ necks, their victory leaving them only one game back in the National League West.
The Dodgers’ offense, a huge disappointment for most of the season, again looked feeble.
They were shut out for the 15th time this season, tops in baseball.
Even against a pitcher they’ve owned -- Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez -- they went meekly.
Sanchez was 0-5 with a 6.04 ERA lifetime against the Dodgers coming into Sunday, but held them to three hits in seven innings, striking out nine and walking one.
Sanchez (10-8) made it look easy, the Dodgers playing exactly like a team eight games back in the division and nine in the wild-card race, and with only 25 games to go.
Sergio Romo kept the Dodgers at bay in the eighth, and Brian Wilson in the ninth to earn his 40th save.
The middle of the Dodgers’ order has disappeared of late. Matt Kemp is in a one-for-13 skid and struck out three times Sunday. Andre Ethier is in a one-for-19 streak. Neither has driven in a run in their last eight games.
Hiroki Kuroda again pitched well for most of the night.
The Giants got to him for one run in the second on a walk, a wild pitch, a single by Jose Guillen and a sacrifice fly by Pablo Sandoval.
It remained a taut 1-0 game until the seventh, when Sandoval singled and Juan Uribe hooked a two-run home run just inside the left-field foul pole.
Kuroda (10-12) pitched over seven innings for his sixth consecutive start. He allowed six hits and three walks (two intentional), and struck out eight.
-- Steve Dilbeck