LOS ANGELES — An evening that began with Clayton Kershaw’s emotional farewell address ended with what the Dodgers left-hander said he will miss the most when he retires at the end of this season, his 18th in the big leagues – “the feeling after a win, celebrating with [the] guys.”
The Dodgers got another strong start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, survived a harrowing seventh inning from their shaky bullpen and somehow managed to defeat the San Francisco Giants, 2-1, on Thursday night despite issuing 10 walks.
The win pushed the Dodgers’ National League West lead to three games over the San Diego Padres with nine games to play and reduced their magic number to clinch the division title to six. The Giants fell three games behind the New York Mets for the third and final NL wild-card spot.
Charity began at home – literally – for the Dodgers, who took advantage of Giants catcher Patrick Bailey’s error to snap a scoreless tie in the sixth inning.
Miguel Rojas opened the sixth with a single to center field off Giants starter Logan Webb. Ben Rortvedt grounded into a fielder’s choice, and Shohei Ohtani lined a double off the base of the right-field wall, putting runners on second and third with one out.
Mookie Betts chopped a grounder to charging shortstop Willy Adames, who threw home in time to get Rortvedt, but Bailey was unable to secure the ball before swiping his tag on Rortvedt, who scored on the miscue for a 1-0 lead.
Freddie Freeman grounded an RBI single to center to score Ohtani for a 2-0 lead and advance Betts to third. But Max Muncy flied out to shallow left, Betts holding, and Adames made a spectacular backhand diving catch of Teoscar Hernández’s shot to the hole and bounced his throw to first in time to end the inning.
The cheers that accompanied the sixth-inning rally quickly turned to groans in the top of the seventh when struggling Dodgers reliever Michael Kopech walked Jung Hoo-Lee and Bailey to open the inning before striking out Drew Gilbert.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts replaced Kopech with Blake Treinen, who walked Heliot Ramos to load the bases and Rafael Devers to force in a run, cutting the Dodgers’ lead to 2-1.
But Treinen snuffed out the rally by whiffing Adames looking at a full-count 96-mph sinker that nicked the outside corner and Matt Chapman swinging at an 85-mph sweeper that was way outside.
Dodgers left-hander Anthony Banda retired the side in order with one strikeout in the eighth, and left-hander Alex Vesia struck out two of three batters in a scoreless ninth for his fifth save.
Yamamoto blanked the Giants on one hit and struck out seven in 5⅓ innings, but it was a struggle throughout for the right-hander, who needed 108 pitches to record 16 outs and set a career high with his sixth walk in the sixth inning.
Yamamoto needed eight pitches to retire the first two batters of the game and 17 pitches to notch the final out of the first inning, San Francisco drawing two walks before Bryce Eldridge swung through a 75-mph curveball for strike three.
Yamamoto struck out five of 11 batters in the third through fifth innings, four with his low-90s split-fingered fastball, before walking Adames to open the sixth.
Adames stole second, and Chapman struck out on a 78-mph curve. Roberts pulled Yamamoto in favor of left-hander Jack Dreyer, who got Eldridge to line out to right field and struck out Casey Schmitt with a 93-mph fastball to end the inning.
Yamamoto lowered his ERA to 2.58 on the season and 1.77 in his last six starts, a stretch in which he’s allowed eight earned runs in 40⅔ innings, but a lack of run support left him with another no-decision.
The Dodgers have scored three runs or fewer in 15 of Yamamoto’s 29 starts and only 58 runs while he was in the game.
More to come on this story.