Month starts with win over Kershaw
Giants starter Johnny Cueto allowed three runs in seven innings against the Dodgers to get the win.
LOS ANGELES — A couple of dugout habitues said that Hunter Pence came off the field during batting practice Monday and said, “April showers bring May flowers.”
Was Pence serious? The Giants’ April showers were radioactive. This team could not string two good games together in the season’s first month, it could not score, home runs were a rumor and Clayton Kershaw was on its calendar for May 1.
Pence was serious enough to blast a rare hanging curveball from Kershaw into the leftfield pavilion in the first inning to propel the Giants to a 4-3 victory at Dodger Stadium that gave them some hope that they left their 9-17 April in a dumpster.
“All around, it was a nice win, especially after how it went yesterday, a good boost,” said Buster Posey, who also homered against Kershaw for his first extra-base hit since he took a pitch to the helmet during the April 10 home opener.
“How it went” Sunday was a 12-inning loss to the Padres after a blown save by Mark Melancon, who did not get a crack at redeeming himself in the opener of a nine-game trip.
After Johnny Cueto labored through seven innings despite a blister that he confessed has bothered him all season, he left with a 4-3 lead. Manager Bruce Bochy had Steven Okert get five outs before Derek Law struck out Yasiel Puig for a five-pitch save.
Bochy told Melancon before the game that he was off for the second time in three nights because he had pitched on four of the previous five days. This would have been six of eight. The Giants want to protect their $62 million investment.
“There’s a lot of baseball left,” Bochy aid. “I know every game is important, but we’ve got to take care of these guys.”
Okert started the eighth by retiring Corey Seager on a flyball. Okert buzzed through the next four Dodgers, too, before Law finished.
“He pretty much saved the game for us,” Law said of Okert. “He had the heavy hitters coming up. They pretty much had no chance with stuff like that. There’s nothing much you can say. Look at the boxscore on that one. He’s a good friend for letting me have the save.”
Bullpen intrigue can wait for another night. The story here was Pence and Posey hitting their second homers of the season in a win against Kershaw, who matched the most runs he has allowed against the Giants with four. Three were earned.
The Giants hit a league-low 16 homers in April. Only the Red Sox (15) were worse.
Pence hit his after Christian Arroyo singled. Arroyo is 3for-6 against Kershaw in two games. Posey’s third-inning homer broke a 2-2 tie after Cueto squandered a 2-0 lead, the tying run scoring in a maddening way for Cueto when Kershaw lined a two-out, 0-2 pitch to left to score Cody Bellinger.
Arroyo added an RBI single in the fifth.
Cueto was not about to blow two two-run leads his offense had built against one of the game’s best pitchers.
Through interpreter Erwin Higueros, Cueto said he told himself, “What the hell is going on? I need to go ahead and strap my pants up and start pitching.”
Cueto retired 13 consecutive Dodgers before Adrian Gonzalez’s single started a scoring rally in the seventh. With a run in, two outs and two on, Bochy went to check on Cueto.
Cueto talked Bochy into facing Anthony Toles and got him on a grounder to first.
“Johnny was good,” Bochy said. “He was nicked here and there, but he didn’t give in. He was out there teetering, but he made a great pitch to finish the job.”