S.F. gets 3 in the 11th to prevail, take series
Samardzija subdues L.A. through 8 and bullpen clicks
LOS ANGELES — On the night Vin Scully was immortalized with a plaque alongside the retired numbers, the Giants and Dodgers paid homage to the retired announcer by staging the kind of pitching duel that evoked memories of Marichal, Perry, Koufax and Drysdale in the 1960s.
The Giants also harkened to a day when they could win a series, scoring three runs in the 11th inning to beat Los Angeles 4-1 and take two of three, their second series win of the season.
Gorkys Hernandez brought his .169 average to the plate in the 11th and got the huge hit the Giants could not find all night, a double off left-hander Grant Dayton that scored Joe Panik.
The Giants got tack-on RBIs from Brandon Belt with a single after he walked four times and Hunter Pence’s sacrifice fly on a great diving catch by center fielder Andrew Toles.
Panik had to be the most relieved Giant inside Dodger Stadium after he made a killer error that led to the only run against Jeff Samardzija in one of the Shark’s best career games.
Samardzija held the Dodgers to two hits in eight innings and struck out 11, matching his most with the Giants.
Derek Law and Steven Okert maintained a 1-1 tie through the ninth and 10th innings. For the second time in the series, Okert got five outs, two on a Corey Seager double-play ball, and was rewarded with his first career win.
Mark Melancon got Seager to ground out with two on to save a win the Giants sorely needed.
For most of the night, this game was headed for Giants heartbreak.
Panik dropped a Yasiel Puig pop-up for a three-base error to start the sixth inning, Puig scoring one on of the two hits off Samardzija, a pinch groundball single by Chris Taylor.
The Giants got a huge break, too, after Pence’s leadoff single in the eighth. The Dodgers’ infield conceded the tying run by playing back on Buster Posey, who got the RBI with a groundball.
Wednesday’s game concluded a stretch of 29 games in which the Giants faced National League West competitors 27 times.
Samardzija looked nothing like a pitcher with the thirdworst ERA in the league at 6.32.
He allowed a single on his first pitch of the night. But after Posey threw out Andrew Toles trying to advance on a ball in the dirt, Samardzija retired 14 in a row and pitched to the minimum 15 hitters after five innings.
It should have been 16 when Puig popped the first pitch of the sixth inning high toward the right-field line. Panik ran a long distance to reach the ball, but he dropped it. As the ball rolled away, Puig made it to third to set up the Taylor RBI hit.
Samardzija’s night ended one batter after he made a tremendous defensive play in the eighth inning. Belt made a fine play himself running far to his left to field a Puig bouncer. Belt’s throw to the bag was high, but Samardzija donned wide-receiver cleats, made a leaping catch and hit the bag ahead of Puig.
L.A. left-hander Julio Urias, who legally cannot buy a drink until August, made his second start of the season after holding the Giants to a run on four hits in 52⁄3 innings in China Basin last Thursday.
The Giants fared worse Wednesday. They put eight runners on base in Urias’ five innings and failed to score, stranding six and hitting into two double plays.
Their best chance to get the kid was fifth, when Panik crushed one to right-center and survived one of Puig’s cannon throws for a double. Urias walked Hernandez and Belt with two outs to load the bases, but Pence flied out.