Little help for Ty Blach.
LOS ANGELES — The games and the season series have been so close. The Dodgers have won six, the Giants six. Both games at Chavez Ravine this weekend have been close, the Dodgers winning with a seventh-inning comeback Friday night, then holding on for a 2-1 victory Saturday.
Someone who had not paid attention to the rest of the season might have watched these games and wondered how the Dodgers could be 33½ games ahead of the Giants in the National League West.
The ninth inning was the tell. The Giants, down a run, put three runners on base against Kenley Jansen, the league’s best closer, yet could not score.
Hunter Pence hit into a firstpitch double play after Miguel Gomez’s leadoff infield single. Buster Posey’s subsequent walk and Brandon Crawford’s single went for naught when Jae-Gyun Hwang struck out to end the game. Manager Bruce Bochy had a left-hander on the bench, Joe Panik, but stuck with Hwang because he has a “nose for RBIs.”
It’s impossible to say for sure, but with 30 comeback wins already, the Dodgers probably would have found a way.
The Giants’ challenge between now and next season is finding the right combination of players to turn these competitive games into wins and make noncompetitive ones competitive. If they fail to fix that, they will be looking up at the Dodgers for a long time.
“Our pitching and offense have not really worked well together,” Bochy said. “You look at the pitching numbers, and we’re toward the bottom. You look at the offensive numbers, and we’re near the bottom. That doesn’t work.”
A lot can happen in the hours before the trade deadline, but given a strong buyers’ market the prospects of a differencemaking deal before 1 p.m. PDT on Monday seem slim.
Contenders are focusing on front-line starters and back-end relievers. Right-hander Johnny Cueto might have been on the move had he not gone on the disabled list. He will not be sharing handshakes and goodbye hugs Monday. He will be in San Jose making a rehab start.
Madison Bumgarner was supposed to pitch in Oakland on Monday, but has been advanced a day and will face the Dodgers on ESPN “Sunday Night Baseball.” Matt Cain will face the A’s instead.
The Giants surely have gotten calls on Ty Blach, but the Giants have to hold onto him if only because he has the Dodgers pegged.
Blach faced Los Angeles for the fifth time Saturday, his first career start at Dodger Stadium, and held L.A. to two runs in seven innings. He has allowed five runs in 30 innings against the Dodgers, for a 1.50 ERA.
Saturday, Blach was staring at an early knockout. But with one out in the first inning, a run in, the bases loaded and Yasiel Puig at the plate with a 3-2 count, Blach threw a changeup that Puig chopped toward the mound. The onetime minorleague Gold Glove pitcher leaped to spear the ball and threw home to start a double play.
Blach could be around for a long time. So could the Dodgers’ Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger. They could spar for years, to the benefit of this ancient rivalry. Blach would like that.
“For sure,” he said. “Facing the best of the best, that’s always the goal as major-league players. Knowing these guys are up and coming and going to be around for a while, it’s going to be fun to compete against them.”
Seager had been 0-for-5 against Blach before a three-hit game Saturday. His doubles in the first and third innings led to the two Dodgers runs.
The Giants’ only run came on Pence’s fourth-inning home run against Rich Hill. They had only three other hits, Gomez’s and Crawford’s singles in the ninth off Jansen and a Gorkys Hernandez single in the fifth off Hill.