San Francisco Giants pitcher Sean Hjelle (64) is relieved by San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler (19) in the third inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco, on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2022. (photo by Bay Area News Group)
Los Angeles (100-44). 7. 13 . 1
San Francisco (69-76). 2. 5. 1
Saturday, September 17, 2022
By Lewis Rubman
SAN FRANCISCO–The Los Angeles Dodgers came to work this evening looking for their 100th victory of the season. They got it.
The San Francisco Giants came to pay tribute to Hunter Pence, remember the glory days of the 2010s, and just maybe take a small step towards a .500 season. The Dodgers sent left hander Julio Urías (16-7, 2.30) to the mound.
The Giants played a bullpen game, starting with John Brebbia (6-1, 2.83), followed by Sean Hjelle, Alex Young, Jarlín García, Yunior Marte, and Cole Waite. The result was a dismal 7-2 loss for the Giants in a contest that was decided by the end of the third frame.
Urías threw six effective innings for the Dodgers before giving way to Tommy Kalhe. The southpaw from Culiacán held San Francisco to two runs, only one of which was earned, on five hits, one of which was a home run, and a base on balls, notching eight strikeouts in the process.
He threw 98 pitches, 65 of which qualified as strikes. He earned his 17th win against seven defeats and shrank his ERA to 2.27.
Before the ceremony honoring the adding of Pence’s plaque to the Giants Wall of Fame, the team recalled right handed pitcher Sean Hjelle and the promising outfielder Heliot Ramos from Sacramento and optioned outfielder Willie Calhoun and righty reliever Luis Ortiz to the River Cats.
Hjelle pitched the second frame of tonight’s contest after Brebbia pute down the visitors on one hit in the first. Ramos played in right field and batted in the ninth position and went hitless in four at bats.
When the Giants jumped out to a one run lead in the bottom of that inning you would have thought that they were the division winners going for the third digit in the win column and the Dodgers, the ex champs struggling for a shred of respectability.
San Francisco combined an infield hit, an error by shortstop Trea Turner, a stolen base by Thairo Estrada, and a botched double play attempt to achieve the tally and make Urías throw 22 pitches in the process.
The Dodgers corrected that misconception in their next turn at bat. Estrada had to race to the warning track to snag Max Muncy´s leadoff liner to left. Justin Turner smacked a single to right, and Trayce Thompson’s 11th home run of the year cleared the Bank of America advertisement in left center, a 421 foot blast of a 95mph sinker.
The Dodgers continued their relentless attack in the third. Treat Turner hit a solid single to right and, before Hjelle’s first delivery to Fredie Freeman, went to second on the rookie’s errant pickoff throw. With Freeman still at the plate, Turner took third on a passed ball.
He scored on Freeman’s single off the right field wall. More Dodgers crossed the plate on Will Smith’s grounder to third that laid down and died before Longoria could make a play on it, Muncy’s single to right, and Justin Turner’s single to center.
Add to that a walk to Trayce Thompson, and you get the end of Hjelle’s wobbly performance. Young entered the game with Los Angeles ahead 5-1 with the bases loaded, no one out, and Joey Gallo at the plate. He hit a grounder to Crawford, playing in the shift, that should have resulted in a double play.
But Crawford bobbled the ball, and all the Giants got was a force out at second. Since scorers aren’t allowed to anticipate a double play in that situation, Crawford wasn’t charged with an error.
Turner scored the visitor’s fourth run of the inning and sixth of the game. Hjelle had thrown 50 pitches in his 1+ innings long appearance, in which he surrendered six runs, all earned, on eight hits, and a walk. He got the loss, giving him a record of 0-2, 9.75.
After LA had batted around, the Giants hit the rusty Urías hard in the bottom of the third. David Villar showed warning track power in his fly to. left, and Wilmer Flores sent his 19th round tripper of 2022 over the Game Up sign in left center, 384 feet into the bleachers to give San Francisco its second run.
The Dodgers answered that in the fourth with an RBI single by Justin Turner that drove in Trea Turner. I guess Turner round’s fair play.
It was Jarlín García’s turn to try his turn on the mound in the fifth. His performance was the first successful one of the game for San Francisco. He held Los Angeles in check, allowing only a hit and a walk in his three inning stint on the mound.
Urías’s replacement, Kahle, fanned his first two batters in the seventh but then hit Estrada with a pitch and walked Villar. This brought Chris Martin, who closed the inning by getting Flores to pop out to Freeman, who made a nifty back to the plate grab of the ball.
Yunior Marte took over for García in the visitors half of the eighth and got them out in order. Martin stuck around to do the same to the Giants in the bottom of the inning.
Cole Waites held LA scoreless in the ninth with a little help from a pitcher’s best friend.
Justin Brihl closed out the game for Los Angeleswith a perfect ninth inning.
The Giants and Dodgers are scheduled to battle the elements and each other at 4:08 tomorrow afternoon in a nationally televised match up between LA’s leftly Andrew Heaney (3-2, 2.84) and SF’s righty Alex Cobb (6-6, 3.48)
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