Giants 4, Dodgers 0: Baseball is pain

When I wrote the game thread yesterday, I might have been a bit presumptuous in asking for a win in San Francisco. When Mike wrote today’s thread, I thought he was well within reason to ask for a run. Alas, that seemed too big a task for baseball’s best offense, or something.

Here we are the end of this 3-game series in San Francisco, and the Dodgers didn’t score a run. Zero runs in three games and just two runs in their last 47 innings. It’s unfortunate because Clayton Kershaw looked (well, sounded, to me) the best he has all season. He was hurt by a grooved fastball to Madison Bumgarner for a home run (because why the hell not?) and a poor play at the plate by A.J. Ellis accounted for the only two runs of the day against him.

Kershaw’s final line: 7 1/3 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HR, 99 pitches, 67 strikes, 10/1 GO/AO.

The line looks worse than he actually pitched. Kershaw gave up a bloop single (the hell you say?) to Angel Pagan and a single to Buster Posey in the eighth inning before departing for Chris Hatcher. Hatcher threw one pitch, Hunter Pence hit it off his glove and the Giants got a third run on an infield single. That’s one of the many Giant ways they scored in this series. They got a fourth run off apparently-now-feared-hitter Brandon Crawford (seriously, he’s hitting well this season) to close the book on Kershaw.

The Dodgers fall to 24-15 with the loss, while the Giants improve to 23-18. The Dodgers return to action tomorrow at home against the Padres. Zack Greinke (5-1, 1.52 ERA) takes on Andrew Cashner (1-7, 3.24). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. Pacific time. The good news: The Dodgers play only four more games in ‘Frisco this season.

And in non-suck-game news …

#Dodgers say they have suspended Erisbel Arruebarrena for the remainder of this season "for repeated failures to comply with his contract."

— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) May 21, 2015

Pouting athlete getting paid millions of dollars to play a game won’t comply with his contract. There will be an appeal, but I’m guessing Erisbel Arruebarrena isn’t long for the Dodgers or Major League Baseball.