Dodgers can’t find the right finish in 5-4 loss to Giants
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
The Dodgers had Giants ace Tim Lincecum down 3-0 and couldn’t hold it. They got a seventh-inning, pinch-hit home run by Marcus Thames to tie it and couldn’t hold it.
The Dodgers figure to have more frustrating defeats than Tuesday’s 5-4 loss to the Giants before the season ends.
On a chilly, breezy night that looked more like it belonged at old Candlestick Park, there were plenty of opportunities missed by the Dodgers.
If neither Lincecum nor Chad Billingsley were at the peak of their game, neither did they pitch poorly.
Still, the Dodgers managed to put four hits together around the Giants’ nightly fielding error to score three times against Lincecum in the fourth. Good times against the Giants continue!
The Giants scored a pair of runs in the fourth and fifth to take a 4-3 lead, and then the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out against Lincecum in the sixth.
That brought a call to the San Francisco bullpen and Guillermo Mota, the ex-Dodger who promptly struck out Rod Barajas and got weak-hitting Aaron Miles to pop up.
Thames’ pinch-hit home run tied it, but right-hander Blake Hawksworth gave it right back in the bottom of the inning. Aaron Rowand hit Hawksworth’s first pitch for a triple off the center field wall and then scored the winning run on a Hawksworth wild pitch that got past Barajas.
The bearded one, Brian Wilson, came in for the ninth and showed how to really close a game, striking out the side.
-- By Steve Dilbeck