On an emotional day at Dodger Stadium, the Los Angeles Dodgers earned a 2-1 win over the San Francisco Giants. The victory, in the aftermath of Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw announcing his retirement after this season, helped the Dodgers out in their postseason playoff push.
As for the Giants, it's a wrap.
Shohei Ohtani went 2-for-4 with two doubles and a run scored, helping keep Los Angeles focused in the right direction. The Dodgers are now three games ahead of the San Diego Padres, who lost to the New York Mets on Thursday at Citi Field, in the National League West Division.
The Dodgers have gone 7-3 in their last 10 games, winning two straight after Wednesday night's win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Giants starter Logan Webb was outstanding, going seven innings and allowing four hits and one earned run. He struck out five and walked one, but the Giants offense was nowhere to be found.
Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto went 5 1/3 innings, allowing one hit, no earned runs, and struck out seven. But his pitch count got up above 100 and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts chose to pull him.
It's not like the Giants didn't have chances to score. Dodger pitching walked 10 batters in total, putting San Francisco in prime position to really pile on the runs.
But the Giants did get a run despite only having one hit all night long, a single in the second inning off of Yamamoto. In the seventh inning, Dodgers relievers Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen almost gave up the game.
Treinen's bases-loaded walk allowed San Francisco to score its one run. Yet Treinen posted back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
Jack Dreyer got the win for the Dodgers while Alex Vesia got the save.
These two longtime rivals go at it again on Friday night in the midst of a four-game weekend series.