The San Francisco Giants stretched their winning streak to seven consecutive wins after defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-3, sweeping their divisional rivals in a weekend series on Sunday afternoon at Dodgers stadium.
With the win, San Francisco (39-32) jumped into second place in the National League West over the Dodgers (39-33) who are only 3 1⁄2 games ahead of the fourth-place San Diego Padres.
“It’s not the ideal situation right now,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “Every day, we come in with the right attitude, right mindset. And by the end of the day, it’s another loss.”
Giants right-hand pitcher Logan Webb pitched seven innings of two-run ball and added five strikeouts as San Francisco earned their first sweep at Dodgers stadium since 2012.
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“He’s becoming one of the more durable and dependable starting pitchers in baseball,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “Every time out, he’s kind of making us feel (we can win), so that’s what a horse does.”
LaMonte Wade Jr. scored from third on a sac fly from Michael Conforto giving the Giants an early 1-0 lead in the fourth inning and Mike Yastrzemski singled to right to bring home Joc Pederson for a 2-0 advantage.
Wade Jr. had an RBI groundout in the fifth and the Giants proceeded to add four more runs in the sixth after the Dodgers surrendered eight hits total.
The Dodgers struggled on both sides of the ball, unable to catch a rhythm offensively by finishing the day two for 13 with runners in scoring position.
“When you’re not winning games, things get magnified,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think if you look back at this two-week stretch, there’s a lot of things we’re just not doing well. We’re not playing clean baseball, fundamental baseball. It goes back to, not just trying to win, but focusing on the little things.”
Dodgers right-hand pitcher Tony Gonsolin (4-2) gave up a career-high seven runs in 5 2/3 innings while holding the Giants scoreless through the first three innings.
“My execution really just suffered after that third inning,” said Gonsolin. “Balls left up in the zone. They got some soft hits that kind of just fell down and some hard hits that helped. Overall, the execution really just wasn’t there.”
Luis Matos stretched the lead out to 5-2 with a two-run double to left field, and Blake Sabol added the sixth run of the game with a single to center. Wade Jr capped off a seventh run with an RBI single to right field to put ahead the Giants 7-2 in the sixth inning.
“You can poke holes in what Tony did or didn’t do, but I think today across the board we just did some things that have come back to haunt us,” Roberts said.
The Dodgers tallied solo runs in the fourth and fifth innings but were unable to take advantage when they had the bases-loaded in the ninth, adding only one run after Will Smith was hit-by-pitch to cap a 7-3 loss for Los Angeles.
“I can’t tell you a specific answer of why this is happening,” Freeman said. “It’s just, we need to stop it and play better. That’s pretty much it. I know you want a specific thing to say. There isn’t. It’s just, we got beat at home, swept three games, and Tuesday we need to start playing better.”
