Pence earns Giants big MLB win over Dodgers

Hunter Pence’s seven RBIs help San Francisco win 19-3 – the most runs Dodgers' opponents ever scored at Chavez Ravine.

Hunter Pence hit a grand slam against the Dodgers on Saturday night. Stephen Dunn / Getty Images / AFP
Powered by automated translation

LOS ANGELES // Never before had the Los Angeles Dodgers seen a game like this at Dodger Stadium.

The NL West leaders are hoping they do not have to watch a repeat performance any time soon.

Hunter Pence’s grand slam and career-high seven RBIs helped the San Francisco Giants romp 19-3 on Saturday night – the most runs a Dodgers opponent has ever scored at Chavez Ravine.

Brandon Belt also homered and set career highs with five hits and six RBIs during the Giants’ 22-hit attack.

“This was one of those games. We’ve probably had four or five of them all year,” manager Don Mattingly said. “I think it’s probably a lot easier to write one of these off than it is to blow a two-run lead in the ninth, a game you really should have won. We really didn’t have a chance to win this game.”

The Dodgers’ magic number for clinching the West title remained at four.

The last time the Dodgers allowed 19 runs at home was on September 12, 1961, when Philadelphia won 19-10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in a game started by none other than Sandy Koufax. Dodger Stadium opened the following season.

The Giants posted their highest-scoring game since a 23-8 rout at Atlanta on June 8, 1990. It was the biggest run total against the Dodgers since the Cubs beat them 20-1 at Wrigley Field on May 5, 2001.

“Any time something significant like that happens, it’s something to be grateful for and something to be humbled by,” Pence said. “It’s a good feeling, but we’ve got to remember it’s just one win. We had a lot of good at-bats and a lot of good swings.”

Ricky Nolasco (13-10) gave up seven runs on seven hits and three walks in 1 1-3 innings. Errors by third baseman Juan Uribe and center fielder Yasiel Puig hurt him, too.

“It was a sloppy game all the way around,” Nolasco said. “I felt great, that’s the funny thing about this game. Things just didn’t go our way today and some balls found spots. It wasn’t my day, it wasn’t the team’s day.”

The reigning World Series champions scored three times in the first, including an RBI single by Pence. Tim Lincecum got to bat before he ever threw a pitch, grounding out after a bases-loaded walk to Brandon Crawford.

“Things like this happen. If this was happening regular, I’d maybe say I had some concerns,” Mattingly said. “But as good as Ricky’s been pitching – and he has one bad outing – I can’t say I’m really concerned. They had his number, but anybody we sent out there ... it was just one of those nights.”

Pence hit a two-run single in a four-run second. He added his fourth career slam in the fifth against Stephen Fife, connecting exactly one year after his previous one. His 23rd homer made it 12-1.

Lincecum (10-13) won his fourth consecutive decision. The two-time NL Cy Young winner allowed three runs and five hits over six innings and struck out six. It’s the first time Lincecum has won more than three straight decisions since a five-game string in early 2010.

Lincecum also singled twice and scored two runs.

Alex Castellanos, the pinch-hitter, recalled by the Dodgers from Triple-A Albuquerque earlier in the day, homered on the first pitch he saw in the fifth.

Two pitches later, Lincecum plunked Puig, drawing lusty boos from the sellout crowd of 53,062. Puig ended up scoring on Adrian Gonzalez’s RBI single.

“You never want to see a ball go at some guy’s head, even if you’re trying to pitch there,” said Lincecum, who has hit five batters in his 30 starts. “And I wasn’t really trying to pitch there, so that’s kind of what made it scary. So I was just gesturing to make sure he knew that I wasn’t intentionally doing it – because head shots are scary.”

The Giants scored twice in the seventh and added three runs in the eighth. San Francisco scored two more in the ninth before Dodgers reliever Brandon League retired pinch-hitter Tony Abreu on a bases-loaded, double-play grounder.

sports@thenational.ae