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 Second baseman Justin Turner homered twice, and the Dodgers moved
closer to winning their second straight National League West title
with a 4-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants before 49,251 fans
at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night.
Right fielder Matt Kemp, who celebrated his 30th birthday, also
delivered a home run for the Dodgers (90-68), who can clinch the
division crown with a win Wednesday over the Giants (85-72). Dodgers
ace Clayton Kershaw will start the series finale against San
Francisco's Tim Hudson.
"Obviously, a big win for us and it's all set up perfectly with
Kershaw going tomorrow night, and we're excited about it," said
Turner, who is batting .385 with three home runs and 10 RBIs in 15
games this month.
Dodgers starter Zack Greinke, unbeaten in his last seven starts, had
a solid outing, allowing two runs on six hits with five strikeouts
and no walks in eight innings. Greinke (16-8) has defeated the
Giants in all five of his starts this season. Greinke also is 11-0
in 14 starts against NL West opponents.
"He was sharp. He didn't really have a lot of real battle innings,"
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.
Closer Kenley Jansen pitched a scoreless ninth for his 44th save.
The Giants fell a game back of the Pittsburgh Pirates for the top
spot in the wild-card race. However, the Giants maintained a
five-game lead over Milwaukee for the second wild-card spot. They
can clinch a postseason berth with a win Wednesday or a loss by the
Brewers.
San Francisco's Madison Bumgarner, who had beaten the Dodgers in
three of his previous four starts this season, shook off a shaky
first inning, when he gave up two home runs (three overall),
including Turner's to lead off the game. Bumgarner also initiated an
incident in which both teams emptied their benches in the first
after plunking Dodgers center fielder Yasiel Puig with a pitch.
Bumgarner (18-10), who provided the sole production of the Giants'
scoring with a two-run homer, gave up four runs on six hits in 7 1/3
innings. He struck out five and also didn't walk a batter.
"He's really good and he's pitched really good against us," Turner
said. "But Zack was better tonight."
Turner, who started at second base in place of Dee Gordon, opened
the game with his first leadoff home run. He drove a 2-2 pitch by
Bumgarner into the bleachers in left field for a 1-0 lead.
It was then that Bumgarner hit the next batter, Puig, on the foot.
Puig, who was nailed by Jake Peavy on Monday, went down then jumped
up and started toward Bumgarner as the two yelled at each other. The
benches and bullpens cleared, but order was quickly restored.
"He'll know if it's on purpose. I'll make sure of that. Which it
wasn't. Obviously," Bumgarner told MLB.com.
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Puig and Bumgarner have history, exchanging words as Puig circled
the bases after homering off the left-hander earlier this summer.
"He looked at me and said ˜What are you looking at?'" Puig said
through an interpreter. "I reacted after that comment. Back in May,
I hit the home run off of him. We had a little back and forth there.
I'm not sure if that's kind of a continuation of what happened
tonight. I just reacted to what he said."
Giants manager Bruce Bochy said Bumgarner's competitive nature just
came out.
"He was already mad," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, referring to
the lead-off homer Bumgarner gave up to Turner. "Bum, he's a
competitor. There is so much intensity in his game when he pitches."
Kemp followed with his 24th homer, a two-run blast over the
center-field wall for a 3-0 lead with one out.
In the third inning, Bumgarner tagged Greinke for a two-run home run
to pull the Giants within 3-2. It was Bumgarner's fourth homer this
season, the most by a Giants pitcher since the club moved to San
Francisco.
However, all eyes will be on Kershaw and the Dodgers on Wednesday
night as they attempt to wrap up the division against their biggest
rival.
"The fans were awesome tonight and I know they're going to be even
louder tomorrow night," Turner said. "Hopefully, we can get it
done."
NOTES: Giants CF Angel Pagan will have season-ending surgery this
week to repair a bulging disk in his back, the club announced. Pagan
had missed six of the Giants' last seven games. He left in the sixth
inning of Friday's contest against the San Diego Padres after
experiencing tightness in his back and hasn't played since. ... The
Dodgers posted consecutive 90-win seasons for the first time since a
three-year run from 1976-78.
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