SAN FRANCISCO — The Dodgers tout Yoshinobu Yamamoto as a Cy Young award contender, and every one of his starts has been a quality start, including the one he made here Tuesday.
The Dodgers talk up Shohei Ohtani as a Cy Young award contender, and Ohtani has given up one run all season. He pitched six shutout innings here Wednesday.
But the pitcher who delivered the best start of this series against the San Francisco Giants, and the one that stood tall between the Giants and what would have been a humiliating sweep, was Tyler Glasnow.
Glasnow stopped the Giants cold over eight innings, allowing one hit — a single — and facing one batter over the minimum in the Dodgers’ 3-0 win.
He has made 133 major league starts and 130 minor league starts, but he never has pitched a complete game. This could have been his chance, but the Dodgers decided a season-high 105 pitches from an oft-injured pitcher was enough for this afternoon.
Tanner Scott got the first save situation since the Dodgers lost closer Edwin Díaz to elbow surgery, and last year’s fallen closer redeemed himself for a day. He worked a perfect ninth inning for the first of what might be quite a few saves this season.
In 10 ⅔ innings this season, Scott has given up one run and one walk, with nine strikeouts. His earned-run average is 0.84.
The Dodgers concluded a 3-4 trip to Colorado and San Francisco, the teams projected to finish in the bottom two spots in the National League West. Up next: the Chicago Cubs, winners of nine consecutive games.
Ohtani went hitless again, but Dalton Rushing singled home one run in the second inning and Hyeseong Kim singled home another in the fourth. The Dodgers also scored on an error in the fourth.
Kyle Tucker, whose average had fallen to .233 entering play Thursday, ignited the two-run rally in the fourth with a double and delivered his first two-hit game in 17 days.
On the day after he said he had no answer to explain Tucker’s struggles, manager Dave Roberts tried a remedy. Roberts flipped Tucker with Freddie Freeman in the batting order, moving Freeman up to second and dropping Tucker to fourth and saying Freeman and Tucker would remain in those spots “for the foreseeable future.”
Said Roberts: “I definitely expect him to come out of it and hit, get on base and do what he’s done for many years. I just wanted to change it up, and felt like it was time.”
The Dodgers did not leave town without a hint of bad blood between them and their traditional rivals. On Tuesday, cameras caught Rushing muttering something after looking back at the Giants’ Jung Hoo Lee, who was in discomfort after an awkward slide at home plate. Rushing had tagged out Lee and was headed back to the dugout when he turned back to see Lee on the ground, then kept going.
Rushing did not play Wednesday. On Thursday, in his third plate appearance, Rushing was hit by a pitch from San Francisco starter Logan Webb.
Rushing did not appear pleased. When the following batter, Kim, grounded to second base, Rushing threw up his hands and slid away from the base to try and prevent shortstop Willy Adames from completing the double play.
The second-base umpire pointed at Rushing and awarded the Giants with the double play. The first-base umpire ruled the Giants had completed the double play anyway, since Adames’ throw beat Kim to first base.
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