San Francisco Giants 3 Up, 3 Down: Third Straight Split

3 DOWN

1 – Extra Innings

The Giants’ pitching staff caught something of a break on Friday, getting an extra rest day because of a rain-out after their scheduled day off on Thursday. The pitching staff was fully rested for their 14-inning game on Saturday, and they needed a full nine innings from all eight of their relief pitchers. Four bullpen guys then covered the final four innings on Sunday.

This isn’t so much of a problem now, but those two games were the beginning of a stretch of nine games in nine days for the Giants. The team is still missing two of their big inning-eating arms, and they have leaned pretty heavily on the bullpen early on. They will need the starters to get through some more innings as they try to navigate the early part of the season without Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija.

2 – Chase Utley Still a Giant Killer

Chase Utley is 39 years old, but he’s still a thorn in the side of the Giants. In this two-game series, Utley kept menacing the Giants.

On Saturday, Utley doubled in the third inning and scored on a Chris Taylor single that tied the game at a run apiece. Later on, he tied the game again when he led off the seventh with a solo home run off Sam Dyson. The Giants were able to overcome that and eventually win in the 14th inning. He added another hit on Sunday, shooting a line drive to right field against Cory Gearrin. He then stole second base uncontested, but was stranded there in the end.

So far this season, Utley has five hits in 14 at-bats against the Giants.

3 – That Dodgers’ Defense, Though

Clayton Kershaw pitched very well on Sunday, but he wasn’t actually at the top of his game. The Giants’ lineup managed to make quite a lot of loud contact against Los Angeles’ ace, but the Dodgers’ defense played a tremendous game behind him and made so much of that loud contact for naught.

In the first inning, Austin Barnes, a catcher playing second base, took a hit away from Austin Jackson on a diving play to his left. In the third, center fielder Chris Taylor robbed Kelby Tomlinson of what probably would have been a triple and possibly could’ve been more, with a remarkable diving play in right-center.

In the sixth, Yasiel Puig started a double play with a sprawling catch in right field on a ball off Joe Panik’s bat. In the seventh, it was Joc Pederson’s turn to rob a hit, keeping Andrew McCutchen off the basepaths with a dive on a ball right in front of him.

Next: McCutchen has First Big Day as a Giant

Kershaw was still very good, but he needed some help from the guys behind him.