Giants draw closer to Dodgers as Hyun-Jin Ryu leaves with sore shoulder
SAN FRANCISCO – Mid-September, sky the color of faded jeans, hoodies the color of your Aunt Sara's hair (this month), the Dodgers in town, and evenings don't get much better than that for the locals at AT&T Park.
The ballgame started, and within minutes the NL West race had tightened, about the time Hyun-Jin Ryu's left shoulder had, too, and in fact about the only thing that hadn't tightened by the end of Friday night was the Dodgers' defense.
Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt wore a dusty path to and from the mound, and reliever Chris Perez's first pitch of the second inning struck the plate umpire's right shoe, which was a good three feet from where anyone had expected that particular fastball to go, and all along left-hander Madison Bumgarner did his slow-ride routine, dangling opportunities, tugging them away, just enough to stir up another chorus of "Beat L.A."
They did, too, by 9-0. And now the Giants are a game back.
They'll play five more games in the next 12 days, the Giants and Dodgers, and we'll have a pretty good idea by then what the Giants are. For now, they're the guys who built a 10-game division lead, and then dug a six-game deficit (in about two months), and once again are looking like the every-other-season heroes of this decade. That is, the team that does just enough, just often enough, with just enough passion and precision, to win ballgames. Big ballgames.
These Dodgers? We might never know. They could play to the end of September, to the end of October, through Christmas, and you'll still wonder how it worked, or why it didn't, because the results haven't matched the talent. Or, perhaps, because the talent hasn't matched the results.
They had a season to make it work. Two seasons, actually. Now they've got a couple more weeks to make it work. Their divas don't lead, so maybe it's time for them to follow or, minimally, to get out of the way. The manager has a clubhouse running off in all sorts of directions, which isn't necessarily fatal, and frankly can be amusing. But it sure looks different when they're in the same building as the Giants, and particularly when the Giants are pitching authoritatively and hitting baseballs into the bay, and the Dodgers are discovering Ryu's shoulder is sore again. All of which happened Friday night.
It's a challenge to watch the Giants and Dodgers and not think the NL West will be about the cultures as much as it is the baseball. Then along comes Bumgarner, and down goes Ryu, and maybe it'll be as simple as that. And, then, Clayton Kershaw still has two starts scheduled against the Giants, and his ERA in 173 innings against them is 1.40, and a 1.40 ERA has a way of cutting through cultures and other wispy ideas.
Before the Giants had drawn to within a game, that close for the first time since late July, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly had smiled at the notion he might really understand his team by now.
"No, I think I pretty much know what's going on," he said. "No, I don't want to explain it. It's different. It's a different group."
Pressed, he added, "I think they've answered the bell. I thought last year we played well. We've been playing OK."
Good energy, he said. Good attitude, he said.
"How it'll play out," he said, "I don't know."
He laughed.
"It's live theater," he said. "Every night. Except you don't know the ending here."
Giants manager Bruce Bochy, meanwhile, preached as Mattingly would, that the team that pitches, that makes plays, that flips a ball into left-center field with runners at second and third, that probably would be the one that avoids the drama of a wild-card game. It started on a cool Friday night here, and before the seagulls would arrive to pick over the remains, it was the Giants who pitched, who made plays, who had the big hits, and it was the Dodgers who'd be sending their starting pitcher for tests on his left shoulder. Ryu said he hoped it wasn't too serious, but that his shoulder felt a lot like it did when he missed three starts in late April and early May. Another round of that and he'd be done for the regular season, and 24-year-old rookie Carlos Frias could become very important.
"I'm more concerned we got punched in the mouth tonight and we've got to come play tomorrow," said catcher A.J. Ellis, who's always had a way of cutting to the important stuff.
The Dodgers had won six of eight games before Friday, and the Giants had won 13 of 16 and, well, here they are, a single game between them and a couple weeks to the end. Don't forget your hoodies.
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