Giants 10, Dodgers 9 (10)
SAN FRANCISCO -- Pinch-hitter Guillermo Quiroz smacked a home run off Brandon League with one out in the 10th inning and the San Francisco Giants overcame a seventh-run fifth inning by the Los Angeles Dodgers to beat their National League West rivals 10-9 on Saturday night.
In beating the Dodgers in walk-off fashion for the second night in a row, the Giants capped their 11th come-from-behind victory of the season, thanks to Quiroz's heroics.
The win was the Giants' fifth in a row and allowed them to remain in a first-place tie with the Colorado Rockies in the National League West.
Quiroz, batting for winning pitcher Santiago Casilla (3-2), fell behind League (0-1) 0-2 before sending a shot into the left-field bleachers for his first home run of the season.
The game produced its nightly dose of injury news for the Dodgers, who placed shortstop Hanley Ramirez on the disabled list with a strained left hamstring. His replacement, minor-league call-up Dee Gordon, contributed a triple, single, two runs scored, two RBIs and two stolen bases.
The Dodgers also played without first baseman Adrian Gonzalez (sore neck) for a second consecutive day and then lost utilityman Jerry Hairston Jr. to a leg strain as he was scoring on a Matt Kemp hit in q seven-run fifth inning.
The Giants had a casualty of their own, with leadoff man Angel Pagan having to leave the game in the sixth with a right hamstring strain. Francisco Peguero, hitting for the first time since being recalled from Triple-A Fresno on Friday, doubled and scored a run in the seventh as Pagan's replacement.
After a wild first 4 1/2 innings in which 14 runs were scored, the Giants used a home run by Andres Torres in the fifth and a two-out, bases-loaded wild pitch by Dodgers reliever Paco Rodriguez to tie the score at 8-all.
The teams traded runs in the sixth, with Carl Crawford and Pablo Sandoval getting RBIs on outs, to send the game forward tied at 9 and set up the dramatic finish.
In an attempt to become the first Giants starter to post a win since April 21, Ryan Vogelsong was staked to a 5-0 lead after two innings and appeared headed for his second victory of the season when he took a 6-1 advantage into the fifth. But by the time he was pulled eight batters into the inning, his ERA -- sixth worst in the NL at the start of the day -- had ballooned even higher.
Kemp's two-run single got the big inning rolling, and two-out, RBI hits by Skip Schumaker and Juan Uribe pulled the Dodgers to 6-5 before Giants manager Bruce Bochy replaced Vogelsong in favor of Jean Machi.
That only added fuel to the Dodgers' fire as Gordon greeted Machi with a liner to right center that Giants right fielder Hunter Pence lost in the lights while attempting a sliding catch. The ball went for a two-run triple, putting LA on top 7-6.
When Nick Punto, who had walked as a pinch-hitter to begin the uprising, doubled in Gordon, it was a seven-run inning and a two-run Dodgers lead.
Vogelsong, who brought a 6.23 ERA into the game, allowed seven runs in 4 2/3 innings. He got no decision. He was touched for nine hits, including an A.J. Ellis home run for the Dodgers' first run in the fourth.
Dodgers right-hander Matt Magill, making just his second big-league start, was gone even earlier. On the heels of a three-run Giants first inning, he couldn't survive a two-run second, giving up six hits and four walks among the 14 batters he faced.
Buster Posey and Gregor Blanco combined to drive in four of the runs against Magill.
The twilight (6:05 p.m. PT) starting time contributed to Magill's disastrous night. The first batter he faced, Pagan, hit a routine fly ball that Kemp, the Dodgers' center fielder, never saw in the sun and the ball dropping for a double.
Posey's two-run double, which one-hopped the fence in left center, followed walks to Marco Scutaro and Sandoval and did the 43-pitch inning's most damage. A third run scored on Blanco's infield single to deep shortstop.
Five batters into the second, Magill was gone and replaced by left-hander J.P. Howell, who escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam with minimal damage, a sacrifice fly by Blanco that made it 5-0. Scutaro had scored earlier in the two-run inning on a Magill wild pitch.
Blanco made it 3 for 3 in run-producing at-bats in the fourth, scoring Sandoval for a third time with fielder's choice grounder to shortstop. The run offset Ellis' homer in the top of the fourth and re-established a five-run cushion for Vogelsong, which was gone -- and more -- an inning later.
NOTES: The series finale will be ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball featured game, with the Dodgers' Hyun-Jin Ryu (3-1) facing the Giants' Matt Cain (0-2). ... The Giants have swept a series from every National League West opponent other than the Dodgers already this season. ... Ellis began the night with the second-highest career batting average (.338) among all active Giants opponents with at least 75 at-bats against the club. ... The Dodgers replaced Ramirez on the active roster with another shortstop, Gordon, who was recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque. Gordon was leading the Pacific Coast League in steals (14) at the time of his promotion. He was immediately inserted into the starting lineup, batting eighth. ... Not all Dodgers injury news is bad. After a healthy, if unspectacular, rehab start Wednesday for Albuquerque, the Dodgers plan to recall Chris Capuano from the disabled list to start the opener of a nine-game homestand Monday against the Diamondbacks.
