Even on the rare occasions this season when Clayton Kershaw is not at his best, the Los Angeles Dodgers do not worry. They simply score more runs, pick him up in relief — and keep adding victories to a summer that is going superbly.
Trayce Thompson on Sunday drove in two runs and thrilled his older brother, Klay, with an RBI double during the decisive rally in the seventh inning as the Dodgers surged past the Giants 7-4 for their season-high eighth consecutive victory.
Unlikely cleanup hitter Jake Lamb delivered a tiebreaking RBI double during that three-run rally by the National League-leading Dodgers, who have won 15 of 16, 19 of 21 and 24 of 29.
Photo: AP
Los Angeles swept a four-game series with the Giants at Chavez Ravine for the first time since 1995 and only the third time in their long history.
“Certainly, we’re hot,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think that to win that many games speaks to that, but this is who we are when we play this type of baseball.”
Gavin Lux also drove in two runs as Los Angeles’ offense overcame a mediocre start by Kershaw to earn the club’s 11th consecutive victory at Dodger Stadium.
After Lux’s RBI single drove in Lamb in the seventh, Trayce Thompson’s drive to the right-center gap scored Max Muncy and pumped up Klay Thompson, the Golden State Warriors star, in his seat right behind the Giants’ dugout.
Freddie Freeman, Lux and Trayce Thompson had early RBI singles for Los Angeles, while Muncy added a run-scoring double.
Evan Phillips (5-3) pitched the seventh for the Dodgers, who got 4-2/3 innings of scoreless, two-hit relief culminating in Craig Kimbrel’s 17th save.
“We played great today, our whole team,” said Kershaw, who yielded four runs and failed to get through the fifth inning. “Bullpen did great. Didn’t give up any runs at all for that whole time. Offense did unbelievable today, really the whole series. Just [a] really great team win by everybody except me.”
Six weeks after the Giants swept a three-game series with the Dodgers in San Francisco and pulled within 3.5 games of Los Angeles atop the National League West, this sweep punctuated their 27-7 surge since then.
Darin Ruf hit a tying two-run homer in the fifth inning and Thairo Estrada had a two-run single for the Giants, who got swept at Chavez Ravine by a combined 25-13 after going into the break with seven wins in nine games.
“Not good enough,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said.
“Really frustrating. Just a level of play that’s just not going to be good enough for us. There’s no other way to classify it except as not good enough,” he said.
Alex Cobb yielded eight hits and four runs while pitching into the sixth for San Francisco. He is winless in nine starts since May 17.
“Probably as frustrating as it gets,” Cobb said. “Felt like we had a little momentum going into the break, and then we came out here and I feel like we were competitive in all the games, but we didn’t get it done.”
Journeyman backup Lamb doubled twice while batting cleanup for Los Angeles for the first time, and he came through against Tyler Rogers in the seventh.
After Freeman got a one-out double off Dominic Leone (3-3) when Yermin Mercedes could not make a tough catch on a tailing fly ball, Lamb’s drive to right bounced into the short porch.
Lux and Thompson followed with run-scoring hits.
Elsewhere, the Cubs pipped the Phillies 4-3, the Yankees blanked the Orioles 6-0, the Angels battered the Braves 9-1, the Mets mastered the Padres 8-5, the Blue Jays routed the Red Sox 8-4, the Reds crushed the Cardinals 6-3 and the Twins tamed the Tigers 9-1.
The Rangers defeated the Athletics 11-8, the Royals stung the Rays 4-2, the Nationals edged the Diamondbacks 4-3, the White Sox beat the Guardians 6-3, the Brewers downed the Rockies 10-9, the Astros sank the Mariners 8-5 and the Marlins pipped the Pirates 6-5 in 10 innings.
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