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For the superstitious set, this Friday the 13th was indeed unlucky for the Dodgers as they lost to the Giants 4-2.
It's bad enough to lose to the Giants, but the Dodgers lost another player to injury. After Andre Ethier hit a double down the first base line in the eighth inning he pulled up as he was getting to second base, an aggravation of a left ankle injury that's been bothering him for over a week since the Colorado series.
"I didn't feel like I could score from second, so we needed to get someone else out there who could," Ethier said. Dee Gordon came in to pinch run.
Ethier couldn't pinpoint how exactly he injured his ankle but thought an overswing on an inside pitch could have been the culprit. Nonetheless he didn't seem too worried after the game about his prognosis.
"Tomorrow I'll see how it feels when I come here," Ethier said.
Add to this Hanley Ramirez who left Thursday's game in the seventh inning. An MRI indicated a nerve irritation in his back. Ramirez received a cortisone injection and is expected to be back in the lineup on Monday. Despite all the talk about Ramirez's hamstring being the problem, the nerve irritation diagnosis made sense to Mattingly.
"When Hanley came back from the hamstring, he'll tighten up then the next day he's fine," Mattingly said. "It really makes a lot more sense to us."
And then came this story Mattingly told.
"About four days ago, I talked to [Ramirez] out by the field. He was throwing the balls unbelievably. I told him his arm feels good. He told me his legs feel good. Then he said he felt like it was a nerve. He was right."
Spooky.
Then there was the hard-luck loser Clayton Kershaw who really returned to form. From the start of the game he was throwing his fastballs for strikes, a marked difference from his last four starts where he had to labor a bit to get through an outing.
"It definitely felt really good," Kershaw said. "I felt like I was ahead of hitters all night long. As far as that stuff goes, I felt like I was better."
Kershaw was right. He had a first-pitch strike to all but two of the 28 batters he faced in the game.
His undoing came in the seventh inning after the Dodger clean-up hitter Juan Uribe hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning off of Giants starter Madison Bumgarner to break the scoreless tie. Yes, you read that correctly. Juan Uribe was the Dodgers clean-up hitter, the 26th time in his career he started in the four-hole.
Hunter Pence, Pablo Sandoval, Joaquin Arias and Brett Pill all got singles off of Kershaw to give the Giants the 3-2 lead before an out was recorded in the seventh.
"They found some holes, and they battled me," Kershaw said. "They got some big hits when they needed to."
Still Kershaw was upset that he let the team down. When told that Arizona lost bringing the Dodgers magic number to four, he said, "It should have been three."
A day after spurning the ravenous San Francisco media who were hungry for a quote or two, former Giant Brian Wilson spoke today. However only one member of the San Francisco media was on hand to take part of the festivities.
There wasn't anything revelatory or anything. How did it feel pitching against your former team? How is your arm? You know, the standard questions asked in the 500 other Brian Wilson stories you'll be reading.
There was only one quote worth repeating. "I just go out there, do my job and get it over with." What more needs to be said?
Giants Scorecard: (click to embiggen)
Dodgers Scorecard: (click to embiggen)
