If the first week is any indication, the Giants and Dodgers are going to produce plenty of exciting baseball this season.
The rivals wrapped up their four-game series Sunday with another doozy. The Giants overcame a huge first-inning deficit to rally for a 9-6 win to take three out of four against Los Angeles in their opening home series of the year.
The Giants blasted three home runs in the win and already have 14 bombs in their first seven games, including eight in the first four at AT&T Park. Last season, it took them 22 games to reach 14 homers, and their eighth at AT&T Park didn’t come until May 3.
Brandon Belt and Angel Pagan joined Buster Posey in going deep, which means after the season’s first week, every player from the opening day lineup has at least one home run.
The offense was needed on a day Johnny Cueto pitched seven innings but almost didn’t make it out of the first in his home debut with the Giants.
The Dodgers batted 1.000, going 5 for 5 with a hit by pitch, walk, sacrifice fly and sacrifice bunt, their first turn through the order. Chris Heston began warming up in the bullpen after an Austin Barnes bunt single that made it 5-0 with one out and two men on in the inning.
Cueto escaped the jam by getting Chase Utley to fly out and give himself a chance to settle in, which he certainly did.
The Giants scratched back with two runs in the first to show some life, then flexed their muscle in the third inning.
Kazmir hung a floating changeup over the middle that Posey clobbered for his second home run of the year.
After Hunter Pence singled, Belt celebrated the $72.8 million extension he signed Saturday by hitting his first home run of the season. It was his third in eight career at-bats against Kazmir.
The Dodgers tagged Cueto for a run in the fourth to regain the lead, but that was quickly erased with some more power from the Giants.
Pagan, who didn’t hit a home run last year until September, took Kazmir deep to tie the game again. It was his first home run as a right-handed batter since May 2, 2014.
The Giants finally pulled ahead in the sixth inning, and Pagan got it started with a leadoff double. Span reached on an infield single before Joe Panik doubled over the head of center fielder Joc Pederson to make it 8-6. Pence produced another run with a sacrifice fly.
That helped deliver the once improbable - put Cueto in line for the win.
He settled in remarkably after that first inning, allowing just the one more run and five more hits.
He finished with eight strikeouts while completing seven innings for the second straight start. He’s the only Giants pitcher this year to pitch at least seven innings in a game.
Santiago Casilla got a chance to immediately make amends for Saturday’s blown save and did so with a perfect ninth inning.
RESULTS
Toronto 3 Boston 0        
Philadelphia 5 NY Mets 2               
Cincinnati 2 Pittsburgh 1               
Washington 4 Miami 2               
St. Louis 12 Atlanta 7               
Baltimore 5 Tampa Bay 3               
Milwaukee 3 Houston 2               
Kansas City 4 Minnesota 3 (10 innings)
LA Angels 3 Texas 1               
San Francisco 9 LA Dodgers 6               
Chicago Cubs 7 Arizona 3               
Oakland 2 Seattle 1 (10 innings)
Colorado 6 San Diego 3