Giants have something to feel good about — win over Dodgers, Kershaw

SAN FRANCISCO — Drew Pomeranz recovered from a rocky first inning and the Giants managed to scratch for a pair of runs off Clayton Kershaw Friday night in a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers before a crowd of 35,157 at Oracle Park.

Pomeranz didn’t get the win, with the scoring coming after he departed following five scoreless innings. Reyes Moronta (3-5) was the winning pitcher, followed by Sam Dyson, Tony Watson and finally Will Smith in the ninth for his 14th save.

It was the first loss of the season for Kershaw, who came in with a 5-1 record. The Giants improved to 26-36 on the season, with the Dodgers falling to 43-21 and still holding a 8 1/2-game division lead.

The Dodgers didn’t score until the eighth when leadoff batter Chris Taylor hit a one-out, solo home run against Watson. Max Muncy followed with a single and Justin Turner lined out to short, but Watson got out of it by retiring Cody Bellinger on a fly to center.

The game was scoreless going in to the sixth, when the Giants broke through for two runs against Kershaw on a run-scoring single by Kevin Pillar and an RBI fielders choice by Brandon Crawford.

Brandon Belt opened the inning by drawing a walk, and a fortunate one at that, given he would have been retired on a foul fly to left had not Taylor tripped over the bullpen mound in pursuit. Evan Longoria followed with a single, and after Tyler Austin flied to right, Pillar’s single brought Belt in to score.

Kershaw then uncorked a wild pitch, moving the runners to second and third. Although the infield was in, Muncy couldn’t cut down Longoria at the plate as he scored to make it 2-0.

Pomeranz came in possibly pitching for his spot on the roster after a string of hideous games that left him with a 1-6 record and 8.08 earned run average.

Early on, it looked to be more of the same as the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out on singles by Muncy and Justin Turner and a walk on a close 3-2 pitch to Bellinger.

It was then that Pomeranz suddenly found himself, striking out David Freese and Corey Seager to end a 30-pitch inning, the start of a run of 10 consecutive batters retired. The Dodgers never got another runner past first base against Pomeranz, who paid the price for that first inning pitch count by being lifted after five innings scoreless innings having thrown 92 pitches.