Despite gallant effort, pen fails to ruin Cueto gem

These guys can't do anything the easy way, can they? 

In a season that had seen the Giants trail in every contest, this time they struck early then had to hold on for dear life in a 4-3 win at Los Angeles.

Cueto twists and turns his way to a 3-0 start. (Chris Carlson / Associated Press)

Some shaky bullpen work threatened to ruin a gem pitched by Johnny Cueto, making his first appearance in the Wesr Coast rivalry. Cueto was masterful, toiling deep into the night and departing with a comfortable lead, but in the end it was a nail-biter as the relief corps struggled.

Denard Span stroked LA starter Scott Kazmir's second pitch of the game up the middle, then took second on a wild pitch in setting the stage for early success. Joe Panik's hopper eluded the glove of a (sort of) diving Chase Utley, and San Francisco had a quick 1-0 lead.

The Giants doubled that in the fourth. Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt opened with walks, and the Giants had runners at the corners when Matt Duffy bounced into a force play. Kike Hernandez, Friday's nemesis, then proved mortal on Brandon Crawford's fly to deep right. As Hernandez spun like loose change in the dryer, the ball dropped on the warning track and kangarooed over the wall for an RBI double.

It was station to station in the fifth, and that was enough to land Kazmir a seat. Panik dropped a soft liner into right, Buster Posey walked, and Pence singled to load 'em up with one out. Belt singled home Panik, making it 3-0 and ending Kazmir's night.

Duffy followed with a grounder that allowed LA to turn two, but it also cashed in Posey. The Dodgers got off cheaply enough, but San Francisco had a 4-0 edge. 

Kazmir made 93 pitches in his four-plus innings, surrendering four runs on seven hits. He struck out three but walked four. Meanwhile, Cueto cruised. Yasmani Grandal's single with one gone in the Dodger fifth was his first base runner allowed.

In the seventh it got interesting. Justin Turner opened with a double, Adrian Gonzalez's grounder moved him to third, and Hernandez tried to reclaim deity status with an RBI single that brought the tying run to the plate as Cueto closed in on 100 pitches. He perservered, getting Joc Pederson on strikes and inducing a groundout from Trace Thompson to end the seventh. 

Manager Bruce Bochy left Cueto in to face Charlie Culbertson leading off the eighth, and Cueto fanned to former Giant in his final act of the evening. His line: 7 1/3 IP, 1R, 3H, 7K, 2BB. Javy Lopez then created immediate drama, walking AJ Ellis before surrendering a bomb to Corey Seager that cut the lead to 4-3.

Lopez has been one of the more dependable situational lefties in his six seasons with the Giants, but 2016 has been a struggle. In just 2 2/3 innings he's allowed a .365 OBA with an ERA approaching 7. Of the nine lefties he's faced, five have hit safely.

Bochy played the match-up game, using Hunter Strickland to get Turner and turning to Josh Osich to retire Gonzalez. Then Santiago Casilla nearly wrecked it.

The ever-shaky "closer" surrendered a Grandal double to start the LA ninth. Hernandez's grounder got the runner to third with one out but Pederson fouled out, leaving it up to Yassiel Puig. Casilla got him on an 0-2 fly to left, and the Bay Area (along with Cueto) could finally breathe.

Offensively the Giants got their tallies on eight hits and six walks. Panik was the only G-Man with two hits: Span, Pence, Belt, Crawford and Cueto contributed the others. Crawford's RBI double was the lone hit for extra bases.

The two sides are back at it on Sunday, squaring off for the seventh time in the campaign's first two weeks as Jeff Samardzija gets the ball against Kenta Maeda.  The rivals won't meet again until mid-June in San Francisco.

For now, they sit tied atop the NL West with identical 7-5 records, 

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