LEADING OFF: Arrieta vs Bumgarner; Kershaw makes rehab start

The Giants now trail the Dodgers by 2.5 games in the West with just under a month to go.

“I don’t think (the Cubs) clinched yet, but they’re going to be there (in the playoffs)”. “And we plan on being there”. It’s a really, really rough way to lose a game that had playoff-type intensity, and you could tell that by the fact that nearly no one in the sellout of 41,250 left early.

Trailing by a run, pinch hitter Anthony Rizzo led off the ninth inning with a walk and advanced to second on Dexter Fowler’s sacrifice. Lester promptly bunted, and, although Giants pitcher Albert Suarez had a play on Ross at third, Suarez threw to first to get Lester.

Giants: Reliever Derek Law (elbow) hasn’t begun throwing yet, but manager Bruce Bochy said they “expect him to be at full strength” when he’s eligible to come off the disabled list September 12. Although they haven’t fallen out of a playoff spot in their desultory second half, this might have been the game that made them feel like a playoff team again. “That was a big double play”.

“It was a great game”, Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. Rizzo was trying to be aggressive, of course you’d rather he had not, but he did. “You can nitpick it all you want, I love that game”. Hanley Ramirez and David Ortiz drove in three RBIs apiece as the Bosox easily won the opener of a nine-game road trip that concludes in Toronto. Casilla earned his 30th save.

Odor’s team-leading 28th home run of the season was one of three in the fourth inning against Astros starter Doug Fister, who was pulled after Odor’s shot over the 14-foot wall in left field for a 9-2 lead.

Jarred Cosart was chased in a five-run fifth and was charged with seven runs while giving up five hits, walking three and hitting a batter in 4-1/3 innings.

“We ran into a very hot pitcher who’s throwing the ball very well and he was on top of his game”, Manager Bruce Bochy said.

The Chicago Cubs appear to be heading for the National League Central crown baring a complete collapse. They snapped a six-game losing streak at Wrigley Field that included a season-crippling four-game sweep here last season and one-run losses in the first two games of this series. First pitch is scheduled for 11:20 AM PT.

Lindor doubled in the first and third, singled in the fourth and added an RBI single in the sixth. Arrieta grounded a ball to third that Nunez couldn’t handle and Baez raced second to score on the infield hit.

“A little bad luck, a little missed execution”, Arrieta said. “I had an opportunity to stop, it was in the fourth, to prevent some things from happening”. “Posey made a good dash there at the end and I just got frozen”. He stole second despite an awkward slide – it helped that the Cubs forgot to cover the bag – and later took off for third when the Cubs had an exaggerated shift with Brandon Belt at the plate. The ball ticked off his hand and Baez never stopped running, sliding safely into home ahead of Brandon Crawford’s throw.

Arrieta moved to second when Bumgarner was called for a balk, but Bumgarner ended the inning with a strikeout.

“We’re used to winning”, the veteran catcher said.

Before Pence’s home run, the Cubs had retired 40 of the last 41 Giants batters they faced. Posey got close enough to third to dissuade Rizzo, who’d gone too far past second to get back as Joe Panik retired Fowler, then fired to Crawford at second to nail Rizzo and erase the potential tying run. Pence caught Baez s foul fly in right field for a sacrifice fly.

Xavier Scruggs had an RBI double for the Marlins while Jeff Francoeur and Jeff Mathis had two hits apiece. Hunter Strickland got Addison Russell to line to right with the bases loaded in the seventh. Javy easily gets to third base.

First came the lineout into the glove of Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant.

It coincided with a Major League Baseball initiative that had players and umpires wearing gold sweatbands to raise awareness for childhood cancer. “We just let Crawford go to third base”.