Monday night marathon ends in 14th with a Giants loss
The Giants and Dodgers had reached the depths of their roster options and were turning to desperate measures.
[...] on a single pitch, it was over — a very long single by Adrian Gonzalez and a 5-4, 14-inning win Tuesday morning that gave the Dodgers a 4½-game lead in the National League West.
“Man, those guys don’t go away,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said of the Giants.
A wild-card slot seemed to be creeping back into play, as well, as the Cubs lost to Cincinnati — but the Giants’ loss kept them 5 ½ games back on that score.
After a rocky start, featuring Justin Turner’s RBI double in the first inning, Peavy sharpened up his act.
The Giants had a 3-1 lead going into the sixth, thanks to a run-scoring single by Brandon Belt and a two-run single by Marlon Byrd, but the game’s tenor made a dramatic shift.
Gonzalez, tearing into a fastball, belted a two-run homer to tie the game.
Gone to waste was another invaluable contribution from Byrd, whose bullet single down the right-field line tied the game 4-4 in the eighth and gave him 14 RBIs in his past five games.
Another inning, said Mattingly, and he would have had pitcher Mat Latos playing right field and outfielder Scott Van Slyke on the mound.