LOS ANGELES_Clayton Kershaw flung his glove on the bench and booted a helpless duffel bag with the force of an NFL kicker, the frustration of the Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander clearly evident upon his early return to the dugout Friday night.
The three-time National League Cy Young Award winner who prides himself on going deep into games did not record an out in the fifth inning of an eventual 5-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants before 53,317 in Dodger Stadium.
A.J. Pollock did his part to keep the Dodgers in it, hitting three homers in a game for the second time in his career, including a solo shot off Giants closer Will Smith to pull the Dodgers to within a run with two outs in the ninth.
Pinch-hitter Russell Martin walked, but Dodgers catcher Will Smith, in a rare battle of players with the same name, struck out to end the game.
Arizona's win over Cincinnati kept the Dodgers' magic number at four, meaning the earliest the Dodgers can clinch their seventh straight NL West title is Sunday.
It took 99 pitches for Kershaw to complete four-plus innings, 12 coming on a walk to Kevin Pillar that put two on with no outs in the fifth, an exhausting duel that left manager Dave Roberts little choice but to pull his starter.
Both of Kershaw's runners scored on pinch-hitter Mike Yastrzemski's two-run double to right-center off reliever Dylan Floro. Mauricio Dubon capped a four-run fifth with a two-run single off Floro to give San Francisco a 5-1 lead.
Kershaw, who opened the season with 23 consecutive starts in which he threw six innings or more, has now thrown five and four innings, respectively, in his last two starts.
He looked uncomfortable Friday, working at a deliberate pace, stepping off the rubber more often than usual and bouncing several breaking balls in front of the plate. The Giants also fouled off 32 of his pitches, adding to his overall irritability.
Kershaw opened the game with one of the ugliest strings of three straight scoreless innings in his career, but the more trouble he found, the more he stiffened.
San Francisco loaded the bases with one out in the first. Kershaw struck out Buster Posey with a slider and Joey Rickard with a 90-mph fastball.
The Giants put runners on second and third with no outs in the second when Aramis Garcia walked and Dubon doubled to left. Kershaw got pitcher Jeff Samardzija to ground out and struck out Donovan Solano and Austin Slater.
Pillar and Evan Longoria singled to open the third. Kershaw got Posey to ground into a 6-4-3 double play and struck out Rickard looking, his pitch count at 64 after three innings.
Pollock hit a solo homer to left-center in the second for a 1-0 Dodgers lead, but Dubon's solo homer off the left-field foul pole in the fourth tied it.
Pollock responded to San Francisco's four-run fifth with another solo homer to center to lead off the fifth, and Joc Pederson's leadoff double and Cody Bellinger's two-out RBI single pulled the Dodgers within 5-3 in the seventh.
The Dodgers' rotation entered the game with a major league-best 3.14 ERA, .658 opponents' on-base-plus-slugging percentage and 1.07 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched).
But the starters have shown some wear in tear over the last two weeks, posting a 5.67 ERA and 1.41 WHIP in their last 14 games, in which they've gone 7-7.
Hyun-Jin Ryu has a 9.95 ERA in his last four starts and will be skipped in the rotation next week. Kershaw has yielded eight earned runs in nine innings of his last two starts. Walker Buehler was tagged for six earned runs in five innings of his last start.
The Dodgers honored Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who is retiring after this season, before his final series in Chavez Ravine, with broadcaster Vin Scully narrating a video tribute to Bochy and Roberts presenting him with a framed, signed Sandy Koufax jersey.
Bochy, in his 25th year as a big-league manager and 13t season in San Francisco, led the Giants to World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014, and he entered Friday night with a 218-206 record against the Dodgers.
"I loved playing for him," said Roberts, who played his final two major league seasons for Bochy and the Giants in 2007 and 2008. "I'm excited for him to see his next chapter."
