LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nothing has stopped Kevin Gausman so far this season. Not even a nagging hip injury.
Gausman capped a stellar May with six shutout innings and Mauricio Dubón hit one of two homers off Clayton Kershaw, helping the San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-4 on Sunday.
Gausman (6-0) allowed two hits, struck out seven and walked none before he was removed because of left hip tightness. The right-hander said it has been bothering him for most of the season and doesn’t anticipate missing his next scheduled start.
“It’s a thing that it kind of just grabs every now and then,” said Gausman, who helped himself with an RBI single in the fifth. “It kind of pushes the leg down a little early sometimes. That’s the only thing that concerns me is sometimes it kind of has a mind of its own and decides what it wants to do.”
Gausman extended his scoreless streak to 17 innings. He went 5-0 in May with a 0.73 ERA and 49 strikeouts.
He joined Jack Coombs (1910 Philadelphia Athletics), J.R. Richard (1979 Houston) and Johan Santana (2004 Minnesota) as the only pitchers in the modern era with eight straight starts of at least five strikeouts and no more than one run allowed.
Manager Gabe Kapler said Gausman’s hip trouble makes it harder for him to go deep into games.
“He pitched brilliantly, and in a perfect world we just keep running them out there,” Kapler said. “Gausman wants the ball so much, except we need to be respectful when his body’s not responding the way he wants it to.”
Austin Slater also connected against Kershaw (7-4), sending the Giants to their third win in the four-game set after Los Angeles posted a three-game sweep last weekend. San Francisco has the second-best record in the majors at 33-20 and is a half-game behind San Diego in the NL…
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