Dodgers end 11-game losing streak, clinch playoff spot

SAN FRANCISCO – Breathe. In. Out.

The Dodgers’ 17-game out-of-body experience finally came to an end Tuesday night – they hope – with a white-knuckler of a 5-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants.

The win ended an 11-game losing streak, the longest since the franchise moved to Los Angeles in 1958, and was only their second in the past 18 games (both started by Clayton Kershaw). With it, the Dodgers officially clinched a playoff berth and dropped their magic number to clinch a fifth consecutive NL West title to eight.

“Making the postseason is no small feat,” Kershaw said when told of the Dodgers’ status. “We can’t take that for granted. But from where we’ve been, we want home-field (advantage). We want the division. ... We want home field through the World Series. So we’ve got a lot of things to keep going for, obviously.”

Where the Dodgers were three weeks ago, it was hard to imagine any of that being in doubt. But things changed with the worst freefall any 90-win team has ever taken this late in a season.

“You love the game,” Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen said of the trial. “But it won’t always love you back.”

Even Tuesday night’s dam-buster was more tough love.

It wasn’t secured until Dodgers manager Dave Roberts brought Jansen into the eighth inning of a game for the first time since July 23 – when Jansen suffered his only blown save of the season.

Jansen got out of the eighth easily enough but three consecutive singles loaded the bases with one out in the ninth. One was a ground ball off Jansen’s leg, another a swinging bunt that died on the grass short of the mound. It looked like the baseball gods might not have grown bored with the Dodgers and gone off to torment others after all.

“Tonight wasn’t easy,” Kershaw said. “Nothing about these past two weeks have been easy so we shouldn’t have expected this one to be easy.”

But the closer “bowed his neck,” as Roberts put it, and struck out Buster Posey and Nick Hundley to end the losing streak.

“It’s a weird thing for this game – not to say this game doesn’t mean anything – but for this game to have the significance it did for us,” Kershaw said diplomatically of the matchup with the last-place Giants, who lost their 90th game Tuesday.

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“It’s more of a sense of relief now that we’ve got a win. We can’t obviously let up. But every time the losses keep mounting and mounting it gets that much harder to win a game.”

The emotion was obvious in Kershaw, whose will was stronger than his stuff Tuesday.

He gave up a solo home run to Kelby Tomlinson in the third inning – Tomlinson’s first home run since 2015 and his first hit in 15 career at-bats against Kershaw. But Chase Utley tied the game with a solo home run leading off the fourth and Kershaw got a gift double when left fielder Austin Slater lost his drive in the lights. Kershaw let out a primal scream when he reached second base. It would not be his last of the night.

More help awaited. Kershaw bolted for third on a ground ball to Tomlinson at short and was safe when the throw pulled Pablo Sandoval wide of the base.

Kershaw scored on a sacrifice fly by Corey Seager, giving the Dodgers the lead. Puig’s two-out, two-run double gave them more than that – reason to breathe deeply without it catching in their throat for the first time in at least a week.

Kershaw was under frequent duress and let out his final scream of the night when he struck out pinch-hitter Tim Federowicz with the bases loaded to end the sixth.

Kershaw gave up eight hits in six innings and had runners on base in four of them, but he held the Giants to 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position. It was not Kershaw’s usual man-handling of the Giants, but it was what the Dodgers needed after watching their starting pitchers post a 6.54 ERA over the previous 17 games.

“It was better than the one before. Just a lot of hits,” Kershaw said, too caught up in the moment to analyze his third start since returning from the DL. “I don’t know. Honestly, I felt a little better in this one but it still wasn’t great.

“I’ll think about it tomorrow. Right now, it just feels good to get a win.”

Roberts didn’t deny the significance of that.

“Usually there’s handshakes (after a win),” he said. “But tonight there were more hugs, I think. Playing it cool went to the side tonight. I think it was warranted.”