Joc Pederson makes most of second chance in Dodgers' win

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believes in second chances.

For Joc Pederson, the second chance came quickly.

The young center fielder couldn’t deliver in the clutch in the Dodgers’ loss to the San Francisco Giants on Saturday. But he was back in the batting order Sunday, and his two-run home run against Jeff Samardzija lifted the Dodgers to a 3-1 win.

Pederson’s second home run of the season, in the fifth iing Sunday, erased an early 1-0 deficit before the aounced crowd of 48,911 at Dodger Stadium.

Yasiel Puig created the Dodgers’ third run almost single-handedly. He led off the seventh iing with a single, stole second base, then scored when Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford smothered a soft single by Yasmani Grandal in shallow center field but couldn’t throw home in time.

Take away an 81-mph slider to Joe Panik that landed in the bleacher seats, and Kenta Maeda could claim the best start to a career by any starting pitcher in Dodger history.

Maeda entered the game with a streak of 12 scoreless iings. He pitched two scoreless iings to begin Sunday’s game, unscathed by two walks, and retired the first two batters he faced in the third.

Panik was up next. the Giants’ left-handed hitting second baseman hadn’t faced Maeda before Sunday. He clobbered the sixth pitch he saw – a hanging slider at the belt -- over the right field fence to give San Francisco a 1-0 lead.

Maeda allowed back-to-back singles to begin the fourth iing, but got out of that jam thanks to a double-play groundout. He never got into trouble again, cruising through the seventh iing while throwing 98 pitches. He walked three batters and struck out seven.

Chris Hatcher threw a remarkably uneventful eighth iing and closer Kenley Jansen survived a leadoff single in the ninth to record his fifth save in five chances.

The Dodgers have an off-day Monday, followed by a six-game road trip to Atlanta and Denver. They took two of the three games against the Giants in the series.

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