Giants muscle up to salvage last game of road series against Dodgers

LOS ANGELES - Road weary and a bit homesick, the San Francisco Giants picked up a victory Sunday that could be the momentum needed to get a long stretch in the Bay Area off to a good start.

Nick Hundley and Brandon Belt each hit two-run home runs and Chris Stratton pitched six solid innings to help the San Francisco Giants avoid a three-game sweep at Los Angeles with a 4-1 win against the Dodgers on Sunday.

It marked the end of the Giants’ fourth three-city road trip over the first 2½ months of the season, and the last hurdle the club needed to clear before a stretch where they play 20 of the next 26 games at AT&T Park. After that, the Giants hit the All-Star break then play three interleague games at Oakland.

“We’re through the hardest part of the schedule, I think,” Belt said about the Giants already playing 42 of their 81 road games, exactly one month before the All-Star Game.

“It’s not easy going to the East Coast a lot and having 10-game road trips. We have a lot of games coming up at home and everybody is excited about that.”

Hundley got the Giants going early Sunday with a homer in the first inning, halfway up the pavilion seats in left field for his eighth of the season. Belt followed two innings later with his 12th home run and first since returning from an appendectomy on June 1.

The Dodgers saw their modest five-game win streak come to an end, but they are still 11-3 in June. They went 7-2 on their just-completed homestand and now head to Chicago for a National League Championship Series rematch with the Cubs.

The Giants went 4-6 on their 10-day road trip to Washington, Miami and Los Angeles, and now return home for a 10-game homestand against the Marlins, Padres and Rockies. They stay in the division for a six-game road trip then return for another 10-game homestand.

Sunday’s victory gave the Giants a 16-26 record away from home. They are 19-11 in San Francisco.

“We can’t have this road record, that’s not going to work, so we have to get better there,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “At home, we have to keep up what we have been doing there and hopefully the guys catch their breath and like the home cooking.”

Dodgers rookie pitcher Caleb Ferguson (0-1) gave up four runs on just two hits, the home runs from Hundley and Belt.

He struck out six in his third career start, with an unearned run that happened when Gorkys Hernandez reached base on an error by shortstop Enrique Hernandez in front of Belt’s homer.

Left-hander Tony Watson, a former member fo the Dodgers, opened the ninth inning for the Giants with a strikeout of Max Muncy before closer Hunter Strickland recorded the final two outs for his 14th save in 17 chances.

NOTES

Giants catcher Buster Posey, who saw action in all 16 innings of Thursday’s game at Miami, was not in the starting lineup Sunday with what manager Bruce Bochy labeled “general soreness.”

Shortstop Brandon Crawford will go on paternity leave today for the birth of his fourth child and could miss as many as three games.

Giants left-hander Andrew Suarez, scheduled to start tonight’s series opener at AT&T Park, will be making his second start since coming off the disabled list.