Nick Hundley and Brandon Belt each hit two-run home

Road weary and a bit homesick Nick Bosa Jersey , 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.

Chris Stratton pitched six solid innings to help the San Francisco Giants avoid a three-game sweep at Los Angeles with a 4-1 victory over the Dodgers on Sunday.

It marked the end of the Giants’ fourth three-city road trip over the first 2 1/2 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 6-2 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 L.J. Collier Jersey , 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.

”Of the three (starts), this was his best outing,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. ”I thought he did a great job of pounding the strike zone, getting some empty swings.”

Former Dodgers left-hander Tony Watson 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.

STRATTON GETS HIS REVENGE

Stratton (8-4) entered 0-3 with a 7.88 ERA against the Dodgers Marquise Blair Jersey , and was roughed up in an April 28 start when he gave up six earned runs over a short 1 1/3 innings, easily his shortest start of the year.

Sunday’s outing was in complete contrast to his previous efforts against the Dodgers.

”It was big,” Stratton said of his outing Sunday. ”Definitely the last time was not a pretty one. I have to credit Hundley back there behind the plate. I don’t think I had my best stuff today, especially with fastball command.”

Stratton gave up a first-inning run when Hundley tried to cut down Justin Turner at second base and threw the ball into center field. Max Muncy came home from third base on the error. Otherwise the right-hander was stingy against a Dodgers lineup that entered with 34 home runs in June.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Giants: C 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.” SS Brandon Crawford will go on paternity leave Monday for the birth of his fourth child and said that he expects to miss three games.

Dodgers: RHP Tom Koehler had a setback in his recovery from a right shoulder strain and will now have to restart his rehab program, according to manager Dave Roberts. His targeted return has been pushed back to August. LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu had some tightness in his left groin strain and his recent bullpen outing was cut short to 20 pitches. Roberts would not call Ryu’s situation a setback, but would not confirm a July return either.

UP NEXT

The Giants will send left-hander Andrew Suarez (2-4, 4.92 ERA) to the mound Monday as the club returns home from its 10-day road trip to face the Miami Marlins. In his second start since coming off the disabled list, RHP Kenta Maeda (4-4 D.K. Metcalf Jersey , 3.61) could be available for as many as 90 pitches Monday in the opener of a three-game series at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs.

Major League Baseball will come to Omaha for a day next year as part of an initiative to take the product to new places, commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday.

As part of the buildup for the 2019 College World Series, the Detroit Tigers will play a regular-season game against the Kansas City Royals at TD Ameritrade Park on June 13. The CWS starts two days later.

”The College World Series in and of itself is a great event with a great tradition,” Manfred said at a news conference. ”We hope by playing here we bring even more attention to this game and help strengthen our relationship with the NCAA and college baseball as a whole.”

Manfred said there’s no commitment to play a regular-season game in Omaha beyond next year, but that possibility exists.

MLB has played regular-season games in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico and also at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Little League World Series.

”Each of these events has helped focus the attention of the United States and major parts of the world on what we think of as the greatest game of the world Cody Barton Jersey ,” Manfred said. ”The game here in Omaha will be the next step in this important initiative.”

The Royals-Tigers matchup also will serve to acknowledge the ties between the college and professional game. It will be played in the 24,000-seat stadium that opened in 2011.

”This may be the best non-major league facility in North America,” he said.

Of the 641 drafted players on major league Opening Day rosters this year, 61 percent were from four-year colleges. The Royals chose 34 junior-college or four-year players in this year’s draft; the Tigers picked 35, including the overall No. 1, pitcher Casey Mize of Auburn.

General managers Dayton Moore of the Royals and Al Avila of the Tigers started their careers in college baseball. Moore was an assistant coach at George Mason from 1990-94. Avila was an assistant to current LSU coach Paul Mainieri at St. Thomas University in 1988, and head coach there from 1989-92.

Among the Tigers’ other ties to the CWS: manager Ron Gardenhire played shortstop for Texas in the 1979, catcher James McCann played for Arkansas in 2009, Matt Boyd pitched for Oregon State in 2013. Their No.1 pick last year, pitcher Alex Faedo Josh Oliver Jersey , helped lead Florida to the 2017 national championship.

Royals left fielder Alex Gordon grew up 50 miles from Omaha, in Lincoln, and played on Nebraska’s 2005 CWS team. The Royals this year drafted Florida’s Brady Singer and Jackson Kowar in the first round.

Omaha has hosted the College World Series since 1950. Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson is from Omaha and Royals greats such as George Brett, David Cone and Frank White played Triple-A ball in Omaha, which has been home to Kansas City’s top farm club since 1969.

”We’re at a point in time in the history of baseball where we all understand the importance of being united and doing everything we can to grow the game,” Moore said, ”so it’s a special honor for the Royals to be able to take part in this historic game.”

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