Carlos Rodón leads shutout as Giants sweep Dodgers

SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants celebrated the 10-year anniversary of Matt Cain’s perfect game on Sunday, with the three-time All-Star returning to the mound at Oracle Park to throw out the ceremonial first pitch to his former teammate Brandon Crawford. 

Cain delivered the only perfect game in Giants history against the Astros on June 13, 2012, though San Francisco currently employs another pitcher who came agonizingly close to achieving the feat. 

Left-hander Carlos Rodón came within two outs of throwing a perfect game for the White Sox last year, but his bid ended when he hit Cleveland’s Roberto Pérez with a backfoot slider in the ninth inning. He settled for a no-hitter instead, showcasing the elite stuff that led to an All-Star campaign and ultimately helped him land with the Giants this offseason.

Rodón didn’t flirt with perfection on Sunday afternoon, but he still flashed his dominance, striking out eight over six shutout innings to help the Giants beat the Dodgers, 2-0, and sweep their archrivals for the first time since 2016. 

Austin Slater and Mike Yastrzemski launched first-inning solo shots off Los Angeles left-hander Julio Urías to back Rodón, who lowered his ERA to 3.18 while earning his first winning decision since May 9.

Rodón appeared to have a discussion with pitching coaches Andrew Bailey and J.P. Martinez in the dugout after the sixth inning, but the Giants opted to lift him with his pitch count at 98 and turn the game over to their bullpen, which was coming off a gutsy performance in Saturday’s thrilling 3-2 win.

For the second straight day, the relief corps got the job done, with John Brebbia, Dominic Leone and Jake McGee combining to throw three scoreless innings to seal San Francisco’s first shutout win of the year. Leone got some help from Slater, who made his second impressive catch of the afternoon by sprinting into the right-center-field gap to rob Will Smith of extra bases with a runner on first in the eighth.

“I thought as a team we played really well today defensively,” Rodón said. “We scored the runs we needed. The bullpen did a great job. … It’s big. That turns it around for us a little bit. We’ll try to build off this whole weekend and carry it through.”

The Giants hadn’t been playing up to their standards in recent weeks and entered this weekend having lost 12 of their previous 20 games, putting them in danger of falling too far behind the Dodgers and the Padres to make a serious run at…