LOS ANGELES -AP- Nothing the San Francisco Giants did fazed Zack Greinke. It was a hole on the mound where he pushes off with his right foot that bothered him.
It grew bigger as the game went on, causing Greinke to tweak his ankle and draw a visit from the trainer and the grounds crew. He ended up leaving a tad early, but still beat Madison Bumgarner and the Giants 2-1 on Tuesday night for the Los Angeles Dodgers' second win over their rivals in the same day.
 
Dodgers add to NL West lead on strength of Greinke's 15th win
 
The Dodgers increased their division lead to 5½ games after taking the series opener 5-4 in 14 innings in a game that ended at 12:39 a.m. PST Tuesday. They have won seven of their past eight.
"Most bizarre split doubleheader I've ever played in," Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis said.
Greinke (15-3) allowed one run and five hits in 7⅓ innings. He struck out five and walked one while improving to 7-0 in seven starts against the Giants since joining the Dodgers in 2012.
"He's having a special year, the kind you don't see very often," Bumgarner said. "But at the same time, our guys don't care about that. We were ready to play. But he's just good. He made some good pitches and he has good stuff."
Greinke said he has tweaked his ankle before because of the hole created by his push-off foot.
"Usually it bothers me for five seconds," he said. "This time it lasted a couple innings."
Kenley Jansen pitched the ninth for his 28th save in 30 chances.
Bumgarner (16-7) was coming off a dominant August, going 5-0 with a 1.43 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 37⅔ innings. In his first September start he gave up two runs and eight hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.
"I just didn't expect us to be on the losing side of a 2-1 ballgame, but that's the way it goes," Bumgarner said. "You know it's going to be a tough one, going up against Greinke, and unfortunately they caught more breaks than we did."
Giants manager Bruce Bochy and Jake Peavy, the starting pitcher in the series opener, were both ejected by home plate umpire Mark Winters in the seventh when San Francisco failed to score with runners on second and third. The Giants lost their fourth straight.
"You don't ever lose hope," Bochy said. "We're a good run away from getting back in this thing, and we've done that."
The Giants cut the lead to 2-1 in the eighth on Matt Duffy's RBI single before Luis Avilan relieved Greinke. The Dodgers turned a stellar inning-ending double play, starting with second baseman Jose Peraza's stop of Brandon Belt's hard-hit grounder and backhanded glove flip to Jimmy Rollins covering at second, who then fired to Adrian Gonzalez at first.
"He just seems to play fearless, not getting too excited," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said of Peraza, who played his fifth game since being called up Aug. 28.
Gonzalez's RBI single gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead with two outs in the third. Joc Pederson homered leading off the seventh, making it 2-0.
"It's 3-2 right there, I don't want to walk him, and I feel like I've got the advantage lefty on lefty," Bumgarner said. "I just went after him and he jumped on it. I had to throw a strike right there and I did. It just wasn't a quality strike, I guess."
Greinke had runners on first and third in the seventh when he gave up a leadoff single to Belt and walked Buster Posey. But Greinke got three consecutive outs to end the inning, including a called third strike to a frustrated Alejandro De Aza.
"I was throwing the ball where I wanted a lot," Greinke said. "It was a really good game all around. Madison was pitching good. Our defense was good, their defense seemed good. If you win it's more fun. All tough games are exciting"
 

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