Major League Baseball
San Francisco 7, LA Dodgers 1
When: 3:05 PM ET, Sunday, October 2, 2016
Where: AT&T Park, San Francisco, California
Temperature: 62°
Umpires: Home - Brian Knight, 1B - Joe West, 2B - Andy Fletcher, 3B - Kerwin Danley
Attendance: 41445

SAN FRANCISCO -- As the San Francisco Giants headed north in the standings and the Los Angeles Dodgers south in their three-game series that concluded Sunday, only one thing was important to both teams.

They're both headed east for the playoffs.

Left-hander Matt Moore pitched eight innings of one-run ball and batterymate Buster Posey drove in three runs with three hits as the San Francisco Giants completed a sweep of the rival Dodgers with a 7-1 win to capture the second wild-card playoff spot in the National League.

"It would have been easy to pack it in," noted Posey, the All-Star catcher whose club spent most of the season's second half hearing it had the worst record in baseball since the All-Star break. "We didn't play that well. But now we've picked up some momentum, so let's see what happens."

The Giants (87-75) will face the New York Mets (87-75) in the single-elimination wild-card game Wednesday in New York.

The Mets earned the home-field advantage in the game by virtue of their 4-3 season-series win over the Giants.

The Giants finished one game ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals (86-76), who also swept their last three games against the Cincinnati Reds to keep the pressure on San Francisco and New York.

"It's funny sometimes," insisted Giants manager Bruce Bochy. "You have your struggles and your backs are to the walls. And they rise to the occasion.

"That's what makes this so special. I really felt we weren't going to get any help."

The Dodgers, meanwhile, will open the NL Division Series on the road Friday against the Washington Nationals.

Los Angeles clinched the NL West title last Sunday, then lost five of six this week to the San Diego Padres and Giants.

"We're going to have to hit the reset button. It was a crazy week," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "You're trying to play the middle, get guys rested and line up your rotation and things like that. It's really kind of against what we've done all year.

"It's no excuse. We'll be ready."

Moore, who took a no-hitter into the ninth inning of a game in Los Angeles on Aug. 25, was nearly as good on Sunday.

The three hits he allowed all came in the fourth inning, the first being a somewhat routine grounder up the middle by Justin Turner that Giants second baseman Joe Panik couldn't field on a backhand try. It was ruled a hit.

The other two hits -- by Adrian Gonzalez and Yasmani Grandal -- came with two outs in an inning that could have been over had Panik made his play.

Grandal's single scored Turner with the Dodgers' only run.

Moore (13-12) walked two and struck out six in his eight innings.

"Just being around these people, where they've been … it's just great to be a part of it," said Moore, a trade-deadline acquisition who went 6-5 for the Giants. "The pitching staff, we push each other."

By the time the Dodgers scored their only run, the Giants had built a 5-0 lead against LA right-hander Kenta Maeda.

San Francisco wasted little time jumping on LA's No. 3 starter, as a single by Denard Span, a double by Brandon Belt and a two-RBI single by Posey gave the Giants a 2-0 lead just six pitches into the game.

San Francisco then added three in the second after Conor Gillaspie followed a one-out single by Panik with a double.

Panik was thrown out at the plate on a safety-squeeze attempt by Moore for the second out, but Span then tripled in two runs and, after a Belt walk, Posey singled in Span to make it 5-0.

Maeda (16-11) didn't make it out of the third, having allowed five runs on nine hits in 2 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out three.

"I didn't have any of my pitches," claimed Maeda, who hadn't allowed more than three runs in any of his previous 12 starts. "It's too bad that my season ended on a bad note, but I'm going to go through my regular adjustments and prepare myself for the next game."

The Giants tacked on two runs against the Dodgers' seventh pitcher, Joe Blanton, in the eighth. Hunter Pence and Brandon Crawford drove in the runs.

"The way they played in this series, I just stayed out of the way," Bochy insisted. "They were locked and loaded. They knew what was at stake.

"You look at how we played the last two series (including taking two of three from the Colorado Rockies to start the week). These guys really answered the bell."

Span, who led off the eighth with his third hit, scored three runs, and Pagan also had three hits for the Giants, who out-hit the Dodgers 16-4.

Belt added two hits for the Giants, who took the wild-card route to the World Series championship in 2014, opening with an 8-0 win at Pittsburgh.

The Dodgers continued to struggle against left-handers, totaling four runs on 15 hits in the three games started by Giants lefties Madison Bumgarner, rookie Ty Blach and Moore.

The Dodgers finished with a .213 team average against left-handers, the second-worst in all of baseball in the last 45 years.

"Overall as an offense, we need to be better," Roberts assured. "You're going to see some very good pitching in the postseason, so the focus has got to continue to heighten."

NOTES: The Giants reached the postseason for the fourth time in the last seven years. The Dodgers, meanwhile, will be going for a fourth straight, having won the last four National League West titles. ... The Giants will start LHP Madison Bumgarner, winner of the 2014 NL wild-card game, and the Dodgers will give the ball to LHP Clayton Kershaw in their respective playoff openers this week. ... Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully called the final game of his 67-year career. The Giants offered several video tributes to Scully during the game, then dedicated his final "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" to him in the seventh inning. ... The Oakland Raiders took out a full-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday to pay tribute to Scully's last game.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
LA Dodgers   San Francisco
Kenta Maeda Player Matt Moore
Loss W/L Win
2.2 IP 8.0
3 Strikeouts 6
9 Hits 3
16.88 ERA 1.12
Hitting
LA Dodgers   San Francisco
Andre Ethier Player Angel Pagan
1 Hits 3
0 RBI 0
0 HR 0
1 TB 4
1.000 Avg .600
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
LA Dodgers 4 0 4 .133 10 7 1 2 0 1
San Francisco 16 0 21 .410 26 11 7 4 2 0