Dodgers fall short of playoffs, lose to Giants

LOS ANGELES – The San Francisco Giants snuffed any chance the Dodgers had at a playoff spot with a 4-3 win on Tuesday night.

“It could have ended a little bit better,” Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp said. “We came up a little bit short. It’s tough. You work hard. Everybody’s main goal was to make the playoffs. We kind of failed.”

The Dodgers needed a win to stay in the playoff picture and keep within striking distance of the St. Louis Cardinals, who entered the night with a two-game lead in the wild-card playoff race over the Dodgers.

The Reds beat the Cardinals, 3-1, earlier in the night leaving the door open for the Dodgers to stay alive in the playoff chase for another day.

But Buster Posey’s home run in the second inning and Marco Scutaro’s two-run double in the fifth sealed the Dodgers’ fate before 42,473 at Dodger Stadium.

“We’re going to learn from this,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “This is a feeling we don’t want to have again.”

The Dodgers had a chance to tie the score in the ninth inning. Andre Ethier led off the inning with a single up the middle, but AJ Ellis couldn’t sacrifice him to second. Pinch runner Dee Gordon came in for Ethier and stole second with two outs.

Mark Ellis ended the game when he lined out to centerfield.

“We still had a chance to do it,” said Kemp, who went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. “We just came up short. We kind of rebounded, but we didn’t make it at the end. No excuses, man. No excuses.”

Posey hit a solo home run to lead off the second inning and gave the Giants a 1-0 lead. It was his 24^th home run of the season.

The Dodgers tied the score, 1-1, in the bottom of the second. Hanley Ramirez hit a one-out triple into the right field corner. Luis Cruz knocked him in on a groundout.

Adrian Gonzalez led off the second inning with a deep drive to left field. Xavier Nady made the catch crashing into the outfield wall for the first out of the inning. Gonzalez singled in the sixth inning to extend his hitting streak to 14 games.

Joaquin Arias put the Giants back on top, 2-1, with a solo home run to centerfield in the third inning. It was his fifth of the season.

Dodgers starter Chris Capuano didn’t make it past the third inning. Mattingly replaced Capuano with Jamey Wright in the fourth inning.

Capuano gave up a pair of solo home runs and left the game trailing, 2-1.

Scutaro drove in two runs with a two-out double in the fifth inning and gave the Giants a 4-1 lead.

AJ Ellis hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning off reliever Guillermo Mota to cut the Giants lead to one run, 4-3. Ethier was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Ellis followed with a shot to centerfield that was helped over the fence by the warm night air.

Posey went 2-for-4 and leads the National League in hitting with a .337 batting average.

Andrew McCutcheon of the Pittsburgh Pirates, second in the National League in batting, went 0-for-4 against the Atlanta Braves and saw his batting average drop to .327.

Photo: Matt Kemp signs some autographs for fans after the Dodgers lost to the Giants, 4-3, on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium. (Credit: Tim Haddock)