After the San Francisco Giants officially acquired outfielder Marlon Byrd, it seemed they would be satisfied with their roster and refrain from searching for any further additions. Despite this common sentiment, Brian Sabean added yet another piece to the playoff race puzzle by negotiation a trade with the Boston Red Sox for outfielder Alejandro De Aza. De Aza has hit for a  .261 batting average thus far in 2015, but will look to mimic Byrd's recent success in a much needed change of scenery. Despite the new addition, the new outfielder wasn't a focus on Tuesday night wasn't; in fact, he wasn't even able to reach base in the game. The featured story line heading into the game was undoubtedly the matchup between Madison Bumgarner and Zack Greinke. Both pitchers have been absolutely lights out throughout the year and finally, the two aces will meet in a night showdown. What's better than five innings of additional baseball? For the Giants, the answer to that question is a win and Bumgarner typically gives them the best chance to do so.

As expected, both pitchers man handled their opposition in the early going. Through the first two innings only three hits were collected combined. The Dodgers tallied two hits in the second, but failed to capitalize while the Giants' sole base knock came from Buster Posey. As he did twice in Monday night's game with a home run and walk off hit, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez lived up to his reputation as a "Giant Killer" with a single to score the first run for either team. The inning appeared to be harmless for Bumgarner as he got two quick outs, but a single from Jose Peraza and walk from Justin Turner extended the inning to give the first baseman a chance to strike. This sole run in any regular matchup would seem rather irrelevant, though when you're facing a dominant figure like Greinke every run given up is magnified ten fold. Holding true to this statement, Zach Greinke engineered three straight three up, three down innings in the third, fourth and fifth.

Up until the seventh inning, the game consisted as a 1-0 lead. Finally the score changed when Joc Pederson made a stride to escape his slump that plagued him in August by homering to push his team's lead to 2-0. To respond, the Giants finally scratched a run on the board in the eighth. Three straight singles off of Greinke led to Matt Duffy picking up his 61st RBI in his rookie campaign. Greinke was promptly taken out of the game in favor of Luis Avilan who helped them escape possibly the only true opportunity for the Giants to make up ground.

For the bottom half, long tenured veteran hurler Tim Hudson made his first appearance since getting called up when the rosters expanded. He didn't last long despite typically acting as a starter. A double from Gonzalez continued his hot streak and he advanced to third on a ground ball. This forced Hudson out of the game and hard throwing Hunter Strickland entered in his place. While he has a reputation for allowing solid contact, Strickland induced a fly ball to Andre Ethier and struck out A.J. Ellis to finish off the frame.

To silence their rivals in the ninth, closer Kenley Jansen was set to pitch to against Posey, Byrd and De Aza. He got all three solid hitters out rather easily and wrapped up their second vital win in less that 24 hours. Although the game didn't end in the Giants favor, the pitching matchup definitely lived up to all the hype surrounding the game. While Bumgarner took the loss, he still struck out eight and only allowed two runs over seven innings. On the other hand, Greinke was just a hair superior on Tuesday by only giving up five hits in seven and one third innings of work. Greinke did appear to tweak his ankle, but there are no indications that it's anything serious.

This game now extends the Dodgers' lead in the NL West to 5.5 games. With the season coming to a close in just over a month, the reigning champs will need to bear down and steadily climb the daunting ladder immediately. One positive for the Giants despite dropping a pair of heartbreaking games, is that following tomorrow night's game, the Giants have an easier schedule than their rivals in blue. The series isn't quite over yet though as Mike Leake (0-1, 3.38 ERA with Giants) will once again attempt to earn his first win as a Giant Wednesday. Reigning NL Cy Young and MVP Clayton Kershaw (11-6, 3.38 ERA) will look to spoil his attempt and complete the sweep.