Kurtenbach: If the SF Giants want to win the NL West, they should start doing this

The Giants found a bit of magic to beat the Dodgers on Friday night at Oracle Park.

Or should I say that the Dodgers found a bit of misfortune?

Either way, San Francisco — despite having a 1-0 lead going into the ninth inning — improbably won Friday’s series opener.

(Be honest, you expected the Dodgers to at least tie against Jake McGee — they weren’t going to make that win easy.)

And after Buster Posey could have ended the game with a tag in that ninth inning, but tagged the wrong Dodger, it was fitting that his hustle down the line was part of the equation on the game’s deciding play, when shortstop-turned-second baseman Trea Turner threw errantly to catcher-who-never-played-first-base-in-his-life Will Smith, perhaps pulling him off the bag and allowing Posey to “drive home” the winning run in a 2-1 Giants victory.

San Francisco has seemingly been on the right side of fate all season, and that’s a great thing.

Do you know what would be even better for the Giants, though?

Hitting with runners in scoring position.

Hitting might be all about launch angles and “doing damage” these days, but the game is still scored the exact same way it was in the 1800s.

It doesn’t matter if the player is brought home on a bloop single, like the Dodgers’ run Friday, or on a mammoth, 500-foot home run — the man on second or third is still worth one point.

And for the last week, the Giants don’t seem to know what to do with those baserunners.

They’re certainly not scoring them.

The Giants are batting .192 with runners in scoring position in their last six games — a mark only “bested” by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League.

Not good.

Now, is this a small sample size? Of course.

Then again, so are the playoffs.

I’m fascinated to see if the Giants bounce back from this lull of clutch hitting.

Saturday would be a great time to start.

Now, credit to the Giants — they’re putting ducks on the pond. The issue is that they’re not doing enough with them.

Is this team too home-run dependent?

I asked Gabe Kapler about that earlier this week.

“It seems like we’re more reliant on the home run when we don’t hit home runs,” Kapler said. “If we’re still relying on the home run at the end of this season, I’ll be a happy guy,” he said. “It’s a good thing to be a team that hits a lot of homers and can change the game with a swing or two.”

But, getting serious for a moment:

“Do I think, philosophically, you could you could construct a roster that is too dependent on home runs?” Kapler said. “I do. Do I think this is that roster? I don’t.”

Fair enough.

Though I’m not so sure about that last part.

There might still be a place for fundamental baseball in this new analytics-driven world, and that place, I believe, is in September and October.

Yes, the game might be bullpens, shifts, and dingers, but forgive me for believing that starting pitching, defensive wizardry, and clutch hitting win big, meaningful baseball games.

Friday night was a playoff atmosphere in San Francisco. The Giants won because they had the first two factors — starting pitching and defense — and the Dodgers did not.

Winning two of three is good enough on any given night.

(They’ll need it for Games 2 and 3 of this series with the Dodgers — both will be bullpen games for the Giants.)

But I don’t two of three is good enough to win a title. For that, you need all three.

So if the Giants could show that they’re capable of clutch hitting — whether it be a single or a deep drive to left — this team will have something cooking.

Saturday and Sunday would be a good time to start showing that ability.