Dee Gordon ignites Dodgers’ 6-2 victory over Giants

Dee Gordon turned around the Dodgers in their game Saturday. In the aftermath of a rare comeback victory that ended a losing streak at three games, Manager Don Mattingly wondered whether Gordon might have turned around their season.

“Hopefully, this is the springboard we talked about,” Mattingly said.

Gordon did everything in the Dodgers’ 6-2 victory over the first-place San Francisco Giants.

He stole three bases. He scored two runs. He drove in the go-ahead run with a seventh-inning double, igniting what felt like an offensive explosion for the low-scoring Dodgers.

“He gets us started,” said Matt Kemp, who hit a home run in the eighth inning.

Gordon, who spent most of last season at triple-A Albuquerque, is batting a team-best .336. He has stolen 24 bases in his first 35 games, something only three other players have done in the last quarter century.

“He’s probably not going to keep that up the whole year,” Zack Greinke said. “If he does, he’ll be a superstar. But so far, you can’t expect anything more from anybody.”

Gordon’s performance Saturday was particularly timely.

The Dodgers had dropped five of their previous six games and six of their previous eight.

They began the day 2-6 against the Giants and trailed them by 41/2 games in the National League West.

They also weren’t scoring. In four of their last five games, they were held to two runs or less.

So, when the Giants went ahead, 2-0, in the second inning, the deficit felt almost insurmountable.

“It felt like we were down by 10, honestly,” Mattingly said.

By that time, the Dodgers had failed to drive in Gordon, who led off the first inning with a single and stole second base and third base.

Greinke tried not to be discouraged.

“Any time you give up a couple runs early, you have to keep them there,” Greinke said. “If they get another three runs, then it’s going to be tough. If it’s just two runs, you know the game’s not over yet.”

He was right.

The comeback started with Gordon drawing a leadoff walk in the sixth inning. He stole second base and reached third when a catchable popup by Yasiel Puig dropped in shallow left field. Puig’s failure to run probably cost him second base, but the mental lapse became irrelevant when Hanley Ramirez drew a walk to load the bases.

Gonzalez grounded into a double play, but Gordon scored. Kemp followed with a single to left field to drive in Puig and tie the score, 2-2.

Gordon moved the Dodgers in front the next inning. With two outs and Drew Butera on third base, Gordon hit a double down the left-field line. Third baseman Pablo Sandoval was playing in, concerned that the speedy Gordon could bunt or reach base on a slow roller.

Gordon scored on a double by Puig to increase the Dodgers’ advantage to 4-2.

“That’s all I want to do, help my team win, get in better situations for them, for us to score runs,” said Gordon, as soft-spoken as usual.

The Dodgers’ final two runs came in the eighth inning, the first on Kemp’s fifth home run.

“I told myself coming into this series, I had to start driving in some runs,” Kemp said. “I did that today.”

Kemp recently reclaimed his place as the Dodgers’ everyday center fielder, resulting in a diminished role for Andre Ethier. With Puig established as the everyday right fielder and Mattingly wanting to start a hot-hitting Carl Crawford in left field, Ethier was out of the lineup for the third consecutive day. The decision was a surprise to Ethier, a career .429 hitter against Giants starter Matt Cain.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com

Twitter: @dylanohernandez