There’s a lot of Magic in Dodgers’ 9-1 victory over Giants

When Magic Johnson’s face appeared on Dodger Stadium’s video scoreboard before the eighth inning of the Dodgers’ 9-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants, the announced crowd of 43,713 stood and cheered.

Johnson rose from his seat in the owner’s box, turned around and saluted the fans.

The crowd cheered: “Ma-gic! Ma-gic!”

With the Dodgers playing their first home game under new ownership, Monday felt like a scaled-down version of opening day.

“We definitely felt it,” starter Ted Lilly said. “I definitely thought the stadium had quite a lot of energy.”

Matt Kemp returned from a tight hamstring that kept him out of the lineup the previous day, played seven innings and reached base four times.

Lilly held the Giants to a run and four hits over six innings to improve to 4-0. Andre Ethier and Juan Rivera each drove in two runs.

The Dodgers improved to 11-2 at Dodger Stadium, the best home record in the major leagues. They ran their overall record to 19-10, tops in the National League.

The Giants fell to 14-15, five games back of the Dodgers in the NL West.

What started as a pitchers’ duel between Lilly and Barry Zito (1-1) turned into a blowout as the Dodgers scored eighth runs from the sixth inning to the eighth.

The Dodgers struck the death blow in a five-run eighth inning, which was highlighted by a two-run single by Ethier.

The runs batted in were the 29th and 30th for Ethier, who leads the majors in that category.

The Dodgers took their first lead in the third inning, when Zito elected to intentionally walk Kemp with Mark Ellis on second base and first base open. Zito followed that walk with another, this one unintentional to Ethier.

Ellis scored on a groundout by Rivera.

Kemp appeared to be hindered by his hamstring in the sixth inning, when he misplayed a single by Melky Cabrera.

Three batters later, Joaquin Arias singled to drive in Cabrera and tie the score, 1-1.

The Dodgers broke the stalemate in the bottom half of the inning. A.J. Ellis drove in newcomer Bobby Abreu from second base on a double.

Pinch-hitter Tony Gwynn Jr.’s bunt single pushed home Juan Uribe and the Dodgers were up, 3-1.

The inning was the last pitched by Zito, who was charged with three runs and eight hits in six innings. Zito fell to 1-1.

Kemp led off the seventh inning with his third hit of the game, a double to right field. Rivera hit a grounder at reliever Steve Edlefsen, who tried to throw out Kemp at third base but threw the ball away.

Kemp scored. When he was removed for precautionary reasons in the eighth inning as part of a defensive double switch, he was batting .406.

For Lilly, his 4-0 start is the first of his career. The left-hander’s 1.41 earned-run average ranks fourth in the NL.

The video of this game probably won’t end up in the Guggenheim Museum because the Dodgers and Giants each made three errors.