Dodgers @ Giants June 12, 2016: Urías vs. Peavy in rubber game

Dodgers
Giants
5:30 p.m. PT
San Francisco
2B
Utley
CF
Span
SS
Seager
2B
Panik
3B
Turner
1B
Belt
1B
González
C
Posey
RF
Thompson
3B
Duffy
CF
Pederson
SS
Crawford
LF
Kendrick
LF
Williamson
C
Ellis
RF
Blanco
P
Urías (L)
P
Peavy (R)

The Dodgers won Friday night’s game in thrilling fashion, with Justin Turner‘s ninth-inning, tie-breaking home run bolstering Clayton Kershaw‘s excellent eight innings of two-run ball. The Giants won Saturday night’s game in agonizing fashion, with Adrian González‘s tenth-inning, tie-breaking solo shot not being enough for Kenley Jansen to work with, as he struggled for the second night in a row.

One thing is certain — this hasn’t been a boring series so far. I’m sure we’re all excited and/or terrified to see what’s in store as the NL West rivals duke it out for the series victory on national television.

Julio Urías will take the mound in his fourth big league start, still on that 80-90 pitch limit. Urías has pitched 11 and 2/3 innings across his three starts, posting an ERA of 6.94 (5.60 FIP) and a WHIP of 1.89. He’s struck out 14 batters, while issuing six walks.

His last time out vs. the Rockies featured his best performance so far. Even though he only lasted four innings, he struck out seven batters, allowing just one run on three hits and a walk. Daniel Brim wrote earlier today about Urías’s weird curveball, if you want something to watch for in tonight’s game.

Catching for Urías tonight is A.J. Ellis, who caught the rookie’s second start of the season (Yasmani Grandal caught the other two). Urías will see the same lineup that Bruce Bochy sent out last night vs. Scott Kazmir (save for the pitcher’s spot), which contains five lefties; a few key injuries have made the Giants’ 25-man roster very LHB-heavy.

The Dodgers will face Jake Peavy, who’s been struggling this season. In 12 starts, Peavy has a 6.41 ERA (4.29 FIP) and a WHIP of 1.56. He’s pitched into the seventh inning in just three of those games; in half of his starts, he’s lasted five innings or fewer. The Giants are 5-7 in his starts.

Some of it has been bad luck for Peavy, who has the third-highest BABIP (.346) amongst NL starting pitchers. However, the Dodgers’ offense has the lowest BABIP in baseball (.271). We’ll see if one wins out, or if the two things end up canceling each other out. It should be noted that Peavy is giving up hard contact at a rate that’s easily the highest of his career (38.2%).

We got this bit of news about Frankie Montas today:

It’ll be worth keeping an eye on Montas’s progress. While the Dodgers’ bullpen has been decidedly solid of late (8 runs allowed in its last 40 and 1/3 IP), a good stint in Triple-A could very well lead to him joining the big club.

Here are progress reports on Brandon McCarthy and Hyun-jin Ryu, both currently rehabbing with Rancho Cucamonga:

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About Sarah Wexler

Sarah Wexler is a native Angeleno and longtime Dodger fan. She began blogging about baseball in 2012 on her Tumblr, New Grass On The Field, where she covered an array of topics but especially enjoyed exploring baseball history. She is now a reporter/producer for MLB.com. She earned her master's degree in Sports Management from Cal State Long Beach. She graduated from New York University in 2014 with a bachelor's in History and a minor in American Studies. She's an avid Springsteen fan, which is a big boost to her baseball writer cred.