Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers were off yesterday and dropped the series-finale in Arizona on Wednesday. The offense went cold enough to give the bullpen an opportunity to squander a lead in the eighth inning, and a triple and a single allowed Arizona to walk off and avoid a sweep.
Today, the 43-20 Dodgers travel north to take on the 25-36 Giants, who currently sit in last place in the NL West and have the fourth-fewest wins in all of baseball. The Giants are 3-3 in their last six games (won two of three in Baltimore, lost two of three in New York), but always seem to play the Dodgers hard. The two teams have squared off six times this season, with each team going 2-1 at home.
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Dodgers
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Giants
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7:15 p.m.
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San Francisco
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LF
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Taylor |
2B
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Panik | |
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2B
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Muncy |
1B
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Belt | |
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3B
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Turner |
3B
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Longoria | |
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RF
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Bellinger |
LF
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Austin | |
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1B
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Freese |
RF
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Pillar | |
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SS
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Seager |
SS
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Crawford | |
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CF
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Hernández | C | Garcia | |
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C
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Barnes |
CF
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Duggar | |
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P
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Kershaw (L) |
P
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Pomeranz (L) |
Clayton Kershaw looks to continue his historical dominance against the Giants and in San Francisco tonight. In 323 1/3 innings against the Giants in his career, Kershaw owns a 1.70 ERA and has struck out 333 batters with only 44 walks. That’s absurd. He fares even better at Oracle/AT&T Park, where he owns a 1.54 ERA in 164 innings.
The Dodgers have yet to lose in 2019 when Kershaw starts a game. They’ve won each of his nine previous starts, even though Kershaw’s only received a decision in five of those games. This will be his first look at the 2019 Giants. Kershaw looked vintage in his last start, tossing seven innings and allowing one run against a strong Phillies lineup. The bullpen (Julio Urias) blew a two-run lead in the eighth, but set up a Will Smith walk-off homer to give the Dodgers the win.
Drew Pomeranz starts for the 11th time for the Giants this season, and it’s already the third time the Dodgers have seen him. Pomeranz was okay in April, posting a 4.08 ERA and holding the Dodgers to five runs in nine innings in his two starts against them. The wheels came off for Pomeranz in May, as his ERA is literally four points higher than it was on April 30.
Pomeranz started May by allowing seven Reds to score in 1 2/3 innings. He hit the IL after that and returned 12 days later, with a solid two-run, 4 2/3 inning outing in Arizona. He saw the DBacks again five days later in San Francisco and allowed five runs in 2 2/3 innings. The *whatever the opposite of piece de resistance* came in his last outing in Baltimore. The Giants, who are historically bad at scoring first inning runs, put up five against the lowly Orioles in the first inning. Rather than throw a shutdown inning, Pomeranz allowed six runs in the first inning and was charged for all of them, despite the defense committing two errors. He allowed two more runs and recorded an out in the second inning, giving him a final line of 1 1/3 innings pitched and eight earned runs. He was skipped in the rotation the last time around.
As expected, Austin Barnes is back in the Dodger lineup. He’s back off the IL, with Smith being sent back to OKC. With a lefty on the hill for the Giants, Joc Pederson sits for Chris Taylor and David Freese starts at first.
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Dustin’s been killing it with the draft coverage (I think he literally killed the site on Tuesday or whatever), and some of the picks already seem to have their intentions clear.
(Dustin meant 6th-round.)
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Dave Roberts will coach the NL All-Star team once again. His coaching staff seems to be taking shape.
Brian Snitker will be on the staff. Bruce Bochy apparently will not be in his final season before retirement.
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Alex Verdugo isn’t in the lineup today. Partly because the Giants are starting a lefty, but Verdugo is a little banged up.
