Dodgers @ Giants June 8, 2019: Hill looks to get the Dodgers back in the win column

The Dodgers had gone like one and a half months without losing consecutive games. They dropped two games in Chicago on April 23-24, and didn’t lose back-to-back games again until Bob Nightengale congratulated them on wrapping up the division. They’re 0-2 since that tweet. Bob is the most powerful force in the world and he must be stopped.

Dodgers
Giants
4:15 p.m.
San Francisco
LF
Pederson
RF
Yastrzemski
1B
Muncy
1B
Belt
3B
Turner
3B
Longoria
RF
Bellinger
LF
Austin
SS
Seager
CF
Pillar
CF
Verdugo
SS
Crawford
2B
Hernández C Garcia
C
Martin
2B
Solano
P
Hill (L)
P
Samardzija (R)

Rich Hill makes his eighth start of the season tonight. Hill has been excellent of late, much like most of the Dodger starters. In his last four starts, Hill is averaging just over six innings per game while holding opposing batters to a triple slash line of .180/.232/.270. Hill didn’t allow a run in two of those four starts, including in his last outing against the Phillies. Hill’s biggest issue has always been durability, but when he’s healthy he’s been pretty steady. He threw over 100 pitches in each of his last two starts, after doing so only three times in 2018 and twice in 2017.

The Dodgers will face Jeff Samardzija for the second time in 2019. In the first meeting, Samardzija held the Dodgers to two hits and one walk in five scoreless innings. He was pinch hit for in the bottom of the fifth and the Dodgers scored two runs off the Giant bullpen, but Ross Stripling and Dylan Floro failed to hold the lead. Samardzija had a rough May, with a 5.55 ERA and seven homers allowed in five starts. He started off June strong, with a six inning, one run outing in Baltimore. The 34-year-old righty was known as a workhorse, as he threw over 200 innings every season between 2013 and 2017. Last season, Samardzija threw only 44 2/3 innings with a shoulder injury that sidelined him in July. He’s already thrown about 18 more innings this season, and despite his struggles in May his numbers are more in-line with his career numbers.

Corey Seager is in the lineup after tripping over first base last night. Alex Verdugo is also back in the lineup after experiencing some back tightness. Justin Turner is in the lineup again today, and figures to get tomorrow off.

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A reminder that tonight’s game will be aired exclusively on FOX.

About Alex Campos

I've been writing about the Dodgers since I graduated from Long Beach State, where I covered the Dirtbags in my senior year. I'm either very good or very bad at puns.