Dodgers @ Mets August 5, 2017: One win away from 43-7 run

The Dodgers (77-32) go for the series win against the Mets (49-58) on Saturday afternoon at Citi Field after coming away victorious in the series opener behind a dominant Yu Darvish in his Dodger debut. With one more win, the Boys in Blue would best their epic 2013 summer run when they went 42-8 over a 50-game stretch. Let’s do this.

	Dodgers			Mets
	1:05 PM PT			New York
LF	Taylor		CF	Conforto
SS	Seager		3B	Cabrera
3B	Turner		LF	Céspedes
1B	Bellinger		1B	Flores
CF	Pederson		RF	Granderson
2B	Forsythe		2B	Walker
C	Grandal		SS	Rosario
RF	Puig		C	Rivera
P	Hill (L)		P	Lugo (R)

Rich Hill (8-4, 3.35 ERA, 3.71 FIP) makes his first start of August after putting up excellent numbers in the month of July when he went 4-0 with a 1.45 ERA. He collected 40 strikeouts and just five walks in 31 innings and five starts, earning the NL Pitcher of the Month award. The Dodgers have won his last five starts dating back to July 1, and the veteran left-hander hasn’t allowed more than two runs in a game since the Dodgers were shut out by the Angels back on June 26.

Overall in his career, Hill is 1-2 with a 9.00 ERA in five games (three starts) vs. the Mets. Hill has actually never pitched at Citi Field, but he did face the Metropolitans at Shea Stadium a decade ago. He didn’t fare too well in the Big Apple and went 0-2 with an eye-popping 13.50 ERA in two starts there. One of those disastrous starts came in his rookie season, back in 2005. In his sixth major-league start, he allowed seven runs on seven hits in 1 1/3 innings. He faced the Mets again in 2007 at Shea, taking the loss after allowing four runs on seven hits in six innings.

Hill did face the Mets on June 21 at Dodger Stadium, one of the four games the Dodgers won in a sweep of the Mets. He allowed one run on four hits over five innings. Curtis Granderson hit a leadoff home run against Hill, and Jose Reyes has three hits in eight at-bats against him as well.

Seth Lugo (5-3, 4.53 ERA, 4.43 FIP) will face the Dodgers for the first time in his career. He lost last time out against the Mariners when he allowed five runs on eight hits including two home runs in five innings. None of the current Dodgers have an at-bat against the big right-hander, and they’ll have to figure out his repertoire of breaking pitches. Statcast™ measured Lugo’s curveball at 3,498 rpm last season, the highest-spin curve they had recorded since they began tracking in 2015.

The Mets’ fans will be happy to see that Chase Utley is not in the starting lineup this afternoon. Logan Forsythe takes over at second base in the second game of the series. Utley, who may get a chance to troll via pinch-hit opportunity, has hit 14 home runs at Citi Field. That’s the third-most in any ballpark behind Citizens Bank Park and Dodger Stadium for The Man in his career.

Chris Taylor and Cody Bellinger are also right back in the lineup despite taking foul balls off their legs yesterday.

The rotation for the final leg of the roadtrip:

Maeda, Wood & Darvish is the rotation vs. @Dbacks.

— Alanna Rizzo (@alannarizzo) August 5, 2017