Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Yes, the San Francisco Giants and their 14-16 record are currently tied with the New York Mets for the 8th and final spot in the National League.
Considering five more teams, the Brewers, Diamondbacks, Nationals, Phillies and Reds, are all within 1.5 games of the 8th/9th spot tie as well, who knows how likely of a matchup the Dodgers and Giants really is, but it isn’t impossible.
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Part of the Giants success can be credited to 30-year-old Mike Yastrzemski, who is slashing .309/.429/.645/1.074 with 2.2 WAR, the best in the NL, and a 184 wRC+ through 30 games.
In his seven games against the Dodgers this season, Yastrzemski has hit .308 with three doubles, a homer and four walks.
Two of those walks and a double came off of tonight’s starter, Julio Urias, who faces the Giants for the third time this season. Urias allowed just two runs in 9 IP during his first two starts against San Francisco, but did walk five batters (of his seven this season) in the two games.
Urias picked up the strikeouts in his last start in Seattle, with all five of the outs he recorded coming on Ks. The problem is he lasted just the 1 2/3 innings, giving up four hits in the process.
Holding a 2.74 ERA and a 3.61 FIP, Urias’ SIERA (4.84) and xFIP (4.80) aren’t quite as impressive. However, he’s still atop the league in Hard Hit% (22.9%) among pitchers with at least 50 batted ball events.
Also among the top of that list are former Dodgers Kenta Maeda (2nd), Frankie Montas (5th) and Hyun Jin Ryu (8th), as well as Dustin May (15th) and tonight’s starter for San Francisco, Johnny Cueto (20th).
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Cueto and his ridiculous repertoire of pitching windups holds a 4.35 ERA and a 4.00 FIP, and is also facing the Dodgers for the third time this season. The Giants lost the game in which Cueto allowed just one run in four innings on July 23 while they won the Aug. 8 meeting when he allowed four runs in 5 2/3 innings.
In those games, Mookie Betts finished 0-for-5 with 2 Ks and Cody Bellinger went 0-for-4 with a walk against Cueto. Both are obviously in the lineup tonight, as is Max Muncy on his birthday and Justin Turner is at third base after dealing with a minor hamstring injury.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 6:45 p.m. | San Francisco | ||
| RF | Betts | RF | Yastrzemski (L) |
| SS | Seager (L) | DH | Flores |
| 3B | Turner | 1B | Belt (L) |
| CF | Bellinger (L) | 3B | Longoria |
| 1B | Muncy (L) | 2B | Solano |
| DH | Pollock | C | Bart |
| LF | Pederson (L) | LF | Ruf |
| 2B | Hernandez | SS | Crawford (L) |
| C | Smith | CF | Dubon |
| P | Urias (L) | P | Cueto (R) |
In the news for the day, Joe Kelly might be out for awhile still.
The taxi squad for this road trip includes Gavin Lux, Tony Gonsolin, Rocky Gale, Mitch White and Luke Raley according to Castillo, who also had an update on Alex Wood.
