Fresh off being no hit for the second time in a span of ten days, the Los Angeles Dodgers don’t have much time to dwell on their struggles, nor should they. The San Francisco Giants are in town, and being only three and half games back means the Giants can tie the series up with a sweep. For the Dodgers, taking two-out-of-three or coming away with a sweep could leave the Giants looking forward to battling the Chicago Cubs for the second wild card spot for the remainder of the season, assuming the Dodgers are able to continue winning down the stretch.
If the earlier matchups from this season are any indication, it won’t be an easy series for the Dodgers. The Giants have been a thorn in the Dodgers’ side so far this season, taking nine out of twelve games against Los Angeles. Three more games remain to be played between the two teams after the upcoming series.
Game 2 on Tuesday will offer a playoff-caliber pitching matchup, as the Giants will send Madison Bumgarner to the mound against Zack Greinke. Bumgarner, who is 8-3 at Dodger Stadium in his career, has made Dodger Stadium “AT&T Park South”. Greinke, needless to say, has been having a career season and leads the majors with earn run average of 1.61.
The Dodgers will send Clayton Kershaw to the mound on Wednesday against Mike Leake. Kershaw struggled earlier this year coming off of his 2014 MVP campaign, but has made a strong comeback in the second half, boasting an earned run average of 1.17 in his last three starts.
The Giants are banged up, but they can look forward to reinforcements on Tuesday when MLB rosters are allowed to expand to 40, which will likely bring outfielder Angel Pagan and pitcher Tim Hudson off of the disabled list.
The Dodgers have injuries of their own to deal with coming into the series. Howie Kendrick and Yasiel Puig are on the DL due to hamstring injuries. As if things couldn’t have been more frustrating for the Dodgers in the series finale against the Cubs, Enrique Hernandez, who has seen more playing time over Joc Pederson as a utility player due to his offensive productivity, left the game experiencing hamstring tightness.
Regardless of who is in the starting lineup for either team, the key for the San Francisco Giants will be to get to the Dodgers’ bullpen, which ranks 23rd in MLB and has been tagged with an earned run average of 4.07. To make matters worse, the Dodgers’ bats have been inconsistent, despite winning five games in a row prior to Sunday’s loss. In Zack Greinke’s last outing, the Dodgers were only able to give him one run to work with.
Consequently, for Los Angeles, the ultimate key will be to keep the bullpen out of the game as much as possible and, when the bullpen has to be used, to get the bats going and give the relievers as much of a buffer as possible. The likely scenario will be heavy bullpen use when Brett Anderson is on the mound on Monday, and limited bullpen use when Greinke and Kershaw are pitching Tuesday and Wednesday.
AP Photo/Ben Margot
