The Los Angeles Dodgers are in a familiar position on Thursday night, stuck at .500 and needing a win to avoid losing another home series. The New York Mets are coming off a win, led by Noah Syndergaard’s eight strong innings, and two home runs and four RBIs.
Once again, Clayton Kershaw is tasked with needing to be the savior. However, this start is carries some additional significance as its the 250th outing of Kershaw’s career. He enters 4-1 with 2.04 ERA, 1.63 FIP and 0.77 WHIP.
Kershaw leads the Majors in FIP and all starting pitchers with 53 innings pitched. In addition, he owns a four-game streak with 10 or more strikeouts. The only other Dodgers to achieve this are Sandy Koufax and Hideo Nomo.
Kershaw has also gone 23.0 innings since he last walked a batter. The Mets counter with Bartolo Colon, who is 3-1 with 2.82 ERA, 3.03 FIP and 1.12 WHIP over seven starts this season.
Colon owns an 8.25 strikeout-to-walk ratio, which trails only Kershaw’s, albeit drastically, 21.33 ratio for the Major-League lead. Colon faces a Dodgers team that’s only managed to win six of their 16 home games this season.
What’s more, the Dodgers’ 2.69 runs per game at Dodger Stadium is the second lowest average in the Majors. Kiké Hernandez gets the start in left field, with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explaining is due to liking the matchup of Hernandez against “a heavy fastball guy.”
Justin Turner is back at third base, and Yasmani Grandal catches Kershaw for only the second time this season.
Dodgers lineup:
2B: Chase Utley
SS: Corey Seager
3B: Justin Turner
1B: Adrian Gonzalez
C: Yasmani Grandal
CF: Joc Pederson
RF: Yasiel Puig
LF: Kiké Hernandez
P: Clayton Kershaw
Mets lineup:
RF: Curtis Granderson
SS: Asdrubal Cabrera
3B: David Wright
LF: Yoenis Cespedes
2B: Neil Walker
CF: Juan Lagares
C: Kevin Plawecki
1B: Eric Campbell
P: Bartolo Colon
