The Los Angeles Dodgers continue their National League West road trip with the start of a four-game series against the San Francisco Giants.
Two teams are trending in seemingly opposite directions, with the Dodgers holding an NL-best 68-33 record and Giants at 51-51. San Francisco enters play 17.5 games back of Los Angeles in the NL West standings and looking at the potential of becoming sellers at the MLB trade deadline.
At this point last season, it was the Dodgers who trailed the Giants by three games and could not overtake their rivals until an eventual meeting in the 2021 NL Division Series.
Andrew Heaney takes the mound for his fifth start of the season and his second since returning from the 15-day injured list. Operating on a limit of 75 pitches in his last outing, he tossed four scoreless innings against the Washington Nationals, notching four strikeouts on 71 pitches.
On the year, Heaney is 1-0 with a 0.47 ERA, a 2.40 FIP, and 27 strikeouts over just 19.1 innings pitched. He is averaging 12.57 strikeouts per nine and is generating whiffs at a high clip.
The Dodgers have converted Heaney from an ineffective three-pitch starter, into a highly-effective two-pitch hurler. He is throwing the four-seam fastball around the same percentage as 2021, only up slightly from 59.4% to 61.5% this season, but has eliminated the usage of both his curveball and changeup.
After not utilizing it at all in 2021, Heaney’s slider has been his bread and butter, and because of its 42.6% whiff rate, he throws it 36.8% of the time.
Logan Webb gets the start for the Giants, in what will be his 22nd this season. He comes into night with a 9-4 record and 2.91 ERA. Webb threw 6.1 innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks his last time out, allowing four runs on seven hits while striking out five.
Webb has been fantastic as of late, and in his prior seven games, is carrying a 2.23 ERA over 44.1 innings pitched. Walks have been a bit of an issue, but he has limited damage by avoiding hard contact.
With his single in the first inning of Sunday’s game, Trea Turner extended his hitting streak to 18 games. Turner notched a .892 on-base plus slugging percentage in July, adding six home runs and driving in 17 runs.
The Dodgers are 6-3 against the Giants but have yet to notch a win at Oracle Park in 2022. The home team has won every game of their head-to-head meetings thus far.
Dodgers lineup
RF: Mookie Betts
SS: Trea Turner
1B: Freddie Freeman
C: Will Smith
DH: Jake Lamb
2B: Gavin Lux
3B: Max Muncy
CF: Cody Bellinger
LF: James Outman
Giants lineup
1B: Darin Ruf
CF: Austin Slater
DH: Yermín Mercedes
2B: Wilmer Flores
LF: Luis González
3B: David Villar
SS: Dixon Machado
C: Joey Bart
RF: Mike Yastrzemski
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