The Los Angeles Dodgers suffered their first loss of the season on Friday night but have a chance to rebound against the Arizona Diamondbacks in a battle of likely future Hall of Famers.
L.A. is 15-6 against Arizona in their last 21 games, including an 8-3 record against the Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium since the start of 2022. Overall, they are 39-11 against the D-Backs with a 20-4 record at Dodger Stadium since the start of last season.
Clayton Kershaw takes the ball just three wins shy of becoming the 201st pitcher in MLB history to reach the 300-win mark. Last season, he went 12-3 with a 2.28 ERA and 0.94 WHIP with 137 strikeouts across 126.1 innings.
Kershaw is 20-11 with a 2.70 ERA in 250 career innings against the D-Backs. Last season, he was 2-0 against Arizona, pitching 13 innings while allowing one run on eight hits and striking out 15.
In his career at Dodger Stadium against the Diamondbacks, Kershaw is 11-1 with a 1.60 ERA and 135 strikeouts in 118 innings. His last loss against the Snakes at Dodger Stadium came on Aug. 30, 2012, and he is nice 7-0 with a 1.62 ERA against them.
The Diamondbacks counter with Madison Bumgarner, who has a lot of history against Kershaw and the Dodgers after spending most of his career with the San Francisco Giants.
The veteran southpaw went 7-15 last year, posting a 4.88 ERA with just 112 strikeouts and a 1.44 WHIP over 158.2 innings. His career ERA is far below at 3.42 across 2,192.2 innings, but his ERA has been above 4.50 in the previous three seasons.
Austin Barnes is getting his first start of the year as well as the catcher to give Will Smith a day off. While losing Smith’s bat in the lineup isn’t ideal, he wasn’t going to start three consecutive games this early in the season and Kershaw loves pitching to Barnes.
Chris Taylor and Trayce Thompson are also getting starts for the first time, replacing James Outman and David Peralta with a southpaw on the mound. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts previously indicated the left and center field positions would be a platoon to begin the season, so this was expected.
Miguel Rojas and Mookie Betts have the most success in their careers against Bumgarner, with each batting .333. Thompson (eight at-bats), Barnes (21), Taylor (31), Muncy (17), Martinez (25) and Vargas (two) are all batting below .200 against him in their careers.
Dodgers lineup
RF: Mookie Betts
1B: Freddie Freeman
DH: J.D. Martinez
3B: Max Muncy
LF: Chris Taylor
2B: Miguel Vargas
CF: Trayce Thompson
SS: Miguel Rojas
C: Austin Barnes
Diamondbacks lineup
DH: Kyle Lewis
2B: Ketel Marte
LF: Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
1B: Christian Walker
3B: Evan Longoria
RF: Corbin Carroll
SS: Nick Ahmed
C: Gabriel Moreno
CF: Alek Thomas
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