After defeating Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants on Friday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers take the field on Saturday afternoon with an opportunity to clinch a postseason berth for the sixth straight season.
Additionally, a win would put a tremendous amount of pressure on the Colorado Rockies, who are one game ahead of the Dodgers for the lead in the National League West. They will face Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals on Saturday night.
Getting the start for the Dodgers in this pivotal game is ace Clayton Kershaw, who has dominated the Giants in his career. In 44 career games (43 starts) against the division rivals, Kershaw is 22-10 with a 1.58 ERA and 0.84 WHIP.
He has been even better at AT&T Park, going 13-4 with a 1.30 ERA and 0.81 WHIP in 22 appearances.
Kershaw is in the midst of another strong season in 2018, coming in with a 9-5 record to go along with a 2.53 ERA, 3.24 FIP and 1.02 WHIP in 25 starts. He has struck out 151 while walking 29 in 156.1 total innings.
Among the Giants players in the lineup, the player with the highest on-base plus slugging percentage against Kershaw is Joe Panik at .600. Brandon Crawford (.271 OPS), Hunter Pence (.428 OPS), Gregor Blanco (.437 OPS), Evan Longoria (.462 OPS), Gorkys Hernandez (.572 OPS) and Nick Hundley (.581 OPS) have all struggled.
Opposing Kershaw is Giants rookie Dereck Rodriguez, who is the son on Ivan ‘Pudge’ Rodriguez. The right-hander is in the midst of an outstanding first big league season, 6-4 record in 20 games (18 starts). In 115.1 innings, Rodriguez has yielded a 2.50 ERA, 3.46 FIP and 1.08 WHIP with 88 strikeouts and 33 walks.
This marks Rodriguez’s first career start against the Dodgers, but it is coming at the friendly confines of AT&T Park where he has pitched to a 2.15 ERA compared to 3.05 on the road.
Kiké Hernandez gets the start at second base for the Dodgers and he comes in swinging a hot bat. In his last 19 games, Hernandez is hitting .340/.435/.509 with two home runs and 12 runs scored. He has essentially become an everyday player for Los Angeles.
Dodgers lineup:
LF: Joc Pederson
3B: Justin Turner
1B: Max Muncy
SS: Manny Machado
CF: Cody Bellinger
RF: Yasiel Puig
C: Yasmani Grandal
2B: Kiké Hernandez
P: Clayton Kershaw
Giants lineup:
RF: Hunter Pence
2B: Joe Panik
3B: Evan Longoria
C: Nick Hundley
SS: Brandon Crawford
1B: Aramis Garcia
CF: Gorkys Hernandez
LF: Gregor Blanco
P: Dereck Rodriguez
