Over his Hall-Of-Fame managerial career with the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants, Bruce Bochy’s teams have been a constant thorn in the side of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bochy will get one more chance to hurt the Dodgers in their own stadium before he retires at the end of the season as the Giants open a three-game weekend series at Chavez Ravine.
Clayton Kershaw gets the start and is looking to bounce back from a rough outing against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Aug. 31. Kershaw allowed five runs in five innings, marking the first time in his entire career that he had suffered a regular-season loss while his team had scored four or more runs.
He faces Jeff Samardzija, whose second-half improvement help fuel the Giants’ red-hot July that briefly put the rebuilding squad on the fringes of the National League Wild Card race. He remained solid even as the Giants have faded, recording a 1.99 ERA over 11 starts in July and August.
However, Samardzija is also coming off a rough start, allowing six runs in 5.1 innings in a loss to the Padres on Sept. 1. He’s 0-1 with a 2.61 ERA in two starts against the Dodgers this season. The first outing saw him throw five shutout innings at Dodger Stadium back in April.
Samardzija now faces a Dodgers lineup that has a scorching Joc Pederson in the leadoff spot. Buoyed by using Andre Ethier’s bat, Pederson has slugged five home runs in his past three games. A 6-for-6 stretch that included a double and the five homers tied Larry Walker’s National League record for consecutive extra-base hits.
As a team, the Dodgers enter play with 250 home runs, which is good for third amongst all teams. It also broke an NL record for most in a single season, which was previously held by the 2000 Houston Astros (249).
The Dodgers are holding a pregame ceremony to recognize Bochy and his forthcoming retirement.
Dodgers lineup:
RF: Joc Pederson
SS: Corey Seager
3B: Justin Turner
CF: Cody Bellinger
1B: Matt Beaty
LF: A.J. Pollock
2B: Gavin Lux
C: Will Smith
P: Clayton Kershaw
Giants lineup:
2B: Donovan Solano
RF: Austin Slater
CF: Kevin Pillar
3B: Evan Longoria
C: Buster Posey
LF: Joey Rickard
1B: Aramis Garcia
SS: Mauricio Dubon
P: Jeff Samardzija
