Some 17 hours after wrapping up a marathon of a game, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks are back at Chase Field for the second of their three-game series. The Dodgers are looking to rebound from having a modest winning streak snapped at two games and get back to .500.
With a taxed bullpen that would benefit from rest, good fortune would have it that Clayton Kershaw takes the mound for his second start of the season. Kershaw allowed just one run on eight hits, and had seven strikeouts in six innings, but suffered a tough-luck loss to the San Francisco Giants in his debut.
Kershaw has been quite good against Arizona in his career, as he is 14-8 with a 2.55 ERA and 1.12 WHIP against them in 26 career stars.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner continues to demonstrate his competitive edge, pointing out different facets he can improve following his Opening Day outing.
Opposing Kershaw on the mound is Zack Godley, who is entering his fourth season in the Majors. The righty is coming off a career season in which he went 8-9 with a 3.37 ERA, 3.41 FIP and 1.14 WHIP in 26 games (25 starts).
Godley has faced the Dodgers eight times in his career, starting four of those games, yielding a 3.38 ERA in 29.1 innings. Tuesday marks his first start of the regular season, but Godley put together a strong Spring Training, giving up five runs on nine hits and seven walks in 20.1 innings pitched.
Chris Taylor and Matt Kemp have both homered off Godley in the past and are in Tuesday’s lineup batting leadoff and fifth, respectively.
The Dodgers made their first active roster move of the season ahead of this game, as they called up right-handed reliever Zach Neal from Triple-A Oklahoma City to help out a bullpen that was taxed in Monday’s 15-inning loss.
To make room for Neal on the 25-man roster, reliever Josh Fields was placed on the paternity list, and recently-acquired Jesus Liranzo was designated for assignment.
The Diamondbacks were also forced to make a move, but because of injury, as Jake Lamb was diagnosed with a left AC joint sprain. He went 2-for-6 with an RBI, walk and strikeout in the series opener.
Dodgers lineup:
CF: Chris Taylor
SS: Corey Seager
RF: Yasiel Puig
1B: Cody Bellinger
LF: Matt Kemp
2B: Kiké Hernandez
3B: Logan Forsythe
C: Austin Barnes
P: Clayton Kershaw
Diamondbacks lineup:
LF: David Peralta
SS: Ketel Marte
1B: Paul Goldschmidt
CF: A.J. Pollock
RF: Chris Owings
2B: Daniel Descalso
3B: Devin Marrero
C: John Ryan Murphy
P: Zack Godley
