While the Los Angeles Dodgers suffered a loss to the San Francisco Giants in 11 innings, they finished 4-2 on the homestand. Los Angeles now opens a three-game set against the San Diego Padres, having gone just 5-8 on the road thus far.
Friday’s contest is the Dodgers’ first at Petco Park this season. They took three of four games from the Padres in the 2017 Opening Series at Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles outscored San Diego, 27-10, in those games.
Kenta Maeda takes the ball with an opportunity to build upon a seven-inning outing. Prior to that point, Maeda hadn’t pitched more than five innings in any of his previous four starts. The right-hander takes the mound on six days’ rest for a second time this season.
While that tended to yield positive results last season, Maeda surrendered four home runs to the Arizona Diamondbacks when he last started on two days of extra rest.
Overall this season, Maeda is 2-2 with a 6.58 ERA, 5.16 FIP and 1.35 WHIP. He’s a lifetime 2-2 with a 3.67 ERA in five starts against the Padres, including a 1-1 mark and 4.20 ERA in three outings at Petco Park.
San Diego counters with Jhoulys Chacin, who was knocked around by the Dodgers on Opening Day. He managed to pitch just 3.1 innings and surrendered nine runs on eight hits, two of which were home runs.
But the veteran right-hander has been much improved since, save for a start on April 24 against the Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Excluding that outing, Chacin has turned in two scoreless starts and allowed three runs in two other games.
Chacin is 3-2 with a 3.82 ERA in five starts since Opening Day. He’s 9-8 in 21 career games (20 starts) against the Dodgers, pitching to a 4.49 ERA. Chacin is 4-1 with a 1.82 ERA at Petco Park, including 2-0 with 14.2 scoreless innings at home this season.
Joc Pederson, who was reinstated from the 10-day disabled list Friday, hit a grand slam off Chacin on Opening Day. It was the first of back-to-back home runs for the Dodgers, as Yasmani Grandal also went deep.
With Adrian Gonzalez landing on the disabled list for the first time in his career, Cody Bellinger remains with the Dodgers and makes another start at first base.
Dodgers lineup:
LF: Andrew Toles
SS: Corey Seager
3B: Justin Turner
C: Yasmani Grandal
1B: Cody Bellinger
CF: Joc Pederson
RF: Yasiel Puig
2B: Chase Utley
P: Kenta Maeda
Padres lineup:
CF: Manuel Margot
LF: Cory Spangenberg
1B: Wil Myers 1B
2B: Yangervis Solarte
3B: Ryan Schimpf 3B
C: Hector Sanchez
RF: Hunter Renfroe
SS: Erick Aybar
P: Jhoulys Chacin
