Last year, the Giants finished fourth in the NL West, way out of contention. This season, they are only a game behind L.A. and relevant again in the fight for the top spot
After taking two of three from the “little brother” Padres down the coast, and a well-deserved day off, the Dodgers are finally back home to face their real rivals, the San Francisco Giants.
As we all know the Dodgers have been thought the gauntlet of teams and travel and injuries and so far, they have weathered it pretty well. They are still on top of a very competitive NL West, by one game over the Giants and two over the Padres. It feels like it will be a three-team race all the way to the end.
This is the first time the Dodgers have faced the Giants this season, the last of their NL West foes. Buster Posey is now the president of baseball operations of the Giants, and he has put together a contender, built around a very good pitching staff. The team is looking much better than last season’s edition, a team that finished 80-82 and fourth in the division.
The Giants starting pitching staff has the sixth-lowest ERA in the majors and going into their series with the Rockies in Colorado, their bullpen had the lowest ERA in the majors. They gave up 20 runs to the Rockies, but one could chalk that up to being at Coors Field. The Rockies did end up taking one game, getting three runs in the bottom of the ninth to win on Thursday.
Conversely, their team batting average in .233, sixth-lowest in the majors. The Dodgers now own the best team batting average at .265. Sam Francisco comes to town at 40-29, one game out.
The Dodgers will start the series sending Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the mound, who has been a little shaky in his last few starts. The Giants will contend with their Cy Young candidate Logan Webb, who has been very good as of late. Over his last three appearances, he has a 2.25 ERA with 27 strikeouts and only allowing one walk. He has allowed three or fewer runs in 13 of his 14 starts this season.
The Dodgers-Giants rivalry doesn’t have the same juice that the Padres series do – there is not the level of hate as there was in the Madison Bumgardner days. But that doesn’t mean the rivalry is stale. Max Muncy stated recently that the Dodgers only have one rival, and that is the Giants. Perhaps we will get some Muncy fireworks this weekend reminiscent of a few years ago. The Dodgers took two of three from the Padres in a division tussle, and look to show the next closest they’re still the team to beat.
Friday game info
- Teams: Dodgers vs. Giants
- Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
- Start time: 7:10 p.m.
- TV: SportsNet LA, MLB Network (out of market)
- Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)