Dodgers Padres Game 1 Preview

The final home series is upon us, and there are still some meaningful games to be played.

The Dodgers know they will be playing the Mets in the first round, but it still remains to be seen which team will have home field advantage in the NLDS. Currently, they both have an 89-70 record, but the Mets won the season series so they own the tiebreaker. The Dodgers need four outcomes to go their way this weekend, so they need to take care of business against the Padres and hope the Nationals can help them out if they want home field in the first round, which I don’t think matters all that much. Tonight’s Mets-Nationals game has been postponed due to rain and is scheduled to be made up tomorrow.

After an amazing performance by Brett Anderson yesterday in San Francisco, Alex Wood gets his final start of the regular season to try to give Dodger fans some confidence in the pitching staff after Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke. For the most part, Wood has been pretty good with the Dodgers. His ERA and FIP are both highly underwhelming, but in eight of his 11 starts he’s allowed less than three runs. He’s shown the ability to get lit up (eight runs in five innings in Colorado, six runs in less than two innings in Arizona), but for the most part has done a good job keeping the Dodgers in the game.

For the Padres, Casey Kelly will be making his second start of the season. The formerly highly touted prospect hasn’t had much minor league success since returning from Tommy John surgery last season, but he’s still only 25 so it’ll be interesting to see if he becomes a thorn in the Dodgers side for the next few years. He’s allowed seven runs in seven major league innings this season after posting a 6.17 ERA in 31 minor league appearances (17 starts).

The Padres will be without Matt Kemp for the series as he strained a tendon in his finger and will miss the remainder of the season. The emotions I would have felt had Kemp been Kershaw’s 300th strikeout victim on Sunday would have been too much.

Fairly normal lineup. A day off for Joc Pederson against a righty is kind of strange, but Enrique Hernandez has been great of late and it would be good for him to get back in rhythm before the postseason. Who knows how much he will play against the Mets righty-dominant lineup, but he, much like Corey Seager, might be playing himself into the lineup.

This is the first game back at Dodger Stadium since the AC/DC concert on Monday. AT&T Park had also played home to a concert by AC/DC, and it did some notable damage to the outfield grass up there. Let’s hope the damage from the show is at a minimum.

On an unfortunate note, Vin Scully will not call this series as he is fighting a cold. Get well soon, Vin.

First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PST and will be shown on Sportsnet LA.