Aces Up! Kershaw Holds The Cards For Dodgers In Phony Book Park Rubber Game
Dodgers Lineup vs. Giants
Clayton Kershaw-7-5 vs. Chad Gaudin-2-1
Crawford 7 Puig 9 Gonzalez 3 Hanley 6 Ethier 8 Uribe 5 A.J. Ellis 2 M.Ellis 2 Kershaw 1
The Dodgers lost last night, and it was annoying, but at least they have Ricky Nolasco now right? Yay! We’re saved! That doesn’t really make up for the irritating 4-2 defeat by the Giants yesterday which evened up the series. The Dodger defense was the team’s undoing yesterday. The three costly errors they committed yesterday were enough to hand them only their second loss in their last 14 games. The offense could only muster up two runs on four hits against Madison Bumgarner, and that was it. The club looked like that miserable first half team in yesterday’s game. I know they can’t win every game, but that kind of sloppy play can’t be allowed to ever continue again. Speaking of Ricky Nolasco….
According to my Marlin’s source, who is a pretty big player down there (meaning he is heavily involved with the Marlins) in Miami, and is also involved with the team booster club, has assured me that Nolasco is a good pitcher. He called him a bulldog, and admitted it was a good trade for the Dodgers. So if he sucks, then it’s all his fault. Joking, joking! So this sounds like a win-win for the Dodgers right?
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (22) during the eighth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. The Dodgers won 8-0.-Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
You know who the real bulldog is? Orel Hershiser of course. But you know who pitches like a bulldog? An ace bulldog? That would be Clayton Kershaw of course silly. Kershaw will take the ball for the Dodgers in the rubber game of the three game series at Phony Book Park. This will be the Dodgers last game at Phony Book Park until September, so it’s important the Dodgers get this series win.
Kershaw has pitched against the Giants three times this season, so this will be his fourth start against the Giants. Kershaw is 2-0 this season with a no-decision against the Giants. Kershaw’s last start was his dominating complete game four-hit shutout win over Colorado at Coors Field. This time Kershaw goes up against a team he has had plenty of success against.
Kershaw has dominated the Giants. He owns them. Kershaw is 10-4 with a miniscule 1.33 ERA and three shutouts in 20 games. Kershaw has whiffed 146 in 142 frames. Kershaw is even more dominating against the Giants at Phony Book Park, where he is 5-2 with a 0.73 ERA. Kershaw has only allowed five earned runs ever at San Francisco in over 60 innings. Just utter domination. Kershaw is 7-5 with a 1.93 ERA this year. Would you like to see what domination looks like? Check out what the current group of Giants have hit against Kershaw in the past. The Giants are only hitting .159 off of Kershaw.
PA
AB
H
2B
3B
HR
RBI
BB
SO
BA
OBP
SLG
Buster Posey43
41
9
2
0
1
4
2
10
.220
.256
.341
Pablo Sandoval42
39
10
2
0
0
6
2
8
.256
.286
.308
Andres Torres35
31
2
0
0
0
0
2
11
.065
.171
.065
Hunter Pence32
32
2
0
0
0
1
0
7
.063
.063
.063
Brandon Belt30
27
3
1
0
0
0
3
13
.111
.200
.148
Marco Scutaro22
20
7
0
1
0
0
1
1
.350
.381
.450
Joaquin Arias17
16
1
0
0
0
0
1
3
.063
.118
.063
Brandon Crawford14
14
1
0
0
0
0
0
6
.071
.071
.071
Gregor Blanco13
10
2
0
0
0
0
3
3
.200
.385
.200
Tim Lincecum12
12
0
0
0
0
0
0
8
.000
.000
.000
Matt Cain9
9
1
0
0
0
0
0
6
.111
.111
.111
Tony Abreu7
6
2
1
0
0
1
1
2
.333
.429
.500
Barry Zito6
5
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
.000
.000
.000
Madison Bumgarner
5
5
1
0
0
0
0
0
2
.200
.200
.200
Cole Gillespie5
5
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
.200
.200
.200
Hector Sanchez4
4
2
1
0
0
0
0
1
.500
.500
.750
Guillermo Quiroz1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
.000
.000
.000
Total
297
277
44
7
1
1
12
15
84
.159
.207
.202
The Giants will counter with right hander Chad Gaudin. The Giants are looking for their first series win since June 17-19 when they took two out of three from san Diego.
Gaudin is a 30 year old right hander who has been pitching in the majors since 2003. Last season he was with the Marlins as a relief pitcher. Gaudin has been a reliever for years now, and hadn’t started a game since 2009. But the Giants are desperate, and with the injuries to their pitching staff, they turned to the veteran to step into the fold. Gaudin has been pretty consistent too, but is coming off of injury. Gaudin suffered a bruised forearm, and had only made an 80 pitch bullpen session before today’s game. He had been on the disabled list since June 24. The Giants say he’s good to go however.
San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Chad Gaudin (57) pitches in relief during the ninth inning against the Colorado Rockies at AT&T Park.
Gaudin is 2-1 with a 2.60 ERA this season. He has 41 whiffs and 18 walks in 52 innings pitched. Gaudin has pitched with a bunch of teams. He’s pitched with Tampa Bay, Oakland, Miami, the Cubs, Yankees, and now the Giants among others.
Gaudin is 0-2 with a 5.66 ERA in nine games against the Dodgers. Only two of those games were games in which he started. At San Francisco, Gaudin is 0-1 with a 2.12 ERA in 17 games. Gaudin is primarily a fastball, slider, changeup guy, who uses his changeup against left handers most of the time.
How have the Dodgers hit against Gaudin? They’ve actually had some success against Gaudin, with Carl Crawford, and Juan Uribe providing the power.
PA
AB
H
2B
3B
HR
RBI
BB
SO
BA
OBP
SLG
Carl Crawford
13
12
5
1
1
1
2
1
1
.417
.462
.917
Matt Kemp12
10
2
1
0
0
3
1
6
.200
.250
.300
Nick Punto12
8
3
2
0
0
0
4
1
.375
.583
.625
Mark Ellis10
8
0
0
0
0
0
2
2
.000
.200
.000
Andre Ethier9
8
4
2
0
0
1
1
0
.500
.556
.750
Hanley Ramirez9
9
1
0
0
0
0
0
3
.111
.111
.111
Juan Uribe
8
8
3
0
0
1
2
0
3
.375
.375
.750
Jerry Hairston6
5
2
0
0
0
1
0
0
.400
.333
.400
A.J. Ellis3
3
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
.333
.333
.333
Skip Schumaker2
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
.000
.500
.000
Adrian Gonzalez1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
.000
.000
.000
Clayton Kershaw
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
.000
.000
.000
Total
86
74
21
6
1
2
9
10
16
.284
.360
.473
While Matt Kemp rests his shoulder again, the Dodgers are preparing to leave for their final part of their nine game road trip, which is a series in Arizona starting on Monday night. First things first, beat the dam Giants. With Kershaw on the mound, the Dodger stand a pretty good chance. You check out the game at 1:05 PM, and you can tune into the game on Prime Ticket. Don’t forget to tune into the Lasorda’s Lair game recap immediately following the game. Hopefully we’ll be celebrating a series win. The Dodgers need series wins right now. After last night’s loss, and Arizona’s win over Colorado, the boys in blue are now 4.5 games back. Go Blue!