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 Posey

43

41

9

2

0

1

4

2

10

.220

.256

.341

Pablo Sandoval

42

39

10

2

0

0

6

2

8

.256

.286

.308

Andres Torres

35

31

2

0

0

0

0

2

11

.065

.171

.065

Hunter Pence

32

32

2

0

0

0

1

0

7

.063

.063

.063

Brandon Belt

30

27

3

1

0

0

0

3

13

.111

.200

.148

Marco Scutaro

22

20

7

0

1

0

0

1

1

.350

.381

.450

Joaquin Arias

17

16

1

0

0

0

0

1

3

.063

.118

.063

Brandon Crawford

14

14

1

0

0

0

0

0

6

.071

.071

.071

Gregor Blanco

13

10

2

0

0

0

0

3

3

.200

.385

.200

Tim Lincecum

12

12

0

0

0

0

0

0

8

.000

.000

.000

Matt Cain

9

9

1

0

0

0

0

0

6

.111

.111

.111

Tony Abreu

7

6

2

1

0

0

1

1

2

.333

.429

.500

Barry Zito

6

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 Gillespie

5

5

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

.200

.200

.200

Hector Sanchez

4

4

2

1

0

0

0

0

1

.500

.500

.750

Guillermo Quiroz

1

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 Kemp

12

10

2

1

0

0

3

1

6

.200

.250

.300

Nick Punto

12

8

3

2

0

0

0

4

1

.375

.583

.625

Mark Ellis

10

8

0

0

0

0

0

2

2

.000

.200

.000

Andre Ethier

9

8

4

2

0

0

1

1

0

.500

.556

.750

Hanley Ramirez

9

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 Hairston

6

5

2

0

0

0

1

0

0

.400

.333

.400

A.J. Ellis

3

3

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

.333

.333

.333

Skip Schumaker

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

.000

.500

.000

Adrian Gonzalez

1

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!