Dodgers: Four takeaways from the past losing road trip

The Giants and Dodgers Rivalry Lives On

Although the Giants sit in 4th place in the NL West and are an abysmal eight games under .500 (17-25), there’s still a spark when they face the Dodgers. Coming off of a weekend series where they beat the Dodgers two out of three in San Francisco, the Giants now lead the season series against the Dodgers, six games to three.

It seems like every time the Dodgers and Giants meet up, regardless of records, the teams will always play a little harder to win the game. It was evident in the final game of the series yesterday afternoon when the benches cleared after Johnny Cueto threw at the head of Yasmani Grandal.

As you see, there were no punches thrown, but it’s clear that these games against these two teams mean a little extra for the players. Now, while it’s exciting for fans to see players get fired up, there’s a bigger issue to be looked at for the Dodgers.

Prior to the Dodgers win last night, the Dodgers had a slash line of .210/.287/.287 against San Francisco this season. That’s concerning production against a team that only has 15 wins on the season and explains how they have lost every series against the Giants so far.

To add further insult to injury, the club has only scored one run in 12 innings of work by starting pitcher Matt Cain who prior to this season, had a reputation of being crushed by the Dodgers.

There’s no secret the Giants get up to play against the Dodgers. We can always count on a close game when these two meet and perhaps even a little heated exchange. But what we need to start seeing is the Dodgers pull off some more wins in these divisional games.