This series will be contested from Monday, May 15, 2017 through Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Both Monday's and Wednesday’s games will be broadcast nationally on MLB Network for those outside of the local broadcast regions.
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Pitching Matchups
The series will open with an interesting pitching matchup and the situation gets increasingly more difficult for hitters as the series progresses.
Monday will feature a couple veteran right-handers on the hill with the Dodgers turning to Brandon McCarthy and the Giants looking for a good outing from Matt Cain.
Cain had a good start to the season, giving Giants fans hope that he could at least partially return to his former glory, but the veteran has looked more like the guy that’s been lost over the last few seasons. Cain has allowed 11 earned runs in his last 8.1 innings of work.
Overall, Cain is 2-1 with a 4.54 ERA in his seven starts, but it’s already been a tale of two seasons with May being a disaster. The right-hander’s last win came against the Dodgers when he went six scoreless on April 24. That was one of four straight games where he allowed one or fewer runs.
As for McCarthy, he’ll be coming off brief stint on the disabled list for this start. He’s 3-0 with a 3.10 ERA in five starts this season and has pitched rather effectively, limiting walks which was an issue last year.
With McCarthy throwing well before missing a start, it’ll be worth seeing if the extra rest results in any rust.
For Tuesday, the teams will send Rich Hill to the mound against Ty Blach. For the Dodgers, it’ll be the second straight starter coming off the DL to make a start.
Hill’s health—and blisters—remain a concern for this team, but he’s been good when he’s pitched. This year, it’s only been two starts with eight innings thrown, three runs allowed and seven strikeouts.
Since joining the Dodgers’ last year, he’s only thrown 42.1 innings, but has a 2.13 ERA in that span.
Hill is the better pitcher, but Blach is the more known quantity given Hill’s health issues. The youngster is 0-2 with a 4.88 ERA and 1.229 WHIP. He’s not walking too many, but he’s not striking out anyone either. Amazingly in this day and age of plenty of swing and miss, he’s struck out just seven batters in 27.2 innings of work.
Blach’s first start of the year came against the Dodgers, allowing two runs on four hits in five innings. He’s thrown two seven inning performances, but he’s also allowed a three run clunker, giving up 10 runs against the Reds back on May 6.
These teams will wrap up yet another series on Wednesday with yet another battle of the aces. Typically, that would mean Clayton Kershaw against Madison Bumgarner, but with Mad Bum out, it’s Johnny Cueto for San Francisco.
Kershaw is, well, Kershaw. Little else needs to be said. He’s 6-2 on the year with a 2.43 ERA and 0.952 WHIP and, surprisingly, those numbers are actually inflated for him. Still, he’s the best pitcher in the game and has owned the Giants in his career, going 16-6 with a 1.66 ERA in 38 games.
Cueto is 4-2 this year, but his 4.15 ERA and 1.231 WHIP don’t quite match up with Kershaw’s numbers.
Cueto is pitching better of late. He’s got four straight quality starts, including back-to-back quality outings against the Dodgers, both resulting in wins for San Francisco.
Bullpen Breakdown
The Dodgers and Giants have both pitched around the same number of innings out of the pen, but that’s where the comparison ends.
Los Angeles has the best team ERA in baseball and rank No. 5 in bullpen ERA at 2.78. They’re the best bullpen in the NL, too. Kenley Jansen is the only household name of the bunch, but the team has four pitchers with at least 10 innings and a sub-2 ERA.
Pedro Baez has been lights out, giving up just six hits in 14.2 innings and Josh Fields has been a huge surprise, giving up a single run in 14.1 innings of work.
The Giants’ pen has been a wreck. The pen was a big part of their second half collapse at the end of 2016 and while the addition of Mark Melancon has a big answer to that, he’s now on the disabled list, putting guys like Derek Law and Hunter Strickland into more important roles.
Offensive Futility
To go along with the bullpen woes, the Giants are dead last in the NL in runs scored as well. Christian Arroyo has been a spark for this team to an extent. He’s shown flashes, but has been an inconsistent bat as well.
Buster Posey and Brandon Belt are the only real answers at the plate for the Giants. Hunter Pence and Brandon Crawford have been dealing with injuries. Denard Span is back in action, but he’s been a disappointment since signing with San Francisco.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, are dealing with their fair share of injuries, too. Adrian Gonzalez, Logan Forsythe and Andrew Toles are all out, but Cody Bellinger has been all he was hyped up to be. He and Arroyo both came up at the same time, but Bellinger is the one that looks like he’s ready to stay in the Majors.
He’s hitting .308 with seven home runs in just 17 games. The Dodgers have outscored all but three teams in baseball and have been far more balanced against both righties and lefties than in years past.
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