After finishing what had been a disappointing homestand by sweeping the Oakland Athletics, the Los Angeles Dodgers now return to National League West play with a wraparound series against the San Diego Padres to begin their road trip.
The Dodgers enter play 2.5 games ahead of the San Francisco Giants for first place in the division. Meanwhile, the Padres are still in fourth place of the NL West despite having won two games in a row and four of their last five.
The Dodgers have won five games in a row against the Padres since losing 5-2 on May 5. L.A. has outscored them 19-7 during that span. Last season the Dodgers went 14-5 against the Padres, and this year are 5-1 in their head-to-head matchups thus far.
Of course, the Padres proved that regular season success is not always a predictor of October baseball, as they upset the Dodgers in the NL Division Series.
Having already pitched against the New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros, Bobby Miller now gets an opportunity to start in what’s become somewhat of a rivalry with the Padres.
Miller enters 6-2 with a 4.37 ERA and 1.19 WHIP in 11 starts. The right-hander went into the All-Star break on shaky footing but held the New York Mets to one run — albeit just in 4.2 innings pitched. Miller followed that by allowing three runs in each of his past two outings.
Miller is being backed by a rested Dodgers bullpen thanks to Julio Urías and Emmet Sheehan combining to pitch all of Thursday’s win. Sheehan has since been optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City as the corresponding move to add Ryan Yarbrough to the active roster.
The Padres counter with Yu Darvish, who is 8-7 with a 4.53 ERA and 1.29 WHIP this season. He’s coming off six scoreless innings but allowed a season-high-tying seven runs to the Pittsburgh Pirates in an outing prior to that.
Darvish held the Dodgers to just two runs (one earned) and had six strikeouts over 6.2 innings pitched during the Padres’ home win on May 5.
Max Muncy is out of the Dodgers lineup one night after being hit by a pitch in his left wrist. X-rays were negative and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts deemed Muncy day to day.
Dodgers lineup
2B: Mookie Betts
1B: Freddie Freeman
C: Will Smith
DH: David Peralta
RF: Jason Heyward
3B: Chris Taylor
CF: James Outman
SS: Amed Rosario
LF: Kiké Hernández
Padres lineup
2B: Ha-Seong Kim
RF: Fernando Tatis Jr.
LF: Juan Soto
3B: Manny machado
SS: Xander Bogaerts
1B: Jake Cronenworth
DH: Ji Man Choi
C: Luis Campusano
CF: Trent Grisham
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