The Los Angeles Dodgers continue their road trip with three games against the San Francisco Giants in what will be their first meeting at Oracle Park since a thrilling Game 5 of the 2021 National League Division Series.
The Dodgers currently sit in first place in the NL West with a 37-20 record and remain two games ahead of the San Diego Padres. The Giants hold the third spot in the division and trail the Dodgers by 6.5 games.
L.A. went 5-4 at Oracle Park during the regular season last year as the Giants won 10 of 19 matchups. All 162 games were needed to crown the Giants as NL West champions in 2021, however, it was the Dodgers who came out on top by winning their NLDS matchup.
The Dodgers have re-tooled their rotation and have one of the top three offenses in Major League Baseball. Meanwhile the Giants, who leaned heavily leaned on pitching and good defense last season, can’t hang their hat on either of those in 2022.
The Giants possess the worst defense in baseball, and over the past two weeks have a team ERA over four, and are bottom-10 in both opposing wOBA and slugging percentage. At home, the Giants are also allowing the second-highest batting average.
Walker Buehler takes the mound for the Dodgers and hopes to rebound from the shortest start of his MLB career just a week ago against the New York Mets in which he lasted only 2.1 innings and allowed five earned runs.
The Dodgers expect Buehler to compete, but he has been a grab bag of performances this year while he works through trying to recapture his form. This season Buehler is 6-2 with a 3.84 ERA, 3.87 FIP, 20.2% strikeout rate and 6.6% walk rate over 61 innings.
After finishing fourth in NL Cy Young Award voting last season, Buehler has mentioned he’s frustrated that he hasn’t been better to help the team win games and that he is working through a lot of fixes with the Dodgers’ staff and pitching coach Mark Prior.
The Giants counter with Jakob Junis, who has enjoyed an incredible turnaround from his career numbers with a 2.51 ERA and 0.93 WHIP. His peripheral metrics hint at a bit of expected regression and his xERA stands at 3.97.
In his most recent start against the Miami Marlins, Junis went six innings and allowed one earned run with eight strikeouts. His 38th percentile whiff rate, and 63rd percentile chase rate should be focused on in Friday’s start against the Dodgers as Junis will attempt to avoid walks by filling up the zone and relying on his last-ranked defense to pick him up.
The Dodgers welcomed back Craig Kimbrel from paternity leave and optioned Mitch White to Triple-A Oklahoma City as the corresponding roster move.
Dodgers lineup
RF: Mookie Betts
1B: Freeman
SS: Trea Turner
3B Max Muncy
C: Will Smith
DH: Justin Turner
CF: Cody Bellinger
LF: Chris Taylor
2B: Gavin Lux
Giants lineup
RF: Luis González
CF: Mike Yastrzemski
DH: Wilmer Flores
LF: Joc Pederson
1B: Darin Ruf
3B: Evan Longoria
SS: Brandon Crawford
2B: Thairo Estrada
C: Curt Casali
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