Jun 27

Game 78, 2016

Dodgers at Pirates, 9:35AM PT, TV: SPNLA, ROOT Sports, MLBN (out-of-market only)

The Dodgers ask Scott Kazmir (5-3, 4.52 ERA) to stop their slide before it gets worse. His last start was a quality one in which he gave up only two runs to the Nats in six innings. The Pirates ask Francisco Liriano (4-7, 5.17 ERA) to stop his personal slide during which he’s gotten no wins in his last five starts and walked 19 batters during that stretch.

Expect Adrian González to sit this one out as per this word from Dave Roberts on Sunday.

Lineup: somebody post it in the comments when it turns up. I am NOT getting up at dawn to watch this game.

Sep 19

Game 147, 2015

Pirates at Dodgers, 6:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

The Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw (14-6, 2.12 ERA) pitches tonight against the Pirates’ Francisco Liriano (10-7, 3.45 ERA). Kershaw has an unusual streak going: in each of his last seven starts he’s given up no more than one run. He’s going for his tenth straight win tonight. The left-handed Liriano had a lousy outing last time he pitched, but he’s 3-0 lifetime against the Dodgers. Two guys who’ve had success against him in the past are Heisey (.333 in 15 ABs) and Kendrick (.438 in 16 ABs).

Lineup when available.

Aug 08

Game 110, 2015

Dodgers at Pirates, 1:05PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS1

Mat Latos (4-7, 4.29 ERA) makes his second start for the Dodgers since coming over from the Marlins, while Francisco Liriano (7-6, 2.92 ERA) is searching for his fourth straight win. Latos is 5-1 with a 3.13 ERA in his career against the Pirates; Liriano hasn’t lost to the Dodgers in three career starts, posting a 1.37 ERA. He’s making it very hard to hit him this year: opponents’ batting average is an anemic .201, sixth lowest in the league. Latos has improved since his inflamed knee was drained and he came back from the disabled list: his ERA since then is 1.73.

Lineup:

Jul 23

Game 103, 2014

Dodgers at Pirates, 4:05PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLB.TV free game

Dan Haren tries once again to reverse his recent trend toward short bad outings:

Haren’s allowed at least three earned runs in eight of his last 10 starts, and his last three July outings have been particularly rough.

He’s coming off his third straight loss, a 3-2 defeat against the Cardinals on Friday. Haren gave up three runs in 4 2/3 innings.

Before that, he took losses on July 11 against the Padres (four innings, four runs) and on July 5 at Colorado (5 1/3 innings, eight runs).

Haren will face Francisco Liriano, who is 1-7 with a 4.43 ERA and just got off a month-long trip to the DL where he’d been recovering from a strained left oblique.

Lineup when available.

May 30

Game 56, 2014

Pirates at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

So what does Josh Beckett (3-1, 2.43 ERA) do for an encore? Pull a VanderMeer? It seems unlikely, but yaneverknow. His opponent will be Francisco Liriano, who’s 0-5 with a 5.06 ERA. That’s disconcerting to the Pirates since he had a 16-8 record with a 3.02 ERA last year. Oddly, Drew Butera caught Beckett’s no-hitter last week and he caught Liriano’s no-hitter when they were with the Twins in 2011.

Adrian Gonzalez gets the night off and Van Slyke plays first for him.