Jun 12

Game 64, 2016

Dodgers at Giants, 5:30PM PT, TV: ESPN

19-year-old lefty Julio Urias makes his fourth start for the Dodgers. So far he’s shown signs of improvement each time out, but it’s not reflected in his W-L record (0-1) or in his ERA (6.94). One thing for sure, he’s getting starts in big markets: his third road start will be in San Francisco, and the previous two were in NYC and Chicago.

Urias’ opponent will be veteran righty Jake Peavy. He had a horrible April with an 8.61 ERA and improved to a 4.73 ERA in May, dropping his overall ERA to 6.41 to go with a 2-6 W-L record.

Lineup when available.

Apr 07

Game 4, 2016

Dodgers at Giants, 1:35PM PT, TV: SPNLA, CSN-BA

Alex Wood makes his 2016 debut for the Dodgers and Jake Peavy does the same for the Giants.

The projected starting eight for the Dodgers is a combined 8-for-66 against Peavy. Time for a change!

Sep 28

Game 156, 2015

Dodgers at Giants, 7:15PM PT, TV: SPNLA

With the Dodgers’ magic number stuck on two, it would relieve a lot of their fans if they won this game and dispensed with the suspense. To that end they send out odds-on Cy Young favorite Zack Greinke, who’s 18-3 with a microscopic 1.65 ERA to face Jake Peavy, who’s 7-6 with a 3.83 ERA. Greinke skipped his last start with a sore calf but pitched his usual bullpen session on Friday and is thought to be fine. Peavy has been a Dodger-killer in the past if you look at his record (14-3 with a 2.42 ERA in 28 career starts against them), but those numbers were amassed with a different team and facing different players on the Dodgers; I’m not persuaded those kinds of statistics mean much.

I’m sure the Dodgers will be just fine, because they have:

Lineup when available.

Aug 31

Game 130, 2015

Giants at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN, CSN-BA

Dodger killer Jake Peavy goes for the Giants. He’s 14-3 with a 2.30 ERA in 27 career starts against the LA team. He began the 2015 season on the DL, however, and didn’t make his first start until July 3. Since then he’s 4-6 with a 4.21 ERA. He’ll be opposed by Brett Anderson, whose every next start is somewhat of a surprise, since he’s not had a full healthy season since 2010. In fact, his 147 1/3 innings is the most he’s pitched since his rookie year with Oakland in 2009, when he threw 175 1/3. He’s 8-8 with a 3.36 ERA. Against the Giants this season he’s 1-2 with a 4.71 ERA and hasn’t gotten past the fifth inning in two of his four starts against them.

Lineup when available.

Oct 28

World Series Day Six, 2014

Giants at Royals, 2:00PM HST/5:00PM PT, TV: Fox

Up three games to two, the Giants send Jake Peavy to the mound to try to win the Series for them tonight. The Royals counter with Yordano Ventura. This is a rematch of Game Two. Peavy went five innings, gave up six hits and four runs, walked two and struck out one, and took the loss. Ventura gave up two runs on eight hits with no walks and two strikeouts in a no-decision in the same game.

Is history any guide?

Although teams playing at home down 3-2 in a best-of-seven World Series (2-3-2 formats only) are just 13-16 all-time, they’ve won it all in eight of the last 10 instances, including, most recently, the 2011 Cardinals and, most appropriately, the 1985 Royals. Only four road teams have won a Game 6 since 1980 — the 2003 Marlins, 1997 Indians, ’92 Blue Jays and ’81 Dodgers.

And how about this? Going back to 1982, when the home team wins Game 6 to tie a League Championship Series or World Series, that team is 14-1 in Game 7.

I’m rooting for a Game Seven, because I don’t want baseball to end before it has to. “Pitcher and catchers report” is still four months away.

Oct 22

World Series Day Two, 2014

Giants at Royals, 2:00PM HST/5:00PM PT, TV: Fox

Kansas City’s rookie Yordano Ventura starts for the home team, while 13-year veteran Jake Peavy is on the hill for the visiting San Franciscans.

Insert paragraphs about “the team which goes up 2 games to none in a seven-game series wins umpty-ump percentage of the time” and blah blah blah. The Giants know that. The Royals know that. Neither team cares about it. It’s this Series they’re playing, not all those ones in the past.

That said, the Royals really would like to win at home tonight, to get the split and to get their fans excited.

Oct 12

NLCS Day Two, 2014

I know, I know, nobody cares. Well, in the interest of full documentation, I’m putting up a post about these games anyway.

Giants at Cardinals, 2:00PM HST/5:00PM PT, TV: Fox

Jake Peavy for the Giants, Lance Lynn for the Cardinals. The Cardinals need to win to even the series at a game apiece. Peavy is 6-4 with a 2.17 ERA in 12 starts with the Giants this year after going 1-9 with a 4.72 ERA with the Red Sox. Lynn was 15-10 for the second year in a row while shaving his ERA from 3.97 to 2.74.

Here. This may brighten your day.

Oct 03

NLDS Day One, 2014

Giants at Nationals, 12:00PM PT, TV: FS1

The Giants start 13-year veteran Jake Peavy, the mid-season acquisition who was 1-9 with a 4.72 ERA for the Red Sox but 6-4 with a 2.17 ERA when he got back to the National League with the Giants. Their ace, Bumgarner, pitched and won the wild card game on Wednesday and won’t be available until Game 3 of this series on Monday. The Nationals have had their rotation set for two weeks, and tomorrow they start Stephen Strasburg, who was 14-11 with a 3.14 ERA this season. He’ll be making his postseason debut; in a controversial move the Nats’ management shut him down before the season ended in 2012, the last time the Washington team made the playoffs. (They missed the wild card by four games last season, and Strasburg was recovering from Tommy John surgery anyway).

Cardinals at Dodgers, 3:30PM PT, TV: FS1

Clayton Kershaw vs. Adam Wainwright. The best pitching matchup of any of these four series. We could see a double no-hitter.

Can Molina stop Dee Gordon and the other Dodger base stealers? Can the Dodgers keep from going into another hitting slump like they did last year?

We’ll find out this afternoon.

Sep 22

Game 157, 2014

Giants at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN, CSN-BA

Update: Whoops! Forgot that from here on out the games are also carried on KDOC. Channel numbers:

Provider HD Channel SD Channel
Charter 710 10
Cox 1012 12
AT&T U-verse 1006 6
DirecTV 56 56
Verizon FiOS 506 6
Dish Network 56 56
Over the air broadcast 56.1 56.1

Admit it. We’d be a lot more nervous about the penultimate three-game series of the season if the Dodgers hadn’t got a 4 1/2 game lead in the division. Barring absolute disaster the Dodgers should win the NL West with relative ease, since their magic number is down to three. The two teams have split the first sixteen games they’ve played this season.

Having said that, tonight’s pitching opponent is no palooka. Jake Peavy has a 7-1 record with a 2.85 ERA in 13 starts in Dodger Stadium and a career record against Los Angeles of 14-3. Dan Haren will take the mound for the Dodgers. He’s 6-6 with a 3.05 ERA in 17 career appearances (16 starts) against San Francisco.

Neither Michael Morse nor Angel Pagan will be in the lineup for the Giants in any of the three games; they both have injuries severe enough to see specialists.

Lineup:

Jul 27

Game 106, 2014

Dodgers at Giants, 5:00PM PT, TV: ESPN

Hyun-Jin Ryu will try to make it three straight strong performances by Dodgers’ starters, following Zack Greinke’s 7-inning 4-hit effort on Friday night and Kershaw’s complete game 2-hit shutout yesterday. Ryu is 11-5 with a 3.39 ERA overall this season and 7-2 on the road with a 2.73 ERA. Michael Lananna of MLB writes that Ryu has added Josh Beckett’s curveball and Kershaw’s slider into his arsenal.

The Padres send out Jake Peavy, who got to San Francisco in mid-game yesterday and was announced as today’s pitcher almost immediately. The fact that he’s 14-2 with a 2.21 ERA in 25 career starts against the Dodgers might have swayed Manager Bruce Bochy’s decision.

Lineup when available.