Sep 29

Game 157, 2015

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

It’s Clayton Kershaw’s turn to try to advance the Dodgers into the postseason and turn out the lights on the Giants’ hopes of getting there. He’s 15-7 on the year with a 2.25 ERA, 1-2 with a 2.76 ERA against the Giants. He and his teammates will face Madison Bumgarner, who’s 18-8 with a 2.88 ERA, 2-1 with a 1.63 ERA against the Dodgers this season. Both of these pitchers have been excellent since the All Star break: Kershaw’s gone 9-1 with a 1.48 since then, while Bumgarner has been almost as good, going 9-3 with a 2.31 ERA. He’s also thrown three complete games in that span.

There are some other games of consequence being played today and tonight as well.

Lineup when available.

Sep 28

Game 156, 2015

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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.

Sep 27

Game 155, 2015

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Dodgers at Rockies, 1:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

The Dodgers hope lefty Alex Wood (11-11, 3.60 ERA) can get them closer to clinching the division title. He’s alternated wins and losses in his last eight starts and lost the last one, so if you believe in patterns he should win today. His opponent will be lefty Chris Rusin, (5-9, 5.39 ERA), who walked four, gave up six runs on eight hits in just four innings in his last start last Tuesday.

Lineup when available.

Despite Mattingly’s earlier remarks, Adrian’s back must still be sore.

Sep 26

Game 154, 2015

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Dodgers at Rockies, 5:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Brett Anderson tries to get past his worst start of the year. He gave up five runs including two home runs in 4 2/3 innings against the D-Backs on September 21. He’ll face right-hander Kyle Kendrick, who had a bad outing himself his last time out on Sunday against the Padres, giving up six runs in four innings. Anderson’s looking for win number ten to go above .500 for the season; Kendrick is looking for win number seven against thirteen losses.

Lineup when available.

Update: New Lineup:

Adrian rests back, Grandal moves to first base.

Sep 25

Game 153, 2015

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Dodgers at Rockies, 5:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

The Dodgers, whose magic number is down to three, send Mike Bolsinger out to see if he can recover the form he showed before being sent down to AAA in the wake of the Latos-Wood acquisitions in July. He had a 2.83 ERA to that point, but he’s had a 6.23 ERA in his three starts since returning. Overall he’s 6-4 with a 3.26 ERA in 2015. He’ll face right-hander David Hale, who’s 4-5 with a 6.32 ERA. Hale spent the year starting until September; he’s only made four appearances this month, all in relief.

Lineup when available.

Sep 24

Game 152, 2015

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Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 12:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS-A

This is another battle of lefthanders. Clayton Kershaw has won nine of his last ten starts with a 1.17 ERA during that stretch. He’s 14-7 with a 2.18 ERA overall. He’s only pitched against the D-Backs once this season, back on April 11, and they got five runs off him in 6 1/3 innings. His opponent will be Patrick Corbin, who’s 6-4 with a 2.99 ERA. He lost to the Dodgers on September 13, giving up eight hits and two runs in six innings. That was the Greinke game in which Kenley Jansen gave up a 3-run HR to Saltalamacchia in the ninth with two outs, making it a lot closer game than it had been.

Lineup when available.

Sep 23

Game 151, 2015

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Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, ESPN

First, this is not good news:

The Diamondbacks start Chase Anderson (6-6, 4.52 ERA) against the perennial All Star To Be Determined (as of 1:45PM PT). Anderson is taking the place of Rubby De La Rosa, who’s had a tough time with the Dodgers this season (0-3, 11.21 ERA).

Lineup (and pitcher) when available.

Carlos Frias starts for the Dodgers.

Sep 22

Game 150, 2015

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Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS-A, MLBN

Alex Wood (11-10,3.63 ERA) goes for the Dodgers against Robbie Ray (4-12, 3.72 ERA) of the D-Backs. Wood’s last start was an eight-inning one-hitter against the Rockies. Ray’s last win was against the Dodgers on September 11, Wood’s worst outing of the year as a Dodger. That was the game in which he gave up eight runs in only 1 2/3 innings.

Goldsmith likes Wood’s pitching: He’s 4-for-7 lifetime off him with two home runs, including one in that Sept. 11 game.

Lineup:

Utley and Pederson sit to start, as does Ethier since Ray is left-handed.

Sep 21

Game 149, 2015

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Point of fact: up until this Pirates series the Dodgers had won seven consecutive series. They’ve been playing very well. Sometimes we don’t realize it.

Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS-A

Brett Anderson is 9-8 with a 3.35 ERA and hunting win number 10. The lefty hasn’t won that many since his rookie year of 2009, thanks to injuries. He’s made four starts against the D-Backs this season, going 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA. His opponent will be Jhoulys Chacin, who’s 0-1 with a 2.95 ERA in the big leagues this season. He was signed to a minor league contract by the Diamondbacks in June. He pitched for the Rockies for six years amassing a record of 38-48 and an ERA of 3.78.

Lineup when available.

The grand experiment of putting Chase Utley at third base begins.

Sep 20

Game 148, 2015

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Pirates at Dodgers, 1:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

The Dodgers ask Mike Bolsinger (6-3, 3.13 ERA) to keep the Pirates in check while hoping they can get some runs of the Buccos’ ace Gerrit Cole (16-8, 2.60 ERA). Oddly, the California-born Cole has ne3ver lost in his home state; he’s 4-0, with one win each in San Francisco, San Diego, Anaheim and Los Angeles.

The Dodgers’ magic number to win the division is seven. The Pirates need to win to keep ahead of the Cubs in the second wild card spot by remaining in second place in the NL Central behind the Cardinals. Their magic number to lock up that spot is four. The Cards clinched a postseason spot today by virtue of the Diamondbacks’ win over the Giants. Their magic number to win the division is eleven, and they have one more game against the Cubs and three against the Pirates to cut that down.

Lineup when available.

There’s also this news: Bolsinger is officially part of the rotation for the rest of the season.