SF Giants vs LA Dodgers CLASH OF THE SEASON - Series Preview

Amazingly, as we enter September and prepare for the biggest series of the season in the NL West, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants not only have the exact same record at this point in the season, but they also are also evenly matched with an 8-8 record against each other. The only metric that may be in the Dodgers favor at this point is momentum, as they have been scorching hot while the Giants just salvaged one game in the last 2 series - a 3-game series in Atlanta and a 4-game series against the Brewers in San Francisco.

That is why tonight’s game is so vital, as who ever wins will take sole possession of first place and immediately take the momentum into the Game 2. This will by no means be a cakewalk for either club and if Dodgers fans assume it will be, they should remember the Dodgers losing multiple games recently against teams like the Colorado Rockies and the Los Angeles Angels. In baseball, it’s never easy, and a team like the Giants - even when they are having a terrible season which is clearly not this year - always step up and give the Dodgers everything they want. Expect no different in this series.

Friday, September 3rd

Tonight’s matchup begins with David Price for the Dodgers against Anthony Desclafani for the Giants. Price is no longer an elite starting pitcher but he should not be underestimated either. His ERA is solid at 4.37 this season in 33 appearances, only 11 of which were starts. In just his starts, he has held opposing hitters to a .234 batting average. His ERA is also very solid except for during the 1st inning, where he has a 5.73 ERA. If the Giants plan to do damage against Price, the first inning could be his most susceptible based on his performance so far this year.

Anthony Desclafani has been lights out for the Giants for a large part of the season. However, there is one team he has consistently struggled against. You guessed it - the Los Angeles Dodgers. In five starts against the Dodgers, he has a 9.43 ERA, allowing 6 home runs in 21 innings along with 31 hits and 12 walks. This is something that can’t be ignored going into this series. However, the overall pictures has been solid for Desclafani, as he has an 11-6 record with a 3.38 ERA and should have probably been an All Star after a stellar first half, but was unfortunately snubbed from the roster.

Saturday, September 4th

Unfortunately, another problem the Giants have coming into this series is a lack of reliable starting arms and the starter for Saturday is currently TBD. Both Johnny Cueto and Alex Wood are unavailable with Wood testing positive for Covid-19 and Cueto missing a start with illness then getting lit up the next day when he tried to pitch. The Dodgers will try to take advantage of this with the Giants possibly using Jose Quintana, who did not have a good year with the Angels but did pitch well in his Giants debut, or Sammy Long, who has looked solid lately but certainly isn’t going to be favored over the Dodgers starter, Julio Urias.

Urias only leads the entire league in wins and after a couple of rough outings, he put together his best month of the season in August, going 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA. His last 3 outings against San Francisco have been solid and the Dodgers should be favorites in Game 2, which is another reason why Game 1 is so vital as the Giants will have Anthony Desclafani going, at least one healthy arm that has been reliable for them this year (albeit not against the Dodgers).

Sunday, September 5th

The Giants have not announced their pitcher for Sunday either, but no matter who they throw out there, the Dodgers will be favorites with Walker Buehler, the possible Cy Young Award winner this year, taking the hill. He is 13-2 with a 2.05 ERA and is clearly one of the best pitchers in the game today. With proper rest, neither Kevin Gausman nor Logan Webb would be available for this series. Gausman should be set to start Monday against the Rockies unless he’s bumped up to Sunday. Otherwise, the Giants will have to rely on a combination of their bullpen and again, Quintana or Long, to compete against Buehler. Again, Game 1 is absolutely critical.

HOT San Francisco Giants vs. MIAMI MARLINS - Series Preview 4/16/21

It's time for another series preview and this time the San Francisco Giants are headed east to take on the Miami Marlins. The Giants have been incredible so far in 2021, having won 3 out of the first 4 series including series victories against the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds. The Giants are 8-4 this season, a .667 winning percentage. Unfortunately, before diving into the actual series, there is some bad news and that is that Johnny Cueto, who has been brilliant this season, has landed on the 10 Day Injured List with a lat strain. The Giants recalled right hander Camilo Doval and also put Lamonte Wade Jr on the IL with a left oblique strain and called up Steven Duggar. Alex Wood should be coming off the injured list for Sunday's game, so more roster moves are going to be happening.

Friday’s Lineups

Tonight's ballgame will feature Anthony DeSclafani, who has simply been dealing. He is 1-0 with a 0.82 ERA on the young 2021 season and will be taking on the team he made his debut with, the Miami Marlins, who are 5-7 this year but 1-5 at home. He'll be facing a lineup which has one name that has had success against him and that's Corey Dickerson, who is 4 for 13 with 2 home runs off Desclafani, and the only other hitter with significant experience is Starling Marte, who is 3 for 23 without an extra base hit.

Regardless of past experience, DeSclafani seems to be rolling right now and should be able to handle this lineup quite well. For the Marlins, it will be the lefty, Daniel Castano, who had a 3.03 ERA in 2020, starting 6 games out the 7 games he appeared in.

He was 19th round pick out of Baylor and will be making his 2021 debut. This is a 6'3" lefty with a fastball in the mid 90's and good stuff but making his debut, might be some butterflies and that's what the Giants will hope for; this guy generally has good control so don't expect a bunch of walks but he can be hittable and I'm looking for

the Giants to jump all over him, but when he's on, he can shut down a team as well. The Giants have no experience against him but I'm confident this team can string together some good hits and get on the board early. I got Desclafni continuing to roll and the Giants taking this one tonight; in other words, the edge for Game 1 definitely goes to the Giants.

Game 1 Edge: Giants

Probables for Saturday as of now look like Aaron Sanchez and the very good Sandy Alcantara. Sanchez has been very solid this year although he hasn't gotten a win yet. He gave up 2 runs in 5 against the Reds and has a 2.7 ERA so far this year. Only Corey Dickerson has double digit at bats against Sanchez and is 2 for 11 with 4 strikeouts. Sandy Alcantara has only started against the Giants a couple times so not a ton of experience against him either for San Francisco, but he really pitched well and generally seems to dominate the Giants, although Brandon

Belt is 3 for 5 with two doubles and should definitely be in the lineup against the right-hander. Both pitchers are 0-1 on the season and both seem deserving and ready to go out and get a win. Alcantara has thrown nothing but quality outings all season, however, and due to his success against the Giants in the past and the fact that I can see the Giants scoring a ton of runs tonight and maybe flatlining a little tomorrow, I am going to give the Marlins slight edge for this matchup.

Game 2 Edge: Marlins

The final game of the series should - as of now and this could change - feature Alex Wood making his San Francisco Giants debut. He has been looking good at the alternate camp throwing rehab games and gave up just 1 run in 3 Spring Training innings with 2 strikeouts. Unfortunately, we just haven't seen enough to really know what to expect on Sunday but this is a guy with 8 years of big league experience, a former All Star who knows how to pitch.

I expect he'll be able to handle this lineup pretty well and he has had success against some of these players like Starling Marte, who is 4 for 22 with zero home runs. Corey Dickerson is some one the Giants need to really be careful about all series long because he's also his Wood well, going 3 for 7 with a double.

The Marlins will go with Pablo Lopez, who has give up 3 home runs in his last 10 2/3rd innings. He pitched well against the Giants in 2019, giving up 1 run in 6+ innings, but hasn't faced them since. He was a bright spot for Miami last year but hasn't gotten off to the best start this year. The Giants need to not let this be his confidence-building start.

In reality, this game is the toughest to predict with Alex Wood, some one who hasn't really pitched great in a few years coming off the IL and making his debut this year and a young 25-year old very talented pitcher who has struggled with the long ball facing a team that has been crushing a lot of home runs this year. I can see it being a bullpen game and both teams have some solid relivers, but both bullpens - including the Giants as proven on Opening Day - can give up some runs.

I'm going to say Alex Wood has a nice debut for the Giants but Lopez also pitches well and this game ends up being decided late in the game where the Giants bullpen holds a small lead and the Giants take it. I'll give the Giants the series and the edge in Game 3.

Game 3 Edge: Giants

NL WEST Showdown: San Francisco Giants vs San Diego Padres SERIES PREVIEW (4/5/2021-4/7/2021)

It’s time to preview the first National West matchup for the Giants this season as they head to San Diego after a frustrating 3 game series in Seattle where the Giants came away with just one win in three games.  The most memorable loss was Opening Night when the Giants bullpen squandered a 5-run lead with less than two innings to go.  Trying to put that in the rear-view-mirror, the Giants now head to San Diego to face one of the most exciting teams in the game, the Padres, who just won 3 out of 4 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

One thing the Giants can be excited about coming into this series are their bats.  Although they were shut out in Game 3 of the Mariners series, nearly all of the Giants big bats showed up in the series including Buster Posey and Evan Longoria, who both homered twice and the amazing Donovan Solano, who is hitting .500 on the young season.  Alex Dickerson crushed a home run in his first at bat of the season and overall, the offense was solid.  As far as starting pitching, Kevin Gausman, who should make a start in this series, was dominant in Game 1 and certainly deserved the W.  He’ll try to get one against the Pads in Game 5.

Kevin Gausman

Game 1

Game occurs tonight and will feature Anthony DeSclafani for San Francisco, making his first regular season start for the Giants.  He looked good in Spring Training, earning a 2.79 ERA in three starts, but all that is history now and he’ll look to bounce back after a tough 2020 with the Reds.  He’ll be facing Adrian Morejon, a fantastic looking young pitcher who struck out 17 hitters in 14 Spring Training innings with an ERA of 3.21.  With the lefty on the hill, we’re likely to see Darin Ruf or Austin Slater in there with Dickerson coming off the bench.  Posey should be back in the lineup as well after two nights off.

Last season against Morejon, the Giants were 5 for 17 with a home run and 7 strikeouts.  He didn’t walk a single Giant.  The home run was hit by  a guy who should be in the lineup tonight, Mauricio Dubon.  who is 2 for 2 in his career against Morejon.  The only other Giants who had some success against Morejon was Yastrzemski, who was 2 for 3 and Donovan Solano, who was 1 for 1.  Yaz is actually 3 for 4 in his career against Morejon. 

As for Desclafani, with the exception of a home run by Tatis Jr., he dominated the Padres in April of 2019, throwing 6 strong innings with 6 strikeouts, allowing just 2 hits, one of them being that home run and the other a single by Machado.  In his career, Machado is 1-for-6 against DeSclafani.  Most of the lineup, in fact, have poor career stats against him such as Wil Myers, who is 1-for-11.

Based on the relatively small historical sample sizes, the Giants should feel good about their chances in Game 1.  With a lot of strong righties like Posey, Slater, Dubon and Solano in there and Yastrzemski, who has hit Morejon very well, there’s a good chance the Giants get on the board quickly.  If Desclafani pitches anything like he did against San Diego in 2019, well things might be similar to Game 1 of the Seattle series except hopefully this time, the bullpen can hang on.  I’ll say the Giants take Game 1 of the series by the final score of 7-4.

PREDICTION: GIANTS WIN 7-4

Game 2

In game 2, the Padres will throw out of their prized acquisitions this offseason and it’s Yu Darvish taking the hill against Aaron Sanchez.  Darvish has already made his Padres debut and he wasn’t great, pitching 4 2/3rds innings with 6 strikeouts and 4 runs allowed.  Against most of the Giants, he’s been pretty good but Alex Dickerson and Mike Yastrzemski are a combined 5 for 10 against him each with a home run.  Dickerson will definitely be in the lineup against the righty. Evan Longoria has the biggest sample against Darvish with 21 career at bats and just 4 hits for a .191 average although he went deep one time.  This is obviously going to be a tough game of the offense and I can see Darvish having a big bounceback game after the tough debut.

However, Aaron Sanchez has also had success against some of the Padres, such as Manny Machado, who has a career .171 average in 35 at bats against Sanchez.  However, most of their best young players like Tatis Jr, Grisham and Cronenworth will be facing Sanchez for the first time.  Sanchez wasn’t too great in Spring Training and I can definitely see the Padres making hard contact against him, but at the same time, he’s just 28 and as a former first round pick, obviously has good stuff and the potential to go out there and have a great game.  I’ll say the Giants do score a few runs off Darvish and the bullpen but that this time the Padres edge it out by a score of 5-4.

Fernando Tatis Jr.

PREDICTION: PADRES WIN 5-4

Game 3

In one of the most exciting matchups of the series, the Giants will send out Kevin Gausman again, who as I mentioned looked fantastic in the Opening Night matchup against Seattle.  The Padres will have former Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell on the hill.  Snell, as a career Ray, will be facing most of these Giants for the first time although the only guy with more than 3 at bats against him, Wilmer Flores, is 3 for 5 with a double and could find his way into the Starting Lineup.  In his first start his year, he didn’t give up a run in 4 2/3rds.  He’ll look to go deeper than that on Wednesday.

Gausman has had limited success against most of the Padres lineup but most of the samples are very small.  Nevertheless, based on what we saw last Thursday, hopes are high for Gausman to follow-up with another dominant outing.  This could easily be a pitching duel and I’ll predict it goes that way, with the game staying tight until the late innings.  Unfortunately, the Padres will gain an edge when the game gets to the bullpen and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Giants are unable to hang on to any lead they main gain.  Unless Gausman can go at least 7+ innings deep, I’m giving the edge to the Padres in this one.  I’ll say they take it by a score of 4-2.

PREDICTION: PADRES WIN 4-2

So, that’s a look at the first National League West series for the Giants this year.  The Padres are clearly an up and coming team with a lot of strength and I feel that one win in this series, while obviously disappointing, wouldn’t be the end of the world.  Especially since the Giants seem to always play well against the rival Dodgers.  Their best chances at wins are in Games 1 and 3, and I think there is more than good chance they could take both of them, but I’m going to be honest in my prediction while staying hopeful.  Let’s go Giants!