San Francisco Giants Morning Minute: Pitching Matchups Against Dodgers

On this edition of the San Francisco Giants Morning Minute, we discuss the pitching matchups for the Giants and Dodgers upcoming series.

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Good morning, San Francisco Giants’ fans, and welcome to another edition of the Giants Morning Minute. The Giants were off on Monday, but the Los Angeles Dodgers were not. They beat the Cincinnati Reds in 18-9 slugfest, extending their lead in the National League West to a full game.

The Giants and the Dodgers start a pivotal series on Tuesday. With 38 games left to play, the division’s top two teams play the first of three remaining series on the season. The Giants shifted their rotation to get their top three guys into this series. Let’s take a look at the pitching matchups for this set.

Game One – Madison Bumgarner vs. Kenta Maeda

Isn’t this a bit strange? Bumgarner is facing the Dodgers, and the opposing pitcher isn’t Clayton Kershaw? It seems almost a rule that Bumgarner has to pitch against Kershaw, but with the Dodgers’ ace on the disabled list because of a bad back, Maeda jumps into the spot.

Bumgarner is putting together his best season yet, and just having just turned 27 years old, figures to just be entering his prime. His 2.25 ERA and 10 strikeouts per nine innings are the best totals of his career so far, while his 1.019 WHIP is just a hair higher than last year’s 1.008. The ERA and WHIP, as well as his .206 opponent average place him in the top-five in the National League, while the K/9 number is sixth.

The Giants’ ace has faced the Dodgers twice this season, but the Giants are winless in those games. The second start was one of Bumgarner’s worst, as he allowed seven runs (four earned) on eight hits and two home runs in five innings. However, he hasn’t faced the Dodgers since April.

Maeda has made a successful jump this season to American ball after spending years in Japan. With Kershaw out, Maeda has stepped up to become the Dodgers’ most consistent pitcher. He has a 12-7 record with a 3.29 ERA and 1.068 WHIP, and is striking out more than a batter an inning (138 strikeouts in 136.2 innings). His 2.3 walks per nine innings is one of the better totals in the NL.

The 28-year-old right-hander has faced the Giants once this year, very early on in April during his third career start. He pitched very well en route to earning a win, giving up just one run (the first run he allowed in the Major Leagues) in seven innings. The lone run came from a Joe Panik home run.

Game Two – Johnny Cueto vs. Rich Hill

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Cueto has struggled ever since the All-Star break, but he had his best start of the second half last Friday. He gave up one run over seven innings, leading the Giants to a win over the New York Mets. He’s still putting together a mighty fine season, with a 14-3 record, 2.90 ERA, 1.088 WHIP, and the third-lowest walk rate in the NL (1.71 per nine innings).

The deceptive righty has faced LA three times, including one of his worst starts. The first time out, he allowed six runs on 10 hits in seven innings. Five of those runs came in the first inning. His second outing was much better, giving up just one run on three hits. The Giants came away with wins in both games.

In the third game, he allowed two runs on three hits in eight innings, but the Giants couldn’t come away with a victory.

On the other side, Hill is set to make his Dodgers’ debut after a deadline deal brought him over from the Oakland A’s. He’s been dealing with a blister on his pitching hand, but he should be good to go by Wednesday.

Hill, who went through one of the weirdest baseball journeys of the past couple years, was pitching very well in Oakland before the blister problem. He owned a 9-3 record with a 2.25 ERA, 1.092 WHIP, and 10.7 K/9 in 14 starts, becoming the top guy in the A’s rotation as Sonny Gray struggled.

However, Hill hasn’t pitched in over a month, making his last start on July 17th. On that day, he threw only five pitches before needing to be pulled, as his blister popped. Before that, he threw 101 pitches on July 7th, and had his next start pushed back multiple times before finally taking the mound on the 17th. So by the time he takes the mound on Wednesday, it will have been 48 days since he threw a significant amounts of pitches in the big leagues. He has not had any rehab outings since then either.

Game Three – Matt Moore vs. TBD

Since coming over in a deadline deal from the Tampa Bay Rays, Moore has been both good and bad. In his first two starts, he walked 11 batters in 12 innings, but allowed only six hits and four runs. He was hurt by a lack of run support in both games. In his past two starts, he’s allowed eight runs in 11 innings, but has cut down on the walks just a bit (six walks for a 4.9/9 rate, which is still rather high).

The control problems have followed Moore for his entire career, but it seemed he turned a corner with Tampa Bay this season. His 2.8 BB/9 was by far the lowest of his career, and he threw 65 percent of his pitches for strikes, also his best. But with San Francisco, he’s surrendering 6.7 walks per nine, and throwing only 60 percent of his pitches for strikes.

These are things he clearly needs to fix, and the Dodgers are a good place to start. Los Angeles has struggled badly this year against left-handed pitchers, as their .224 average is last in the majors, and their .657 OPS and 109 runs scored are both second-lowest. In his last start with the Rays, Moore held the Dodgers to one unearned run in 6.2 innings.

The Dodgers haven’t announced a starter for the finale yet, but they have a couple candidates. Most notably among them is Ross Stripling. You may remember Stripling from his major league debut on April 8th, when he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Giants. He was pulled after a walk with one out in the eighth, and his reliever, Chris Hatcher, immediately gave up a two-run home run to tie the game. Since then, Stripling has been a solid but unspectacular long reliever and spot starter.

They also have Brett Anderson, who was initially slated to start this game but was pulled from his last outing because of his own blister problem. He has made just two starts since returning from back surgery, and has struggled badly. In his first start, he completed only one inning and allowed five runs on five hits and two home runs. In the next, he allowed six runs in three innings before the blister flared up.

Prospect Jose De Leon is a popular name among the Dodger faithful, but he started in Triple-A on Monday and threw 88 pitches in seven shutout innings. A start on Thursday is likely out of the question.

Next: Giants Morning Minute: Span Heating Up

And that will do it for this edition of the Giants Morning Minute. Go get back first place, boys.