SAN FRANCISCO -- The Los Angeles Dodgers set their rotation coming out of the All-Star Break to ensure their top three starters would face the Giants in their first series of the second half, a decision that looked like a good one after the Dodgers swept a three-game set at AT&T Park.
Bruce Bochy, meanwhile, has remained steadfast in not adjusting his rotation with any one team in mind. Case in point: The Giants will face those same three Dodgers starters -- Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu -- when the Dodgers return to San Francisco beginning Friday. Yusmeiro Petit will oppose Kershaw, while one starter with great numbers in his career against Los Angeles -- Jake Peavy -- will miss that series after pitching today against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
"I guess my philosophy is I worry about the game today," Bochy said this morning. "Arizona is my only thought today. We’ll worry about tomorrow’s game tomorrow."
The Giants have a shot at a sweep and extending their winning streak at AT&T Park to nine games in today’s finale against the Diamondbacks. Peavy takes the mound having gone 4-1 with a 1.04 ERA in 34 2/3 innings over his last five starts. Here’s the Giants lineup behind him:
CF Pagan
2B Panik
C Posey
3B Sandoval
RF Pence
LF Blanco
1B Ishikawa
SS Crawford
P Peavy
And the Diamondbacks’ lineup against Peavy:
RF Inciarte
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SS Pennington
2B Owings
1B Trumbo
CF Pollock
3B Lamb
LF Reimold
C Gosewich
P Delgado
Unlike last time the Giants played the Dodgers, they’ll go into this series with the top of their lineup stable: Angel Pagan was injured in July, and Joe Panik hadn’t yet staked his claim to second base and the No. 2 spot.
On the other hand, they may be without Michael Morse, whom Bochy said is still "two or three days away" from returning at least from his oblique strain. Morse has taken some dry swings, but is "about 50 percent right now," Bochy said, and has "come around a little slower than we had hoped."
"Part of this game is, it’s not who you play, it’s when you play them -- are they healthy, are they playing well," Bochy said. "Last time, we were banged up, but we’ve caught them when they’ve been banged up. It’s important that we have our guys, and we’re hoping Morse -- obviously, that his progress picks up."
The Dodgers are off today, so the Giants can narrow their gap in the West to two games with a win today going into this weekend’s showdown.
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