San Francisco @ Los Angeles preview
Dodger Stadium
Last Meeting ( Sep 3, 2010 ) San Francisco 2, LA Dodgers 4
The San Francisco Giants keep receiving opportunities to gain ground on NL West-leading San Diego, but continue to fail at taking advantage of the Padres’ misfortunes.
While San Diego was losing its eighth straight game on Friday night, the Giants had just two hits against Los Angeles pitchers Chad Billingsley and Hong-Chih Kuo and suffered a 4-2 loss to the Dodgers. San Francisco has lost five of its last eight games entering Saturday’s second contest of a three-game series in Los Angeles.
The Giants have trimmed just three games off San Diego’s lead in the NL West at a time when the Padres haven’t won a game since Aug. 25. Missed chances like these often come back to haunt a team.
San Francisco will take another stab at reversing its recent fortunes on Saturday when it sends Matt Cain to the mound against the Dodgers’ Ted Lilly in a battle of hot pitchers.
Cain has pitched superbly since the All-Star break, going 4-2 with a 2.66 ERA. Lilly has been sensational since being acquired by the Dodgers with a 5-1 record and 3.29 ERA in six starts.
Cain has allowed two runs or less in five of his nine post All-Star game outings. One of those starts came against the Dodgers when he blanked Los Angeles on four hits over 7 2/3 innings on Aug. 1.
The victory was a milestone for Cain in that it was first-ever win over the Dodgers. Cain is 1-8 with a 3.94 ERA in 15 career starts against Los Angeles.
Overall, Cain is 10-10 this season with a 3.11 ERA.
Lilly had his first bad start with the Dodgers in his last outing. He permitted seven runs and nine hits in four innings against the Colorado Rockies. The veteran did strike out eight in the loss.
Prior to that, he had given up just seven runs and 19 hits in 34 1/3 innings for Los Angeles while winning five straight starts.
Counting his time with the Chicago Cubs this season, Lilly is 8-9 with a 3.59 ERA.
In five career starts against San Francisco, Lilly is 3-1 with a 5.12 ERA.
Recently acquired catcher Rod Barajas hit a two-run blast in the Dodgers’ win in the series opener and has belted four homers in eight games since joining the club.
Barajas, who has 16 homers on the season, is batting .375 for the Dodgers since being acquired from the New York Mets.
However, Cain will be more concerned when he sees either Andre Ethier or James Loney at the plate. Ethier is a .514 career hitter in 35 at-bats against Cain, while Loney is batting .355 with 10 RBIs in 31 at-bats against the San Francisco right-hander.
San Francisco’s Aubrey Huff struggled against Lilly when both players were in the American League. Huff is batting .120 in 25 career at-bats against Lilly.
Huff, who leads the Giants with 22 homers and 77 RBIs, had one of San Francisco’s two hits on Friday. He is just 2-for-24 (.083) over his last seven games.