StatFox.com - Sports Handicapping Community

The Leader In Sports Handicapping

Giants and Dodgers clash Monday
By: Freddy Wander - StatFox
Published: 4/27/2015  at  9:48:00 AM
  Print This Article    

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (8-11)

at LOS ANGELES DODGERS (11-7)

First pitch: Monday, 10:10 p.m. ET
Line: N/A, Total:N/A

The Los Angeles Dodgers head back home and take on the San Francisco Giants for the second time in a week.

The Giants didn’t look much like the club that won the 2014 World Series when they went on an eight-game losing streak recently, but have rebounded of late with victories in five of their last seven contests. They were in the thin air of Colorado over the weekend, getting only two games in as Sunday’s was postponed, and split those with their win coming in extras on Saturday. It was a 5-4 victory where the offense tallied 12 hits but could have easily done much more if they had done better than 1-for-16 with RISP. OF Angel Pagan (.355) has been able to get multiple hits in four of his last five performances and was 4-for-6 with a double on Saturday. The Dodgers haven’t exactly been lighting up the league as they’ve been expected to over the last few seasons and are 2-4 in their last two series. They were able to get a 2-1 series win in San Diego most recently, though, scoring a total of 15 runs in the three games behind a big 11-8 victory on Saturday. They couldn’t complete the sweep on Sunday when the Padres took a 3-1 win at home as Los Angeles managed a mere five hits. OF Alexander Guerrero (.500) has forced himself into the lineup with his amazing offense and has a homer in each of the last three games he’s played in, going 5-for-7 with four RBIs. San Francisco will send RHP Tim Lincecum (1-1. 2, 2.00 ERA) to the bump as he goes against LHP Brett Anderson (1-1, 5.40 ERA) of the host team. The Giants haven’t been the worst on the road this year, but still sit under .500 (4-5) and will be taking on this Dodgers group which is a solid 8-1 when at home. Los Angeles traveled to see the Giants just under a week ago and they were swept in three fairly low scoring games as San Francisco outscored the Dodgers 12-6. Overall in the last three seasons, the Giants hold a 23-18 edge in this matchup and have done well (11-9) when playing on the road in that time. Trends show that San Francisco is 92-79 (.538) against divisional opponents in the last three years while Los Angeles is 7-2 when revenging a three-game sweep in the same timeframe. The injury report will continue to have OF Hunter Pence (Arm) on the DL for the Giants as the Dodgers will be playing without OF Yasiel Puig (Hamstring) for the near future.

Lincecum is certainly not the pitcher who won back-to-back Cy Young awards (2008, 2009), but has still put up double-digit wins in each of the last seven seasons despite his strikeout rate hitting a career-low 7.8 K/9 in 2014. He has begun to adjust well to his fewer strikeouts and has been effective through three starts this year, leaving 82.5% of runners on base and inducing groundballs 60.4% of the time. He has also kept the ball in the park with one homer allowed in 18 innings (0.50 HR/9) and is coming off a quality start (6 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 5 K) against this Los Angeles team last week. In his 25 career starts against them, he has gone 9-7 (16-9 team record) with a 3.11 ERA (1.32 WHIP) and owns a 16:3 K/BB ratio over his last three outings (15.1 IP). There isn’t many on the Dodgers who have done well against “The Freak” with OF Andre Ethier (14-for-51, 3 doubles, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 13 K) and 3B Juan Uribe (9-for-32, 3 doubles, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 10 K) putting up solid numbers as 1B Adrian Gonzalez, SS Jimmy Rollins and C Yasmani Grandal have combined to go a putrid 23-for-108 (.213) with two doubles, nine RBIs and 29 strikeouts. The San Francisco bullpen has been solid thus far, going 4-2 with a 2.81 ERA (1.33 WHIP) and are 5-for-6 in save chances. Santiago Casilla (3.12 ERA, 5 saves) blew his first save on Saturday and has not been too great with 10 hits and three runs allowed over 8.2 frames.

Anderson has been quite effective when he has been able to pitch, but unfortunately that has not been too often as he has totaled a mere eight starts per game in the previous four seasons. He has gone a meager five innings per start in his first three outings of 2015 and has seen minimal strikeouts (4.8 K/9) while continuing to show great control (1.2 BB/9). He had just one strikeout over four innings of four-run, nine-hit baseball in a loss to the Giants last week and has gone 0-3 (1-3 team record) with a 6.19 ERA (1.63 WHIP) in his career against San Francisco. No player for the Giants has had more than six at-bats against this lefty, but the trio of OF Justin Maxwell (3-for-5, 1 triple), SS Brandon Crawford (2-for-3, 1 double, 1 RBI) and C Buster Posey (2-for-6, 1 double, 2 RBI) have all done well. On the other hand, OF Angel Pagan (1-for-4) and 1B Joaquin Arias (0-for-4) have done poorly in the matchup. The relievers on Los Angeles are a combined 3-4 with a 2.63 ERA (1.13 WHIP) as they’ve gone 5-for-7 in their save opportunities. Without Kenley Jansen available, the Dodgers have gone to multiple players to close out games and Yimi Garcia (0.93 ERA, 1 save) was on the mound in the ninth in the last save chance.


FoxSheets.com
The FoxSheets - the most advanced sports handicapping information available on the internet.
Sign up for professional sports betting information including fantastic trends, and Free FoxSheets.
E-mail: