{"id":5983,"date":"2010-07-31T10:00:30","date_gmt":"2010-07-31T15:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=5983"},"modified":"2010-07-31T09:59:21","modified_gmt":"2010-07-31T14:59:21","slug":"saturday-mlb-on-fox-preview-dodgers-at-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/saturday-mlb-on-fox-preview-dodgers-at-giants-5983\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday MLB on Fox Preview &#8211; Dodgers at Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Dodgers are getting desperate in starting today&#8217;s pitcher on less than four days rest.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-4593\" src=\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/chad-billingsley-dodgers-782-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/chad-billingsley-dodgers-782-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/chad-billingsley-dodgers-782-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>Los Angeles has fallen 4.5 games back in the NL Wild Card race after last night\u2019s 6-5 road defeat against the Giants at AT&amp;T Park.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know if we were playing a little soft earlier, but tonight I liked the way we fought back,\u201d said catcher Russell Martin.\u00a0 The club is 5-10 since the All-Star break and has managed to score just 35 runs in that span.\u00a0 Don\u2019t expect things to improve offensively this afternoon, as the Dodgers are averaging just 3.3 runs and hitting for a combined average during the day, leading to a 13-14 daytime record (-290).\u00a0 Outfielder Matt Kemp is the only Dodger with a batting average over .290 in the second half of the season.\u00a0 The Dodgers are not only 4.5 games behind the second-place Giants in the division, they are now seven games out of first place.\u00a0 The starting rotation has done its best to give the club an opportunity to win, posting a 1.54 ERA over the last 13 games, which is the lowest mark in Major League Baseball.\u00a0 Los Angeles is 14-18 against southpaw starters (-930) this season and the total is 17-15 O\/U in those contests.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">Dodgers starting pitcher Chad Billingsley is making his 20th start of the season and has posted a 9-5 mark and 4.00 ERA.\u00a0 He won his second straight start last time out and has run his scoreless innings streak to 15 innings after shutting down the Padres for six frames.\u00a0 The right-hander will be making his start on just three days rest, going 0-2 with a 22.50 ERA in two starts on less than four days rest in his career.\u00a0 In 17 games (12 starts) against the Giants, he is 5-2 with a 3.22 ERA.\u00a0 He will be making his third start of the season versus San Francisco, which includes picking up a shut out of the Giants at Dodger Stadium on July 21.\u00a0 The fifth-year starter is 2-1 with a 1.09 ERA in four daytime starts in 2010.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">San Francisco has posted an incredible 19-8 mark in July this year (+1,160) and the total is 14-11 O\/U in those games.\u00a0 With a win in today\u2019s game, the Giants would have their first 20-win month since September 2000.\u00a0 The club has won 18 of its last 23 games and 19 of 25.\u00a0 Friday night\u2019s win helped the team trim its National League West deficit to 2.5 games behind first-place San Diego.\u00a0 \u201cWe haven\u2019t played very well in our division or against the Dodgers this year,\u201d manager Bruce Bochy said.\u00a0 The club is 16-21 against divisional foes this season (-800) and 90-91 the last three campaigns (+540).\u00a0 38 of San Francisco\u2019s last 58 games on the 2010 schedule are against NL West opponents.\u00a0 The Giants are an even 6-6 this year at home with a money line of -100 to -125 and 30-26 in this spot the last three years (EVEN).<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">Giants starting pitcher Barry Zito has posted a 8-6 record and 3.49 ERA in his first 21 starts of the season, with the team compiling a 12-9 mark in those games.\u00a0 The left-hander is 1-2 with a 2.08 ERA in his first three outings since the All-Star break.\u00a0 He has received one run of support in the second half of the season, including zero runs in his last two starts.\u00a0 He is 6-2 with a 2.65 ERA in 11 home starts this season, surrendering just 58 hits in 74.2 innings of work.\u00a0 He is scheduled to make his 17th career start against Los Angeles, going 6-6 with a 4.01 ERA.\u00a0 Zito has faced the Dodgers three times already this season, going 0-1 with a 2.18 ERA and nothing three quality starts.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">Bettors must acknowledge the Dodgers being 3-6 on the road when the total is 7 or less this season (-310) and the Giants being 13-7 at home in the same situation (+380).\u00a0 Don\u2019t get carried away in playing San Francisco, with the club being 2-5 in Zito\u2019s last seven starts with the total set at 7.0-8.5.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dodgers are getting desperate in starting today&#8217;s pitcher on less than four days rest. Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants Los Angeles has fallen 4.5 games back in the NL Wild Card race after last night\u2019s 6-5 road defeat against the Giants at AT&amp;T Park.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know if we were playing a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[1611,55,1731,429,736],"class_list":["post-5983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-att-park","tag-barry-zito","tag-chad-billingsley","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-san-francisco-giants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5984,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5983\/revisions\/5984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}