There is not a team Clayton Kershaw has faced more than the San Francisco Giants, and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ legend will get his next shot against his club’s fiercest rival at home on Saturday.
Kershaw (1-0, 4.35 ERA) will make the 61st appearance and 59th start against the Giants over his 18-year career and will have some lofty numbers to live up to.
Not only does Kershaw have a career 2.04 ERA against the Giants, to go along with a 26-16 record, he has 408 strikeouts in 397 1/3 innings. He has six complete games against San Francisco, and five of those are shutouts.
“It’s going to be great having Clayton pitch against those guys here at Dodger Stadium,” Roberts said. “He’s thrown some really good ballgames against those guys. He always gets up for playing the Giants, and I think on the heels of him throwing the baseball the way he did the last time, I think he’s really encouraged.”
In his fifth start since returning from offseason knee and toe procedures, Kershaw gave up one run in five innings on the road against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday. It was his first win since Aug. 18, 2024.
Los Angeles at least will have a fresh bullpen behind Kershaw following an off day Thursday and left-hander Justin Wrobleski absorbing 4 1/3 innings in relief of starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who gave up the first five runs Friday in a 6-2 loss.
The Dodgers received a pair of hits from Teoscar Hernandez in Friday’s series opener, including a home run, but they were the only two hits Los Angeles had in the game. The hit total was a season low.
The Giants took control in the third inning on a grand slam from Casey Schmitt, and Logan Webb gave up two runs over seven strong innings. Willy Adames hit a home run for San Francisco, his third in four games after the free-agent addition hit five in his first 65 games.
The win moved the Giants into a tie for first place in the National League West with the Dodgers.
Landen Roupp (4-4, 3.29), who is 2-1 with a 1.27 ERA over his past five starts, has the starting assignment for San Francisco. In his most recent outing, June 8 at home against the Atlanta Braves, he picked up the win after allowing three runs on five hits over six innings.
It will be Roupp’s first career start against Los Angeles after two relief outings against the club last season, recording a 5.79 ERA over 4 2/3 innings.
After Schmitt made a ninth-inning error Thursday that was costly in an 8-7 loss to the Colorado Rockies, he made amends with his first career grand slam. Schmitt is getting a chance to play every day with Matt Chapman (hand) on the injured list.
“Just play. He knows what’s going on here. He knows he’s going to get to play third base every day,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “He’s done a nice job preparing for other positions. … That’s probably the hard part for him. Getting the opportunity to play third base, that’s kind of the easy part for him.”
–Field Level Media
–Field Level Media
