Cappy Looks to Keep Rolling in San Diego

Dodger Lineup vs. San Diego

Chris Capuano-5-0 vs. Clayton Richard-1-5

The Bison-less Dodgers stroll into San Diego for a quick little two game interlude. Today’s game will be a strange 3:35PM afternoon business man’s special. This is day number three without Matt Kemp, and the Dodgers are trying to keep their heads above water until he returns. Today will be another tough test. The Dodgers come into San Diego still with the best record in Baseball at 24-12, and maintain a six game lead over the second place Giants.

David Banks-US PRESSWIRE

The pitching match-ups will feature another battle of lefties. However these are two lefties that have been going in very different paths. It seems that the Dodgers have had to face a small army of lefties so far this year Chris Capuano will be on the mound for the Dodgers today. Cappy has been on quite a roll. He has won five in a row, and will be looking for his sixth win of the season. Like Lilly, a new breaking ball/slider grip has helped Cappy garner more success. Cappy is 5-0 with a 2.06 ERA. In his career against San Diego he is 4-2 with a 4.04 ERA, and 42 whiffs. Cappy is holding the current group of Padres to a .212 batting average against.

Jake Roth-US PRESSWIRE

The Padres will counter with struggling lefty Clayton Richard. The young left hander beat the Dodgers in his only win of the season on April seventh. Since then he hasn’t won a game. He is 1-5 with a 5.32 ERA. In his last start he was victimized by the home run ball, allowing two, and five runs off eight hits through 5.1 innings, in a loss to the Phillies. He will try and turn his season around against the Dodgers. Richard has always given the Dodgers a lot of trouble. He is 5-1 with a 2.63 ERA career vs. the Dodgers. The Dodgers are only hitting .171 off of Richard. For whatever reason he just gives the Dodgers fits. Andre Ethier is only hitting .143 off of him, and Loney is hitting .200. No Dodger not named Matt Kemp has hit a home run against Richard. Once again it seems runs will be at a premium.

Today’s game is televised on KCAL 9. Manager Don Mattingly tried playing all of the rookies last night, and not surprisingly none of them hit. He has decided to return to a similar forfeit like lineup today. (Gordon and Kennedy are barely major leaguers), With this lineup scoring runs will be most difficult. Although yesterday we did learn that Andre Ethier can play center field with no problem.

Tomorrow the Dodgers will play at 7PM, then come back home for a weekend set with the Cardinals. Speaking of the Cardinals, I will be having a podcast tonight after the game with BBA President, Daniel Shoptaw of www.cardinal70.com. We’ll be talking about the upcoming Cardinals/Dodgers series, and more. Check it out tonight at 8PM. You can listen in here- www.blogtalkradio.com/dishing-up-the-dodgers.

Check in with us after the game for our nightly postgame recap. So, Skip school, play hooky from work, it’s time for mid-afternoon Dodger Baseball! I want a win today boys so make it happen. Go Blue