Behold! Retweeting myself:
Drew Pomeranz was pulled from Boston's rotation last season after his eleventh start. Tonight will be his eleventh start for the Giants.
— McCovey Chronicles (@McCoveyChron) June 7, 2019
The following Dodgers’ lineup ...
LF — Chris Taylor
2B — Max Muncy
3B — Justin Turner
RF — Cody Bellinger
1B — David Freese
SS — Cory Seager
CF — Enrique Hernández
C — Austin Barnes
SP — Clayton Kershaw
... is 12-for-64 with two home runs and 15 K against Pomeranz, but if you’ve been a fan of baseball for very long, then you know that these versus stats are virtually worthless. It was either Freese or Turner who didn’t have a hit against Pomeranz coming into the last Giants-Dodgers series and one (or both) of them left with their first hit(s) off of him.
Chris Taylor hasn’t had a great year, but one of his four home runs this year came off of Pomeranz back on April 1st. That game was a 4-2 win in Los Angeles, started by Pomeranz, who went five innings in his first Giants start. He allowed two home runs that night and is averaging one per start since.
Pomeranz hasn’t completed at least five innings since April 24th and in four May starts he pitched a total of 5.1 innings and carried a 19.16 erA. Opponents slugged .839 against him. so...
Meanwhile, the Giants will see if the damaged Clayton Kershaw is still the same guy he’s always been against them:
2B — Joe Panik
1B — Brandon Belt
3B — Evan Longoria
LF — Tyler Austin
RF — Kevin Pillar
SS — Brandon Crawford
C — Aramis Garcia
CF — Steven Duggar
SP — Drew Pomeranz
On the one hand, Kershaw is 5-0 this season. On the other hand, he’s lost almost a full mile per hour off his fastball for the third consecutive season and even his slider has been in decline. His curveball usage is up a tiny bit, though, and that pitch is still working really well.
The Giants’ lefty mashing lineup was totally flummoxed, bewildered, and embarrassed by Jason Vargas just two nights ago, so, don’t expect much from this bunch, unless there’s something really wrong with Kershaw.
Which there isn’t.