Brett Anderson starts regular season road finale for Dodgers

Brett Anderson takes the mound as the Dodgers close out the road portion of their regular season schedule on Thursday afternoon against the Giants at AT&T Park.

Anderson will be making his career-high 31st start, and has a few other milestones in play in his final start of the regular season, all surpassing his rookie year of 2009.

With 723 batters faced in 2015, Anderson needs 13 more to set a new career high. He's at 172⅔ innings, needing nine more outs to set a new personal best. Anderson needs 2⅓ innings to reach 175 on the season, earning another $350,000, which would bring him to $2 million in bonuses earned in 2015.

Should Anderson pitch 7⅓ innings on Thursday, he'll reach 180 innings, triggering another $400,000 bonus. Though Anderson has pitched into the eighth inning just twice in 30 starts this season, and last pitched seven innings on July 28.

Anderson in his last two starts has matched his season high with 10 hits allowed. If he does that again on Thursday, he'll be the first Dodgers pitcher to allow 200 hits in a season since Derek Lowe and Brad Penny each did so in 2006.

With 18 home runs allowed this season, Anderson is also two shy of his career high, also set in 2009.

Chase Utley makes his third start at third base, batting sixth in the season finale against the Giants.

Retiring rivals

Tim Hudson starts for the Giants, making the final start of his brilliant 17-year career. The 40-year-old right-hander has 222 wins in his career, which leads all active players, and his 479th start is the 62nd most in baseball history.

On Thursday morning, Giants relief pitcher Jeremy Affeldt announced his retirement as well, hanging up his spikes after 14 years. The left-hander was a big part of three World Series champions in San Francisco, allowing two runs in 26 innings in the postseason with the Giants, including no runs in 21 appearances combined in 2012 and 2014. In his three postseasons with the Giants, Affeldt allowed only one of 18 inherited runners to score.

Game info

Time: 12:45 p.m. PT

TV: SportsNet LA