Dodgers find themselves in salvage mode again

The Dodgers try to salvage the final game against the Giants and avoid a series sweep on Thursday afternoon at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

Four of the last nine Dodgers-Giants series in San Francisco have ended in sweeps, two for each team.

This is also the second time in as many road series that the Dodgers have found themselves dropping the first two games this season, after finishing the last two seasons with the best road record in baseball.

On April 12 in Arizona, the Dodgers put the wood to Josh Collmenter. a On Thursday they get to face Ryan Vogelsong, who has been hot garbage so far in 2015.

Vogelsong has allowed 14 runs (12 earned) on 20 hits in 10⅓ innings this season, with nine walks and 10 strikeouts. He made a start on April 7, but was banished to mop-up duty in the bullpen since. Since rejoining the Giants in 2011, Vogelsong is 5-3 with a 3.30 ERA in 13 starts against the Dodgers. Though Vogelsong doesn't have a win against LA since 2012, the Giants are 5-1 in his last six starts against the Dodgers.

The Dodgers have been held to four runs so far in the series, two in each game, thanks in part to going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position. The Dodgers have also gotten off to slow starts, not scoring until the fifth inning on Tuesday, then held scoreless until the seventh on Wednesday.

With the day game after a night game, both Jimmy Rollins and Juan Uribe sit, with Justin Turner and Alex Guerrero starting at shortstop and third base, respectively. Turner and Guerrero in their starts this season (three for Turner, two for Guerrero before Thursday) are a combined 9-for-19 (.474) with four doubles and a home run.

With a Mike Bolsinger on the mound for the Dodgers in the finale, the club is using its sixth starting pitcher on the year in just their 15th game. But that has been pretty much the norm for most of the last decade:

• 2014: sixth starter used in ninth game
• 2013: 14th game
• 2012: 49th game
• 2011: 14th game
• 2010: 21st game
• 2009: sixth game
• 2008: eighth game
• 2007: 16th game
• 2006: 32nd game
• 2005: 45th game
  

Game info

Time: 12:45 p.m. PT

TV: SportsNet LA, MLB Network