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LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers play their first home rubber game of the season on Wednesday night, trying to capture their fifth straight series win over the Giants at Dodger Stadium.
Contrary to their poor recent history in San Francisco — dropping 18 of their last 24 games at AT&T Park — the Dodgers have fared quite well at home against their chief rivals. The Dodgers have won their last four home series against the Giants and six of their last seven, winning 15 of their last 22 at home games against the Giants, dating back to September 2014.
All three home series against the Giants in 2016 were two games to one, which the Dodgers will try to duplicate on Wednesday night.
The Dodgers have yet to drop a series at home this season, though this is only their fifth series at Dodger Stadium, and two were splits.
Since the start of 2015, the Dodgers are 118-59 (.667) at Dodger Stadium, with seven more home wins than any other team in baseball during that span. The Cubs are next best at 111-62 (.642).
Life at 20
Julio Urias makes his second start of the season, after allowing one run in 5⅔ innings last Thursday against the Giants in San Francisco.
Wednesday night will be the ninth appearance and seventh start for Urias since turning 20 years old last Aug. 12. So far as a 20-year-old, he has allowed only five runs in 34⅓ innings, sporting a 1.31 ERA with 35 strikeouts and 15 walks.
If there is one concern with Urias in the early going this year, it’s his high walk total.
Last season, Urias walked four in his major league debut, and later walked six batters on June 28. But other than that, he never walked more than three in any of his other 16 appearances.
Urias walked four in his 2017 debut last Thursday, including one intentional pass. He also walked nine batters in 14 innings with Triple-A Oklahoma City before his call up. Whether he is working out the rust from an odd and intermittent spring training we don’t know, but the left-hander’s walk rate in the majors and minors in 2017 is 16.5%, compared to 7.7% last year.
Game info
Time: 7:10 p.m. PT
TV: SportsNet LA, KTLA, MLB Network