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Austin Barnes starts at catcher

MLB: Colorado Rockies at Los Angeles Dodgers Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports

Austin Barnes gets the start at catcher for the Dodgers in their series finale as the Dodgers go with the usual suspects against a left-handed starter, facing Matt Moore of the Giants on Wednesday night at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

This is Barnes’ 10th consecutive start against left-handed pitching this season, and the 34th start in the Dodgers’ 44 games against southpaw starters in 2017.

Wednesday is also the third start for Barnes in the last six games, including twice against right-handed pitchers. Barnes is hitting .360/.476/.488 in 105 plate appearances against right-handers in 2017.

Starting lineups

Pos Dodgers Pos Giants
Pos Dodgers Pos Giants
CF Taylor RF Pence
SS Seager (L) LF Parker (L)
3B Turner CF Span (L)
1B Bellinger (L) 1B Posey
2B Forsythe SS Crawford (L)
C Barnes C Hundley
LF Hernandez 3B Sandoval (S)
RF Puig 2B Tomlinson
P Darvish (S) P Moore (L)
Time: 7:15 p.m. PT TV: SportsNet LA, ESPN

Yasmani Grandal walked four times in the first two games of the series, but is also 1-for-30 in September. Since the beginning of August, he is 17-for-104, hitting .163/.261/.346 with 39 strikeouts in 30 games.

Barnes on the season is hitting .297/.412/.476, compared to .246/.305/.449 for Grandal. Barnes has nearly as many walks (32) as Grandal (35) despite having roughly half the plate appearances (221 vs. 441).

Dave Roberts over the weekend hinted at more playing time for Barnes down the stretch.

“It’s nice when you have two guys behind the plate that regardless of the handedness you feel very comfortable, and regardless of who’s pitching that the chemistry works,” Roberts said. “Now essentially not only using Austin as the guy that plays in day games after a night game, that you can run him out there against anyone, that’s a good thing.”

Kiké Hernandez starts in left field for the Dodgers, hitting .261/.354/.580 with 10 home runs and 10 doubles against lefties this season. He is just 1-for-17 (.059) with a walk in his career against Moore.

Logan Forsythe, hitting .299/.437/.439 against southpaws in 2017, starts at second base.

Ryder Jones was scheduled to start at third base for the Giants but was scratched. Pablo Sandoval gets the start at the hot corner instead.