Rich Hill to make Dodgers’ 100th start by LHP in 2017

Rich Hill gets the ball for the Dodgers on Friday night against the Giants, and in doing so the Dodgers will reach a milestone they haven’t seen in 52 years.

Hill will make his 24th start of the season in the series opener, and the 100th start by a Dodgers left-handed pitcher in 2017. That’s the most in baseball, just ahead of the Red Sox (99 starts). San Francisco is a distant third with 70 starts from left-handed pitchers this season.

The only other Dodgers team to have 100 or more starts from left-handed pitchers was in 1965, when Sandy Koufax (41 starts), Claude Osteen (40) and Johnny Podres (22) carried the load on a team that made 112 southpaw starts.

In the last 30 years, only seven other teams have had left-handers start at least 100 games — the 2015 White Sox (116 starts), the 2013 White Sox (109), the 1991 Braves (109), the 2004 Royals (108), the 1991 Angels (107), the 2003 Athletics (105) and 2008 Indians (100).

Hill has allowed two total runs in two starts against the Giants in 2017, with nine strikeouts and two walks in 10⅔ innings. Since joining the Dodgers at last season’s trade deadline, Hill has a 1.69 ERA in five starts, with 22 strikeouts and four walks in 26⅔ innings.

Jeff Samardzija starts for the Giants. He faced the Dodgers once this season, allowing just an unearned run in eight innings on May 3 in Los Angeles, with a season high 11 strikeouts and no walks.

Home cooking?

The Dodgers on Friday are looking for their first win at Dodger Stadium in four weeks. The combination of a long road trip following a disastrous homestand has the club going through Randy Newman withdrawals since beating Milwaukee at home on Aug. 25.

With nine straight losses at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers have their longest home losing streak since moving to Los Angeles. They haven’t had a longer streak since dropping 10 consecutive games at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn in 1938.

Adding to the growing weirdness of the 2017 Dodgers season, they also have the best home record in baseball at 52-23, and if the team can win at least half of their six remaining regular season games in Los Angeles these Dodgers will simultaneously own both the best home record and also the longest home losing streak in LA Dodgers history.

Game info

Time: 7:10 p.m. PT

TV: SportsNet LA