Dodgers and Diamondbacks play 3 to finish home stand

The Dodgers and Diamondbacks will play their final regular season series at Dodger Stadium this weekend. The Dodgers have already won five of the six games played at Chavez Ravine, and have won eight of out twelve games against the Diamondbacks this year.

With the departures of Paul Goldschmidt, Patrick Corbin and Zack Greinke, new faces will have to emerge for Arizona to continue their rivalry with Los Angeles.

The Dodgers lead the second place Diamondbacks by 18 games. Back on May 5th, the Dodgers had a one-game lead over the Diamondbacks, since then the Dodgers are 55-26 while the Diamondbacks are 38-43.

Christian Walker has had done well against the Dodgers this season. He has hit five home runs and is slashing .300/.323/.833 in 31 plate appearances. Two of his home runs were hit off Friday’s starter Walker Buehler.

Game one: Walker Buehler (10-2, 3.22 ERA) vs. Robbie Ray (10-7, 4.03 ERA)

Friday, Aug. 9 - 7:10 p.m. PDT // TV: SportsNet LA

Walker Buehler makes his first start since his 15-strikeout complete game last Saturday. Buehler, like several of his starting pitcher teammates, has pitched very well at home this season.

In 10 starts, Buehler has pitched 67⅓ innings and he has allowed 20 runs (19 earned) and 49 hits. He has struck out 86 and walked just four batters. He has not walked a batter at Dodger Stadium since May 29th and in his five starts since then, Buehler has struck out 57 in his last 39 innings at home.

Buehler has made three starts this season against Arizona, the Dodgers have won all three games. He has pitched 18 innings with an 4.50 ERA with 20 strikeouts and one walk. Most of their scoring against Buehler came in his first start when he pitched three innings and gave up five runs.

Robbie Ray’s name was often mentioned in the weeks prior to the trade deadline as a potential target for teams looking for starting pitcher. But he was not dealt and the left-hander will make his fourth start against the Dodgers this year.

Ray has been consistent in each of three prior starts versus the Dodgers, he has given up exactly three runs in each game and he’s allowed at least one home run in each of those games.

He is 0-2 against the Dodgers this year and overall, Ray has a 7-5 record with a 2.97 ERA in 18 starts against the Dodgers over his career.

Game two: Kenta Maeda (7-8, 4.37 ERA) vs. Alex Young (4-1, 2.60 ERA)

Saturday, Aug. 10 - 6:10 p.m. PDT // TV: SportsNet LA

Kenta Maeda will try to turn around his second half with this start at home against the Diamondbacks. Maeda has generally pitched much better at home than on the road.

In his 59⅔ innings at Dodger Stadium in 2019, Maeda has allowed 21 runs and 39 hits. He has struck out 64 and walked 15. However, since the All-Star break, Maeda is 0-3 in five starts and in 18⅔ innings pitched, he has given up 17 runs (16 earned) and 20 hits.

This will be his third start against the Diamondbacks this season, he is 1-0 so far and in 11⅔ innings, he has given up four runs and seven hits. Three of those hits have been home runs.

Alex Young will be making his first career start against the Dodgers. The rookie left-handed pitcher did make a relief appearance against the Dodgers on July 2nd at Dodger Stadium. He pitched 2⅓ scoreless innings with one strikeout.

Since then, he has made five straight starts with wins in four of those games. Young has been difficult to hit so far, batters are hitting .167/.242/.317 with .182 BABIP.

Game three: Hyun-Jin Ryu (11-2, 1.53 ERA) vs. Mike Leake (9-8, 4.24 ERA)

Sunday, Aug. 11 - 1:10 p.m. PDT // TV: SportsNet LA, MLB Network (out-of-market-only)

Hyun-Jin Ryu will be activated from the 10-day injured list on Sunday to make this start against the Diamondbacks. Ryu will be making his third start against the Diamondbacks, he is 2-0 and in 13 innings he has given up one run and seven hits. He has struck out ten and has not walked a Diamondback yet.

Dodger starting pitchers enjoy pitching at Dodger Stadium but none more than Ryu. In his ten home starts, he is 8-0 and in 70⅔ innings, he has given up 11 runs (7 earned) and has struck out 70 and walked nine.

This will be the fourth different cap Mike Leake will wear when he pitches against the Dodgers. Leake’s first start was in 2010 when he was with the Reds. Since then, he has also been with the Giants and the Cardinals when he toed the rubber against the Dodgers.

Leake is 5-6 against the Dodgers with a 4.02 ERA, he has not pitched against Dodgers since 2017. One another note about Leake, he is the rare pitcher whose strikeout rate is low when you look at this era of increased strikeouts.

In each of this ten seasons pitched, he has thrown at least 130 innings and has a strikeout rate of 6.9 or lower per nine innings.