A pair of left-handers who pitched for the other team two years ago get a chance to experience the opposite side of the Los Angeles Dodgers-Giants rivalry when they get the ball for Tuesday night’s rematch in the four-game series in San Francisco.
The Dodgers will be looking for a sixth straight win over the Giants in the last 13 days when they send Tyler Anderson (11-1, 2.61 ERA) up against San Francisco southpaw Alex Wood (7-8, 4.11).
First pitch is scheduled for 3 hours, 45 minutes after Major League Baseball’s trade deadline, so exactly who Anderson and Wood will be facing — and find behind them on defense — won’t be known until shortly before they arrive at the stadium.
Both teams have been linked to Washington Nationals star Juan Soto, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts might have pointed to a greater need when critiquing closer Craig Kimbrel’s shaky outing in Colorado on Friday.
“He’s our closer,” Roberts insisted, “but certainly performance matters — especially at the back end of the game. No one knows that more than Craig. He’s got to continue to work on some things to be more efficient and be more effective. That’s just facts.”
The Giants had hoped to go into the deadline on a positive note, thinking that might prompt management to import talent rather than export. Starter Logan Webb just didn’t have his best stuff after the first inning Monday, he lamented afterward.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” he insisted. “You just come in here today and try to set a little fire. People are trying to win. Unfortunately, we haven’t.”
Anderson pitched the 2020 season with the Giants, going 4-3 with a 4.37 ERA one season after he’d gone 0-3 with an 11.76 ERA for the Colorado Rockies.
He’s faced the Giants twice since, including in the previous series last month in Los Angeles. He pitched the Dodgers to a 5-1 win, limiting the Giants to one unearned run in six innings.
He hasn’t pitched in San Francisco since leaving as a free agent following the 2020 season. He’s made nine career starts against the Giants, going 1-3 with a 3.91 ERA.
The 32-year-old went unbeaten in five starts in July, going 3-0 with a 1.11 ERA. He has pitched once since seeing the Giants last month, shutting out the Rockies over seven innings on the road in a 13-0 win last Thursday.
Anderson will be a second straight lefty to face the Giants. Andrew Heaney survived a shaky first inning in the series opener, during which he walked in a run, to complete the first four innings of an 8-2 win.
Wood also pitched in last month’s series, allowing two runs in four innings in a 4-2 loss. Mookie Betts and Trea Turner homered off Wood in the game.
He rebounded to beat the Chicago Cubs 4-2 at home last Thursday, limiting them to two runs and two hits in 6 2/3 innings.
Wood went 0-1 with a 6.39 ERA in nine games (two starts) for the Dodgers in 2020. He’s faced them six times since joining the Giants as a free agent before the 2021 season, including Game 3 of last year’s National League Division Series, where he outdueled Max Scherzer with 4 2/3 innings of two-hit, shutout ball.
The 31-year-old has gone 0-4 in five regular-season starts against the Dodgers over the past two seasons. For his career, he’s 2-4 with a 3.44 ERA in 10 games, including eight starts, against his former team.
–Field Level Media