San Diego Padres and L.A. Dodgers Duel For Series Sunday Afternoon

Padres bats hope the late inning life in their bats means some more production late in the series with Los Angeles.  Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

After a successful late inning rally Friday night, and a rally that fell short Saturday, the San Diego Padres face the Los Angeles Dodgers in game three of their weekend series at 1:10 Sunday afternoon.

This season the Dodgers lead the head to head series with the Padres three games to two after their 4-2 win last night. Following Sunday’s matchup the Padres and Dodgers will next play a four game set in L.A. starting July 10, followed by a pair of series in August and one in September.

Two lefties will square off at Petco Park with Eric Stults (2-9, 5.76) going for the Padres against Hyun-jin Ryu (8-3, 3.18) for the Dodgers.

It is a return engagement for Ryu against the Padres. The second year MLBer tossed seven scoreless innings against the Padres on March 30th at Petco. He allowed just three hits, walked three and struck out seven, but was left with a no decision in a 3-1 Dodgers win. Ryu is 5-1 over his last six starts, with his only loss two outings ago against the Cincinnati Reds. He was touched up for four runs over six innings in a 7-3 L.A. loss. He bounced back in his last start however when he allowed just one run over six innings against Colorado.

Stults has yet to face the Dodgers this season but carries a career 1-3 record with a 4.30 ERA over five prior appearances against LA into the Sunday matinee. As for his 2014 Stults has not won a decision since May 10 when he pitched six innings of two run ball against Miami at Petco. Since then in seven starts he is 0-6 with 26 earned runs over his last 33 and two thirds innings, for a 6.96 ERA. Stults has allowed there or more runs in his last six starts.

With their two runs scored Saturday night the Padres have now scored two runs or less in nine of their last thirteen games. Over their past seven games the bats have produced just over two runs per game, including a string of three straight one run games which they lost by a combined score of 14-3.

Sunday will be the 768th meeting all time between the Padres and Dodgers. Over the last ten games the Dodgers lead the series 7-3. They have also beaten the Padres 11 times in each of the past two seasons. Overall the Dodgers lead the series 403-364.

The Padres will stay in the NL West for their next six games with three on the road against the first place San Francisco Giants starting Monday. After an off day Thursday, the Padres return home to open up a nine game home stand with three against the Diamondbacks. Including Sunday, 17 of San Diego’s final 20 games before the All Star Break will be against NL West opponents.