San Diego Padres: Predicting The Los Angeles Dodgers Series

The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers are set for a Memorial Day weekend series at Dodger Stadium. Here’s a look ahead and one big prediction.

The San Diego Padres enter Friday evening as winners of six of their last ten games. They sit 5.5 games out of first place in the National League West and two games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are in fourth. The Dodgers are also winners of six of their last ten and are 4-2 against the Padres this season.

After falling victim to a combined no-hitter in Mexico, the Padres secured a series win last time out against Los Angeles. This weekend, the Dodgers are scheduled to send out Ross Stripling, Alex Wood, and Walker Buehler.

First, the not so good heading into this series.

The Padres have faced each of these pitchers once already this season. Here is how they fared,

Walker Buehler: 6 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K

Ross Stripling: 4 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K

Alex Wood: 5.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 7 K

Travis Jankowski is a combined 1-8 with three strikeouts against Stripling and Wood (did not play against Buehler). Not ideal numbers for the new Padres’ leadoff hitter. Eric Hosmer has also yet to find any success against the trio, going 0-7 thus far.

 Positives for the San Diego Padres.

There are two San Diego hitters who have had moderate success against this Los Angeles rotation. Freddy Galvis is hitting just .236 on the season, however, over the last week he is hitting .259. Still not an impressive statistic. He does have seven extra-base hits this month, compared to just two in the month of April.

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Keep your eye on Galvis in this series. He’s hitting .357 with just three strikeouts in 29 at-bats against Wood, Stripling, and Buehler.

Jose Pirela is another hitter to watch closely this weekend. Pirela is hitting .385 versus the Dodgers’ trio while drawing three walks.

How about that big prediction that was touted in the introduction? Jose Pirela hits his first home run of the season this weekend. Mark it down. He has homered off Stripling and Wood already in his career. However, hitters have unloaded only eight home runs in 125.2 innings this season off the upcoming opponents.

Much of the time, baseball doesn’t make sense. It then only makes sense that Pirela knocks in his first long ball of the year at Dodger Stadium. His only home run at Dodger Stadium came last August, against Ross Stripling.

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With both teams coming into the series on successful rides, this weekend is sure to provide some interesting baseball. It’s also an intense rivalry weekend series, so emotions will be high, specifically for the fans. Final prediction, the Padres take this series on Sunday in high scoring game.