After an emphatic sweep of the Colorado Rockies and winners of six straight games, the Los Angeles Dodgers prepare for their first highly-anticipated series of the season.
Set to pitch for the Dodgers at Petco Park, also known as “Dodger Stadium South,” are Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, and Trevor Bauer.
The Dodgers stand at 11-2, and are the first team to hit ten wins this year. The Padres sit at 8-4 after most recently splitting a two-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Thursday night, the Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of division rival Colorado. Max Muncy hit a three-game home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to seal the deal for Los Angeles. Veteran pitcher David Price notched his first save of the year, which was only the second of his entire career, with the last coming in 2008.
The Padres are expecting Fernando Tatis Jr. to make his return to the lineup for this series. Tatis was placed on the ten-day injured list with a shoulder injury on April 6, but those close to the team believe he’ll be activated for the opener.
Los Angeles outfielder Cody Bellinger is eligible to come off the injured list during this series as well, but it looks like that won’t be the case. Bellinger was placed on the injured list with a calf injury last Friday retroactive to April 6.
“I’m not going to say zero, but it’s close to that number,” said Dodger manager David Roberts when asked about the possibility of Bellinger playing this weekend.
Dodgers right-handed reliever Brusdar Graterol is reported to be close to a return. Graterol has been on the injured list since the beginning of the season. He is currently on the Dodgers taxi squad for the weekend series. Joe Kelly is still to make his season debut as well but that could be a few weeks ahead, according to Roberts.
The pitching matchups for this weekend are quite interesting, as many baseball fans have been looking forward to watching perhaps the two most talented clubs in the National League. Friday’s matchup will be Buehler vs. lefty Ryan Weathers, followed by Kershaw against righty Yu Darvish on Saturday, and Bauer vs. left-hander Blake Snell on Sunday.
Friday will be Buehler’s third start of the early season. His last start was the Dodgers home opener against the Nationals when he pitched six scoreless innings and allowing six hits while striking out four batters.
The 21-year-old Weathers will make the first MLB start of his career after previously pitching in relief earlier this season. In six innings of work, he’s allowed one run on two hits while striking out seven batters.
Friday’s contest will be the first matchup of 19 meetings between these two clubs throughout the regular season, as the division rivalry has steadily progressed over the past year, especially after the Padres have made numerous player upgrades.
The first pitch for the opener is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. Pacific time.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
I thought Price looked very good last night. The two hits he gave up to the first two batters were a bloop fly and a 42-bounce grounder through the infield.
When Bazooka is activated it would seem as though either Santana or Alexander would draw the short straw. Normally they would stick with the veteran so it will probably be Santana who gets optioned but stranger things have happened.
Should be a great weekend of baseball and Sunday will be especially interesting because Bauer and Machado don’t get along. I think the series is far more important to the Padres than it is to us. They like to walk around with their chests puffed out so they need to take at least 2 of the 3 in their park in order to show the world that they belong in the same conversation with the World Champs.
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Error filled game tonight, but Raley gets hit first MLB homer and McKinstry with a clutch double in the 8th getting the lead back to 2. Bellinger has a hairline fracture of his tibia. He will be out until at least the end of May.
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Kenley must not have been pitching “angry” tonight.
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Jansen’s big mistake was walking Machado. He made some great pitches, but just could not finish him off. With 2 outs, he nibbled too much. What a roller coaster ride of a game. But they got the win, and against the Padres that is all I care about. Report out this morning that Graterol will be activated.
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Best chance to win the series comes tonight with Kersh out there. He is 9-3 at Petco with a 1.89 ERA. Bauer on the other hand is 0-4 against the Pads with a 5.00 ERA. Price’s unselfishness is another testament to his character. Whatever you think of him as a player, he is pure class. Donating 1000 dollars to EVERY Dodger minor leaguer last season was one thing, but volunteering to do something he has NEVER done his entire career? Wow. I have a ton of respect for the guy. 12-2. I would say they are off to a hot start, and could in reality be 14-0 by now.
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And he’s auctioning off his WS ring for charity. David Price is an example of what an MLB player should be.
I saw on Twitter (not always the most reliable news source) that Vesia is being activated. Not sure if that is instead of Graterol or along with or if the story was just plain wrong.
In any case, that will mean somebody has to go or maybe two somebodys (somebodies?).
One would assume it would be a pitcher but I wouldn’t be totally shocked if it was Beaty.
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Neither would I. Nor would I be surprised to see Reks somewhere down the line, or Peters for that matter. I had not read about Vesia. The Graterol thing was on one of those other Dodger blogs.
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Let me just say again how very lucky we are to be Dodger fans.
Your friends out there in CO, Bear, who root for the Rox, are having to put up with a team that has only played 13 games and is already 8.5 games behind us.
They really need new ownership and a new GM, but in the meanwhile, they should trade Story today. The Yanks are probably desperate enough to give them something good for him at this point.
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I am pretty sure it will get done either at the deadline or before. They cannot afford to let him walk in free agency and only get a draft pick back. Tatis has played 6 games and made 6 errors. Huh??? I thought he was supposed to be some vacuum cleaner out there. Is there anyone on the Dodgers more clutch right now than McKinstry and Seager? I start McKinstry over Lux at this point. He is having solid AB’s. Had to feel good for Raley. Plus they got the HR ball back for him. Rockies fans jumping ship at an alarming rate.
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Didn’t realize they were on the ship in the first place. 🙂
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