The Los Angeles Dodgers will host the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night at 10:00 p.m. ET in the final matchup of their three-game set. San Diego squeaked out a victory on Tuesday night with a four-run ninth inning to tie up the series.
Brandon McCarthy, who signed a four-year, $48 million deal in the offseason, will debut for the Dodgers while Andrew Cashner gets the nod for the Padres. Both clubs managed to squander late leads in the first two games of the series and these starters look to avoid having their bullpens go to work longer than they have to.
The Dodgers scored four runs in the seventh and eighth innings on Monday to cap off a 6-3 win while San Diego scored six runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings to get the 7-3 victory last night. Howie Kendrick and Jimmy Rollins were the heroes for Los Angeles in Game 1 and Yonder Alonso, Wil Myers, Derek Norris and Will Middlebrooks came up big for the Friars in Game 2.
San Diego hasn't won a series at Dodger Stadium in their last six tries, but that could change with Cashner on the mound. The right-hander owns an impressive 1.53 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in 17 games (six starts) against the Dodgers in his career. He struck out 45 batters over those 53 innings, including three quality starts against the in-state rivals last season.
But Los Angeles will send out the experienced McCarthy to face Cashner. The 31-year-old struggled mightily last season with the Arizona Diamondbacks (3-10 with a 5.01 ERA in 18 starts) before he was traded to the New York Yankees at the deadline (7-5 with a 2.89 ERA in 14 starts). After showing such potential in the second half of the season, the Dodgers' new management wasted no time in signing him to a contract to have him as their No. 4 starter behind Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu.
McCarthy has also had success against tonight's opponent, having gone 4-1 with a 2.43 ERA and 0.959 WHIP in six starts (40 2/3 innings).
In the first two games of the series, the teams have scored a total of eight runs off starters and 12 runs off relievers, so it'll be interesting to see how tonight plays out.
You can check out the live stream of the Dodgers/Padres game here as well as the live radio broadcast here (if you're a Dodgers fan) or here (if you're a Padres fan).
