A beat down like no other Petit must try to right ship against league’s best
The pressure would have been on Yusmeiro Petit regardless.
A Giants win Saturday would have pulled them into a tie atop the National League West, and Petit would have gotten the ball Sunday with a mission to pitch his team into sole possession of first.
Instead, Petit gets the ball with a mission to keep his team, crushed and embarrassed Saturday, from falling three games back.
“He’s calm. He’s always calm,” reported Andrew Susac, who is expected to catch Petit. “He’s the same pitcher every day.”
He might have to be who he was in his last start, having thrown a wildly efficient 84-pitch complete game against the Diamondbacks. The
Giants need to counter the Dodgers’ counterpunch. A.J. Ellis had said Friday’s 9-0 Giants win was “a punch in the mouth.” The Dodgers responded Saturday by throwing a haymaker, winning 17-0, the most one-sided Dodgers-over-S.F. Giants margin in history.
So now it’s down to the finale and Petit against a kid the Dodgers are trying out, Clayton Kershaw. Hey, Barry Zito beat Justin Verlander in a World Series opener. The Giants jumped on Adam Wainwright for five runs in two innings in May and David Price for four first-inning runs last weekend.
So who’s Kershaw other than the best pitcher of our generation? The lefty is 18-3 with a 1.67 ERA, and enough of the Kershaw-can’t-be-MVP
“Right now, at this point of the year, I’d actually put Petit up against anybody.”
Tim Hudson, Giants pitcher
talk. Yes, he can. And until further notice, yes, he will.
Here’s Kershaw’s value: The Dodgers are 16 games above .500 when he starts, four games up when he doesn’t. The greatest Dodger ever, Sandy Koufax, led the league in ERA five straight years, and Kershaw is on his way to his fourth straight ERA title.
Kershaw’s career ERA against the Giants is 1.40. In San Francisco: 0.69. So no pressure, Yusmeiro. Actually, Petit, though not exactly a Dodgers nemesis, is at least a Dodgers agitator. He has made four relief appearances against L.A. this year and surrendered no runs and a hit. As a starter, he’ll aim to do what Saturday’s Timmy tandem didn’t: give the Giants a chance.
The Dodgers scored six off Tim Hudson, five off Tim Lincecum and the rest off the Fresno Grizzlies. Eventually, the field was dominated by September call-ups, and the Giants’ highlight was Bruce Bochy summoning his son, Brett, to make his big-league debut in the sixth inning.
After each team won in a rout, history tells us Kershaw won’t give up much. It’s up to Petit to stay with him.
“I’m hoping they don’t quite understand how good he’s been for us and underestimate him a bit,” Hudson said, “and that he’ll go out there and put up zeros for a while for us. He’s been pretty hot and making really good pitches. Even though Kershaw’s in the other dugout against us tomorrow, right now, at this point of the year, I’d actually put Petit up against anybody.”
Petit will start against the Dodgers for the first time this year. For Susac, it’ll be his first start against them in his career. It’s a team he watched plenty as a kid, accompanying his father, Nick, to Dodgers-Giants games from their Sacramento home.
“We always sat in the bleachers. Cheap seats are the best. I guess now they aren’t very cheap,” Susac said. “Giants-Dodgers was always so cool, and being part of it is more special. My dad grew up an A’s fan, loving Reggie Jackson, but I was always a little rebellious and liked the Giants, so he switched over.”
Early Saturday, the Dodgers appeared somewhat frail. Aside from getting routed in the opener, they lost one of their top three starters, Hyun-Jin Ryu, to a shoulder injury. Ryu, who lasted one inning Friday, will have an MRI exam Monday and has little chance of making his next start.
That would mean rookie Carlos Frias would make his second big-league start in Colorado on Wednesday. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly had set up his rotation so that Ryu, Zack Greinke and Kershaw would pitch 11 of the final 16 games, including facing the Giants this weekend and again Sept. 2224 at Dodger Stadium.
Now, it appears the Giants will face young Frias in L.A. because Ryu said his injury feels similar to the one that put him on the disabled list in May.
“One guy going out, someone else has to pick it up,” Mattingly said. “Kind of like what the Angels have been doing ever since (Garrett) Richards has been down. Everyone’s all, ‘Oh, the world’s coming to an end,’ and they’ve been on fire ever since.”
The Dodgers relit the flame Saturday, and we’ll see if Petit can extinguish it.