Dodgers v. Giants: The Rubber Match

In the last 10 years the series is quite literally as close as possible. The Dodgers have won 94 games and after last nights 2-1 final, the Giants have won 93. Now its on manager Don Mattingly to shake off last nights barrage of bunts and beat Bochy (was that quality alliteration? oh well, I try). The rubber match in the 3 game series is set for tonight at 7:10 PM PT. Chad Billingsley (2-2, 3.19 ERA) takes the mound at Dodger stadium, attempting to fend off on another ace in the form of Tim Lincecum (2-2, 5.68 ERA). His last showing at home against the Nationals and Stephen Strasburg was a gritty performance in which he allowed only one earned run and kept the Dodgers in the game until the opposing pitcher ran out of gas. Unfortunately the start that took place between then and now was a demoralizing loss to the lowly Chicago Cubs. Where they hung four earned runs on Chad in the early goings and the Dodgers could never recover. With Chad its always been the same story, which pitcher are we going to see, "Dr. Billz, or Mr. Chad". Los Angeles is hoping that they get the pleasant version this evening, the right handed version that showed signs in his young career of being a stud.  Not the guy who fights his stuff all evening and allows the opposition to see too many pitches.

Donny Baseball is going with a severe case of the left/right advantage, as he essentially has crammed as many left handed hitters he has into tonight's lineup that will face the righty Lincecum. Mark Ellis gets the day off and Juan Rivera is going to the DL (per Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times) as former-Angels Adam Kennedy and Bobby Abreu get the nod in their stead. I wont get into the bunting fiasco in print, seeing as I have already vented about it in my podcast this morning (included below). With that being said, tonight we better see a little more patience by the Dodgers at the plate, because there's no better way to force Donny into getting conservative and playing more small ball than some anxious early innings at-bats that allow Timmy to put some zeros on the board and make this a pitchers duel.

Here are tonight's starting lineups:

Dodgers                                  Giants 

Gordon SS                            Blanco CF

Kennedy 2B                            Burris 2B

Kemp CF                            Cabrera LF

Ethier RF                                  Posey C

Abreu LF                                    Belt 1B

Uribe 3B                          Schierholtz RF

Loney 1B                                 Arias 3B

Ellis C                                Crawford SS

Billingsley P                          Lincecum P

Here is the podcast about last night:

listen to ‘Today's podcast sounds off on Don #Mattingly's sac bunt party as the #Dodgers lost to the #SFGiants last night’ on Audioboo