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One of Major League Baseball’s most enduring rivalries kicked off its 2025 edition Friday night when the San Francisco Giants took on the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
The long-time rivals sit atop the National League West standings, as the Giants trail the Dodgers by 1.0 games. San Francisco is two games ahead of the San Diego Padres in what promises to be a fierce pennant race this summer going into the fall. Los Angeles took the season series, 9-4, from the Giants last year.
Let’s break down each team’s recent performance and make our Giants @ Dodgers pick for tomorrow night’s series finale on ESPN at 7 pm ET.
After starting the season 12-4, San Francisco cooled its heels, going 21-23 in its next 44 games. But manager Bob Melvin’s team has regained its early-season form, winning 8-of-9. That includes the Giants’ second seven-game win streak. Eight different pitchers recorded victories in this most recent stretch.
San Francisco won six straight one-run games as part of that seven-game win streak, and the team is 17-13 in those tight contests this season while posting 20 comeback wins. They are also 3-1 without third baseman Matt Chapman (.243, 12 HR, 30 RBIs), who sprained his right hand in a 4-3 win over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday.
Casey Schmitt (.231, 2, 10) has done an admirable job in Chapman’s absence. He is batting .400 (6-for-15) with two home runs and seven RBIs in four games at third base with Chapman out.
Wilmer Flores (.263, 11-51), Willy Adames (.204, 8, 32), and Heliot Ramos (.294, 11-36) have been consistent power options for the Giants, who have posted six losing seasons and won just three playoff games since winning their third World Series in five years in 2014.
Ace Robbie Ray (8-1, 2.55 ERA) and Webb have been a reliable 1-2 punch at the front of the rotation, but it is San Francisco’s bullpen that has been dazzling the league all season. It’s at the top of many categories, and Camilo Doval and Ryan Walker have 10 saves.
However, Randy Rodriguez has been the star, allowing runs in just two of his 29 appearances going into Saturday. He has a 0.90 ERA, 0.73 WHIP and has 44 strikeouts against just five walks in 30 innings.
San Francisco is second in the majors with a 3.12 ERA, is holding opponents to a .230 batting average, and has allowed a Major League-low 49 home runs.
Tomorrow night’s starter is Kyle Harrison. The 23-year-old left-hander made 24 starts last season, going 7-7. However, he started this year in the bullpen, before replacing three-time Cy Young winner Justin Verlander in the rotation last month as the veteran suffered a pectoral injury.
Harrison is 1-1 in his four starts and has only gone five innings twice. In his last time out, he allowed three runs on four hits in five innings, getting a no-decision in a 6-5 victory at the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday.
The Dodgers continue to be the standard, with 12 straight postseason appearances and two World Series championships, including last year’s five-game triumph over the New York Yankees. The team has won the NL West 11 times during that stretch and is in a good position to do so again this season.
The team started 8-0 and 23-10, but is just 18-19 since. A 4.31 team ERA is not helping matters. But, as usual, the Dodgers are hitting. They lead the majors with a .263 team average and are second to the Yankees in home runs, OBP, slugging percentage, and OPS. Three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani leads the team with 23 home runs, although he is homerless in 10 straight games going into today. He is batting .286 with a .994 OPS and 39 RBIs. Veteran Freddie Freeman is third in the majors with a .341 batting average, and Hernandez leads the team with 48 RBIs.
Mookie Betts (.266, 9, 33), who suffered a freak spring training illness and has had to overcome a fractured toe while moving to shortstop, struggled early but is batting .333 (13-for-39) in June.
The pitching staff has been decimated by injuries, with the likes of Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Roki Sasaki experiencing lengthy stays on the injured list. Tomorrow’s starter, Dustin May (3-4, 4.46) is one of only two starters, along with Yamamoto, to make double-digit starts.
The Dodgers have been victorious in three of May’s last four outings. In his previous start on Monday, May allowed six runs on six hits in five innings of a no-decision in an 8-7, 10-inning victory at the Padres.
Ohtani has been in a power slump. And he only has four home runs in 93 career at-bats against the Giants. So, naturally, in a primetime ESPN matchup against the Dodgers’ hated rivals, Ohtani feels like a good option to go yard.
Brian has been writing about sports professionally for 25 years, specializing in the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, men's college basketball and football, and soccer. He covered high school, collegiate and professional sports in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area for two decades. His written work has appeared in several print and online publications since 1999.