The Los Angeles Dodgers and host San Francisco Giants hope to have new bats in the lineup Wednesday night when the California rivals continue their four-game series.
Shortly before the Dodgers made it two straight wins with a 9-5 victory Tuesday night, they acquired Joey Gallo from the New York Yankees while the Giants were plucking J.D. Davis from the New York Mets.
Each player was with his team on the East Coast at the time of the trade but should benefit from their new clubs playing a third consecutive night game on Wednesday.
In Gallo, the Dodgers imported a player who hit just .159 in 140 games after being acquired from the Texas Rangers last July. The 28-year-old had 25 homers in 95 games for the Rangers last season.
Gallo has three homers in nine career games against the Giants, including two in the same series for the Rangers at San Francisco in August 2018. He connected off right-hander Alex Cobb, the Giants’ scheduled starter Wednesday, while Cobb was pitching for the Baltimore Orioles in 2018.
“A year ago, he was worth a lot in the industry,” said Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, noting that the Yankees had to surrender four players to get him. A year later, Gallo cost the Dodgers just minor league pitcher Clayton Beeter.
“The true talent level remains,” Friedman added. “We feel like getting him here, getting him with our guys, there’s a real compelling upside story.”
Seeking to end the Giants’ six-game drought against the Dodgers since the All-Star break, Cobb (3-5, 4.06 ERA) hopes to be in better form than when he started a 7-4 loss in Los Angeles last month. He gave up four runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings in what was his first career appearance against the Dodgers.
The 34-year-old is winless in his last 10 starts, going 0-4 with a 3.36 ERA.
The Dodgers are scheduled to oppose Cobb with left-hander Julio Urias (10-6, 2.71), who will face the Giants for the fourth time this season, having beaten them twice at home sandwiching a 2-0 loss in San Francisco. He’s allowed just two runs and nine hits in 18 innings in those games.
Urias has gone 4-4 with a 2.30 ERA in 23 lifetime regular-season head-to-heads (17 starts) against the Giants. He also beat them 9-2 in San Francisco in Game 2 of the National League Division Series last October before coming on in relief and throwing four innings of one-run ball in the series-clinching, 2-1 road win in Game 5.
The 25-year-old is unbeaten in his last eight starts, going 7-0 with a 2.58 ERA.
Urias can expect to see Davis in his Giants debut. The third baseman hit .238 with four homers for the Mets this season. He has faced Urias four times in his career, walking twice and striking out twice.
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi explained his team’s lack of fireworks at the deadline.
“The present really matters to us,” he said. “For most of this season, we’ve been in a playoff spot. Obviously, we’ve had a bad couple of weeks that’s put us on the fringes of the race. But we know a hot two weeks can turn it around, just like a bad two weeks put us in this position.”
On a sad note, the baseball world lost legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully on Tuesday. He died at the age of 94.
With tributes pouring in, the Dodgers changed their Twitter background to a photo of Scully.
“There will never be another Vin Scully,” the Dodgers tweeted. “You will be forever missed.”
Scully was the voice of the Dodgers for 67 seasons, retiring after the 2016 campaign.
–Field Level Media
