Padres at Dodgers
The hot stove was sizzling this offseason thanks in large part to San
Diego and Los Angeles, each of which continued a flurry of activity on
Dec. 18 by completing a blockbuster trade with each other. Matt Kemp and
Yasmani Grandal will be among several players taking the field with
their new team for the first time on Monday when the Dodgers open a
three-game set with the Padres in a battle between the two favorites in
the National League West.
Los Angeles orchestrated a flurry of deals near the end of the winter meetings, pulling off three separate trades in about a 24-hour window to acquire a number of players, including second baseman Howie Kendrick from the Angels and shortstop Jimmy Rollins from the Phillies. Kemp and Grandal were swapped for each other in a five-player deal a week later. San Diego made two more splashes of its own one day after landing Kemp, picking up Justin Upton from Atlanta and Wil Myers in a three-team trade to add much-needed punch to its league-worst offense. The Padres essentially completed their makeover in February by signing free agent ace James Shields, who be paired opposite reigning NL MVP and Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw in the opener.
TV: 4:10 p.m. ET, FSN San Diego, SportsNet LA (Los Angeles)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Padres RH James Shields (2014: 14-8, 3.21 ERA) vs. Dodgers LH Clayton Kershaw (2014: 21-3, 1.77)
Shields
won at least 10 games for the eighth consecutive year in 2014, serving
as the stopper on a pitching staff that helped the Kansas City Royals’
end a 28-year postseason and World Series drought. The 33-year-old, who
has logged at least 200 innings in each of those eight double-digit
victory seasons, was rewarded with a four-year, $75 million deal by San
Diego and will draw his seventh Opening Day assignment. Shields - a
southern California native - settled for a no-decision in his first
career start against the Dodgers last season.
Despite missing
more than six weeks following his first outing with a strained back
muscle, Kershaw went 18-1 after May en route to becoming the first NL
pitcher to win league MVP since Bob Gibson in 1968. The 27-year-old
Dallas native, who became the sixth player in major-league
history to earn three Cy Young Awards over a four-year span, is also one
of nine pitchers to ever win that many in his career. Kershaw was
nearly flawless versus San Diego in 2014, going 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA
while holding the Padres to a .110 batting average.
WALK-OFFS
1.
Los Angeles has won the season series by at least three games in each
of the last four years and claimed 12 of the last 16 meetings at home.
2.
San Diego scored 535 runs, marking its worst offensive output in a
162-game season since tallying 468 during its expansion campaign in
1969.
3. Six of the eight Padres’ projected starting hitters that
have faced Kershaw are a combined 7-for-66 against him, including Upton
(4-for-33).