The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants have one of the best rivalries in the National League and this year the West division could come down to the defending World Series champs of the team from LA, while the Colorado Rockies are also off to a surprising start this season.
Last years MVP Buster Posey is off to a solid start this season and he has raked against the Dodgers at home in San Francisco, hitting over .330 and he is coming off a fantastic year with a .336 average, 24 home runs and over 100 RBIs while helping the Giants win the playoffs. This season he is hitting just over .280 with four long balls and 17 RBIs and he is showing signs of heating up, hitting over .400 against the Dodgers in the past 14 games. Posey hit a walk off home run in Friday's 2-1 win over the Dodgers and the Giants are off to a better start at 17-12 in the division.
Ryan Vogelsong will be on the mound and he will be looking to have a good game after going just 1-2 with a 6.00-plus ERA this year and he also lasted just five innings and gave up three home runs in the 6-4 loss on Sunday. He has been hit hard the past few starts and has given up seven home runs over the past four starts and his start to the year is similar to last season when he lost two of his first four starts before going 6-0 during the next eight he made and he will be looking for a strong performance on Saturday night. Hanley Ramirez will be out of the lineup for the Dodgers again after hurting his hamstring and the team will need to keep working on replacing his production. Adrian Gonzalez may be also out of the lineup as Don Mattingly is dealing with a number of injuries on the roster.
The Dodgers have gone 13-15 this season in the NL West and the team is ranked 29th in scoring with 92 runs scored and 14th in batting average with a .253 clip. The team is ranked seventh in on base percentage with a .331 average and the team is ranked 29th in slugging with a .362 percent clip. The Giants are off to a better start at 17-12 and the team is coming off of a 2-1 win against the Dodgers and is 13th in the league in runs with 126, while 10th in batting average at just under .260. The team is ranked 14th in on base percentage with .317 and 23rd in slugging percentage with .386.
The Giants are tied atop the NL West and in other baseball action, the Seattle Mariners pummeled the Blue Jays 8-1 after knocking around RA Dickey as Michael Saunders hit two solo home runs, while Dustin Ackley hit his first career grand slam following a 4-0 shutout the previous day with Felix Hernandez on the mound. The Yankees also won on Saturday against the A's, as Phil Hughes threw eight shutout innings.
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