The Los Angeles Dodgers got a stellar pitching performance from Clayton Kershaw in their opening night win against the Giants, and hope for a repeat performance tonight at Dodger Stadium. Chad Billingsley gets the start tonight for the Dodgers as they hope to open the season 2-0. Billingsley is 6-3 with a 2.63 ERA in his career against San Francisco, and has been even better at home, per True Blue LA:
Billingsley has two career shutouts, and both are against the Giants, and both are at Dodger Stadium. In fact, here are Billingsley's last five home starts against SF:
| Chad Billingsley's Last 5 Home Starts Against Giants | |||||||
| Date | Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K |
| 9/3/10 | W | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 |
| 7/21/10 | W | 9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 5/8/09 | L | 7 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 4/13/09 | W | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11 |
| 7/30/08 | W | 9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Totals: 4-1, 0.90 ERA | 40 | 25 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 34 | |
The Giants will counter tonight with Jonathan Sanchez, who was 13-9 with a 3.07 ERA last season for the World Series champs. Marcus Thames will get his first start as a Dodger tonight, playing against the left-handed Sanchez. The plan for Thames is for him start against lefties and some righties this season. In addition, Ivan DeJesus, Jr. will make his major league debut tonight, in the starting lineup, playing and batting second:
Furcal SS
De Jesus 2B
Ethier RF
Kemp CF
Uribe 3B
Loney 1B
Thames LF
Barajas C
Billingsley P
Tonight's 7:10 p.m. game will be televised on Prime Ticket.
For more news and information on the Dodgers or tonight's game, be sure to read the SB Nation blog True Blue LA.