Rivalries are fun

 

Last month, I listened to a podcast show and a player that used to play for the Dodgers talked about rivalry. The host mentioned the player’s performance against a pitcher from the Giants. Rivalries in sports are common and fans love to watch competition between rivalries. After listening to the podcast, I’m just thinking of some players’ performance in this Dodgers-Giants rivalry.

The first player that came to my mind is the future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, who has played with the Dodgers for 14 years. Clayton Kershaw is surely dominant on the mound against the Giants. By far in his career, Kershaw made 50 starts and had 2 relief appearances against the Giants. He earned 24 wins and lost 14 times with an ERA of 1.88 and a 0.89 WHIP. Additionally, Kershaw already threw 366 strikeouts against the Giants. Moreover, Kershaw is hitting .153 against the Giants. The 3-time Cy Young winner only blasted one home run so far in his career, which was hit against the Giants at the Dodger stadium on the 2013 Opening Day.

In addition, Kenley Jansen has been with the Dodgers for more than 10 years as well. In his career so far, Jansen made 69 relief appearances against the Giants and collected 33 saves while striking out 105 times. The Giants batters hit .226 against Jansen. However, Jansen has an ERA of 6.75 against the Giants so far this season. Let’s see whether things will be improved later this season.

Now, let’s look at players from the Giants. Buster Posey has been with the Giants since he made his MLB debut in 2009 and has won 3 World Series Champions. Posey slashes .303/.371/.460 so far in his career. Against the Dodgers, Posey is hitting .289/.363/.425 with 18 home runs and 71 RBI. Posey is a good hitting catcher without doubt. At the same time, he’s hitting better against the other three NL West teams, posting an over .300 batting average against each of them.

Furthermore, Brandon Crawford also has spent more than 10 years with the Giants. By far in his career, Crawford is batting .250/.318/.399. However, the former silver slugger doesn’t hit very well against the rivalry, while batting .226/.314/.315. Additionally, Brandon Belt is the other veteran player with more than 10-year experience with the Giants. His career slash line is .263/.357/.454. Belt has 146 home runs and 16 home runs were coming from the games against the Dodgers, also he’s hitting .242/.347/.414 against the rivalry.

The Dodgers-Giants rivalry is one of the best team rivalries in sports. The Dodgers won the World Series Champion last season and the Giants won 3 World Champions in the last decade. Each time, when these two teams play against each other, there are always many interesting topics to talk about. We just saw some veteran players’ performances in the rivalry. However, there are definitely more players worth mentioning. For example, Madison Bumgarner spent his first 11 years with the Giants before signing with the Diamondbacks. We might remember some of his arguments with the Dodgers players such as Yasiel Puig. By the way, Bumgarner hasn’t secured a win against the Dodgers since September 23, 2017.