Game preview: Lineups for the series finale of a crucial San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers series

Yusmeiro Petit (5-3, 3.62 ERA) who last time out took the definition of a Maddux to the next level –  hurling a complete game, one run effort against the Diamondbacks in only 87 pitches – will have another, extremely difficult task tonight. Probably his most difficult of the season.

I guess the best analogy is a rather cliche one. It truly is David versus Goliath, why, you may ask? Well — likely National League most valuable player, Clayton Kershaw (18-3, 1.67 ERA) is on the mound. Those are actually Kershaw’s statistics, no, this is not a video game, this is real life.

Kershaw has a career ERA of 0.67 at AT&T Park, tonight may be a long night. However, take solace in the fact that one of the three loses Clayton has suffered this year was against the Diamondbacks, who absolutely thumped him in the worst outing of his career, and, we are better than Arizona. Right? Yes, yes, we are.

So not all hope is lost. Maybe Petit will make sure more history, I sure hope he does. Alas, I’d rather not think about Kershaw and his preeminence too much, here are the lineups for the series finale:

Lineups

Here is how your San Francisco Giants will line up:

Angel Pagan CF

Joe Panik 2B

Buster Posey C

Hunter Pence RF

Pablo Sandoval 3B

Andrew Susac C

Joaquin Arias SS

Gregor Blanco LF

And the Los Angeles Dodgers will look like this:

Dee Gordon 2B

Yasiel Puig CF

Adrian Gonzalez 1B

Matt Kemp RF

Hanley Ramirez SS

Carl Crawford LF

Juan Uribe 3B

A.J. Ellis C

According to the photo posted by Amy Gutierrez, ‘Gorden’ is playing second. Crossing my fingers and hoping that this isn’t a typo, and that maybe, just maybe some other guy is hitting leadoff, and that Gordon, who has just under 60 steals on the year is benched. Yeah, okay, it’s a typo.

Other than that, nothing strange. Susac will catch Petit, Posey will hence move to first. No Brandon Crawford tonight, rather Arias, who is very hot right now, will play short. If you ask me, it’s kind of an audition for the postseason, to see if Arias can play middle infield, and hence to see if the Giants need to carry Matt Duffy on the roster.

Tonight’s game is huge. If the Giants lose, their chances of winning the West diminish vastly. If they win, it’s all tied up at the top. The Giants have an easy enough last few series, playing the Diamondbacks and Padres lots. Oh, and one last series against the Dodgers after this one. Enjoy folks, it’ll be a good one.