With the series now even at a game apiece, the Padres and Dodgers will decide the winner of the three -game set this afternoon in their final meeting of the season. Andrew Cashner is coming off the best outing of his career, and arguably the most well-pitched game in Padres history, as he takes the mound in the finale. Though Cashner has already exceeded his workloads from previous seasons by a considerable amount, the young right-hander hasn't seemed to show any fatigue or signs of slowing down. In fact, he's done some of his best pitching over the past few weeks, going 2-0 with a 0.88 ERA over his last four starts. Last week he flirted with a perfect game through seven innings. He came just short, but his performance was still a historical one as he kept the Pirates to just one-hit in a complete-game effort while facing the minimum 27 hitters. Cashner has faced the Dodgers twice this season prior to today, but got a no-decision each time. He is still looking for his first career win over L.A.
The Padres only gave Cashner one run of support in each of those starts against the Dodgers, but hopefully they'll fare better today. But they might have their work cut out for them against Zack Greinke. The right-hander hasn't lost a game since July 25th, winning seven straight decisions dating back to August 5th. He' has also never lost a decision to San Diego, going 3-0 with a 2.08 ERA in four career starts against them. Three of those starts occured this season, the first of which resulted in the broken collarbone that kept Greinke out of the game for a month. In June, when he returned to Petco Park for the first time since the incident, he gave up one run in eight innings. He also kept the Padres to one run on September 1st at Dodger Stadium, going seven innings and striking out seven.
Tune in for the final matchup of 2013 between these Southern California division rivals. Game time is set for 1:10 this afternoon.