Game Preview: Game 137 @ Los Angeles Dodgers

It's time to end our losing streak and even up the series tonight as Eric Stults takes the mound opposite last year's co-SBNation-Cy-Young-Award-winner, Clayton Kershaw. Stults has become a surprisingly reliable member of our pitching staff lately. Since rejoining the rotation on August 6th, he's made five starts, collecting four wins and a no-decision. He last pitched on Wednesday in an 8-2 win over the Braves, giving up only one run, unearned, in six innings of work. But not only has Stults impressed on the mound, he has far exceeded expectations at the plate as well. He has gone 7-for-17 in his five starts and had a 3-RBI game against Arizona on August 24th. Tonight will be his first time facing the Dodgers and he hopes to continue his impressive run against his former team.

Kershaw is 12-8 on the season with a 2.85 ERA. However, his offense has been stingy with the run support recently, failing to score at all in two of his last three starts. In his most previous outing, Kershaw was tagged with a loss despite making only one mistake, a two-run homer, in his six innings on the mound. He gave up nine hits and three walks altogether, but struck out nine in his effort. He is 8-3 all-time and 4-0 over his last six starts against our Padres, including three starts this season. In those three starts, he has posted a 2.51 ERA. He leads the league in strikeouts, collecting 49 in August alone.

After a 10-1 run, our boys have lost their last three straight. But these last two losses have been extra painful considering the way our offense played in those games. They got 10 runs on 20 hits against the Diamondbacks on Sunday only to lose by one run. They were winning for most of last night's game, but ended up losing once again by one run, this time in extra innings. Hopefully NL Player of the Month Chase Headley can rally our offense to another great performance and our pitching can keep the Dodgers off the board to get us back in the win column.