Los Angeles Dodgers: Two rookies square off on Saturday

After dropping the first game of the series to the San Francisco Giants, the Los Angeles Dodgers send rookie Tony Gonsolin to the mound on Saturday.

After sending two veterans to the mound on Friday in Clayton Kershaw and Jeff Samardzija, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants will send two rookies to the mound in Tony Gonsolin and Tyler Beede.

Gonsolin has been fantastic in his small sample size with the Dodgers thus far. After drastically climbing up the prospect ranks last year, Gonsolin owns a 2.89 ERA in 28 innings pitched with a 0.964 WHIP.

Tyler Beede has been the opposite. After being touted as the best pitching prospect in the Giants’ system, he has not translated well to the MLB level. Beede has a 5.61 ERA in 18 starts this year. However, in typical Giants pitcher fashion, Beede is good against the Dodgers as Dodger hitters are hitting just .182 against him.

It feels like there are so many mediocre pitchers in the National League West that get knocked around by everyone else but the Dodgers. Eric Lauer and Tyler Beede are the perfect examples of this.

After a not-so-great loss last night, the offense is going to have to step up and not focus solely on A.J. Pollock, who blasted three home runs.

As part of our Los Angeles Dodgers Beat the Streak series, here is who we think can get at least one base hit against Beede on Saturday night.

Jason’s pick (Current streak: 0): Joc Pederson

I am picking Joc Pederson very cautiously. Although Pederson is the hottest hitter on the planet right now with Andre Ethier‘s bat, every time I pick him he does not come up with a base hit. But hey, you can’t get much worse than zero.

I might as well ride the hot streak and hope that Pederson continues to slug the ball and once again takes a pitcher deep. If he can do so in his first at-bat, it might be exactly what the Dodgers need to kickstart the offense and get over the hump versus Beede.

Pederson is 1-3 off Beede with a single, so there is nothing particularly special in that matchup. However, with a right-on-left matchup, and considering how hot he is, Pederson feels like he should be a lock for at least one base hit.

But hey, since I picked him he will probably go 0-4 with three strikeouts. I really hope that is not the case, mostly for the Dodgers’ sake.