The Los Angeles Dodgers will be coming in here desperate to deny their NL West rival the San Francisco a sweep of this three-game series at AT&T Park. They've been shut out in each of the first two games in the series but won't need much offensive output to win the game today in a pitcher's duel between last year's Cy Young winner, and the World Series MVP.


Here are my keys to the game:

1. Pitching - The Dodgers will hand the ball to Clayton Kershaw (2-2, 4.24 ERA) and although he's had a poor start to the year, facing the Giants usually brings out the best in the 27 year old. That is particularly true for match-ups at AT&T Park where he's 8-2 with a 0.97 ERA and he's already gone 13 innings against the Giants on the year surrendering just four runs on 10 hits with 17 strikeouts and only one walk. The Giants will counter with Madison Bumgarner (4-2, 3.20 ERA) who may be 1-0 with a 1.88 ERA against the Dodgers on the season, but he's not been particularly sharp of late, allowing five runs on 13 hits with three homers in 13 innings over his last two starts overall.

2. No Easy Sweeps - We can expect the Dodgers to come out with way more determination than the home-team here, and remember that the Dodgers are 9-2 in their last 11 after losing the first two games of a series.

3. X-Factor - The current members of the Giants have a combined batting average of just .186 over 354 at bats against Kershaw.

Selection: This is a play on the Los Angeles Dodgers (10*)