11:37 AM ET
  • ESPN Stats and Information

Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN will feature the Giants and the Dodgers in the rubber game of their series in Los Angeles, as Jeff Samardzija[2] and Kenta Maeda[3] take the mound.

We preview the matchup with a look at the top stats to know on either side.

Giants notes

• Samardzija allowed the most hits, runs and earned runs in all of baseball last season, but the move from the White Sox to the Giants should pay off. The Giants were second in baseball in defensive efficiency last season, while the White Sox were 28th. The Giants were fourth in Defensive Runs Saved last season, with the White Sox at 24th.

• Samardzija has thrown his splitter only nine times this season — three times in his first start and six times in his second start. Last season, he threw at least nine splitters in 27 of his 32 starts. Hitters didn't offer at the first eight splitters he threw this season and each was called a ball. The last one he threw resulted in a fly out.

• The Giants committed $251M to free agents this offseason, bringing in Samardzija, Johnny Cueto[4] and Denard Span[5]. That was the third-most by any team behind the Cubs and the Tigers. They committed $268.6M in the previous seven offseasons combined.

• Bruce Bochy has won nine straight playoff series. The Elias Sports Bureau notes that the nine series is the second-longest streak in major-league history. Only Joe Torre had a longer streak, winning 11 straight from 1998-2001.

• Bochy is one of 10 managers in major-league history to win three World Series titles. The other nine are all in the Hall of Fame.

Dodgers Notes

• Kenta Maeda likes to get ahead with his curveball. He's thrown that pitch 11 times on the first pitch of a plate appearance. Six of the 11 have been taken for a strike and hitters have only swung at two of them (a bunt single and a foul ball). He throws curveballs 23 percent of the time on the first pitch (10 percent on all other counts).

• Elias notes that Maeda is the second Dodgers pitcher since 1900 with two scoreless starts of at least six innings to start his career, joining Karl Spooner in 1954.

• Adrian Gonzalez is hitting .364 with a hit in 10 of his 11 games this season. He's been crushing fastballs — 10 of his 16 hits and four of his five extra-base hits (including his home run) have come against fastballs.

• The Dodgers committed $152M to free agents this offseason, and have committed the fourth-most overall to free agents since 1990 ($1.19 billion), behind the Yankees, Red Sox and Cubs.

• After putting Carl Crawford[6] on the DL, the Dodgers have more than $86M in 2016 payroll on the Disabled List. That's more than three teams' entire payrolls (Brewers, Rays, Marlins).