Milwaukee @ Los Angeles preview
Dodger Stadium
Last Meeting ( Mar 25, 2010 ) Milwaukee 3, LA Dodgers 7
If the L.A. Dodgers are on a roller coaster ride this season, the good news is it looks like they’re on their way up.
After losing five in a row, they’re coming into their three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday winning three of four games against the Pittsburgh Pirates over the weekend.
It’s one of those times in a season when a team would prefer not to take a day off, but that’s the spot L.A. found itself on Monday.
“After that long road trip, playing 14 games, I know we could use the rest, but playing like we have been lately, it's tough to just sit around," said Andre Ethier, who has banged out homers in his last three games for the Dodgers.
Maybe sitting around wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Injuries have smacked the Dodgers recently and shortstop Rafael Furcal looks like the latest casualty. He is likely going to hit the DL on Tuesday with a hamstring injury.
Slugger Manny Ramirez is on a minor league rehab stint this week and likely won’t rejoin the team until at least Saturday and the starting rotation is in flux with Vincent Padilla on the shelf.
Still, the Dodgers are getting competent pitching from a young staff and they’re finding ways to get timely hitting. They racked up 20 runs over their three-game winning streak and pounded out 27 hits in their last two games against Pittsburgh.
That’s bad news for a Brewers squad that was just shut out in three of its four games in San Diego over the weekend. They’ve now lost eight of their last 10 and are having struggles all over the field.
The pitching staff owns one of the worst ERAs in the majors and they are tied for worst in the big leagues with seven blown saves. Throw in recent injuries to outfielders Jim Edmonds (back) and Carlos Gomez (knee) and the pitchers can’t exactly bank on offense or defense to bail them out this week.
About the only positive for the Brewers right now is they’re sending left-hander Christopher Narveson to the mound today. Not good because of his 6.60 ERA, but good because the Dodgers are hitting lefties at nearly 60 batting average points worse than righties this year at .240.
The Dodgers will send a lefty of their own, Clayton Kershaw, to the hill to open this series. The 22-year-old Kershaw continues to be a huge bright spot for L.A. in his third season with the club with a 3.07 ERA.
He is just 1-1 though with three no-decisions thanks, largely, to a lack of run support.