Colorado @ Los Angeles preview
Dodger Stadium
Last Meeting ( May 30, 2010 ) LA Dodgers 4, Colorado 3
Two teams teetering on falling out of the wild card chase - let alone the NL West race - look to get their acts together on Tuesday when the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers open a three-game series at Dodger Stadium.
The third-place Rockies are five games in back of the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants for the wild card. They currently sit nine games behind the San Diego Padres for the division lead.
For their part, the Dodgers trail the Phillies and Giants by seven games and the Padres by 11, respectively.
With the likelihood that the four National League postseason spots will be decided between six teams – the St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia, San Francisco and San Diego – it is going to take a major spurt by either Colorado or Los Angeles to have a chance at altering that equation.
Since Colorado and Los Angeles face each other the next three days, the time to make a stand is now.
The Dodgers certainly lost any chance of entering this series with momentum by suffering a staggering 4-3 loss to the Braves on Monday night.
Atlanta scored three runs in the ninth to pull out the victory. Dodgers reliever Hong-Chih Kuo gave up three runs after giving up a grand total of two runs in his previous 38 appearances.
Los Angeles lost three of four in the series to Atlanta.
Colorado was off Monday after winning at home Sunday. The Rockies are two different teams – 38-20 at home and 23-36 on the road – and playing better away from Coors Field is a necessity if the Rockies aren’t ready to call it a season.
On Tuesday, Los Angeles will look to left-hander Clayton Kershaw (10-7, 3.17 ERA), who is just 1-3 over his last six starts. He is 2-0 against Colorado this season.
Jhoulys Chacin (5-8, 4.04 ERA) will get the start for the Rockies. Chacin returns to the rotation due to a shoulder injury that sent lefty Jeff Francis to the disabled list.
Chacin is 1-1 against the Dodgers this season, including 7 1/3 innings of shutout ball in early May.
Dodgers leadoff hitter Scott Podsednik saw his 12-game hitting streak come to an end against Atlanta. Podsednik batted .380 (19-of-50) during the streak.
Colorado has two hot hitters in outfielder Carlos Gonzalez and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. Gonzalez is batting .408 (29-for-71) with eight homers over the past 17 games, and Tulowitzki is hitting .467 (21-for-45) over his past 11 games.