Colorado @ Los Angeles preview
Dodger Stadium
Last Meeting ( Sep 18, 2010 ) Colorado 12, LA Dodgers 2
Nobody gets up for September quite like Troy Tulowitzki and the Colorado Rockies.
Tulowitzki and company will be looking to move up again when they go for a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday.
The Rockies were as far as 11 games out of first place on Aug. 22 and were still 7 ½ back after a loss on Sept. 2. But as Tulowitzki began to heat up, so did his team. The star shortstop has hit .377 with 14 home runs in the last 15 games, leading Colorado to 13 wins in that span.
Hot Septembers are nothing new for Tulowitzki, who owns a career .960 OPS for the month and a .312 batting average.
He homered twice on Saturday, blasting a two-run shot in the first and another in the fourth as the Rockies cruised to a 12-2 demolition of the stumbling Dodgers. Melvin Mora got into the action as well, clubbing a grand slam among four hits.
The victory brought Colorado to within one game of the San Diego Padres at the top of the National League West, with the San Francisco Giants sandwiched in between.
Fresh off the first shutout of his career, Clayton Kershaw will be charged with slowing the Rockies for the Dodgers in the finale.
The 22-year-old left-hander has had trouble working deep into games in the past due to some command problems and high pitch counts, but it looks as though Kershaw has those under control at the moment. He has lasted at least six innings in each of his 11 outings while allowing three earned runs or less 10 times during that span.
Kershaw did not walk a batter at San Francisco on Tuesday, surrendering just four hits while striking out four in the complete-game effort. Kershaw faced Colorado twice in August and was tough on the club both times, combining to allow one run on 10 hits in 13 innings while winning once and not factoring in the decision in the other.
The Dallas native has already faced the Rockies 12 times in his career, going 5-3 with a 3.31 ERA. He has been especially hard on Tulowitzki, holding the slugging shortstop to five hits in 26 at-bats - none for extra bases - with eight strikeouts.
Colorado will counter with right-hander Jason Hammel. The 28-year-old is coming off his worst outing since April, as he got knocked around for four runs on 10 hits in four innings to take a loss against San Diego on Tuesday.
Hammel made two solid starts against Los Angeles in August, going 1-0 while yielding four runs in 11 1/3 combined innings. He has made seven appearances - four starts - against the Dodgers in his career, going 1-1 with a 2.59 ERA.