New York @ Los Angeles preview

Last Meeting ( Jul 30, 2013 ) NY Yankees 2, LA Dodgers 3

Hiroki Kuroda spent his first four seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, compiling only one winning season before leaving to sign with the New York Yankees. Kuroda won a career-high 16 games in 2012 and has supplanted CC Sabathia as New York's staff ace this year. The 38-year-old Japanese right-hander will have to be on top of his game when he faces his former team and opposes left-hander Clayton Kershaw on Wednesday in his return to Dodger Stadium.

Los Angeles has won four straight and is 10-1 since the All-Star break to open a 3 1/2-game lead over Arizona atop the National League West. The Dodgers are riding a streak of eight straight one-run victories, including back-to-back walk-off wins. Mark Ellis, who delivered the game-winning single in Tuesday's 3-2 victory, is riding an 11-game hitting streak during which he is batting .415 and has knocked in eight runs.

TV: 10:10 p.m. ET, YES (New York), Prime Ticket (Los Angeles)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Yankees RH Hiroki Kuroda (10-6, 2.51 ERA) vs. Dodgers LH Clayton Kershaw (10-6, 1.96)

Kuroda is in the midst of his best stretch of the season, winning three consecutive starts and yielding only two runs during that span. He has not allowed a run in three of his last four starts spanning 26 innings and has not permitted a home run in that stretch after coughing up five in back-to-back starts. Kuroda beat the Dodgers on June 19, giving up two runs on eight hits in 6 2/3 innings.

Kershaw, the only starter in the majors with an ERA below 2.00, is 5-1 in his last six starts, allowing a total of nine runs during that stretch. He limited Cincinnati to one run in eight innings last time out and gave up two runs in seven innings in a victory over Washington in his previous outing. His lone start versus the Yankees came in 2010, when he allowed two runs in seven innings.

WALK-OFFS

1. Los Angeles is 27-6 since June 22, the franchise's best 33-game stretch since 1953

2. Yankees LF Alfonso Soriano is 4-for-11 with a pair of homers against Kershaw.

3. Dodgers SS Hanley Ramirez also has an 11-game hitting streak and has reached base in 37 straight games.

PREDICTION: Dodgers 4, Yankees 2