After struggling in his first two starts of the season away from home, Roy Oswalt will make his first start at Coors Field as a member of the Rockies tonight against Yasiel Puig...and some other guys that play for the Dodgers.
Oswalt has allowed nine runs in 11 innings in two starts as a Rockie, despite walking just one batter and striking out 16. Tonight, he will make his first Coors Field start of 2013, in his career he has a 2.25 ERA in five starts in Denver and has posted a 3.08 career ERA against the Dodgers in 79 innings.
His opponent on the mound will be LA's Clayton Kershaw, who finished top-two in NL Cy Young voting and looks to be headed that direction again with a 2.08 ERA and 118 strikeouts in 121 1/3 innings this season. However, Kershaw's track record at Coors Field is not good. He has pitched to a 5.68 ERA in 11 starts, allowing 67 hits and 40 earned runs in 63 1/3 innings while walking 27, striking out 63 and coughing up 11 home runs.
One of the most success Rockies against Kershaw, Dexter Fowler, will be out of the lineup tonight after going on the disabled list with a lingering hand issue. Michael Cuddyer will be in the lineup and looking to extend his franchise-record hitting streak to 28 games.
The story for the Dodgers offensively is obviously Puig, who is hitting .436 in his first 26 games as a Dodger, thanks in part to an absurd .500 BABIP. It is telling about the Dodgers' offense that despite playing in just a third of his team's games, Puig's seven home runs rank second on the club behind Adrian Gonzalez's 10.
Lineups:
#Dodgers lineup at Colorado: M. Ellis 2B Puig RF Gonzalez 1B Ramirez SS Ethier LF Kemp CF A. Ellis C Uribe 3B Kershaw P #whiff
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 2, 2013
Here's the new #Rockies lineup: LeMahieu2B, RutledgeSS, CarGoLF, CuddyRF, Arenado3B, Helton1B, TorrealbaC, ColvinCF, OswaltP
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) July 2, 2013