Know Your Foe #44: Revived Dodgers' Offense Looks to Stay on Track Against Rockies' Replacement Pitchers

Los Angeles Dodgers (60-69 / 4th in the NL West / 11 GB)

2011 Record vs. Colorado: 7-8 (82 runs scored, 70 runs allowed)

Last Series vs. Rockies: August 19-21 (L 1-2 at Coors Field)

If you don't remember this series, there is something wrong with your short-term memory. However, I will still give you a refresher. Game one of the series was a no-contest blowout for the Dodgers, as they skated out to a 6-0 lead against Jason Hammel in his final outing as a starter (for now, at least) and won comfortably, by a score of 8-2. Hiroki Kuroda held the Rockies to two runs on four hits in six innings, and four Dodger relievers tossed three scoreless innings to finish up the rout. Justin Sellers and Rod Barajas each had two hits, with the latter smacking a three-run homer that blew the game open in the third inning. Tony Gwynn Jr. also homered; both shots came at the expense of Hammel.

The second game went 13 innings and ended in walk-off fashion, as the Rockies came back from a two-run deficit against Javy Guerra to tie up the ball game in the bottom of the 12th (thanks in part to a 15-pitch at-bat by Todd Helton in which he hit a run-scoring double), and won it in the next inning on an RBI single by Dexter Fowler. The Dodgers racked up 17 hits (including 12 in six innings against Colorado starter Esmil Rogers), but only scored six runs. Aaron Miles (of course) and Trent Oeltjen homered for the Dodgers in the loss.

The series finale was somehow won by Colorado, as they snapped the infamous 17-game Sunday losing streak by coming out on top by a score of 5-3. The Dodgers again outhit the Rockies, this time 8-3, but the Rockies had a couple of two-run homers that absolutely crippled LA's chances of winning. Carlos Gonzalez put the Rox up initially with his two-run bomb off of Chad Billingsley, then Seth Smith victimized Billingsley again in the seventh with a two-run shot of his own. James Loney (of course) homered for the Dodgers and went 4-for-4, while Matt Kemp tacked on a couple of hits as well.

Latest Series Results: L 1-2 at Colorado; W 3-0 at St. Louis

The Dodgers, perhaps revitalized by playing a three game series at Coors Field in which they compiled 35 hits, absolutely took it to the second-place Cardinals earlier this week, as they outscored the Redbirds 24-7 over the course of the three-game sweep. Barajas went 5-for-9 with a double and two home runs in the series, while Loney continued his hot streak by going 7-for-13 with a couple of doubles. Justin Sellers and Matt Kemp each had four hits in the series; Sellers doubled twice while Kemp doubled and homered. About the only Dodger who really struggled in this series was the massively-slumping Andre Ethier, who went 0-for-7 with a couple of walks and is 4 for his last 45 overall since a four-game string of multi-hit efforts ended on August 9th against the Phillies.

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All the while, the Dodgers' pitching held up nicely as rookie Nathan Eovaldi (who will start on Sunday opposite Jhoulys Chacin) yielded just on run on five hits in five innings in Monday's victory. The 21-year-old Eovaldi is a somewhat-highly regarded prospect who went 6-5 with a 2.62 ERA at AA Chattanooga, and has been pretty good in four starts with the big league club. Clayton Kershaw (six shutout innings with eight K's) was Clayton Kershaw on Tuesday, and Kuroda had another quality outing (three runs on eight hits in seven frames) on Wednesday.

Luckily, this will be the last time I have to write about the Dodgers. The winner of this series will take the season series, but more importantly, we won't have to see Loney (notice how I didn't say Kemp) and company anymore.

The usual stuff after the jump...

Friday through Sunday: 3-game series at Dodger Stadium

Expected Pitching Matchups

Friday, August 26, 2011 @ 8:10 PM MT

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Saturday, August 27, 2011 @ 2:10 PM MT

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Sunday, August 28, 2011 @ 2:10 PM MT

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Expected Lineup

Name	Position	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	wRC+	HR	RBI
Aaron Miles	2B	.287	.312	.370	.300	88	3	38
Casey Blake	3B	.247	.338	.356	.307	93	4	24
Andre Ethier	RF	.286	.362	.413	.339	114	10	51
Matt Kemp	CF	.322	.392	.570	.413	166	29	97
Juan Rivera	LF	.322	.367	.496	.372	137	3	22
James Loney	1B	.271	.319	.355	.297	86	6	41
Rod Barajas	C	.239	.289	.449	.316	99	14	38
Jamey Carroll	SS	.291	.360	.352	.324	104	0	11

 

Bench

Name	Position	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	wRC+	HR	RBI
AJ Ellis	C	.245	.373	.306	.311	95	1	7
Justin Sellers	IF	.267	.327	.422	.335	112	1	5
Tony Gwynn	OF	.258	.311	.353	.307	92	2	17
Trent Oeltjen	OF	.245	.381	.429	.364	132	2	5
Eugenio Velez	Util	.000	.069	.000	.057	-79	0	0

Closer

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Injuries

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