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There never seems to be a road trip where the Rockies fail to hit that doesn't have Dodger Stadium right in the middle of it. Last season, the Rockies batted a mighty .248/.307/.360 with 6 home runs in 9 games. Year before that, .234/.328/.321 with 5 bombs. See where I'm going with this?
Flip side of the coin is that if the Rockies hit poorly in Dodger Stadium, they must pitch well, right?
2011 in Dodger Stadium: 3-6, 4.89 ERA, 1.384 WHIP.
Bonus though: 2012 Rockies pitching on the Road? 3.48 ERA, 1.257 WHIP.
But enough about the Rockies.
I don't even know what more there is to say about Matt Kemp at this point. He's roughly on pace to at least surpass Roger Maris. He's leading the NL in OPS (Josh Hamilton's big night pushed him .049 ahead of Kemp). He's outhitting Bryan LaHair of the Cubs by all of 1 point. His most mortal point is that he hasn't stolen like 8 bases yet. He's batting at home even better than he did at Coors Field, by over 200 points of OPS.
The big upside of this series is missing Clayton Kershaw. Granted, the Rockies hit Kershaw for 5 of the 9 runs he's allowed this season (seriously), but you take these breaks as you get them.
The Dodgers are coming off of a series win against the San Francisco Giants, outscoring San Fran by a total tally of 16-5. They've played 12-3 ball in Chavez Ravine this season.
Hope isn't necessarily all lost for the Rockies. Despite the bad omens above, the Colorado showed some spirit in game 3 of the Padres series and definitely clawed their way to a series win when LA was in Coors Field. It's going to be interesting, one way or another.
Expected Matchups:
Friday, 5/11/12 at 8:10PM MT
Jamie Moyer vs Chris Capuano
Saturday, 5/12/12 at 7:10PM MT
Juan Nicasio vs Aaron Harang
Sunday, 5/13/12 at 2:10PM MT
Drew Pomeranz? vs Ted Lilly