The Colorado Rockies attempt to close out Opening Day Weekend with a sweep of the defending National League West champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers. If they do so, it’ll be the first time the Rockies have swept the Dodgers in any fashion since September 25-27th, 2015 at Coors field.
The Rockies offense isn’t quite clicking on all cylinders yet, with Trevor Story, Charlie Blackmon and DJ LeMahieu going a combined 10 for 67 with 21 strikeouts. Still, the lineup has produced just enough hits to win games that the pitching, particularly the bullpen, has kept close.
Taking the hill for the Rockies is lefty Tyler Anderson, who gave up five runs over 5.2 innings against the Milwaukee Brewers in his first start of the year. Though he gave up a lot of runs, he only walked one batter while striking out eight which suggests he was pitching better than the runs allowed tally in the box score indicates. The Dodgers have struggled this year against left handed pitching so there’s a decent chance he could provide a good outing.
Throwing for the Dodgers is Japanese import Kenta Maeda, who lost his first start of the year against the San Diego Padres. He gave up three runs over his five innings of work, allowing three runs while striking out four.
Additional pre-game notes:
Before the game, the Rockies activated Chris Rusin from the 10-Day disabled list. To make room, the optioned German Marquez to Triple-AAA Albuquerque. Regarding the move, Black said, “He’s going to jump into their rotation. I talked to German this morning. You never know how each and every game is going to play out. It just so happened these first six games there really wasn’t a spot for a long man and we were able to use our bullpen in certain ways that we didn’t need to use him in that role.”
Black continued “It’s a luxury if they’re good [and they are]. It all goes on the availability of the guys on that night. I hate saying it, but every game is different based on what’s happened the previous nights and how guys feel. With five righties and three lefties you can do some things on the matchup side. So let’s get an experienced major league pitcher up here. He’s a good pitcher who can fill a number of roles. He could be good for three innings or just one.”