Diamondbacks Head To Los Angeles For Date With Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers (32-25) will play host to the Arizona Diamondbacks (27-29) for a three game series that begins Monday at Chavez Ravine. The game kicks off an eight game California road trip for the Diamondbacks, who will also make stops in San Francisco and Anaheim.

The Diamondbacks enter the game coming off of a four game split with the New York Mets. However, Arizona won its previous two series, taking two of three from both the Brewers and the Braves.

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After the Diamondbacks got rolled by the Phillies a couple weeks ago, I wrote a “they’re doomed” recap because the only team that is truly bad enough to get swept by the Phillies is the Phillies. I talked about how the Diamondbacks had to beat up on bad teams because they aren’t consistently good enough to beat good teams, and getting swept by teams like Philadelphia would go a long way in knocking them out of contention.

Since that post, they swept the Marlins and took two of three from the Cubs, Brewers, Braves, with the only real blemishes coming at the hands of the Cardinals and the Mets. As a result, they find themselves only 4.5 games back of the Dodgers. See!

Speaking of the Dodgers, they’re in a bit of an offensive rut. They scored a grand total of six runs in four games against the Cardinals, a stretch during which they won one game.

So far this season, the Diamondbacks are 2-4 against the Dodgers. The first series saw Arizona take two of three and fans watched Archie Bradley outduel Clayton Kershaw. The second series didn’t go as well, as the Dodgers swept the Diamondbacks in three games at Dodger Stadium.

The key for the Diamondbacks in this series? Limit the home run ball. Easier said than done, of course, but the Dodgers have scored almost half of their runs this season on home runs. Here are the tentative lineups for Monday’s matchup.

The pitching matchups are as follows:

Monday: Mike Bolsinger (3-1, 1.98 ERA) vs. Rubby De La Rosa (4-2, 5.09 ERA)

Tuesday: Carlos Frias (4-3, 4.25 ERA) vs. Robbie Ray (1-0, 0.82 ERA)

Wednesday: Brett Anderson (2-4, 3.29 ERA) vs. Jeremy Hellickson (4-3, 4.88 ERA)

With only 4.5 games separating the two teams, this is a rivalry showdown with big implications. Let’s get to it!