The top two teams in the NL West battle it out in tonight’s game on Five. Arizona has a 3.5 game lead over the Dodgers heading into the contest, but an L.A. victory would cut that down to 2.5 and the Dodgers will have three more opportunities to inflict defeats on the D-Backs next weekend as they host Arizona at Dodger Stadium. Five’s coverage begins at 00.40, giving the team twenty-five minutes to build up this game before first pitch at 01.05. Â
The series so far
Tonight’s game is the rubber match of a three-game series. The Dodgers couldn’t have entered the crucial series on a worse note, having lost their previous seven games in a disastrous road trip. Being swept over four games by the Phillies (the third of which was last week’s Sunday Night game) was bad enough; losing three on the bounce to the Nationals was catastrophic. The D-Backs duly took advantage of the dazed Dodgers by winning the opener 9-3. The two starters, Hiroki Kuroda and Doug Davis, both went five innings, but it was the Arizona bullpen that came out on top as they conceded just one run over four innings as their offense did the rest.
Now 4.5 games back in the standings and fearing a ten-game road trip sweep, the Dodgers showed great spirit to end their skid with a 6-2 victory yesterday. After going 4 for 4 on Friday, Manny Ramirez continued to lead the charge by going 4 for 5 with two home runs. That both were solo shots is testament to the struggles L.A. have had recently in getting men on base, but with Matt Kemp hitting a homer of his own and Chad Billingsley pitching seven strong innings, the Dodgers did enough to beat Dan Haren and to give themselves the opportunity to win a series for the first time in a while.
The starting pitchers
Derek Lowe is the man tasked by L.A. to help turn that single victory into the makings of a winning run. Lowe has pitched well in his last four outings following a shaky three inning performance against the Cardinals back on 6 August. He is 2-1 over that span with a 2.28 ERA, averaging nearly seven innings per start and holding the opposition to a .225/.252/.304 batting line. He is 10-11 overall from his twenty-eight starts this season, putting up a 3.81 ERA. Lowe is a classic groundball pitcher, using his sinking fastball to make the opposition hit the ball along the deck. He doesn’t give up many homers and he doesn’t walk many either, which is always a recipe for success.
However, it’s not going to be easy for Lowe and the Dodgers as they will have to face one of the very best pitchers in the game today. Brandon Webb is gunning for his twentieth win of the season tonight and he is well on his way to picking up his second Cy Young award. Another sinkerball pitcher, when he is on top of his game Webb is the kind of pitcher who makes you wonder how any batter could hit him. The one glimmer of hope for the Dodgers is that the D-Backs’ ace had a bad day at the office in his last outing against the Padres, giving up six runs and being pulled after 4.2 innings. Few would bet against him from rebounding by pitching a gem when it matters most tonight.
Things to look out for:
- Groundballs – 59.8% of batted balls off Derek Lowe’s pitching have trundled along the floor this season. The percentage off Webb’s pitching (65.5%) is even more impressive. Fans of home runs might be disappointed tonight.
- Manny being Manny – That’s the Manny who will end up the Hall of Fame as one of the greatest right-handed hitters of all time, rather than the space cadet Manny who angled his way out of Boston. He’s 8 for 9 in the series so far and he has hit .419/.500/.743 in his first twenty-eight games with the Dodgers.
