The Los Angeles Dodgers enter play Thursday as the hottest team in baseball, winning 22 of their last 26 games to improve their record to 57-29, which is 4.5 games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West standings.
With a win, the Dodgers will complete a three-game sweep of the Diamondbacks. They would join the Colorado Rockies in suffering such a fate when beginning a series at Dodger Stadium as the second place team in the division.
Starting pitching has been key through the first two games, and Rich Hill looks to carry that ahead. He’s 5-4 with a 4.00 ERA, 4.23 FIP and 1.35 WHIP, while striking out 61 and walking 29 in 54 innings of work.
Hill is in the midst of his best stretch of the season, going 2-1 with a 1.89 ERA in his last three starts. That’s been attributed to a streamlined delivery that’s led to more consistency mechanically.
In six career starts against the Diamondbacks, Hill is 1-3 with a 4.73 ERA and 1.36 WHIP. The veteran southpaw managed to complete just three innings when he saw the Diamondbacks in April, because of blister trouble.
Arizona counters with a left-hander of their own in Robbie Ray, who has been their best starter to this point in the season. Ray is 8-4 with a 3.06 ERA, 3.81 FIP and 1.20 WHIP in 16 starts. He’s fared much better on the road, going 4-1 with a 1.32 ERA.
The National League All-Star has struck out 128 batters, which is tied for third in the NL, compared to 48 walks in 100 innings. The 25-year-old has faced the Dodgers extensively in his four-year career, going 4-3 with a 3.30 ERA and 1.22 WHIP in 10 starts.
He’s 1-0 and allowed a combined seven runs (six earned) on 12 hits, including two home runs, in 11.1 innings across two starts against the Dodgers this season. Ray had a combined 16 strikeouts in those outings, including 10 in the start that came at Dodger Stadium.
Kiké Hernandez, who starts in center field and bats sixth, is a career 7-for-18 with one double, one triple, three home runs and five RBI off Ray. Two of Hernandez’s home runs have come this season.
In 89 plate appearances against southpaws this season, Hernandez is batting .256/.348/.641 with seven home runs and 16 RBIs. He makes a rare start at first base.
Yasiel Puig is 6-for-19 with one home run and two RBI off Ray. Justin Turner is not only breaking records on the field, leading baseball in hitting at .384, but he is also breaking records off it as he received 20.8 million votes in the All-Star Game Final Vote, which is the most ever. Turner became the fifth Dodgers player named an All-Star this year.
The Diamondbacks rank fifth in baseball with 435 runs scored this season, but they have scored just three runs in the first two games of this series, and those all came on one swing of the bat when Daniel Descalso homered off Kenley Jansen in the ninth inning Tuesday night.
Chris Ianetta gets the start on the plate for Arizona due to his success of Hill. The veteran has taken Hill deep twice in seven at-bats.
Dodgers lineup:
2B: Logan Forsythe
SS: Corey Seager
3B: Justin Turner
LF: Chris Taylor
C: Austin Barnes
1B: Kiké Hernandez
RF: Yasiel Puig
CF: Trayce Thompson
P: Rich Hill
Diamondbacks lineup:
CF: A.J. Pollock
RF: David Peralta
1B: Paul Goldschmidt
SS: Chris Owings
C: Chris Ianetta
2B: Brandon Drury
3B: Jake Lamb
LF: Rey Fuentes
P: Robbie Ray
