The St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers both sit in the thick of the standings at the quarter-pole of the season and are set for an exciting head-to-head series over in the La La Land beginning on Tuesday. After a nice run to bounce back from a slow first two weeks, the Cards once again find themselves in need of a nice winning streak to turn their fortunes back around.
This series will be contested from Tuesday, May 23, 2017 through Thursday, May 25, 2017 at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles. Tuesday's clash is being shown live on ESPN while the games on Wednesday and Thursday can both be seen on the MLB Network for those out-of-network.
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Pitching Matchups
The Dodgers have the big boys aligned to take on the Cardinals when they come into Dodgers’ Stadium with Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill and Kenta Maeda slotted to pitch in the three-game series. To combat those three, the Cardinals will look to Lance Lynn, Mike Leake and Michael Wacha.
The duo of Kershaw versus Lynn certainly favors the Dodgers. Anytime Kershaw is involved the Dodgers typically come out on top.
The 29-year old southpaw is having what is to him a down year, yet he still leads the league in wins with seven, innings pitched with 62.2 and WHIP at 0.894. Overall, he’s 7-2 with a 2.15 ERA, but he’s striking out just 8.9 per nine innings, his lowest figure since 2013. His average ratio is just under 10.
He pitched seven scoreless against the Giants his last time out and has allowed two runs or fewer in seven of his nine starts. He fares well against everyone, but the Cards seem to do better against him than most. He’s 6-5 against them in the regular season, but 0-4 in postseason play.
As for Lynn, the veteran right-hander has pitched like, well, Lance Lynn all year. He’s continually giving the Cardinals a chance to win with little-to-no fanfare. He’s 4-2 with a 2.78 ERA and 1.125 WHIP in 45.1 innings, but he has been hit with the homer bug lately and the Dodgers do have a few thumpers that can hit the ball out.
Moving onto Wednesday’s matchup, the Cardinals will turn to the NL’s ERA leader in Mike Leake to likely help even up the series. Leake is 4-2 with a 2.03 ERA and has thrown 53.1 innings, allowing a 0.994 WHIP. His batting average against is depressed more than usual with a low BABIP. That’ll regress closer to league average and indicates that the veteran has outpitched his peripheral numbers. Nevertheless, Leake has been good and consistent. He generally avoids giving up too many free passes and keeps the team in the ballpark.
Hill’s blister is always a story when he pitches. The issues come from throwing so many breaking balls as he does, but that’s what makes him so effective when he is on the mound. He had eight days off so that should’ve given him ample time so the finger shouldn’t be an issue. We’ve only seen Hill throw in three games this year and toss just 13 innings, but he looks like the same guy that helped carry this team deep in a postseason series with Chicago last year. The issue, though, is he has given up three homers and can be hittable if the ball flattens out.
Lastly, this series wraps up with Wacha against Maeda. Maeda will be coming off the DL to make this start. His ERA is still inflated at 5.03, but he recovered from several bad starts to string three very good outings together before going on the DL, combining to go 20.1 innings, allowing just five runs on 13 hits and four walks. Lefties especially were crushing him earlier in the year, but he’s gotten that issue under control.
Who's Hot?
Park Factor is important for the Cardinals who much prefer to play on the road than at home, at least based on the statistics over the last two years.
St. Louis’ hitter’s numbers bear that out this year, too. Matt Carpenter, who has shown off the pop this month with six homers is hitting .308 on the year on the road with five bombs and 11 RBIs, but those numbers pale in comparison to Jedd Gyorko’s .400 average and 1.175 OPS on the road.
For the Dodgers, Cody Bellinger remains red hot. He hit nine home runs in his first 24 games, becoming the first Dodger ever to do that which is made even more impressive by the fact the Dodgers are loaded with former Rookie of the Year winners.
The 21-year old outfielder is hitting .295 with nine homers and 24 RBIs in just 25 total games played. He’s getting big hit after big hit and has already established himself as a legitimate middle-of-the-order hitter. Meanwhile, fellow minor league call ups Chris Taylor and Brett Eibner have taken advantage of their opportunities, too. The former is batting .333 with a 1.029 OPS while the latter has played in just eight games, but is 5-for-18 with a couple homers and six RBIs.
Who's Not?
Dexter Fowler continues to disappoint. He was the big offseason acquisition for this team and was supposed to allow the defensive alignment, at least in the outfield, improve while providing a spark atop the order like he did for the Cubs, particularly in the first half.
So far, Fowler is hitting .220 with a .318 OBP and has just one steal in 37 games. He’s been even worse than that in May, hitting .184 and while he has hit two bombs in the month and six on the year, that’s not what he was brought in to do. Playing on the road has also been a struggle for Fowler who is batting .150 away from Busch.
The other centerfielder in this series is also struggling. May hasn’t been kind to Joc Pederson after he struggled through April as well. He’s hitting .206 overall with 31 strikeouts and just two homers. He’s hitting .192 in May and has seen a reduction in his playing time.
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