The Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers each got a nice easy start to the season with matchups against the Brewers and Padres respectively, but the two teams will be tested a bit more this weekend as they matchup against each other though it’s the Rockies, not the Dodgers, that have the distinction of being the last unbeaten team in the NL West.
This series will be contested from Friday, April 7, 2017 through Sunday, April 9, 2017 at Coors Field in Denver. Friday's clash is being shown live on MLB Network.
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Pitching Matchups
The Rockies are a popular pick as a surprise team this year, but it’s not so much the starting pitching that’s behind the pick as much as a stacked lineup, plenty of offensive depth and a pretty strong power bullpen.
Colorado’s weakness shines through when looking at the projected matchup for their series against the division favorite Dodgers.
Both teams will look to their fifth starts to kick off the series and for the Dodgers, that’s southpaw Hyun-Jim Ryu who has two seasons in the big leagues with 14-wins and a low-3 ERA. For the Rockies, the fifth spot belongs to rookie lefty Kyle Freeland who has some strong minor league numbers, but has just a dozen games at Triple-A and a career strikeout per nine ratio of just six.
Things do get a bit closer when you consider Ryu has only one start since 2014 where he gave up six runs in 4.2 innings, but provided Ryu is healthy, the Dodgers have the edge.
Of course, that edge continues as the weekend progresses as we should see Clayton Kershaw and Kenta Maeda get their second starts against the Rockies’ top two of Jon Gray and Tyler Anderson, both strong young starters, but when Kershaw is mentioned, the opposing team is already at a distinct disadvantage.
While his first start of the year was against San Diego, Kershaw still pitched like, well, Kershaw in his season debut, going seven strong, allowing just one run on two hits whilst striking out eight. He’s pitched to a sub-2 ERA in three of his last four seasons and is a three time Cy Young Award winner.
As for Maeda, he was the Dodgers’ most consistent starter last year and though he did get the loss against the Padres on Wednesday night, he’s still more of a sure thing than Tyler Anderson tough Anderson did thrive at Coors Field last year, going 5-2 with a 3.00 ERA in 12 starts, spanning 78 innings in his rookie year.
Who's Hot?
When the question is “Who’s Hot?”, the answer is always: Nolan Arenado.
A rough World Baseball Classic aside, Arenado is easily one of the top five players in the game right now and he’s already collected three hits through two games. The only players on the Rockies to top that are Gerardo Parra and Mark Reynolds, the two that weren’t even supposed to be starters if not for injuries to David Dahl and Ian Desmond.
The two fill-in players have carried the team through its first two games, albeit against a pitching poor Brewers team.
Even with the injuries, this Colorado lineup is very, very good and can score runs with power, speed and timely hitting.
Trevor Story was the talk of the league last April and so far in 2017 he’s shown better plate discipline after racking up the strikeouts—and homers—last year.
Can we also add the Rockies’ bullpen to the conversation here? In the first two games, the Rockies have gotten just 9.2 combined innings out of their starters. Normally, that’s not a formula for success, but the offense and pen have been good enough to make it work.
In 8.1 innings of work, the Rockies bullpen has yet to allow a run and has giving up just two hits while Greg Holland has already recorded a pair of saves.
For the Dodgers, is it too obvious to say Clayton Kershaw is hot? Probably. How about Yasmani Grandal? The L.A. catcher squared up for a pair of homers on Opening Day.
Who's Not?
The Dodgers have the pitching edge even if Maeda was handled by the Padres, but the bigger concern may be how easily Clayton Richard was able to stump the Dodgers’ bats.
After a party against Jhoulys Chacin in the opener, Richards went eight scoreless, allowing just five hits.
Logan Forsythe did well in the lead-off spot with a pair of hits, but Los Angeles fell into its old ways against the southpaw.
The Dodgers could not hit lefties last year with a baseball worst .213 average and .622 against them and it looks as though the trend is continuing. The additions of Forsythe and Franklin Gutierrez was supposed to balance the lineup a bit and those two did combine to go 3-for-6 with a walk in the game, but the rest of the lineup is still very left-handed heavy.
This could come into play in the series against the Rockies considering that Colorado will be sending two southpaws to the hill in the series.
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