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This series will be a good chance to see some of our young talent blooded against the Dodgers and their vaunted squad, yeah we miss Kershaw, but we'll still see Greinke and my guess is that while the beanball wars are behind us, he'll still find a little extra incentive to perform. Still, if Turner Ward gets plunked on the dugout steps, I wouldn't be shocked.
WAR PARTY
Batting
Yasmani Grandal - 2.1
Joc Pederson - 2.8
Adrian Gonzalez - 2.8
Justin Turner - 2.6
Andre Ethier - 2.1
Howie Kendrick - 2.1
Pitching
Zach Greinke - 8.0
Clayton Kershaw - 6.5
Mike Bolsinger - 2.2
Brett Anderson - 2.1
Yeah, the bleeping Dodgers have gotten 2.2 WAR out of Mike freaking Bolsinger, so kudos to Mike for making the most of his opportunity.
PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday - Alex Wood (3-3/3.43/1.36) vs Robbie Ray (3-11/3.72/1.33)
Can Robbie Ray sustain any kind of quality past the 3rd inning? Is he getting tired? How do the Dodgers keep adding good quality young hurlers for seemingly little cost? Why is everything a question? Is this thing on? Buehler?
Saturday - Mike Bolsinger (6-3/2.97/1.21) vs. Rubby DeLaRosa (12-7/4.49/1.31)
Kudos to Mike for having such a great season this year, in return, the Dodgers will probably flip him to the BoSox for Mookie Betts and their young phenom Owings. This may very well be our best chance to take a game from the Dodgers, but there I go thinking and speculating again.... so perhaps I should just continue on from here...
Sunday - Zach Greinke (16-3/1.68/0.86) vs. Patrick Corbin (5-3/3.32/1.33)
Okay, their Cy Young candidate (and hey, despite the media tongue bath that Kershaw deservedly receives, GREINKE has been their best pitcher this year. period. punctuation mark annnnndddd he'll most likely resign with the boys in blue (hork, spit).
TACO FACTOR
I give this a reluctant 1 in 3, because our bats have been known to show up on occasion but we're going to be integrating some new faces here and there, so I am as reluctant to commit to this prediction as a kid volunteering for household chores.
NEW FACES
The Dodgers now have the aforementioned Alex Wood, Mat Latos and Jim Johnson. The latter two haven't performed as anticipated, but it's almost as if the Dodgers didn't really need them..... At the plate, they've added Utley, Ruggiano and there other young phenom Seager, who only has 9 hits in seven games, 4 of them doubles and he's already earned .3 WAR (sigh).
MADE UP FACT
We're ready to welcome the Dodgers to our ballpark and want to wish them the very best of luck while they represent the NL Western Division.