Dodgers Cubs Game Two Preview

The Dodgers look to get their offense on track against the Cubs’ ace, weather permitting.

Yesterday’s game was extremely uneventful. The Dodgers offense looked fine early on, as they had two whole baserunners in the first inning. In the next eight, they had zero baserunners. Not exactly a recipe for success.

Today, the Dodgers’ offense looks to get going against… Jake Arrieta. The last two times the Dodgers have played the Cubs, they have a combined one hit. That hit came yesterday, and the last time the Dodgers and Cubs met before yesterday was Jake Arrieta’s first career no-hitter, which came last August.

Arrieta already has one no-no this season, which came in Cincinnati. That was his only complete game of the season, but he’s gone seven or eight innings in six of his nine other starts. In the other three starts, Arrieta has gone exactly five innings. He’s tossed four shutouts this season and has only allowed 13 total earned runs in his 10 starts. None of his other numbers look super dominant, as he’s human when it comes to strikeouts and walks (67 K’s, 21 BB’s this season). A .220 BABIP surely helps, and that number mostly comes from his 27.5 percent soft contact rate and 21.6 percent hard contact rate (third best soft contact, second best hard contact rate among qualified starters). Also because it’s the Cubs, Arrieta has gotten 8.7 runs of support per game, and the Cubs have yet to score fewer than four runs in a game started by Arrieta. The last time the Cubs lost an Arrieta start was last July 25.

So Scott Kazmir gets to deal with all that. Kazmir is coming off his most dominant start of the season, as he struck out 12 Reds in six innings. Unfortunately, Kazmir’s good outings have come few and far between, as he holds a 4.84 ERA/5.14 FIP combo and only has four quality starts in 10 outings.

Trayce Thompson returns after missing the last two games with an apparently back injury suffered on Saturday. He’s reportedly been available for the last two days, but the Dodgers chose to let him rest.

Justin Turner also gets a day off as Howie Kendrick gets the start at third. Kendrick’s numbers were slowly starting to creep up to what we’ve come to expect from the 10-year vet, but his average is still on the low side. He’s looked better at the plate recently.

Next: Dodgers Offense Good and Bad

First pitch is scheduled for 5:00 PM PST and will be shown on Sportsnet LA and ESPN (blackouts apply).

Not exactly ideal baseball conditions. Rizzo also tweeted that they weren’t taking on-field batting practice, which is surely what a struggling offense needs. Hopefully the game can still get in today.