Braves Begin West Coast Road Trip in LA Vs. Dodgers

As great as it was to take three of four from Milwaukee, the Atlanta Braves will have their hands full when the team takes on the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight to begin a three-game series with Don Mattingly’s club.  The Dodgers (26-17) lead their arch rival San Francisco Giants by two games atop the National League West.  Going into 2015, the Dodgers were one of the teams most likely to capture the NL Pennant as they have the best one-two punch in baseball.  Unfortunately for the Atlanta Braves, the team will have to face both Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke in this three-game set.

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The Dodgers are crushing the baseball this season as the Boys in Blue lead the National League in home runs (56) and on-base percentage (.340) and have the highest slugging percentage in all over baseball (.450).  Los Angeles’ pitching staff is second in the NL in ERA (3.15) behind only St. Louis.  They also lead the National League in strikeouts (378) and all of baseball in WHIP (1.128).  So how do Fredi Gonzalez and his Atlanta Braves beat these guys?  Please tell me.

Tonight’s starters are Williams Perez for Atlanta (0-0, 6.14 ERA) and Brett Anderson for Los Angeles (2-2, 3.61 ERA).  Perez had a great first big league start for the Braves against the Rays Wednesday night, allowing one earned run and striking out seven in five innings of work.  Anderson has allowed just five earned runs in his last for starts for the Dodgers.

The aces will be out in Tuesday night’s game as Julio Teheran (4-1, 3.91 ERA) faces off with reigning National League MVP Clayton Kershaw (2-3, 4.32 ERA).  I’m kind of blown away that Kershaw has not been unhittable this year as his stat lines would prove.  Kershaw has given up at least three earned runs in each of his last four starts.  Hopefully that trend continues to Tuesday night as Julio looks to build on an impressive last start versus the Brewers (7IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO).

In the series finale Wednesday night, Alex Wood (2-2, 3.83 ERA) takes on Zack Greinke (5-1, 1.48 ERA).  Wood has had a great last two starts for the Braves.  Hopefully his illness that kept him out of Friday night’s start is a thing of the past because Woody will really need to bring it because Greinke has been electric for the Dodgers all season long.  His strikeout to walks splits are 49 K’s:12 BB’s and he has allowed just ten earned runs in nine starts this season.  The best news about facing Zack Greinke is that he hasn’t won a game for the Dodgers since Cinco De Mayo.

This will be a very tough series for the Atlanta Braves but the team is playing well now. Atlanta sits above .500 for the first time in nearly a month.  It will be a great test for the Braves to see if the team can compete with the likes of the major players in the National League like the Los Angeles Dodgers.