Dodgers Go For 12th Consecutive Road Win Behind Hyun-jin Ryu

Dodgers Lineup vs. Cubs

M.Ellis 4Punto 6Gonzalez 3Puig 9Van Slyke 7Ethier 8A.J. Ellis 2Uribe 5Ryu 1

Hyun-jin Ryu-9-3 vs. Travis Wood-7-7

The Dodger offense came through yesterday with flying colors. The pitching staff allowed four home runs, (all solo shots) and the Dodgers had one runner thrown out at the plate (Puig), and another picked off (Van Slyke) but still won anyways. That’s what a good lineup will do for you. It’s doing it for the Dodgers.

The club certainly can hit on the road, even if it seems like they can’t hit at home. As a matter of fact, the Dodgers are the best road hitting team in all of baseball. The club is hitting .276 away from Dodger Stadium with a .342 OBP, 53 home runs, and 241 runs scored. In comparison the Dodgers hit .255 with 38 home runs at Dodger Stadium. Overall the team is hitting .265 with 91 home runs.

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu (99) watches game action during the second inning against the New York Yankees at Dodger Stadium.-Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

The Dodgers have won 11 road games in a row, and no other Dodger team has done that since the 1955 team did it. The all-time Dodger record for consecutive road wins is 12 in a row, set by the 1924 team I believe. A win today could tie the record for the Dodgers. I’ve always said that records are made to be broken.

The Dodgers are 58-49 on the season and have a 27-24 record on the road. The Dodgers have a 3.5 game lead over Arizona in first place in the NL West. The Dodgers will try and keep their road magic working in game two of their four game series at Wrigley Field versus the Cubs.

Yesterday Don Mattingly used his lefty lineup against Chris Rusin. He had Scott Van Slyke in right field, and Yasiel Puig was moved to center as Carl Crawford played left. Tim Federowicz gave A.J. Ellis a rest, and Andre Ethier was on the bench. The lineup today should look back to normal with left hander Hyun-jin Ryu on the mound. The Dodgers will face left hander Travis Wood.

Ryu is going for win number ten on the year. Ryu’s last start was one of his best as he dominated the Reds. Ryu is 9-3 with a 3.14 ERA in 20 starts. Ryu has whiffed 105 and walked 42. Ryu has been susceptible on the road more so than at home this year. He is 4-2 with a 4.62 ERA in road starts, while his ERA at home is 1.83. He still has nearly a 2-1 strikeout to walk ratio on the road.

His opponent Travis Wood has had a solid season, but has suffered on a bad team with few runs of support. The 26 year old from Little Rock has been one of the hardest luck pitchers in the league. Wood is 7-7 with a 2.79 ERA. He was an all-star this season, and probably for good reason. He’s whiffed 95 and walked 45, but has given up just ten home runs, and 101 hits in 135 innings. He’s allowing just 6.7 hits per nine innings pitched, which is very good. The Dodgers haven’t faced him since April of 2012. Wood has started against the Dodgers twice. He won one game, and earned a no-decision in the other. Wood is 1-1 with a 6.48 ERA. He’s walked 13 in 16 innings against the Boys in Blue. The current group of Dodgers has seen very little of Wood. Check out what the Dodgers have done against Wood below.

RBI

OBP

SLG

Andre Ethier

.429

.444

.714

Nick Punto

.000

Hanley Ramirez

.400

.800

Juan Uribe

.333

.600

.333

Mark Ellis

.333

.500

.333

Adrian Gonzalez

.000

A.J. Ellis

.000

.500

.000

Jerry Hairston

1.000

Total

.286

.382

.429

You can also take note at what a good hitter Wood is. He is batting .293 (12 for 41) with three home runs and eight RBI this season. Yes he’s hit three, three home runs! Over his career, Wood has hit six long balls. So Ryu and the Dodgers need to watch out for him.

Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Travis Wood (37) rounds the bases on a solo home run against the San Francisco Giants during the fifth inning at AT&T Park.

Oh and by the way, Zack Greinke is up for the pitching performance of July. Greinke pitched a two-hit shutout over Colorado back on July 9. He whiffed nine in that game and walked one. That was his 99 win of this career. Greinke has some stiff competition. He’s up against, Homer Bailey, Tim Lincecum, and rookie Jose Fernandez. Bailey and Lincecum both pitched no-hitters so Greinke probably won’t win, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve to. Good luck to Birdman! Greinke was 3-1 with a 2.66 ERA in the month of July.

Unfortunately I will not be on twitter during the game. Today’s tilt is a rare weekday afternoon start time of 1:05 PM. I’ll be at a customer site on a job while the game is starting, so have fun today without me. I know you’ll miss me, but the day job calls, and I have to pay the bills. This pretty mug of mine doesn’t earn all the cash. I’ll be periodically checking the scores, and Stacie will provide coverage both over here and on twitter. There will be no losing to the Cubs while I am away. The Cubs are bad, very bad, and watch out for this Lake kid. You can watch the game on Prime Ticket, and listen on radio over at AM570. Be sure to surf over here to catch our daily Dodger game recap. Go Blue

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