The Los Angeles Dodgers have been playing some fantastic baseball lately and now that the team sits 2.5 games up in the National League West after splitting two games with the New York Yankees, the team will travel to the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field for a series against the Chicago Cubs that could help extend their lead even more.
The Dodgers have been buoyed by the play of Yasiel Puig as well as shortstop Hanley Ramirez and the team has also gotten some fantastic pitching from Clayton Kershaw as well as Ricky Nolasco after he was traded from the Marlins earlier in the season. The Dodgers are now 57-49 on the season and are powering towards the playoffs and after getting off to a dreadful start, the team is back on track and looking like contenders just a year after they acquired Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford in blockbuster deals.
CHECK here for the MLB live stream for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs from Wrigley and here for more news from Sports World Report on the latest topics.
The Dodgers have won 27 of 34 games and they have won 15 of 17 on the road during that time and they have been bombing lately, averaging 7.0 runs while hitting .317 with 14 homers during a 10-game road winning streak and now that is all on the line against the Cubs. The last time the Dodgers had an 11-game road winning streak, it was back in 1955 against the Cubs as well and now history can repeat itself.
The Dodgers have taken the last five series against the Cubs in Chicago and now the team will be coming in without some star power in Alfonso Soriano and Matt Garza, as they both were dealt at the trading deadline. The Cubs have been solid the past few weeks while going 14-13 this month, their first winning month since last July and the team has some hope for the future in Anthony Rizzo and other players they are building around, including Starlin Castro. David DeJesus was a name that was mentioned in talks and never ended up moving and the Cubs will throw rookie Chris Rusin, who is 1-0 with a 2.93 ERA.
Matt Kemp will be out of the matchup with an injury and the team fears that he could be out until September with an ankle issue, but clearly that hasn't stopped them from winning. The Dodgers have been moving up lately and are now 21st in the league in runs and fifth in batting average and they are eighth in on base and 17th in slugging percentage.
Click here for the link to the official Dodgers and Cubs live stream from MLB.
"The good thing is I feel like we were incredibly productive this month," general manager Jed Hoyer said. "Made a lot of deals, I feel like we got a lot better as an organization this month."
