Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw looks to rebound from a flu-shortened opening day against the Pirates on Tuesday.
In exciting fashion, the Pirates won their opening series of the season against the NL East defending champion Phillies.
The series win is a great confidence builder for this young team, but winning the opening series of the season is not something new for the Pirates.
Over the past 11 seasons, the Pirates have won their opening series nine times. The only two series losses (both sweeps) coming to the Milwaukee Brewers in 2005 and 2006.
Of course, it was the Brewers.
The Pirates now head west for a nine-game road trip against the Dodgers, Giants and Diamondbacks. All three of those teams are similar to the 2012 Phillies, as they all have good pitching but lack great hitting.
Kevin Correia will get his first start of the 2012 season for the Pirates. The Pirates purposely slotted Correia in the four spot of the rotation so that he would pitch away from PNC Park to start the season.
In 2011 Correia went 10-3 with a 2.64 ERA on the road, while finishing 2-8 with a 7.71 ERA at PNC Park.
The Dodgers won three in a row start the season before losing their final game of opening weekend to the San Diego Padres. Against the Padres, the Dodgers scored 21 runs in four games, but this Padres starting staff could easily be confused with a AAA squad.
Besides Matt Kemp in 2011, the Dodgers offense was quite anemic. Kemp led the Dodgers with a .324 average, 39 home runs and 126 RBI. The next closest home run total on the team was now-Pirates catcher Rod Barajas, with 16.
In this young 2012 season, Kemp has not slowed his pace down, slugging two home runs and collecting eight RBI in the first four contests.
Opposing Pitcher Report
Clayton Kershaw
Kershaw is coming off a Cy Young Award-winning season in 2011 in which he went 21-5 with a 2.28 ERA. Kershaw led the league with 248 strikeouts. The left-handed starter was pulled after only three innings in his opening day start due to the flu.
Kershaw will be at full strength and ready to go on Tuesday in what will be the Dodgers first home opener under a new ownership group that include NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson.
With Kershaw being a lefty, look for Pedro Alvarez and Garrett Jones to sit while Casey McGehee and Matt Hague get more opportunities in the starting lineup.
Chad Billingsley
Since enjoying a breakout 2008 season which saw Billingsley go 16-10 with a 3.14 ERA, the right-handed starter has struggled to return to form. Over the past three seasons, Billingsley has been a reliable pitcher, but not the dominant one the Dodgers envisioned three seasons ago.
Billingsley has pitched over 180 innings in each of those seasons and has an ERA in the 3.75 to 4.25 range. To start the 2012 season, Billingsley went 8 1/3 innings, allowing no runs and striking out 11 Padres. Over his career, Billingsley is 5-1 with a 4.19 ERA against Pittsburgh.
The Pirates will have their hands full in the first two games of this series, but after just facing Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, their batters should not be intimidated.
Chris Capuano
Capuano has appeared in more games against the Pirates than any other team in his professional career. A long time Brewer, Capuano has had injury problems and after a great 2005 season and has yet to come close to matching those numbers again.
Capuano, 33, went 18-12 with a 3.99 ERA in 2005. Since then he has not been able to win more than 11 games in a season.
In his first start of 2011, Capuano went 4 2/3 innings while allowing four earned runs.
Pitching Matchups
Tuesday 4:10 pm- Kevin Correia (—) —ERA vs Clayton Kershaw (0-0) 0.00 ERA
Wednesday 10:10 pm- Erik Bedard (0-1) 1.29 ERA vs Chad Billingsley (1-0) 0.00 ERA
Thursday 10:10 pm- Jeff Karstens (0-0) 1.50 ERA vs Chris Capuano (0-0) 7.71 ERA
By the Numbers (National League-2012)
Los Angeles Dodgers
21 Runs Scored (2nd)
4 Home Runs (6th)
3.65 Team ERA (8th)
1 Shutouts (1st)
Pittsburgh Pirates
7 Runs Scored (15th)
1 Home Runs (15th)
1.29 Team ERA (1st)
0 Shutouts (-)
Bishkin Bits
-The Pirates are a collective two feet from having four total home runs instead of one. Pedro Alvarez’s monster home run is the only one the Pirates have through three games, but Rod Barajas, Casey McGehee and Andrew McCutchen all hit wall shots that barely missed being round trippers.
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