Los Angeles Dodgers: Team looks to solve Lefties. . . with Lefties

To solve their southpaw woes, the Los Angeles Dodgers are resorting to an unorthodox approach this week – they are starting their left-handed hitters against lefty pitchers.

In an effort to correct the Achilles’ heel that is still nagging them after 14 months, Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times reports that manager Dave Roberts will be sticking with Joc Pederson and Adrian Gonzalez in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup against the Rockies.

The upcoming two-game series should be winnable, as they face southpaws Kyle Freeland and Tyler Anderson. Freeland is 1-1 with a 5.91 ERA while Anderson sports a 1-2 and a gaudy 8.59 ERA. Freeland already held the Dodgers to one run in six innings in his major league debut in the first week of the season.

Despite acquiring right-handed hitters Logan Forsythe and Franklin Gutierrez in the offseason, the Dodgers face the same problems that stalled their offense last season. With a woeful .218 batting average against left-handers this year, opposing teams are stacking their pitching rotations to ensure that their southpaws pitch against the Dodgers.

Cubs manager Joe Maddon, for instance, shuffled his rotation to have Jon Lester and Brett Anderson pitch the first and last games of the three-game series. Predictably, the Dodgers lost each game, winning only the middle game against right-hander John Lackey.

The Dodgers hold a .345 slugging percentage against left-handers thus far, with only four home runs in 197 at-bats. Forsythe and Gutierrez are doing their jobs, batting .429 and .333 versus lefties, respectively

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Pederson is also batting .429, though his sample size of seven at-bats is somewhat limited. Otherwise, right-handed hitter Justin Turner is at .348 with a .522 slugging against lefties. There are no other Dodgers hitting higher than .217 against southpaws.

In other words, the struggle continues. The Dodgers have two wins in seven games started by left-handed starting pitchers.

If this trend continues, the Dodgers need to make major adjustments. Maybe the unorthodox maneuvering by Roberts against the Rockies will be the answer.

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Overall, if the Los Angeles Dodgers want to take that extra step into the World Series, there is some kinks that are going to need to be ironed out. The biggest of these kinks is opposing left-handers and, well, that issue may be too big to solve.