Los Angeles Dodgers: An old fashioned AL slug fest is coming

The Los Angeles Dodgers are heading to Arlington to square off with the Texas Rangers hoping to do what the offense does best: hit plenty of home runs.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are coming off a huge sweep over the San Diego Padres that put the team back to 2.5 games back of the NL West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks.

At the time of writing this, the Diamondbacks trail the San Francisco Giants, 2-0, in the seventh inning. If that lead holds, the Dodgers will be down to two games out of the NL West.

Riding this momentum into the Rangers series is big for the Dodgers as it could have a huge impact on the ensuing four-game series against the Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium. A two-game sweep would be a huge confidence booster and could give the Dodgers the biggest lead in the division that the team has had.

Two losses here, or even a split if the Dodgers let a game escape, would obviously hurt the team’s mojo. The Dodgers need some mojo as the team gets ready to grind through September.

Luckily, the Rangers are not great this season and do not have a great pitching staff either; meanwhile, the Dodgers are sending Walker Buehler and Alex Wood to the mound in the series.

If any team is going to explode for a lot of runs, it is going to be the Los Angeles Dodgers. The offense has gotten all-too-familiar with either scoring one or two runs or scoring a boatload. In an American League ballpark, we hope to see the latter.

Thus, our Los Angeles Dodgers Beat the Streak selections seemed to pick themselves.

Sarah’s pick — Current streak 0: Manny Machado

My pick for today is Manny Machado. I’ve been picking Machado or Dozier whenever the Dodgers play an American League team because they are the two Dodgers who’ve spent the most time in AL in the past 5 years.

So, Machado is my guy as the Dodgers venture into a two-game series against the Rangers in Arlington. Machado has hit 7 home runs as a Dodger and has driven in 17.

The Dodgers had a great weekend in their series sweep against the Padres, and look to continue it as they face the Rangers for the second time this season.

Jason’s pick — Current streak 6: Brian Dozier

I am finally building a respectable streak again and am close to challenging my season-best of eight games. Keep in mind, that eight-game streak was to start the season. I have been ice cold since.

I liked Sarah’s logic of picking an American League hitter so I am going to do the same with Brian Dozier, who spent his entire career in the AL before heading to LA.

Nobody on the Dodgers has faced Ariel Jurado before, so there is nothing really to work with. However, what makes this pick a safe one, at least to me, is the fact that Dozier went 0-4 in the last game. After a day off, statistically, Dozier is due for at least one hit.