Los Angeles Dodgers: Inexperienced arm will be taken deep

The Los Angeles Dodgers pushed the team’s winning streak to three on Monday and have to keep winning to stay ahead in a tight National League West race.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies are intertwined in the most entertaining division race of the entire MLB which is set to go down to the wire.

The Dodgers have just five games remaining on the season while the Rockies have six. After the Dodgers swept the Rockies last week and took a two and a half game lead, the end of the season seemed to be smooth sailing.

However, the Rockies have not lost since and are winners of four in a row. This has not only given the Rockies a game in the standings but has kept the Dodgers from truly pulling away. LA is 3-1 since the sweep and even one loss for the Rockies would have made this late-run near impossible.

Colorado seems destined to lose at least one game at one point but the Dodgers cannot bank on that and need to continue to decide their own fate. There is nothing the Rockies can do if the Dodgers keep winning.

If LA can finish the last five games a perfect 5-0 there is nothing the Rockies can do. However, even just one one loss and the Rockies can win out and tie the Dodgers for the division lead.

Thus, LA is looking to capitalize on every game and the relatively easy schedule the team has remaining.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Dodgers come up against an inexperienced arm in Matt Koch. Koch has just over 100 big league innings under his belt and has a career 4.13 ERA. The Dodgers have 20 collective at-bats against the young right-handed pitcher and have a collective .200 batting average.

However, Tuesday will be different as the Dodgers will be playing their best baseball and will try to attack the young arm early to get to the shaky Arizona bullpen. As a result, Koch will be taken deep by a very specific bat.

Jason’s pick – Current streak 0: Max Muncy

Max Muncy has been the Los Angeles Dodgers best power hitter outside of Manny Machado and has continuously came up in big spots when the team needed him most. The post All-Star Break slump is a thing of the past and Muncy is back to his old ways.

With Koch being left-handed, Muncy will get a shot at the opening lineup after starting on the bench on Monday. That did not stop Muncy, though, who delivered a clutch pinch-hit RBI single that tied the game in the seventh inning.

Muncy has faced Koch two times and has worked a walk as well as driven in an RBI. However, the slugging left-handed batter is yet to record a hit against Koch.

That will change on Tuesday night when Muncy gets a pitch to hit early in the game and sends a moonshot into the right-field seats to give the Dodgers the lead and Walker Buehler some cushion.