Los Angeles Dodgers: Going for the season sweep over Pittsburgh

The Los Angeles Dodgers will be playing some morning baseball on Sunday as the team looks to go undefeated against the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2019.

The Los Angeles Dodgers‘ road trip is coming to a close on Sunday as the team has an afternoon game at PNC Park against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Dodgers will be flying home to LA to host the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium on Monday.

The road trip has been a good one for the Dodgers as the team is 5-2 through seven games, looking to make it a 6-2 road trip. If the team does make it a 6-2 road trip on Sunday by defeating the Pirates, the Dodgers will have also went a perfect 6-0 against Pittsburgh this season.

While the Pirates may not be viewed as World Series contenders, they still are a winning team that is 25-19 outside of the games against the Dodgers. Getting six wins, without losing, against a team like the Pirates is a testament to how good the Dodgers are.

Leading the way for the Boys in Blue on Sunday is none other than Kenta Maeda. Maeda is making his first start after a short 10-day IL stint, which likely was an IL stint that was used to open up a roster spot as the Dodgers could skip Maeda’s place in the rotation because of the off-days.

Maeda has not allowed a run in his last two starts, so we could see another great start. However, Maeda has the most variance of anyone in the starting rotation, either throwing a gem or allowing four-five runs in the contest.

We will know early on what version of Maeda we are going to see and the Dodgers offense will know how productive it needs to be. Luckily for Maeda, the Dodgers have scored 17 runs in two games at PNC Park in this series, so he might get some great run support.

As part of our Los Angeles Dodgers Beat the Streak series, here is who we think can record one base hit on the day that will hopefully be a part of another good offensive showing.

Jason’s pick (Current streak 2): Justin Turner

Justin Turner had the day off on Saturday and is slated back in the three spot in the order on Sunday against Chris Archer. With Archer being right-handed, it might seem smarter to go with one of the Dodgers’ left-handed bats, but not in this case.

Not only is Turner fresh after a day off but he has had success in limited appearances against Archer. In five at-bats, Turner has three hits with an RBI. He might not have any doubles or home runs, but his small sample size does indicate that he sees the ball well from Archer.

I don’t expect anything huge out of Turner on Sunday but I do expect a two-hit game, even if they are both singles. All I need is one to extend the streak to three.