First pitch: Wednesday, 8:10 p.m. ET
Line: Los Angeles -140, Colorado +130, Total: 10.5

The Los Angeles Dodgers attempt to calm their road woes when they take on the Colorado Rockies this Wednesday night.

The Dodgers just barely remain in first-place in the NL Central after losing four of their past seven games while scoring three or fewer runs in each of the losses. They have had issues on the road all season and after being defeated in 2-of-3 games in St. Louis, Los Angeles has put up some gaudy offensive numbers and won two of the first three in Colorado. They have 23 runs through the first three contests of this series and split the double-header on Tuesday, winning the night game in comeback fashion by a score of 9-8. The teams combined for 28 hits in the victory and it was the Dodgers’ four homers that earned them the win. The clutch hit came from OF Alexander Guerrero (.296) who took a ball deep with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth inning and has hit four balls out of the park in the last eight games. The Rockies have been riding a recent tear in which they are 8-3 since May 23rd and had seen their starting pitching allow a miniscule 2.3 runs per game in the two series before this set. Colorado has only earned one win in this series thus far and it came on Tuesday afternoon in a 6-3 game. They had 12 hits in the win as two balls left the park and followed that up with eight runs on 15 hits in the nightcap loss. With three multi-hit performances in the last four games, 2B D.J. LeMahieu (.339) has been hot and is 15-for-41 (.367) with six runs scored. Toeing the rubber for Los Angeles in this one is RHP Mike Bolsinger (3-1, 1.15 ERA) as he hopes to outduel RHP Chad Bettis (2-0, 2.96 ERA) of the host Rockies. The Dodgers have not performed well when away from home as evidenced by their 10-14 record in road games as they go head-to-head with Colorado which is just 9-15 at home. With a 31-19 record against the Rockies since the start of 2013, the Dodgers have been dominant in the matchup and are 9-3 against them in 2015. The early loss on Tuesday was L.A.’s first in five tries this year when playing the Rockies in Colorado. Trends show that the Rockies are 15-42 (.263) as an underdog of +125 to 175 in the past two seasons while Colorado is 15-9 (.625) as an underdog of +100 to +150 this year. A few key players are missing from each side in this one as OFs Carl Crawford (Oblique) and Yasiel Puig (Hamstring) are out for the visitors while OF Corey Dickerson (Foot) and 1B Justin Morneau (Concussion) continue to recover from their injuries.

Bolsinger has been a huge addition to the Dodgers rotation since joining the club on April 23rd and in his 31.1 frames has allowed a mere 21 hits with a solid 25:9 K/BB ratio. He has yet to allow more than two runs in any of his outings and this start is a huge upgrade from what he did in his debut at the Major League level last year, going 1-6 with a 5.50 ERA over 10 games (9 starts) with the Diamondbacks. Much of his success in 2015 has come from improving on his already solid control with just 2.6 BB/9 as he is giving up a miniscule 0.29 HR/9. Bolsinger has had two starts against this Rockies team and is 1-0 with a 3.27 ERA (1.27 WHIP) and had one of his best starts of this year when he went six scoreless innings with three hits allowed and six strikeouts (2 walks) in a winning effort against them in mid-May. No player on Colorado has more than six at-bats against the righty with SS Troy Tulowitzki (2-for-3, 1 HR, 2 RBI) and SS Daniel Descalso (2-for-2) doing well in limited time. On the other hand, OF Charlie Blackmon and C Wilin Rosario are a combined 1-for-9 with four strikeouts. The Dodgers ‘pen has been one of the best in the league with a 10-8 record, 2.65 ERA (1.16 WHIP) and have saved 11-of-17 (65%) games. Kenley Jansen (0.00 ERA, 5 saves) has been nearly perfect this year with one hit allowed and an 11:0 K/BB ratio over six innings of work.

Bettis has looked great in his four starts this year after spending parts of the past three seasons at both triple-A and the Majors while splitting time between being a reliever and a starter. His command has been tremendous in that time with six walks in his 27.1 innings of work (2.0 BB/9) and has just two over the past three starts (22.1 IP). His club has gotten the win in each of his outings and he has given them at least eight innings in each of his last two times on the mound as he comes off the best showing of the season when he went eight innings of shutout baseball, giving up two hits with seven strikeouts (0 walks) against the Phillies. Bettis has not had any fun against Los Angeles in two career starts, going 0-0 with an 8.38 ERA (2.38 WHIP) and had his only bad outing of the year (5 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 3 K, 4 BB) when they met earlier last month. The duo of OF Andre Ethier and C A.J. Ellis are 4-for-9 with three doubles and two RBI as OF Joc Pederson (0-for-3) and SS Jimmy Rollins (1-for-5) have struggled in the matchup. The bullpen for Colorado has not been able to tame the thin air of the “Mile High City” and they are 9-7 with a 4.52 ERA (1.37 WHIP) while successfully saving 15-of-20 (75%) games. John Axford (0.60 ERA, 10 saves) is perfect in his save chances this year and has not allowed a run in his last nine frames.