Chasing the league's top record, the Los Angeles Dodgers lean on a dominant rotation to stifle the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Los Angeles Dodgers may have lost four of their last six games, but most recently, they've won two of their last three.
Now 82-55, the back-to-back World Series Champions are three games back of having the best record in all of baseball.
They've recently been passed up by both the Tampa Bay Rays and Atlanta Braves, so clearly, the Dodgers have some work to do as three of the top four teams in baseball are in the National League.
An NL Central opponent awaits the Dodgers as they'll return home for a crucial nine-game homestand that begins with the 68-70 St. Louis Cardinals coming to town.
Eric Lauer returns to the starting rotation
The Dodgers were hopeful that Shohei Ohtani would've been able to open yesterday's game, but he's not feeling 100%, so manager Dave Roberts knew there was no need to rush his return to the mound.
While it seemed like this rotation was back to full strength, Roki Sasaki recently went on the Injured List for a blister, meaning Roberts had no choice but to put Lauer, someone who's exceeded all expectations this year, back in the rotation.
Lauer will take game one as he puts his 8-6 record and 4.78 ERA to the test against Michael McGreevy, the Cardinals series opening starter who is 5-9 with a 3.86 ERA and is just two strikeouts shy of 100 this season.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets game two
Yoshinobu Yamamoto is coming off a surprising loss on Thursday, Aug. 27, where he allowed just one earned run in 6.1 innings.
The Dodgers lost that game, 1-0, so it's the most undeserving loss in the world for a pitcher who is now 12-8 on the year.
Regardless, Yamamoto had a stellar 1.95 ERA in the month of August, and he's only allowed three earned runs once in his last seven starts.
Tarik Skubal will handle the series finale
At the time of writing, the Cardinals have yet to announce their starters for the final two games of the series.
St. Louis knows what they're getting themselves into having to face Yamamoto and Tarik Skubal in back-to-back games, a seemingly impossible task for a team under .500 to handle.
Skubal is also coming off a strong six-inning start where he allowed just one run against his former team, but he didn't record a decision in that game. He's still just 1-2 in a Dodgers uniform, but he's a 0.7 WAR player with a solid 3.00 ERA and 1.03 WHIP.
