Dodgers looking for quality starts at Coors Field

If weather in Denver permits, the Dodgers will open a three-game weekend series against the Rockies on Friday night at Coors Field, with Brett Anderson on the mound in search of the quality start.

The quality start is a crude metric which often gets derided for its minimum qualifications - six innings and three earned runs, a mediocre 4.50 ERA - though teams that get them generally win. Since the start of 2005, teams that get a quality start from their starting pitcher have won 67.2 percent of games (16,808 wins, 8.174 losses through Wednesday).

In 2014, pitchers throwing a quality start — there were 2,623 of them in all — on average lasted 6.83 innings and had a 1.88 ERA in those games.

The Dodgers from 2005-2014 have had 30 quality starts at Coors Field, an average of three per season, with between two and four every year, including four in 2014.

They are 23-7 (.767) in those games, and 24-38 (.387) when they don't get a quality start.

Brett Anderson is coming off his best start of the season, pitching six scoreless innings on Sunday in a no-decision against the Diamondbacks. He pitched for the Rockies in 2014, and had a quality start in two of his four home starts (in the fourth start, he pitched three scoreless innings but left with a back injury that would require season-ending surgery), both weird affairs.

In one of his Coors Field quality starts he actually allowed five runs and 10 hits in six innings though two of the runs were unearned, and in the other game he pitched scoreless baseball into the seventh inning but walked four and struck out only one.

This season Anderson has two quality starts in five outings. As a group the Dodgers rotation is in the middle of the pack in the National League with 15 quality starts, while the Rockies are dead last with five.

Eddie Butler pitches for the Rockies. He has one quality start in his eight career outings, a start last September against Arizona at Coors Field. He allowed one run in six innings and struck out one.

The Rockies, it should be noted, have more quality starts against the Dodgers at Coors Field in the last 10 years than do the Dodgers, with 38. Colorado is 26-12 (.684) in those games, right in line with the MLB winning percentage in quality starts during that span.

Game info

Time: 5:40 p.m.

TV: SportsNet LA