Clayton Kershaw and Dodgers go for series sweep

LOS ANGELES —— The Dodgers will go for a series sweep and try to wrap up their longest home stand of the season with a win over the Chicago Cubs. The last time the Dodgers swept a three-game series against the Cubs was in August 2012. That Cubs team was pretty bad as they went 61-101 that season.

Clayton Kershaw is making is ninth career start against the Cubs which is the second lowest number of starts against any National League team. Kershaw has started against the Atlanta Braves eight times in his career.

Jon Lester is making his seventh career start against the Dodgers, he has faced the Dodgers twice in each of this three seasons with the Cubs. He had one start against the Dodgers when he played for the Boston Red Sox.

Kershaw and Lester had nearly identical starts last Monday. Kershaw made his start at home against the St. Louis Cardinals and Lester was pitching at Wrigley against the San Francisco Giants.

Both pitched nine innings, they each gave up a run, struck out ten with no walks. The only differences were Lester gave up four hits while Kershaw gave up three and that Lester got the complete game win while Kershaw got a no-decision in a game the Dodgers would eventually win in 13 innings.

Just for added fun, Kershaw is currently, according to Baseball-Reference, the active leader in ERA (2.35), winning percentage (.682), hits per 9 innings (6.614), WHIP (0.9996), shutouts (15), home runs per 9 innings (0.55) and Fielding Independent Pitching aka FIP (2.55).

The Dodgers current record of 30-20 is tied for the third best Dodger record in the first fifty games of the season since 1995. Only the 2009 Dodgers at 34-16 and the 2012 Dodgers at 32-18 had better records. The 2003 and 2015 Dodgers were also 30-20.

This season is the first time since 1998, when the current NL West was configured, that three NL West teams have won 30 or more games in their first 50 games.

Game info

Time: 1:10 p.m. PT

TV: SportsNet LA, MLB Network