by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s will be in Los Angeles for a short two-game series starting Tuesday evening against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The A’s lost the last four games since the Scott Kazmir trade and were swept by the San Francisco Giants over the weekend.

The Giants are red hot having won 11 of the last 12 games played and are just one game behind the NL West Divison leaders, the hated LA Dodgers. The A’s could help the Giants by knocking off the Dodgers, but they will have their work cut out for them as they will be facing two left-handed starters. The A’s are 7-19 against lefties in 2015, and one of the lefties is the reigning Cy Young award winner and the Most Valuable Player in the National League last year, Clayton Kershaw.

The Dodgers will enter the game with a record of 56-44 and hold a one game lead over the surging Giants. The Giants were four games behind the Dodgers last week but picked up three games in the standings as they were 9-1 in their last ten games while the Dodgers were a mediocre 5-5.

Former Oakland Athletic, Brett Anderson, will be on the hill for the Dodgers Tuesday night. Anderson sports a record of 5-5 and has an ERA of 3.33. The Dodger offense can be potent. The Dodger attack is led by first baseman, Adrian Gonzalez. Gonzalez is hitting .298 with 21 homers and 60 RBIs. The rest of the infield is solid with Howie Kendrick at second, Jimmy Rollins at short and Justin Turner at third. All four infielders have a lot of pop in their bats and can do a ton of damage. The outfield is manned by Andre Ethier, rookie Joc Pedersen, and Yasiel Puig. Ethier is hitting .276 with ten homers and 33 RBIs. Rookie-of the-year candidate, Joc Pedersen, has a low batting average, .230, but has hit 21 dingers and has knocked in 43. Rightfield is manned by Yasiel Puig. Puig missed six weeks of the season due to a hamstring injury and is batting just .253 with six homers and 22  ribbies. There has been a lot of speculation in the LA press that Puig might be traded. His production has gone down each year since he broke in 2013. The Dodger management has said that they have no intention of trading Puig, but one never knows. The catching chores are handled by All-Star catcher, Yasmani Grandal. Grandal came to the Dodgers in the trade that sent Matt Kemp to the Padres. On paper, the deal looked like a steal for the Padres as Grandal’s performance in 2014 was subpar. This year, however, Grandal has been a pleasant surprise handling the talented Dodger pitching staff while compiling a batting average of .281 and having hit fourteen home runs and making the NL All-Star team.

The A’s continue to flounder in 2015. They own a record of 44-56 and have just 62 games left to play. They have not had a lengthy hot streak so far this season and continue to play sloppy baseball. They have committed 86 errors to lead the majors. A’s GM Billy Beane traded away one of their best pitchers, Scott Kazmir, as it became apparent that the A’s were not going to make the playoffs. Rumors swirl around the clubhouse about the futures of closer Tyler Clippard, utilityman Ben Zobrist and reliever Eric O’Flaherty. All three players will be free agents at the end of the year, and Beane probably will trade them for prospects.

After the series in LA, they A’s return home for a ten game homestand against the Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles, and Houston Astros.