Over the last 2 weeks we have watched the surging Braves go from worst to first. Atlanta looks to win their nineth straight games for the first time in 10 years. Atlanta will open a season high 11 game road trip starting with the Dodgers. Atlanta finished a 3 game sweep of their division rivals, the Phillies with a 2-1 win on Wednesday. The Braves won 4 out of 7 last season and look to continue their success behind the young Kris Medlen who is replacing Jair Jurjjens , who is on the Dl. Medlen has been a great fill in. He has pitched 4 games this season posting a 2-1 record with an impressive 2.79 ERA. Atlanta is 3-1 behind Medlen and has won 2 of his last 3 starts. He has only pitched 2 games on the road this season goign 1-1 witha 2.79 ERA, but has been held to only 4 innings in one game and 5 innings in both road games. This will be Medlen's first career start against the Dodgers after going 1-0 with a 2.35 ERA in 4 relief apperances last season.
Hiroki Kuroda will counter for the Dodgers in hopes to help them reach their fifth win in arow. After going 3-1 with a 3.58 ERA in his first 5 may starts, Kuroda was tagged for 7 runs-5 earned off 10 hits in a ason low 4 innings of a 3-11 loss to Colorado. The Dodgers have dropped 2 of his last 3 starts as Kuroda has been shaky with an ERA 6.19 in that span, But has done well at home posting a 2-1 recrd with a 3.62 ERA. The Dodgers have won 4 of his 5 games at Dodger stadium and 7 of his 10 starts overall. Kuroda has pitched well in hiscareer against the Braves goign 1-1 with an ERA of 1.20 ERA in 2 starts and his only start against the Braves at Dodger Stadium, He threw a 1 hitter winning 3-0 back in 08. If you take away the Coors Feild outing, in which most pitchers that are not familiar with the elevation pitch poorly there, unless of course, you have played there for a while. And take away the Interleague loss at Dodger Stadium against the Tigers, IMO is not factorable in these games, He ha had quality startspitching 6 or more innings in 5 of his last 7 starts allowing 3 runs or less in 5 of those 7 starts. Look for Medlen to get shcky after going throught the line-up the frst time as his innings pitched has been limited to this team. Dodgers snap the Braves streak


2*LOS ANGELES DODGERS -133