Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Texas Rangers

As the season begins closing in on its mid-way point, which will happen in about three weeks, usually the team that has the best record in the game has a bright future. More times than not that team will be heading to the postseason, with a World Series berth a distinct possibility.

However for the best team in baseball currently, the Los Angeles Dodgers, a World Series could be tricky as the Dodgers (40-21) have not fared very well against the junior circuit in recent interleague matchups.

They will get a chance to turn around this fact again when they travel to Texas to take on the AL West-leading Texas Rangers, for the first time since 2000, after they dropped two of three to the in-state rival Los Angeles Angels in the first interleague series of the season, back on May 22-24.

Since the beginning of last season, the Los Angeles Dodgers have sputtered to a 6-12 record against American League foes. Even worse is how they play in the AL parks, where many believe the NL teams possess an advantage by starting a bench player who does not usually get many at-bats. Los Angeles was 1-5 last year on the road versus AL teams and 5-28 since 2005.

Nine of their next 12 come against American League teams and their first series will be against a team with some recent success at home against NL teams.

The Texas Rangers (34-25) have gone 12-6 at home against the Senior Circuit since 2007.

Texas was unable to take care of business at home in their last series there, however they did manage to salvage a 1-0 win on Thursday over the Toronto Blue Jays, to take one of the three games in the rain-shortened series.

The Rangers steady offense, particularly in Arlington, was absent in the series as they only scored four runs, 16 hits and hit .176 in the series.

Bad news continues for Texas as they will face the rather unhittable Hiroki Kuroda (1-1, 1.62). The right-hander missed the first two months of the season because of an oblique strain, but has come back solidly by allowing two runs on five hits over 11 innings in his last two starts, including a no-decision in his last outing when he kept the potent Philadelphia Phillies lineup in check with six shutout innings in a 3-2, 12 inning Dodgers victory on Saturday.

Facing him will be Vicente Padilla (4-3, 5.22), who improved off a terrible performance against the New York Yankees when he allowed seven runs in just 3 2/3 innings to get a victory by allowing three runs on four hits in seven innings of a 6-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.

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