After going more than two months without losing a series, the Los Angeles Dodgers are in danger of dropping two in a row.
Ricky Nolasco hopes to help the Dodgers prevent that from happening when he tries to continue his recent success Wednesday against the lowly Chicago Cubs.
Since June 19, Los Angeles (77-55) went 18 straight series without losing one before dropping two of three to AL-leading Boston last weekend. The Dodgers avoided a third straight loss with Monday's 6-2 win over Chicago (56-76), but fell 3-2 on Tuesday.
The Dodgers last dropped consecutive series June 10-16, and at home April 29-May 8. They have an 8 1/2-game lead over Arizona in the NL West.
Clayton Kershaw struck out nine but labored while giving up two runs and seven hits over 5 2-3 innings Tuesday while Chicago's Travis Wood yielded a run over seven. Starlin Castro and Dioner Navarro each had two hits with an RBI for the Cubs, who snapped an eight-game slide to the Dodgers by winning for the eighth time in 29 contests.
"Unfortunately, I couldn't go deeper into the game for our guys, but I was just trying to limit the damage," Kershaw said.
