The Redlegs begin yet another dreaded west coast road trip tonight with game one of a series against the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine. The Reds have lost two in a row, and stand at 22-26, 6.5 games behind first-place Milwaukee.

During this series, the Reds will face a trifecta of brilliant Dodgers hurlers: Hyun-Jin Ryu, Zack Greinke, and Clayton Kershaw. This is gonna be fun, Reds fans!

Tonight, we’ll see Ryu, who is currently 4-2 with a 3.00 ERA. The last time he faced the Reds was in July of 2013, when he surrendered only two hits and one run over seven innings, striking out nine and walking just one.

He’s good, but the Reds have a pretty good pitcher slated to start tonight, as well. His name is Johnny Cueto, and even after a rough outing last week against Washington, Cueto is 4-3 with a 1.86 ERA. He hasn’t faced Los Angeles in nearly two years, when he went took the loss despite going seven strong innings, allowing three runs on seven hits, striking out seven without walking a batter.

Here’s tonight’s lineup:

1. CF: Billy Hamilton
2. SS: Zack Cozart
3. 2B: Brandon Phillips
4. 1B: Todd Frazier
5. LF: Ryan Ludwick
6. RF: Chris Heisey
7. C: Brayan Pena
8. 3B: Ramon Santiago
9. SP: Johnny Cueto

Chad Dotson

Blame Chad for creating this mess.

Chad launched Redleg Nation in February 2005, and has been writing about the Reds ever since. His first book, “The Big 50: The Men and Moments That Made the Cincinnati Reds” is now available in bookstores and online, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and wherever fine books are sold. You can also find Chad’s musings about the Cincinnati Reds in the pages of Cincinnati Magazine.