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Red-hot Diamondbacks aim to sweep struggling Dodgers

Aug 5, 2007 - 3:48 PM Arizona (62-50) at LA Dodgers (58-52) 4:10 pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Brandon Webb, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, will look to help the Arizona Diamondbacks complete a series sweep on Sunday against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Los Angeles in turn will counter with a good candidate for this season's award in Brad Penny.

Webb (10-8, 3.08 ERA), who has already lost as many games this season as he did in 2006, has been much more in form lately as he has not yielded a run in his last 15 innings.

That is bad news for the Dodgers, who have not scored more than two runs in a game against the sinkerballer or defeated him since September 7, 2004.

In Tuesday's 4-0 win over the San Diego Padres, the 28-year-old righthander yielded just three hits and struck out seven in seven innings. In 12 lifetime starts, Webb is 7-3 with a 3.09 ERA against Los Angeles.

In an effort to pick up their struggling offense, Penny (13-2, 2.60) may need to once again prove why he is a strong candidate for this season's Cy Young Award. Even with Saturday's seven-run explosion, the Dodgers are averaging just three runs per game over their last nine, going just 2-7 in that time.

The hard-throwing Penny is looking to become just the third pitcher in the majors to reach 14 wins. Fortunately for Los Angeles, his personal success against his opponent rivals Webb's, as he is 7-2 with a 1.81 ERA in 14 career outings against the Diamondbacks.

Included in that is a 2-1 mark with a 2.08 ERA in four starts against them at Dodger Stadium.

Just as impressive is his 2-0 record with a 0.86 ERA in three starts vs. Arizona this season. However, Penny will need to recover from his last outing on Tuesday against San Francisco, in which he permitted three runs and six hits with a season-high five walks in six innings of a 3-1 loss.