Kris Bryant has not a hit a home run at Coors Field as a member of the Colorado Rockies.
That dry spell ends on Thursday night, as Bryant gets to face a left-handed pitcher that he has had a wealth of success against.
Bryant has four home runs in 24 career at-bats against the Los Angeles Dodgers southpaw, three of which came a year ago. Bryant has nine hits and a 1.381 OPS in his career against Anderson.
The Rockies third baseman is not the only slugger in the Dodgers-Rockies matchup with a terrific history against his opposing pitcher.
Freddie Freeman also has four dingers against Jose Urena. Freeman owns a .412 batting average against Colorado's Jose Urena in 34 career at-bats.
The Coors Field showdown is one of a few matchups with my attention on the Thursday slate. One of the other ones involves a star pitcher going up against a team with a high strikeout rate.
Thursday MLB Picks
Kris Bryant
Home Run (+300)
Over 1.5 Total Bases (-120)
Kris Bryant might be the most due home run hitter in MLB.
The Rockies third baseman has yet to go yard at Coors Field, which seems unfathomable for someone with his power, even if he missed time this season.
Bryant hit three home runs off Tyler Anderson last season and he owns a 1.018 OPS against left-handed pitching this season.
Anderson was rocked for four earned runs on 10 hits in his last trip to Coors Field. He has been solid in his last four starts, but three of them occurred inside Dodger Stadium.
Anderson has a 3.02 road ERA and 16 earned runs on the road. In fact, he conceded the same number of earned runs on the road than at home but in eight fewer innings.
Bryant should benefit from his history against Anderson and his strength against left-handed pitching to at least record two total bases on Thursday.
Freddie Freeman
Home Run (+360)
Over 1.5 Total Bases (-170)
It is hard to ignore Freddie Freeman's career numbers against Jose Urena.
The Dodgers first baseman has four home runs and a .412 batting average against the right-handed hurler in his career. They faced each other a lot when Freeman was in Atlanta and Urena pitched in Miami.
Freeman has had some success inside Coors Field in his career. He has 22 extra-base hits, seven of them home runs, and a .283 batting average in Denver.
Urena has given the Rockies length with four straight starts of 5.1 innings or longer, but he has given up 23 hits in July and the Dodgers just saw him throw at the start of the month.
Zack Wheeler
Over 6.5 Strikeouts (+100)
Over 18.5 Outs (-115)
Zach Wheeler lasted seven innings in three of his last four starts for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Wheeler's strikeout numbers have been low in those outings, but he has a chance to bring those totals back up on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are one of three teams in the majors to have more than 900 team strikeouts.
Pittsburgh's offense should not put up much of a fight. The Pirates scored one or two runs in four of their last five games and they suffered seven strikeouts against Keegan Thompson of the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday.
The Pirates will be without Bryan Reynolds, who was placed on the paternity list, and that makes their offense even more limited than it already was going into the battle of Pennsylvania teams.