Dodger Sta­di­um is an inhos­pitable host.

Four decks full of row­dy fans, a blar­ing sound sys­tem that shakes play­ers to their core, and a very good local base­ball team make Chavez Ravine a very dif­fi­cult place for vis­it­ing teams.

Last year, the Dodgers went 59–22 in their home ball­park, the best home record in the Nation­al League. The Rock­ies were 1–8 there, and all-time, they are 82–143 in Los Angeles.

“When this place has fans in it, it is a very hos­tile envi­ron­ment,” Rock­ies left-han­der Kyle Free­land said Fri­day before the Rock­ies took the field at Dodger Sta­di­um. Free­land is sched­uled to start Sat­ur­day night’s game.

“It’s very loud,” Free­land con­tin­ued. “They have a lot of loud music, they have a lot of fans and it’s a bit of an intim­i­dat­ing atmosphere.

“And, hon­est­ly, you look at their line­up and they obvi­ous­ly have a World Series cal­iber (team). You put those two togeth­er, it doesn’t make win­ning here easy. But at the same time, they’re play­ing the same game.”

This sea­son, of course, there are no fans in the stands and it might be mak­ing a dif­fer­ence. The Dodgers entered Friday’s game with an 8–5 mark at home vs. an 11–3 record on the road.

Road war­riors. The Rock­ies entered Friday’s play with a 1.63 road ERA through 10 games, the low­est road ERA in the majors. Over­all, the Rock­ies have giv­en up only 1.01 home runs per game, the third-low­est mark in the majors, trail­ing only Cleve­land (0.97) and Hous­ton (1.00).

Last sea­son, how­ev­er, the Dodgers hit 44 homers in their 19 games against Col­orado. Accord­ing to STATS, LLC, that num­ber was tied for the most home runs vs. an oppo­nent in a sin­gle sea­son in Nation­al League his­to­ry. Cincin­nati hit 44 off the Brook­lyn Dodgers in 1956.

Tap time. Out­field­er Raimel Tapia was in the lead­off spot for the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive game Fri­day. It could be, if not a per­ma­nent move, then at least some­thing man­ag­er Bud Black will use frequently.

“It makes sense for him to lead off tonight and we’ll see what we do mov­ing for­ward,” Black said. “But Tapia has had expe­ri­ence as a lead­off hit­ter in the minor leagues. He feels com­fort­able there. So I can see this con­tin­u­ing as long as his per­for­mance con­tin­ues to be where it is right now.”

Tapia bat­ted lead­off for the first time this sea­son on Thurs­day and drew a career-high four walks. Fri­day marked the 10th con­sec­u­tive start for the left-hand­ed hit­ter. Over the pre­vi­ous nine games, he hit .414 (12-for-29) with one dou­ble, one triple, five RBIs, eight walks and a .541 on-base percentage.

Har­vey update. The Rock­ies recalled left-han­der James Pazos from their alter­nate train­ing site Fri­day after plac­ing right-han­der Joe Har­vey on the 10-day injured list with a right elbow sprain. Har­vey was pulled out of Thursday’s game against Hous­ton in the sixth inning after feel­ing his elbow tight­en up.

“Joe went through an MRI and some scans (Thurs­day),” Black said. “It showed a lit­tle bit of trau­ma to the elbow joint. We’re going to con­tin­ue to assess it. It doesn’t look as though any­thing is pend­ing or is long term (that) might affect Joe.”

On Deck
Rock­ies LHP Kyle Free­land (2–1, 2.56 ERA) at Dodgers RHP Dustin May (1–1, 3.00)
7:10 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Dodger Stadium
TV: AT&T SportsNet
Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 AM

Free­land is 5‑for‑5 in qual­i­ty starts this sea­son and has been Colorado’s most con­sis­tent pitch­er. He’s com­ing off a tough, 2–1 loss at Hous­ton in which he pitched six innings, allow­ing two runs on sev­en hits. He struck out two and walked none. Free­land has a 3.96 ERA in five career starts at Dodger Sta­di­um, where he’s struck out 14 and walked 14 but only served up one homer. Freeland’s WHIP at Chavez Ravine is a rel­a­tive­ly high 1.680. A.J. Pol­lock has hit Free­land hard, bat­ting .400 (8‑for-20) with two home runs. May allowed two runs on sev­en hits and struck out two over 4 1/3 innings in a no-deci­sion ver­sus the Angels on Sun­day. He need­ed 88 pitch­es to get through his short out­ing. He has not allowed more than two runs in any start this sea­son but he’s made it to the sixth inning just twice. May’s pri­ma­ry pitch is a two-seam fast­ball that aver­ages 97.9 mph. May has faced the Rock­ies just once, throw­ing one inning of relief last season.

Trend­ing: Raimel Tapia entered Fri­day night’s game hit­ting .414 (12-for-29) in his past nine games, with sev­en hits in his last 16 at-bats.

At issue: The Rock­ies entered the three-game week­end series at Los Ange­les 4–20 in the past 24 games vs. the Dodgers since Sept. 9, 2018. Also, the Rock­ies have lost 13 of the last 14 games at Dodger Sta­di­um since July 1, 2018.

Pitch­ing Probables:
Sun­day: Rock­ies RHP Anto­nio Sen­za­tela (3–0, 3.90) at Dodgers RHP Ross Stripling (3–1, 5.61), 2:10 p.m., ATTRM
Mon­day: Rock­ies RHP Ryan Castel­lani (0–1, 3.77) at Dia­mond­backs RHP Mer­rill Kel­ly (3–2, 2.59), 7:40 p.m., ATTRM
Tues­day: Rock­ies RHP Ger­man Mar­quez (2–4, 4.38) at Dia­mond­backs TBD, 7:40 p.m., ATTRM