No escaping LA aces in upcoming series

SAN DIEGO -- The Dodgers held Zack Greinke back when they faced the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Aug. 1-4 because they wanted the right-hander to face the Cardinals. There's no escaping Greinke or Clayton Kershaw this week when the Cubs head to Dodger Stadium.

Jake Arrieta (1-0, 3.71 ERA) will face Greinke (12-3, 2.91) on Monday, and Travis Wood (7-10, 3.22) will start Tuesday against Kershaw (13-7, 1.72) in the first two games of the three-game series.

"Why did you have to bring that up? Let's talk about something else," Cubs manager Dale Sveum said when asked about the Dodgers series.

Told that he'll have the bus ride from San Diego to Los Angeles to think about it, Sveum laughed.

"You don't want to deal with that until it happens," he said. "They're on a roll that baseball hasn't seen in many, many years. Part of it is, obviously, the offense. But when you have Greinke, Kershaw going two out of five days, you're talking about two guys who can win Cy Youngs in any given year or throw a no-hitter on any given day. That's not something you want to think about until you arrive at Dodger Stadium [Monday]."

The Dodgers swept the four-game series at Wrigley, outscoring the Cubs, 16-6.