DODGERS / THE WEEK AHEAD

TODAY AT PITTSBURGH

Schedule: 10:30 a.m. today

* Television: Fox Sports West 2

* Radio: XTRA (1150), KWKW (1330) all three games.

* Pitching matchup: Kevin Brown (9-6, 3.72 ERA) vs. Jason Schmidt (8-7, 4.21)

* Last series: The Dodgers’ starting pitchers ended up being the problem as Los Angeles dropped two of three to the Pirates in mid-June. The trio of Brown, Carlos Perez and Chan Ho Park completed only 12 2/3 innings, giving up 24 hits and posting an 11.36 ERA.

* About the Pirates: The Pirates have, perhaps, the most improbable of all things in major league baseball: a rotation that is good and relatively anonymous. Schmidt, Francisco Cordova, Kris Benson and Todd Ritchie each has a record of .500 or better and an ERA under 5.00.

WED.-THURS. VS. COLORADO

* Schedule: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 1 and 7 p.m. Thursday.

* Television: Fox Sports West 2 all three games.

* Radio: XTRA (1150), KWKW (1330) all three games.

* Pitching matchups: Pedro Astacio (9-8, 5.40 ERA) vs. Ismael Valdes (8-7, 3.29) Wednesday; Brian Bohanon (9-7, 6.36) vs. Chan Ho Park (6-7, 6.29) Thursday afternoon; Bobby M. Jones (4-8, 5.81) vs. Carlos Perez (2-9, 6.88) Thursday night.

* Last series: In a July 5-7 series, the Dodgers scored 11 runs in the first three games and lost all three. In the final game, they equaled that output, and the bullpen gave up only two hits and one run in four innings to preserve an 11-8 victory.

* About the Rockies: The Rockies came into the season with Jim Leyland at the helm and high hopes. Now, nearing the trading deadline at the end of the month, much of the speculation is whether any of higher-salaried players--Darryl Kile, Dante Bichette or Vinny Castilla--will be dealt away.

FRIDAY-SUNDAY AT ARIZONA

* Schedule: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday.

* Television: Channel 5 Friday and Saturday; Fox Sports West 2 Sunday.

* Radio: XTRA (1150), KWKW (1330) all three games.

* Last series: The Diamondbacks took three of four in the April 12-15 series. Darren Dreifort outdueled an ineffective Randy Johnson, who gave up six runs in six innings, in the fourth game of the series, winning, 8-1.

* About the Diamondbacks: After dominating the division in the first 2 1/2 months of the season, the Diamondbacks have slipped in the past month. Part of that was due to the inability of Gregg Olson to close games, a problem that Arizona hopes they solved by trading with Florida for Matt Mantei.