LOS ANGELES — A four-time All-Star who has finished in the top five of the Cy Young Award voting three times http://www.billscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-dawson-knox-jersey , Jon Lester looks to be getting even better in his 13th major league season.

And it leaves the Chicago Cubs with no better pitcher to stop a losing streak that was extended to five games Monday with a 2-1 defeat to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Lester will try for his sixth consecutive victory when he faces the Dodgers on Tuesday night in the second game of the four-game series. He will square off against the Dodgers’ Ross Stripling, who had his own six-game streak come to an end last week in Chicago

The Lester-Stripling matchup is the second one in a span of six days.

Lester not only has a 1.64 ERA over his five-start win streak, he has pitched at least six innings in seven consecutive starts and has a 1.67 ERA over his last 12 outings.

“(Lester) is just slowing the game down,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said before Monday’s game in L.A. “He has gone to another level of maturation pitching-wise so I have really been enjoying watching him go about his business.”

Stripling is only in his third major league season, but he has shown an increased maturity level on the field as well this year. With the Dodgers in need of somebody to step up in the wake of a number of injuries to the starting staff, the right-hander made an easy transition from a bullpen role to rotation workhorse.

Stripling (6-2, 1.99) was not terrible in his outing against the Cubs last week, Lester was just better. The right-hander gave up three runs to the Cubs on eight hits with seven strikeouts over six innings. He sounded eager for a rematch.

“We’ve faced these guys in the playoffs the last two years, and it’s a lineup we’re really familiar with, and they’re familiar with us http://www.giantsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-dexter-lawrence-jersey ,” Stripling said after Wednesday’s defeat, according to mlb.com. “We’re right there with this team, and we know that.”

Lester (9-2, 2.10) held the Dodgers to just five hits in his scoreless outing Wednesday as the Cubs closed out a series victory. It is the only series the Dodgers have lost since the middle of May when they were in Miami.

Not only are the Dodgers 16-5 in June, they have 48 home runs in the month after hitting two Monday and nine in their past two games. Since a May 17 victory in Miami, the Dodgers are 26-9.

As good as the Cubs have been since the start of the 2015 season, winning at Dodger Stadium has proved difficult. They are just 2-8 in L.A. in that time, while going a baseball-best 334-226 in that same stretch. They did go 2-1 in L.A. while winning the 2016 National League Championship Series.

The Dodgers’ Enrique Hernandez has three home runs in two games and has six in his last 13 games. He is expected to be in the starting lineup Tuesday against the lefty Lester. Hernandez, the Dodgers’ super-utility player, has a career .874 OPS against left-handed pitching.

The Southeastern Conference is well on its way to having the most players taken in the NFL draft for the 13th year in a row.Twelve of the first 24 picks of the second round Friday night were from the SEC http://www.arizonacardinalsteamonline.com/zach-allen-jersey , and at the end of the third the conference could lay claim to more than a quarter of the players drafted, 28 of 102.The Big Ten, which had seven players go in the third round, has 16 picks so far, followed by the ACC (12) and the Pac-12 and Big 12 (11 each).Florida offensive lineman Jawaan Taylor was the first of three straight SEC players chosen in the second round, going No. 35 overall to the Jaguars. South Carolina wide receiver Deebo Samuel (49ers) and Mississippi offensive lineman Greg Little were next.Missouri quarterback Drew Lock, who went No. 42 to the Broncos, started a run of four SEC players taken over five picks.The SEC, which had nine first-round picks Thursday, had 19 players taken Friday.“In the SEC Cullen Gillaspia Jersey , I had 35 career starts. I left a year early, but I feel like I was ready and prepared to play in the NFL because I played against a lot of great competition,” Taylor said. “Definitely playing at Florida, playing in such a great conference prepared me for this role.”Every SEC school except Arkansas and Tennessee had at least one player drafted in the first three rounds. Alabama has a league-high five and Mississippi and Mississippi State have four each.Defending national champion Clemson has had four players selected to lead the ACC.Last year, the SEC had 27 players drafted through three rounds and finished with 53, and Alabama led the nation with 12.Southern California, the school that has produced the most drafted players in history, didn’t have a player taken until offensive tackle Chuma Edoga was picked by the New York Jets with the 92nd overall pick. That’s the longest USC has had to wait for a player to be selected since 2001.Old Dominion had its first player drafted in program history when defensive end Oshane Ximines went to the Giants in the third round.