Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Every time I see Alex Guerrero try to play third base, or struggle to make contact, I always figure it’s the last time we’ll see him. But, I suppose Alberto Callaspo can’t play every single day, and Justin Turner is on the DL so… well, I really miss Juan Uribe, is all. Like, a lot.
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Dodgers
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Pirates
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4:05 p.m. PT
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Pittsburgh, Pa.
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SS
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Rollins
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RF
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Polanco
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2B
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Kendrick
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LF
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Marte
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1B
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Gonzalez
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CF
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McCutchen
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LF
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Van Slyke
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3B
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Ramirez
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RF
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Puig
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SS |
Kang
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CF
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Hernandez
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2B
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Walker
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C
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Ellis
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1B
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Alvarez
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Guerrero
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C
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Cervelli
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P
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Latos (R)
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P
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Liriano (L)
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Moving on: Francisco Liriano starts for the Pirates, so Don Mattingly breaks out the lefty-specific lineup. That means Scott Van Slyke and Enrique Hernandez are in, and Andre Ethier, Joc Pederson, and Carl Crawford are out. It also means that A.J. Ellis is in over Yasmani Grandal, and you might remember that a month ago I wrote about that for all the talk about how the Dodgers have “personal catchers,” they don’t, really. They have a simple platoon situation. That hasn’t changed:
When A.J. Ellis & Yasmani Grandal have both been active, Dodgers have faced 17 LHP starters. Ellis has 15 starts, Grandal 1, Barnes 1
— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) August 8, 2015
In other news, the bullpen! …is still a problem. So I was at least somewhat surprised to see Arizona trade Oliver Perez to Houston, because that means that Perez got through waivers (either completely, or just far enough to get to Houston), because that means the Dodgers didn’t put a claim in. Perez still walks too many and he’s hardly a slam-dunk improvement, but it’s not like the Dodgers don’t have at least two bullpen spots that could stand to be upgraded, and since joining Arizona in 2014, he’d whiffed 113 in 87.2 innings. The return was a mostly-unknown low-level pitcher; seems like someone we’d have been happy about the team going after.
