Dodgers @ Phillies August 17, 2016: Kazmir vs. Thompson

Dodgers
Phillies
4:05 p.m. PT
Philadelphia
2B
Utley
2B 
Hernandez
SS
Seager
CF
Herrera
3B
Turner
LF
Altherr
 RF
 Reddick
1B 
Joseph
1B
 González
3B
Franco
C
Grandal
C
Ruiz
CF
 Pederson  SS Galvis
LF
 Kendrick
RF 
Bourjos
P
Kazmir (L)
P
Thompson (R)

The good news about Scott Kazmir is that he has pitched into at least the sixth inning in his past three starts. The bad news is that the Dodgers lost all three games.

In his most recent start (also against the Phillies), Kazmir was excellent through six scoreless innings before allowing two baserunners in the top of the seventh that eventually came in to score on a home run allowed by Grant Dayton. If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Kazmir this season, it’s that a strong start isn’t necessarily a sign that we’re going to see any kind of prolonged stretch of solidness from the southpaw. But it was still encouraging to see Kazmir as effective as he was in that game.

Rookie right hander Jake Thompson gets the ball for the Phillies, making just his third MLB start. In nine and a third big league innings pitched, Thompson has allowed nine runs on nine hits and five walks while striking out seven. Baseball America had this to say about Thompson when he was called up:

Thompson owns two fastballs—a four-seamer in the 93-94 mph range and a two-seamer a tick lower than that—as well as a slider, curveball and a changeup. He likes to mix his fastballs at what he labels a roughly 50-50 clip, especially to keep lefthanded hitters from diving out on the plate to get to his four-seamer. His changeup is developing and the Phillies would like him to incorporate it more.

With another righty on the mound for Philadelphia, the Dodgers roll out the same lineup as they did yesterday. It’s hard to imagine that anything could top Chase Utley‘s epic homecoming last night, but I’d certainly like to see the Dodgers try.

At time of posting, the Pirates were three outs away from completing a sweep of the Giants, though the Giants had the bases loaded. Should Pittsburgh hold on — and that’s admittedly a fairly big “should” — then no matter what, the Dodgers will remain with sole possession of first place, and a win would put them one and a half games up on San Francisco. Otherwise, the Dodgers will need to win to stay atop the NL West.

In other Dodger news — stop me if you’ve heard (something very similar to) this before:

We’ll also be seeing Adam Liberatore again very soon:

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About Sarah Wexler

Sarah Wexler is a native Angeleno and longtime Dodger fan. She began blogging about baseball in 2012 on her Tumblr, New Grass On The Field, where she covered an array of topics but especially enjoyed exploring baseball history. She is now a reporter/producer for MLB.com. She earned her master's degree in Sports Management from Cal State Long Beach. She graduated from New York University in 2014 with a bachelor's in History and a minor in American Studies. She's an avid Springsteen fan, which is a big boost to her baseball writer cred.