Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The title of the thread pretty much says it all.
With home-field advantage nonexistent in the World Series this season, there’s not really any benefit to fighting for the best record in the majors. Currently the Dodgers lead Rays by 3 games and the White Sox(?) by 3.5 games with six games remaining after today.
So the 5-game lead over the Padres for the NL West and the NL as a whole is all that truly matters anymore. Whether it is today or tomorrow, it seems pretty clear the Dodgers will soon have nothing to play for and be waiting to see who the 8th seed is. Currently that mess a tie between the Reds, Brewers and Giants.
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| 12:10 p.m. | Denver | ||
| LF | Pollock | LF | Tapia (L) |
| SS | Seager (L) | DH | Pillar |
| DH | Turner | RF | Blackmon (L) |
| 1B | Muncy (L) | SS | Story |
| CF | Bellinger (L) | 1B | Fuentes |
| C | Smith | CF | Dahl (L) |
| 3B | Rios (L) | C | Diaz |
| 2B | Lux (L) | 3B | McMahon (L) |
| RF | McKinstry (L) | 2B | Hampson |
| P | Gonsolin (R) | P | Senzatela (R) |
As you can see, Mookie Betts and Chris Taylor get the day off and Zach McKinstry starts in right field.
For the Rockies, Nolan Arenado gets the day off which honestly might be good for him.
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Tony Gonsolin starts for the Dodgers, having earned his first victory of the season while calming the panic that had started to set in last week. Hitting 90 pitches in 7 innings on Tuesday, Gonsolin held the Padres to just 1 run and 4 hits.
He’s still not striking out a ton of guys, with 30 Ks across 35 2/3 IP, but Gonsolin has his ERA down to 1.51.
Without taking the time to go too deep into it right now, Gonsolin’s splitter is sitting at a 37.2 Whiff% despite being used 33.4% of the time this season. Against righties, that Whiff% is up to 41.4 while being used 25.1% of the time. With just two singles in 14 PAs, right-handed batters have struggled to do much with the pitch this season.
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In quick news updates for the day…
