Tigers @ Dodgers April 29, 2022: Tyler A. vs Tyler A. as the Dodgers return home

Dodger Stadium
Photo by: Cody Bashore

It’s been an eventful couple days for the Dodgers. They played horrible baseball for the second straight day on Wednesday, leading to a series loss against the Diamondbacks. Then earlier today, a pretty big bomb dropped (more on that after the preview-y parts of this thread). Tonight, the Dodgers begin a five-game homestand and play their first interleague game of the season as the Detroit Tigers visit LA. On April 23, the Tigers beat the Rockies 13-0 to inch towards a .500 record at 6-7. In five games since then, the Tigers have scored nine runs (four of which came in one game) and now they’re 6-12.

Image Image
7:10 PM Los Angeles
CF Hill RF Betts
LF Grossman (S) 1B Freeman (L)
SS Baez SS T.Turner
DH Cabrera 3B J.Turner
RF Meadows (L) DH Muncy (L)
1B Torkelson C Smith
3B Candelario (S) CF Bellinger (L)
2B Schoop LF Taylor
C Barnhart (S) 2B Lux (L)
P Alexander (L) P Anderson (L)

They couldn’t make this easy on me. Tyler Anderson gets the start for the Dodgers for the second time after his first two outings came in relief. He threw a season-high 80 pitches last time out and lasted 4 2/3 innings in San Diego. He allowed four hits, three walks and two runs in his 4 2/3 innings, leaving the game losing as the Dodgers couldn’t figure out Yu Darvish. He’s pitched four+ innings in each of his three outings and struck out exactly four batters each time out. Anderson hasn’t exactly been stellar, but he’s been exactly what a swing starter/piggyback guy needs to be so far this season. He may remain in the rotation a bit as Andrew Heaney reportedly still hasn’t thrown a ball since being shut down following his April 19 start.

Tyler Alexander starts for the Tigers. Last season, Alexander appeared in 41 games (15 starts) and posted a 3.81 ERA/4.39 FIP in 106 1/3 innings. Alexander’s FIP luck has turned through three starts last year, as he owns a 7.20 ERA and 3.67 FIP. Alexander opened the season with a relatively normal start, allowing three runs in 5 1/3 innings against Boston. He followed that up with a one-inning outing, as the Yankees made him throw 42 pitches in the first and scored two unearned runs (on a popup that Alexander made an error on). He then faced the Rockies, who scored five runs and had eight hits in 3 2/3 innings.

Baseball Savant has Alexander tagged with three different fastballs. Last season he threw a cutter the most often (36.2 percent of the time), and also threw a sinker (21.1 percent) and four-seam (14.7 percent). He also threw a changeup 18.4 percent of the time (all but 10 were thrown to righties) and mixed in a slider 9.6 percent of the time. He’s a low velocity pitcher, averaging under 90 MPH with each of his pitches so far this season.

The Dodgers roll out a normal lineup with Max Muncy serving as the DH tonight.

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Dustin already wrote about this, which I think absolves me of having to go too deep into this. Though I think my official stance should mostly be known by now (it rhymes with ‘Duck Krevor Sauer’).

I am quite excited to put this chapter of the Dodgers in the rearview.

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Tommy Kahnle checked another box off his rehab and should be back next week.

Kahnle survived back-to-back outings in the minors and will make one more appearance this weekend before being activated for the Giants series (beginning Tuesday).

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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PDT and will be shown on Sportsnet LA.

About Alex Campos

I've been writing about the Dodgers since I graduated from Long Beach State, where I covered the Dirtbags in my senior year. I'm either very good or very bad at puns.