Diamondbacks @ Dodgers September 21, 2022: May starts as Dodgers look for a series win

Dodger Stadium
Photo by: Cody Bashore

The Dodgers played a doubleheader yesterday, and despite their best efforts managed to win one of the two games. It was one of the sloppiest days of baseball the Dodgers have played in a minute, as they committed six errors in the two games and left 21 on base (but managed to win the first game where they left 15 on base).

Tonight, the Dodgers look for their fourth win in this five-game series before welcoming Albert Pujols and the Cardinals to Dodger Stadium over the weekend. The question for Chad is if a four-game sweep is a mega-sweep what are we calling a five-game sweep? Also they end the season with six against the Rockies, what happens if they sweep?

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7:10 PM Los Angeles
DH Varsho (L) RF Betts
LF Carroll (L) SS T. Turner
RF McCarthy (L) 1B Freeman (L)
1B Walker DH J. Turner
3B Rivera 2B Taylor
2B Alcantara (S) CF Thompson
C Kelly C Barnes
CF Thomas (L) LF Vargas
SS Perdomo (S)( 3B Alberto
P Bumgarner (L) P May (R)

Dustin May starts tonight and is coming off a very strong outing in San Francisco on Friday. May needed only 69 pitches and faced the minimum in his five innings of work. The lone Giant baserunner came on a second-inning walk, which was followed by an inning-ending double play. May struck out four and averaged 99 MPH on his fastball and 97.7 on his sinker per Baseball Savant, his highest average for both those pitches in a game since his return from the IL.

Opposing May is Madison Bumgarner, who has had a rough season. Madbum started off the season on a deceivingly high note, with a 1.78 ERA through his first seven starts. His 4.69 FIP indicated that a regression might be coming, and it extremely did. Bumgarner’s FIP has stayed semi-consistent in 23 starts since then (4.88), but in that time he has a 5.67 ERA and opponents are OPSing .877 off him. He’s had an especially rough go of it of late, as he’s allowed at least four runs in eight of his last nine starts, a stretch that has seen his ERA jump from 3.71 to 5.01. This will only be Bumgarner’s second look at the 2022 Dodgers. He saw them in Arizona on May 27 and allowed five runs in six innings, all of which coming on home runs. He allowed two second-inning homers (a three-run homer to Edwin Rios and a solo to Mookie Betts) and a solo in the fourth to Trea Turner.

Well, his walk rate is ok.

With a lefty on the hill, Trayce Thompson starts in center and Miguel Vargas and Hanser Alberto start in left and at third, respectively. Austin Barnes catches May, and Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger get the night off.

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Pitching injury updates.

Brusdar Graterol will likely be activated tomorrow, but Blake Treinen will not be. He’s not bouncing back as well as hoped.

Tony Gonsolin and David Price will each throw BP tomorrow, and Yency Almonte will throw in at least two more rehab games before potentially returning.

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Today feels a bit emptier without a Demi Adejuyigbe video.

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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT 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.