Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Yesterday’s matchup between pitchers with ERA’s around 6.00 naturally turned into a pitchers’ duel, but the Dodgers were able to outlast the Angels in extras. Ron Washington was given the unenviable task of choosing whether to get beaten by Shohei Ohtani in his Angel Stadium homecoming or intentionally walk him to put two on in extras for Mookie Betts. He chose Betts, and that decision backfired one pitch later. His three-run homer gave the Dodgers a 6-2 win and their 13th win in their last 17 games. It also helped the Dodgers gain a half game on the Padres, who for some reason were off last night despite starting a three-game set with Detroit on Monday (and play them tonight and tomorrow). Today, the Dodgers end their quick six-game roadtrip as Bobby Miller looks to build off an improved last start.
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| 6:38 PM | Anaheim | |||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | LF | Ward | |
| RF | Betts | SS | Neto | |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | 1B | Schanuel (L) | |
| LF | Hernández | 3B | Rendon | |
| 2B | Lux (L) | CF | Moniak (L) | |
| CF | Edman (S) | C | O’Hoppe | |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | 2B | Drury | |
| SS | Rojas | RF | Adell | |
| C | Barnes | DH | Kavadas (L) | |
| P | Miller (R) | P | Canning (R) |
Miller allowed only two walks and a single through his first four innings in his last start against a strong Oriole offense. He was able to work around the two third-inning walks and got a double play to erase a one-out single in the fourth. The Dodgers sent eight batters to the plate and there was a pitching change in the bottom of the fourth, and Miller came out of the extended break looking more like the Miller we’ve mostly seen this year. He hit the leadoff batter and issued a walk, but also got a pair of groundouts. He was an out away from getting through five shutout, but fell behind 3-1 to Colton Cowser and served up a three-run bomb to spoil his night. A three-run, two hit outing over five innings is still one of Miller’s strongest starts during this rough season for him but the homer bug continued to bite Miller. He’s allowed 12 homers in 10 starts this season and has allowed at least one in each of his last nine starts. His last start snapped a string of three consecutive starts allowing two homers. This will be Miller’s first start against the Angels, as he missed them back in June and managed to miss them in 2023.
The Angels counter with Griffin Canning making his 27th start (and 28th overall appearance) of the season. Canning’s 5.19 ERA is somehow the best of all four starters in this series. Canning has turned in a few very strong starts this season (against weaker offenses), but has also been lit up a few times. He’s allowed one or zero runs in seven of his 27 outings, but has also allowed five or more five times. He experienced both sides of that coin in back-to-back starts in mid-August. Canning allowed seven runs and eight hits in 4 1/3 innings against Atlanta and followed that up allowing two hits in six shutout innings in Toronto. His best post-start ERA this season was a 4.62 after allowing one run over seven innings against Oakland in late June. In 10 starts/one six-inning “relief” outing since then, he’s posted a 6.07 ERA and allowed an .812 OPS in 56 1/3 innings. He’s struggled in three career starts against the Dodgers, with a 5.02 ERA and only nine strikeouts and four walks in 14 1/3 innings. Last season, Canning started in LA and managed to allow more home runs than he had innings pitched. He served up three dongs in 2 2/3 innings and didn’t record a strikeout.
Canning has the third-worst strikeout rate (17.1 percent) and the 15th-highest walk rate (8.4 percent) among qualified starters, which isn’t where you want to be. His 5.19 ERA is the third-worst among qualified starters, but his 5.17 FIP is the worst. His 90.6 MPH average exit velocity against is also the third-highest among qualified starters. Canning throws a four-seamer 37.3 percent, changeup 27.1 percent, slider 23.1 percent and curve 11.3 percent of the time. He throws the changeup to both sides of the plate (220 to righties, 432 to lefties this season), but it’s naturally been more effective against lefties (.238 BA against, 31.4 percent whiff rate to lefties, .258 BA against, 22 percent whiff rate to righties). Canning was throwing a sinker earlier this season (per Baseball Savant), but hasn’t thrown one since June 24.
Two changes to the lineup today for the Dodgers. Will Smith gets the day off (coupled with an off day tomorrow, should be a nice break) with Austin Barnes behind the plate. Gavin Lux returns to the lineup at second. The Angels roll out the same exact lineup from last night.
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A couple pitching updates regarding Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Friday’s starter, Landon Knack.
Landon Knack starts on Friday in place of Kershaw (IL) #Dodgers #Guardians
— David Vassegh (@THEREAL_DV) September 4, 2024
Yamamoto will reportedly return from the IL on Tuesday against the Cubs. He’s been sidelined since June 15 and will be back after only two rehab starts in the Minors. He seemingly came out of his rehab start last night feeling good despite laboring, throwing 53 pitches in only two innings of work. It’ll probably look a bit more like a bullpen game since he isn’t built up, but it’ll be good to have him back to start shouldering a Major League workload before October.
Knack will take the Clayton Kershaw rotation spot this time around after Justin Wrobleski was demoted the other day. He’ll start the opener against the Guardians over the weekend, with Gavin Stone and Jack Flaherty slated to start Saturday and Sunday.
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First pitch is scheduled for 6:38 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
