Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After narrowly avoiding another melt-down by the bullpen last night, the Dodgers will go for a second consecutive win tonight behind Josh Beckett.
Starting for the Marlins is Jacob Turner, who the Dodgers roughed up in Miami a week and a half ago. They scored six runs in four innings, capped off by a Yasiel Puig home run that traveled over 450 feet. His start between his last against the Dodgers and tonight was against the Padres, who managed to score just one run against him in six innings. That’s the Padres, though, and so far the Padres’ offense has consisted of Seth Smith and a bunch of players near replacement-level (collectively the Padres’ non-pitchers have an 80 wRC+ – Zack Greinke is batting .167/.286/.333 and has a 79 wRC+).
The lineup opposing Turner has one notable omission: No A.J. Ellis. Not to worry, it’s just a day off. He’s expected to be activated tomorrow. Juan Uribe is out of the lineup again, and apparently Don Mattingly is trying to keep him out of the lineup until Friday in Arizona. Just put him on the DL already.
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Marlins
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Dodgers
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7:10pm PT
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Los Angeles, CA
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LF
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Yelich
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2B
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Gordon
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SS
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Hechavarria
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RF
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Puig
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RF
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Stanton
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SS
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Ramirez
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3B
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McGehee
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1B
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Gonzalez
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C
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Saltalamacchia
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CF
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Kemp
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1B
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Jones
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LF
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Crawford
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CF
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Ozuna
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3B
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Turner
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2B
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Dietrich
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C
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Butera
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P
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Turner (R)
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P
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Beckett (R)
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The more I think about it, the more that I think Juan Uribe’s injury is helping the Dodgers avoid a typical Colletti-ism: carrying three catchers to maintain depth. They did it for awhile last year to avoid letting Ramon Hernandez go, and if either Drew Butera or Miguel Olivo need to be removed from the 25 man roster, they’ll likely have to leave the organization. Since Uribe won’t be 100% for a few more days, it isn’t really an option to keep both catchers when Ellis is added to the roster. Right now it’s looking like Butera will be staying, since tonight is his fourth start in a row.
In other injury-related news, both Hyun-jin Ryu and Chad Billingsley threw bullpen sessions today. Ryu is getting closer, but he will likely need a rehab start or a simulated game before he is ready to go. There are days off both before and after this weekend’s series against the Diamondbacks (after playing 29 games in 30 days; good job schedule-makers), so they’ll be able to insert Ryu into the rotation wherever it’s convenient. Billingsley only threw fastballs and change-ups today, so it sounds like he still needs some more time before being ready for another rehab stint.
As of this writing it’s still over 90 degrees in Los Angeles and very dry. If there’s any type of day where the homer-repressing “marine layer” is not in effect, it’s today. Josh Beckett will need to keep the ball down to have success against this Marlins lineup, particularly Giancarlo Stanton.
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