Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Hyun-jin Ryu and the Dodgers will try to snap a three game skid this afternoon against the Pirates against starter Brandon Cumpton. If that name sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because Cumpton made his major league debut against the Dodgers last season. The Dodgers scored three runs against him in five innings. They eventually won the game after Skip Schumaker robbed the Pirates of a three run homer and the team scored a pair of runs in the eleventh inning. Cumpton relies primarily on a sinker, throwing the pitch nearly 3/4 of the time. He also has a slider and very occasionally mixes in a change.
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Pirates
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Dodgers
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4:15pm PT
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Los Angeles, CA
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3B
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Harrison
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2B
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Gordon
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2B
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Walker
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CF
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Ethier
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CF
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McCutchen
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RF
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Puig
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1B
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Sanchez
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SS
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Ramirez
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LF
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Marte
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1B
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Gonzalez
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RF
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Tabata
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LF
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Kemp
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SS
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Mercer
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3B
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Turner
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C
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Stewart
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C
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Butera
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P
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Cumpton (R)
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P
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Ryu (L)
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Cumpton has been up and down a few times since he debuted against the Dodgers around this time last year. He doesn’t miss many bats (just 5.84 K/9 for his short career), but his major league results have been quite good overall. He doesn’t walk many batters or give up homers (only one so far in 49-1/3 career innings), so his career ERA- is 72 and FIP- is 75 (both about 25% better than league average).
Cumpton’s HR/FB ratio is about a quarter of the league average rate and will increase with a bigger sample. So far his xFIP, which normalizes the HR/FB ratio to match the league average rate, shows that he’s about an average pitcher in his limited major league work. Cumpton limited homers in the minor leagues as well, holding batters to 0.5 per nine innings, but he’s never suppressed them to the degree he has shown in the majors thus far.
Ryu will be trying to follow up a performance where he was perfect through seven innings, a tough act to follow. Behind him is what is quickly becoming the standard lineup against right-handed pitching. For all of the flak Don Mattingly deserved for yesterday’s order, today’s seems fine. Maybe not properly optimized, but close to it. Hopefully they’ll remember to hit with runners on base today.
Brian Wilson was hit on the foot by a ground ball during batting practice earlier today. It’s probably nothing, like when Clayton Kershaw was hit on the ankle by a line drive during batting practice last week. We haven’t heard anything from the beat writers on the scene, either. It’s worth keeping an eye on, though.
The game is at a weird start time because it is being broadcast on Fox, not SNLA. Here’s a map showing if it will be available on TV in your area. The game will still be available on mlb.tv if you’re not in the broadcast area, which is a welcome change from last year.
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