Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
|
Braves
|
Dodgers
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
7:10pm PT
|
Los Angeles, CA
|
|||
|
CF
|
B.Upton
|
2B
|
Gordon
|
|
|
2B
|
La Stella
|
CF
|
Puig
|
|
|
1B
|
Freeman
|
SS
|
Gonzalez
|
|
|
LF
|
J.Upton
|
1B
|
Ramirez
|
|
|
C
|
Gattis
|
LF
|
Crawford
|
|
|
3B
|
Johnson
|
RF
|
Kemp
|
|
|
RF
|
Doumit
|
3B
|
Uribe
|
|
|
SS
|
Simmons
|
C
|
Butera
|
|
|
P
|
Harang (R)
|
P
|
Beckett(R)
|
For the first time in 16 days, the Dodgers are back home in Dodger Stadium, thanks to the All-Star break followed by a long road trip. What’s changed? Yasiel Puig is a center fielder now. Matt Kemp plays right. And Andre Ethier? Well, he’s absolutely nowhere to be found.
Ethier last started on July 22 in Pittsburgh, then sat the next day, followed by a day off. He hasn’t played defense since, failing to get into the entire San Francisco series with the exception of pinch-hitting on Friday. (He walked.) It’s not even that there’s just been an endless stream of lefties either, not with old friend (I… guess?) Aaron Harang starting tonight. It is, apparently, that Carl Crawford is the starting left fielder, even though he has not played well this year.
We now go live to Ethier’s reaction:
Not that it really has any bearing on tonight’s game, but if you’re hoping for something out of Crawford, there’s at least the beating he put on the Braves in last year’s NLDS, hitting three homers in the final two games and getting on base a dozen times overall. Again, that he homered twice off Freddy Garcia, who is out of baseball, and once off Julio Teheran, who isn’t starting tonight, doesn’t suddenly make him a better bet to produce. It just reminds me of the times last year when he was really really good, and of how loud being in the stadium for those two games was, and how much I miss that. I’m feeling feelings.
Anyway, new acquisition Darwin Barney is not active for tonight’s game, which means Miguel Rojas still is. Bill Shaikin reports that Barney should be in Los Angeles tomorrow.
[table id=5 /]
