Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
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Dodgers
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Rockies
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12:10 p.m.
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Denver, Co.
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2B
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Barney
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CF
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Blackmon
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CF
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Puig
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SS
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Rutledge
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1B
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Gonzalez
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1B
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Morneau
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RF
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Kemp
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RF
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Cuddyer
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3B
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Uribe
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LF
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Dickerson
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LF
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Crawford
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C
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Rosario
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C
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Federowicz
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3B
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Ynoa
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SS
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Rojas
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2B
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LeMahieu
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P
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Frias (R)
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P
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De La Rosa (L)
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I think I forgot that Darwin Barney existed.
Maybe that’s because the Dodgers have 37 (!) active players and it’s hard to keep track of who is actually still around, but it’s also because he’s had just three plate appearances this month. He hasn’t started since August 31, and had started only three times before that, one of which ended for him after six innings. Today, he’s finally back in the lineup, playing second and leading off.
I don’t particularly mind that he’s playing, because it is a day game after a night game, and pairing Barney with Miguel Rojas at shortstop makes for the best possible middle infield defense, something which will be welcome considering that “Carlos Frias, in Coors Field, making his second career major league start” seems like a situation that needs to be backed up with as much defense as possible. It’s just that hitting him leadoff, since he’s a truly atrocious offensive player, seems like a problem.
Then again, Rojas is even worse at the plate and he’s in the lineup. Tim Federowicz has shown no indication that he can hit, and he’s in the lineup. Despite lefty Jorge De La Rosa pitching for Colorado, Carl Crawford is playing instead of Scott Van Slyke. (Maybe that should be “Adrian Gonzalez is playing instead of Van Slyke,” because Gonzalez has had an inexplicably awful season against lefty pitching.) The point is, there’s a lot of opportunity for offensive futility today, putting a lot of pressure on Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp and Juan Uribe. Maybe Don Mattingly didn’t want to combine all of those trouble spots in the bottom of the lineup. Maybe, right? Or maybe Barney is hitting first because Dee Gordon hits first, and that’s the spot he’s taking. Maybe it’s that.
About 30 minutes after this one gets started, Madison Bumgarner faces the Diamondbacks and rookie Andrew Chafin. Can’t say that’s a matchup I like a lot, is it? The Dodgers currently have 93.5% odds to win the division, per FanGraphs. It’s that 6.5% that worries me.
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