Dodgers @ Giants April 23, 2015: Mike Bolsinger, To Avoid Being Swept

The roster games continue: As expected, Chris Heisey‘s stay on the active roster was for all of one game, as he’s been optioned back to Triple-A to make room for today’s starter, Mike Bolsinger. Since Xavier Cedeno is expected to be added to the roster when the team gets to San Diego, Bolsinger’s time in the big leagues might not last for more a few hours or so. It’s good to have depth, and options.

	Dodgers			Giants
	12:45 p.m.			San Francisco, Ca.
SS	Turner		LF	Aoki
RF	Puig		2B	Panik
1B	Gonzalez		CF	Pagan
2B	Kendrick		C	Posey
C	Grandal		1B	Belt
LF	Crawford		RF	Maxwell
3B	Guerrero		RF	McGehee
CF	Pederson		SS	Crawford
P	Bolsinger (R)		P	Vogelsong (R)

For all the depth, though, what the Dodgers might not have is a backup catcher today, at least if they can avoid it. Alanna Rizzo caught up with A.J. Ellis, who took a ball off his right index knuckle last night, and learned that it was “sore” but didn’t feel worse. I imagine Don Mattingly will do whatever he can to keep Ellis out today, so, hope you ate a hearty breakfast, Yasmani Grandal. (Ellis is available if badly needed, but there’s a not-small part of me that would really enjoy seeing emergency catcher Scott Van Slyke wearing the gear.)

By popular demand, Alex Guerrero gets the start today, and for anyone still inexplicably demanding that he play shortstop, well, know that Jimmy Rollins is getting a rest, Justin Turner is a good third baseman and a lousy shortstop, and Guerrero still isn’t playing there. There’s an argument to be made, certainly, that Guerrero should get more playing time. It’s not ever going to be at short.

Back to Bolsinger, he’s an interesting guy. He’s been unbelievable in two starts at Triple-A — 17/3 K/BB, three hits, zero runs allowed — but when he was acquired, we mostly found him interesting as a reliever because he only really throws two pitches. It’s just a spot start, so ultimately it may not matter if his future is in the pen, but a good performance today would do a whole lot for him as he tries to hold off Zach Lee and Joe Wieland behind him.

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