Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
You hate this lineup. I know you do. Yasmani Grandal, Joc Pederson, and Adrian Gonzalez are out. A.J. Ellis, Enrique Hernandez, and Scott Van Slyke are in. (Not that you should be upset about Van Slyke, who is solid. Sure doesn’t seem as exciting to see Alex Guerrero in, though, does it?)
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Dodgers
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D’Backs
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6:40 p.m.
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Phoenix, Az.
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CF
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Hernandez
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SS
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Ahmed
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2B
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Kendrick
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CF
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Peralta
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3B
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Turner
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1B
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Goldschmidt
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RF
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Puig
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RF
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Tomas
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1B
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Van Slyke
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2B
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Hill
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LF
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Guerrero
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3B
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Lamb
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SS
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Rollins
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C
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Saltalamacchia
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C
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Ellis
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LF
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Peralta
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P
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Anderson (L)
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P
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Ray (L)
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So does the reason make sense?
All-RH lineup more about giving Gonzalez Grandal Pederson Ethier "72-hour break" w/ #Dodgers off Thur Mattingly said https://t.co/6G9mBvAJ5O
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) July 2, 2015
Well, huh. You know what? I think it does. It’s a long season. Pederson’s young, but he’s also never played a full season at this level. Gonzalez isn’t getting younger. Grandal is, of course, a catcher. This reasoning, it is good reasoning.
Now that it’s July, I feel like it’s important to note that the Dodgers have been in first place every single day, save one, since April 17. That’s a pretty considerable stretch, 76 days in first place overall. It just seems that with some semi-regular doom-and-gloom happening — and I’ll be the first to admit the offense hasn’t really been lighting up the scoreboard lately — this isn’t the collapsing Red Sox here. This team is better than they’ve shown. They’ll be better than they’ve shown. Without Hyun-jin Ryu or Brandon McCarthy, they’re in first place. That’s not nothing.
What else? Brandon League.
Rehabbing Brandon League will meet the club in LA., then a decision on what happens to him.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) July 1, 2015
I still think he’ll make it back to the active roster, and I think that his bloated contract and inability to miss bats will cause too many to forget how useful he is at getting grounders. That’s a Friday problem, though. Today, probably should just get through this never-ending road trip.
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