Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Well, you can’t say tonight’s game won’t be interesting, at least.
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Phillies
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Dodgers
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7:10 p.m.
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Los Angeles
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RF
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Revere
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CF
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Pederson
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2B
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Hernandez
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2B
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Kendrick
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3B
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Franco
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3B
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Turner
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1B
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Howard
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1B
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Gonzalez
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C
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Ruiz
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C
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Grandal
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LF
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Asche
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RF
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Puig
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SS
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Galvis
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LF
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Ethier
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| CF |
Herrera
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P
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Garcia! (R)
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P
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O’Sullivan (R)
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SS
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Rollins
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First of all, Yimi Garcia: starting pitcher! Eric Surkamp is still up, like we were told yesterday, but he’s not starting. Instead, Garcia will be asked to get the first three to six outs. Surkamp will probably be asked to come in after the pitcher’s spot (eighth!) is passed for the first time. Mike talked about Surkamp a bit in the recap yesterday, but suffice it to say, he’s not very good, and things will have gone very, very wrong if he’s still around after the all-star break. Heck, with a bit more warning, maybe Eric Stults can be ready for the next spot start on Saturday. That’s where things are: hoping for Eric Stults. Lovely.
As for my opinion on the Yimi Garcia Experiment: sure, why not? The Phillies will have to be off-balance when it comes to platoons, and Surkamp would probably pitch the same amount regardless. I’d maybe prefer to see Juan Nicasio reprise his role from the last bullpen game in Colorado (which he started), but this works too. It uses one of the better pitchers on the roster for some of the Phillies’ better hitters, then uses the bad spot starter for the worst hitters. It seems fine.
Surkamp is bad, but the good news is that the Phillies are also, well, bad. Tonight’s starting pitcher for the Phillies, Sean O’Sullivan, is one of the worst pitchers in baseball, which definitely evens the odds for tonight’s bullpen game. O’Sullivan owns a 5.76 ERA in 65-2/3 innings pitched this year, which has improved his career rate. O’Sullivan’s FIP is even higher, at 5.98. His xFIP is better, but 5.13 isn’t anywhere close to good. Among pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched this season, O’Sullivan has the fourth-worst ERA-, the worst FIP-, and the worst xFIP-. Recency doesn’t really matter much in terms of estimating future performance, so the Dodger offense (which has slowed down a bit but is still historically good when looking at the full year) will hopefully take advantage.
So, tonight we get to experience baseball at its beautiful, glorious worst. At least things get back to normal tomorrow.
