Dodgers @ Braves July 22, 2015: Early, Early Day Baseball

Man, I’m in New York City and I’m barely awake. I don’t know what all of you out in California are making of 9 a.m. baseball on a Wednesday.

Dodgers
Braves
9:10 a.m. PT
Atlanta, Ga.
CF
Pederson
2B
Peterson
2B
Kendrick
CF
Maybin
1B
Gonzalez
RF
Markakis
RF
Ethier
1B
K. Johnson
C
Grandal
3B
C. Johnson
LF
Crawford
C
Pierzynski
3B
Callaspo
LF
Perez
SS
Rollins
SS
Simmons
P
Bolsinger (R)
P
Teheran (R)

While we wait to hear about Brett Anderson‘s heel MRI — he’s reportedly feeling goodwe still don’t know who is starting on Saturday & Sunday in New York. (Best guess: Zach Lee and ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, though it could still be Anderson.) I’m guessing we won’t actually know until the team makes it out of Georgia and heads north, but today’s game is affected by all of this. That’s because Mike Bolsinger is starting, and while he’s been shockingly good (2.81 FIP/3.04 ERA!), it’s also pretty well-known that he doesn’t go deep into games. (He’s not made it past five innings in five of his last seven starts.)

While I generally don’t mind that from a back-end starter — be happy he can get through the lineup successfully twice, not upset he can’t do it three times — last night’s short start from Anderson put added pressure on the bullpen. Joel Peralta threw 46 pitches over the last two days and has appeared three times in four days. So has J.P. Howell. Pedro Baez threw 24 pitches last night; Chin-hui Tsao 31.

In order to add some help, the Dodgers brought up Ian Thomas, but interestingly, it was Adam Liberatore — who did not pitch last night — who was optioned out to make room, so, that doesn’t really help with ‘pen freshness. If and when Bolsinger is relieved, expect a lot of Thomas and Juan Nicasio.

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About Mike Petriello

Mike writes about lots of baseball in lots of places, and right now that place is MLB.com.