Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Hey, Corey Seager: No pressure. Just over a month ago, you were playing in Triple-A. Now you’re not only starting in a playoff game, you’re hitting third.
|
Mets
|
Dodgers
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
6:45 p.m., TBS
|
Los Angeles
|
|||
|
RF
|
Granderson
|
LF
|
Crawford
|
|
|
3B
|
Wright
|
2B
|
Kendrick
|
|
|
CF
|
Cespedes
|
SS
|
Seager
|
|
|
2B
|
Murphy
|
1B
|
Gonzalez
|
|
|
C
|
d’Arnaud
|
3B
|
Turner
|
|
|
1B
|
Duda
|
RF
|
Ethier
|
|
|
LF
|
Cuddyer
|
C
|
Ellis
|
|
|
SS
|
Tejada
|
CF
|
Pederson
|
|
|
P
|
deGrom (R)
|
P
|
Kershaw (L)
|
But that’s not the biggest surprise of the lineup, to me. It’s that Joc Pederson is playing center fielder rather than Enrique Hernandez, because Hernandez had seemed to pretty clearly take the job both before and after his hamstring injury. Presumably, this is because the Mets are starting a righty in Jacob deGrom, and Hernandez has a pretty massive platoon split (just a 64 wRC+ against righties).
Does that mean Pederson starts against Noah Syndergaard and Matt Harvey in the next two games? I’m not sure, but he probably should — though expect Hernandez to pinch-hit if the Mets break out lefty relievers late in the game.
Otherwise, everything is as you’d expect, and that includes A.J. Ellis catching Clayton Kershaw, given the massive struggles of Yasmani Grandal — as I detailed the other day at MLB.com, the Dodger catching situation has taken a turn. Grandal has six hits in two months.
On the bench for the Dodgers: C Yasmani Grandal, 2B Chase Utley, SS Jimmy Rollins, UT Enrique Hernandez, RF Yasiel Puig, OF Justin Ruggiano
On the bench for the Mets: C Kevin Plawecki, 2B/SS Wilmer Flores, 2B/3B Kelly Johnson, LF Michael Conforto, CF Juan Lagares, OF Kirk Nieuwenhuis
So… who’s ready? Not to brush aside the value of winning the division of a long regular season, but it’s all felt like a buildup to this, to getting back to October. It starts now. Prepare yourselves.
