Cardinals @ Dodgers May 15, 2016: For the Sweep

	Cardinals			Dodgers
	5:10 p.m. PT			Los Angeles
3B	Carpenter		2B	Utley
RF	Piscotty		SS	Seager
LF	Holliday		3B	Turner
CF	Grichuk		1B	Gonzalez
SS	Diaz		C	Grandal
LF	Hazelbaker		LF	Kendrick
2B	Wong		RF	Puig
C	Fryer		CF	Pederson
P	Leake (R)		P	Wood (L)

Short game thread today.

The Dodgers are going for a sweep behind Alex Wood, who has been excellent lately. Ever since a mechanical tweak before the San Diego start, Wood has pitched 18-1/3 innings, allowed 6 earned runs, struck out 25 batters, and walked three. I generally don’t buy into the home/road split that Wood has as being real going forward (his stuff looked the same in Tampa as it did in LA) but that’s something to be investigated on another day. Wood will be facing Mike Leake, who has a 5.10 ERA and 4.57 FIP since joining the Cardinals this offseason. He projects better than that going forward, but only just.

In important news, Hyun-jin Ryu had his first outing of his rehab assignment today in Rancho Cucamonga. You can’t expect too much out of his first game pitched in a year and a half, which is good because otherwise it would be concerning. Ryu’s fastball was reportedly between 83 and 87 during the start, though various reporters who were present said he was throwing below maximum effort. That’s good, because Ryu’s performance has depended very highly on his velocity so far in his career. It’s not worth panicking about yet, but it is something to be concerned about, especially considering the rocky track records of pitchers coming back from shoulder surgeries.

Jeremy Hazelbaker is starting in left field today for the Cardinals. The Dodgers acquired Hazelbaker for Alex Castellanos in 2013, but then released him last year after he hit .245/.286/.358 in AA (he was league-average in AA the year before). So far for the Cardinals Hazelbaker is hitting .282/.330/.624 (146 wRC+) in 95 plate appearances. Devil magic, everybody.

Tonight is an ESPN game, so prepare for the talk of shadows.

[table id=5 /]