Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers got even in the series with a 10-6 win on Friday night over the Padres. Today, Brandon McCarthy makes his second start of the season after a fantastic and encouraging first outing back from Tommy John surgery.
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Padres
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Dodgers
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4:15 p.m. PT
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Los Angeles
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| CF | Jankowski | 2B | Utley | |
| 1B | Myers | SS | Seager | |
| RF | Kemp | 3B | Turner | |
| 3B | Solarte | 1B | Gonzalez | |
| LF | Upton | RF | Puig | |
| 2B | Schimpf | C | Grandal | |
| C | Norris | LF | Kendrick | |
| SS | Ramirez | CF | Toles | |
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P
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Perdomo (R)
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P
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McCarthy (R)
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McCarthy threw five shutout innings against the Rockies in which he struck out eight hitters. His velocity was back to where it was pre-injury (averaged 93.8 MPH on his fastball). He also had a strong 15.3 percent swinging strike rate on his 72 pitches. He won’t sustain that all season, but it was encouraging to see him missing so many bats.
Yasmani Grandal was the hero last night, as he went 5-for-5 with three home runs. He has been in a season-long slump, so here’s hoping this gets him going in the right direction. The Dodgers are going to need his power if Adrian Gonzalez‘s does not return.
Andrew Toles, who doubled on the first pitch he saw in the majors, gets a second consecutive start in center field tonight. Trayce Thompson has been slumping mightily in the last five weeks, so getting him some extra time to clear his head isn’t a bad thing. Plus, it’ll be nice, again, to see what Toles can do.
Onto some news…
Urias will pitch in relief for OKC, with occasional start.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) July 9, 2016
I just … I don’t know. I had a feeling this is how the Dodgers were going to handle the Julio Urias situation after his demotion. I’d much rather see him start, exhaust his innings limit and just be done with the 2016 season. Oh well.
Clayton Kershaw is throwing from about 120 feet, as hard as he usually would when healthy.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) July 9, 2016
If anyone is going to get over this injury quicker than expected, it’s Clayton Kershaw. But there’s still no reason for him to rush back.
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