Dodgers @ Rockies August 3, 2016: The return of Brock Stewart

Dodgers
Rockies
5:40 p.m. PT
Colorado
2B 
 Kendrick
 CF
 Blackmon
SS
 Seager
 2B
 LeMahieu
3B
 Turner
 RF
 Gonzalez
RF
 Van Slyke
 3B
 Arenado
1B 
 González
 LF
 Dahl
LF
 Hernández
1B 
 Reynolds
CF
 Pederson  SS  Descalso
C
 Ellis
 C
 Hundley
P
Stewart (R)
P
Anderson (L)

Brock Stewart is back with the Dodgers to make his second Major League start, charged with the always-daunting task of pitching in Coors Field. Stewart’s big league debut came on June 29th at Milwaukee, in which he gave up five runs in five innings on eight hits and two walks while striking out seven. Stewart then returned to Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he made four starts in the month of July, allowing eight runs across 24 IP and striking out 22 batters while walking just three.

Rookie southpaw Tyler Anderson will make his tenth start of the year for the Rockies, and so far he’s been putting together a pretty nice season for himself. At 54 IP, Anderson has a 3.33 ERA (3.00 FIP) and a 1.28 WHIP. Anderson is striking out batters at a rate of 20.4% (7.67 K/9) and walking them at a rate of just 4.4% (1.67 BB/9). He has induced ground balls at a rate of 56.1%, which is about as good a recipe for success as any at Coors Field. The Rockies are 5-4 in his starts.

This will be Anderson’s first time facing the Dodgers. You will note that the newly-acquired Josh Reddick is not starting (but don’t call it a platoon).

The Dodgers had a rather busy day in terms of roster moves. In addition to calling up Stewart, Julio Urías and trade deadline acquisition Josh Fields are up to help with the bullpen:

Urías, who most recently pitched an inning in relief for Oklahoma City on Sunday, was supposed to start for the Triple-A club tonight, but obviously that’s not happening anymore. As for what the Dodgers plan to do with him:

(Rich Hill got through his bullpen session today without issue.)

The 30-year-old Fields, who spent the past two months with the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate, was assigned to Oklahoma City yesterday for what turned out to be a very brief stint. Chad wrote about the right-handed reliever (and the trade that brought him to L.A.) here.

This is a big part of why the Dodgers are in sudden need of bullpen help:

Louis Coleman appeared in yesterday’s game, allowing two hits in a scoreless inning of relief.

Adam Liberatore had been putting together an improbably great season that featured a team record-setting scoreless streak of 28 appearances. He last pitched on July 29th, but apparently has been ailing for some time:

There was also this:

The Andrew Toles option might not seem especially noteworthy, except for the fact that it comes on the heels of all the drama with Yasiel Puig (detailed by Dustin here). As Chad put it:

Josh Ravin, you may recall, received an 80-game suspension earlier this season for PED usage. I wrote about that (and his weird Twitter history) here.

Finally, there’s this, which is unsurprising but still depressing as hell:

Yeah. Whatever. I don’t want to talk about it.

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About Sarah Wexler

Sarah Wexler is a native Angeleno and longtime Dodger fan. She began blogging about baseball in 2012 on her Tumblr, New Grass On The Field, where she covered an array of topics but especially enjoyed exploring baseball history. She is now a reporter/producer for MLB.com. She earned her master's degree in Sports Management from Cal State Long Beach. She graduated from New York University in 2014 with a bachelor's in History and a minor in American Studies. She's an avid Springsteen fan, which is a big boost to her baseball writer cred.