Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers are playing for a number of things today. They have a chance to complete their sixth sweep of the year, their first four-game sweep of the year, and their seventh consecutive victory.
The Dodgers worked their way back into first place last night, and this afternoon’s Diamondbacks victory over the Rockies guarantees that Los Angeles will end the day atop the NL West. A win tonight would make it a 1.5-game lead.
And, of course, there’s some potential for drama, what with last night’s installment in the seemingly never-ending People Get Mad At Yasiel Puig For Stupid Things saga.
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Mets
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Dodgers
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7:10 p.m.
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Los Angeles
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CF
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Granderson |
2B
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Forsythe | |
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3B
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Flores |
SS
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Taylor | |
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LF
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Céspedes |
3B
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Turner | |
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RF
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Bruce |
1B
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Bellinger | |
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C
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d’Arnaud |
CF
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Hernández | |
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1B
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Duda |
LF
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Gutiérrez | |
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SS
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Reyes | C | Barnes | |
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2B
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Cecchini |
RF
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Puig | |
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P
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Matz (L) |
P
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Ryu (L) |
Hyun-Jin Ryu (4.35 ERA, 4.89 FIP, 5.30 DRA) gets another start following a shaky but ultimately solid outing of five innings and two runs in Cincinnati. It will be his first time facing the Mets since May of 2014, when he allowed two runs in six innings at Citi Field.
Steven Matz (3.21 ERA, 5.27 FIP, 5.70 DRA) has made just two starts this year. He missed the first couple of months of the season due to left elbow inflammation. In each of his starts since returning, Matz has gone seven full innings, allowing just one earned run against the Braves, but four earned runs against the Nationals.
Matz has two career regular-season starts against the Dodgers, one in 2015 and one in 2016. The 2015 start was just the second of his career, and he delivered six scoreless, two-hit innings. He was also good when he faced the Dodgers in May of last year, as he allowed two runs in six innings in a game the Mets ultimately won. In addition, Matz started Game 4 of the 2015 NLDS, in which was bested by Clayton Kershaw. (Now let’s never speak of that series again.)
Matz is the first left-handed starter the Dodgers have faced in a while (eleven games, to be exact), and the Dodgers are going with a righty-heavy lineup that excludes Corey Seager, Joc Pederson and Yasmani Grandal. But, in case you haven’t noticed, the Dodgers actually aren’t terrible against lefties this year. You may remember that the Dodgers’ .623 team OPS against lefties last year ranked dead last in baseball. Thus far this year, the Dodgers have a .767 OPS against lefties (versus a .781 OPS against righties), which is decently above the league average of .735.
As for whether or not there’ll be Puig-related drama tonight:
Terry Collins was asked about a carryover effect from yesterday. His answer: pic.twitter.com/Q5576eAPio
— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) June 23, 2017
Yoenis Cespedes was steaming mad at Yasiel Puig last night. Jose Reyes said he's never seen Cespedes so upset. #Mets
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) June 23, 2017
We’ll see. (As for Yoenis Cespedes‘ hypocrisy … yikes.)
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There wasn’t much baseball news today, besides a less-than-optimistic, although not especially detailed, update on Julio Urías:
There is a heightened level of concern about the severity of Julio Urias’ shoulder injury. Urias will be examined this weekend in LA.
— Andy McCullough (@ByMcCullough) June 23, 2017
There was also this tidbit about Jamie McCourt, which … well, it’s really more politics, but make of that what you will.
