Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Pretty good Game 1, right? Game 2 sees the Dodgers sending Rich Hill to the mound and the Cubs countering with Jon Lester.
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Cubs
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Dodgers
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4:38 p.m. TBS
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Los Angeles
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LF
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Jay |
CF
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Taylor | |
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3B
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Bryant |
3B
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Turner | |
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1B
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Rizzo |
1B
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Bellinger | |
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C
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Contreras |
LF
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Hernandez | |
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CF
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Almora |
2B
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Forsythe | |
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SS
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Russell |
C
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Barnes | |
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RF
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Heyward | RF | Puig | |
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2B
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Baez |
SS
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Culberson | |
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P
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Lester (L)
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P
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Hill (L)
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Lester shut down the Dodgers in last year’s NLCS, posting a 1.38 ERA in 13 innings of work en route to the series MVP. So far in this postseason, Lester has picked up where he left off last season. The difference here is Lester pitched 3 2/3 innings (55 pitches) on Wednesday, meaning he’s technically starting tonight on short rest. Then again, he averaged 98 pitches per start this season, so he’s not coming off a full game’s worth of work, either.
Hill pitched Game 3 of last year’s NLCS against the Cubs. It was his only appearance of the series. He threw six innings of shutout ball to give the Dodgers a 2-1 series lead. He threw four innings in his NLDS start against Arizona on Oct. 8. He should be plenty rested for his start today.
The Cubs made a slight change from their Game 1 lineup. Jason Heyward is in at right field with Jon Jay shifting to left. Kyle Schwarber will begin this Game 2 on the bench. The Dodgers are employing the same lineup as Game 1. That isn’t terribly surprising and still gives the Dodgers a strong defensive team behind Hill.
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Adrian Gonzalez is at home, "resting with his family, preparing for next year's spring training," says Dave Roberts
— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) October 15, 2017
Huh, this is kinda odd. Adrian Gonzalez wasn’t expected to play in the postseason, but the fact he isn’t in the dugout with the team is a little weird. And that phrasing by Dave Roberts is also a little eyebrow raising. Hope everything is OK with Gonzalez.
Corey Seager feels "normal-ish," Dave Roberts said.
— Andy McCullough (@ByMcCullough) October 15, 2017
That’s good-ish, maybe? Corey Seager, as you know, is not on the NLCS roster because of his ailing back. There has been speculation (mostly by non-Dodger folk) that he might be able to come back mid-series. We’ll see.
Cody Bellinger says Andre Ethier was his biggest influence this year. They’re lockermates. pic.twitter.com/xtAHr963p7
— Sarah Wexler (@SarahWexler32) October 15, 2017
This is great to hear. Despite not playing most of the season, Andre Ethier had a positive impact on this club in the form of mentoring Cody Bellinger. These are the kinds of things you hear good teams and teammates doing.
Bellinger says Dodgers will be aggressive on basepaths against Lester, but not because of his pickoff woes. “We saw him pick off Zimmerman.”
— Sarah Wexler (@SarahWexler32) October 15, 2017
Yeah, Lester picked off Ryan Zimmerman in Game 4 of the NLDS, so there won’t be many walking leads off him today.
