Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers won again last night, and are now 21-6 in their last 27 (.777). The series win also makes it nine consecutive series without a series loss, splitting only one of those with the Phillies. The last series they lost was the 5/15 Miami series. It’s not quite 43-7, but it’s exactly the kind of run this teem needed. The Dodgers (37-32) go for the sweep as they send Caleb Ferguson (9.53 ERA/ 4.68 FIP/ 6.87 DRA) against Chris Stratton (4.56/4.25/5.26) and the Giants (34-37). The Dodgers are currently just 1.5 games out of first in the NL West.
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Giants
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Dodgers
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1:10 PM
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Los Angeles
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CF
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Hernandez |
LF
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Pederson | |
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1B
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Belt |
1B
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Muncy | |
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RF
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McCutchen |
3B
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Turner | |
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C
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Hundley |
1B
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Bellinger | |
| SS | Crawford |
C
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Grandal | |
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LF
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Williamson |
RF
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Puig | |
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3B
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Sandoval | SS | Hernandez | |
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2B
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Hanson |
2B
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Forsythe | |
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P
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Stratton (R) |
P
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Ferguson
(L)
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Matt Kemp and Chris Taylor both get the day off. Dave Roberts has Joc Pederson and Max Muncy at the top of the lineup for the series finale.
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There have been 122 pitchers to throw at least 50 innings this season, Stratton has thrown 75, while Ferguson has thrown all of 5.2. Here’s how they matchup, but for obvious reasons it’s impossible to take anything meaningful from most of Ferguson’s stats right now.
Ferguson clearly hasn’t been great. It’s also just his third MLB start, he’s 21, likely not quite ready to be pitching in the MLB, and was much better in his second start. That’s better than you or I will ever do. Kudos to the kid. Ferguson looks to build off a solid start against the Rangers where he allowed just five hits and two runs spread across four innings and just 65 pitches. I expect the Dodgers to run with him deeper into games if he is pitching in a similar fashion, just to avoid taxing the bullpen too hard. Stratton on the other hand hasn’t been much better than Ferguson. He ranks in the bottom third in almost all meaningful stats, and has allowed the tenth highest hard-hit percentage at 43.1%. Despite all that, he has seven wins because the Giants average 5.9 runs each time he starts, the 14th highest average run support of any pitcher. He’s mainly a four pitch guy, with a fastball that averages around 91-92, a changeup, slider, and curveball. He’s coming off a pretty decent three game stretch, where he’s allowed 15 hits and 6 runs over his last 17 innings, good for a 3.18 ERA and a 2.79 FIP. Stratton has however struggled against the Dodgers in his career — posting a 7.94 ERA and 5.70 FIP over 17 innings due to the fact that he’s allowed an OPS of 1.015. Should be a duel for the ages.
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In other news, Cali and Charley’s dad is getting closer to returning.
Clayton Kershaw will throw a simulated game on Tuesday. He’s expected to go 3 innings/45 pitches.
— Alanna Rizzo (@alannarizzo) June 17, 2018
Happy Fathers Day to my Dad, and any other Dads.
First pitch is at 1:10 PT on SNLA or MLB.TV as the Game of the Day.
