Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The rubber game of this 3-game series pits Walker Buehler against Jake Arrieta. Buehler is making his first start in the majors since July 13, when he went five innings against the Angels in a 3-2 Dodger win.
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Dodgers
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Phillies
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9:35 a.m.
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Philadelphia
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LF
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Pederson |
C
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Knapp | |
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3B
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Machado |
LF
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Hoskins | |
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1B
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Muncy |
CF
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Herrera | |
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RF
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Kemp |
1B
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Santana | |
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CF
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Verdugo |
3B
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Franco | |
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2B
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Utley |
RF
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Williams | |
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SS
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Hernandez | SS | Kingery | |
| C | Barnes |
2B
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Valentin | |
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P
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Buehler
(R)
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P
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Arrieta
(R)
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This is coming on the heels of last night’s 16-inning marathon that had the Dodgers on the wrong end of a 7-4 outcome, partly because they decided to throw in the proverbial towel in the bottom of the 16th. Instead of opting for Rich Hill, the Dodgers threw Enrique Hernandez. As great as Kiké is, he’s not a great pitcher, and for the Dodgers to effectively throw away the game after fighting that long was disappointing. Throw Hill for as long as you can and figure out Thursday’s starter later (it’d have been Caleb Ferguson, by the way).
It’s not all on Dave Roberts, as the offense had plenty of chances to break the 4-4 deadlock, but man, just to give up after 16 innings leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
The lineup, as expected, looks a little different today. The 1-3 hitter are the same as last night, but things change after that. Alex Verdugo moves up from the No. 8 spot to hit fifth. Chase Utley, in perhaps his final game in Philadelphia, gets the nod at second base. Hernandez starts at a more conventional position for him — shortstop. And Barnes is in there after Grandal caught the entire game last night. Even if last night’s game just went nine innings, Barnes would be starting because it’s rare that a catcher starts a day game after a night game.
Arrieta has a 3.08 ERA in his career against the Dodgers in six starts. He’s averaging 6 1/3 innings per start against them and has struck out 28.3 percent of the Dodger hitters he has faced. Here’s hoping the Dodgers’ offense can jump on him early. He’s coming off a start on Friday against the Padres in which he gave up five runs (four earned) in just 3 1/3 innings.
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The Dodgers made a couple roster moves. To activate Buehler, they optioned reliever Dylan Floro to Triple-A. He wasn’t going to be available today after throwing 39 pitches in a scoreless 2 1/3 innings.
Pedro Baez will be activated, but he’s not scheduled to arrive until, well, about now. There’s no official roster move yet and I’m having trouble coming up with a prediction for who might go down. Maybe there will be a phantom DL situation, as Sunday’s starter is currently listed as “TBD.” That’s Kenta Maeda‘s regular turn in the rotation and he threw seven strong innings last night, so I’m hoping he isn’t put on the DL (or optioned). Maybe Ferguson gets optioned, but he’s the long man and should be good to pitch now after (presumably) being unavailable last night.
Speaking of the weekend rotation in Atlanta:
Hill, Kershaw, Wood & TBD for #Braves series.
— AlaNNa Rizzo (@alannarizzo) July 25, 2018
Looks good. Here’s hoping Alex Wood can pitch well against his former team, as he has a 6.05 ERA in four career starts against the Barves.
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https://twitter.com/RedSox/status/1022143608038805504
Old friend Nathan Eovaldi was traded from the Rays to the Red Sox this morning. He wasn’t really a Dodger target this deadline, but I just wanted to acknowledge it, in case you missed it.
