Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Quickly pivoting from a sad series in Philadelphia, the Dodgers are now playing for a four-game sweep against the second-place Braves on the road. Baseball is funny. The Dodgers have outscored Atlanta by a margin of 17-4 in the first three games of this set, obviously supported by stellar pitching. Today, it’s Ross Stripling‘s turn to try to extend this brilliant run.
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Dodgers
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Braves
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10:35 AM
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Atlanta
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SS
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Taylor |
LF
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Acuña | |
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3B
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Machado |
2B
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Albies | |
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LF
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Kemp |
1B
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Freeman | |
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CF
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Hernández |
RF
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Markakis | |
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1B
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Muncy |
C
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Suzuki | |
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C
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Grandal |
3B
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Camargo | |
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RF
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Puig | CF | Inciarte | |
| 2B | Forsythe |
SS
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Swanson | |
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P
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Stripling
(R)
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P
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Newcomb
(L)
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Stripling got beat up a bit in Philadelphia and looked pretty bad in his start against the Padres before the break, and he enters today’s outing with an ERA of four since the start of July. Given that he’s sitting at 100 innings even, just 19-2/3 innings shy of his career high set in 2016, there are some concerns of fatigue creeping in. In fairness, that “cold stretch” spans just four starts, and it’s four starts in which he’s struck out 25 and walked two batters. Stripling has managed to set expectations so high in such a short period of time.
The most concerning part about Stripling’s recent “rough patch” (if you can call it that) is the home run ball. Stripling has allowed homers in seven of his past eight starts, a total of ten surrendered in that span. I’d imagine I’d feel worse about that stretch if he a strikeout to walk ratio worse than 48:3. This homer-happy set of games started in Stripling’s June 10th start against these same Braves, when both Ozzie Albies and Freddie Freeman took him deep.
Today’s game is a pitching rematch of that June 10th start, with lefty Sean Newcomb facing Stripling once again. In that game, Newcomb allowed five runs on seven hits in 5-1/3 innings, with the Dodgers winning behind the strength of a Logan Forsythe home run (yes, really). This time around, Cody Bellinger gets the start off against the lefty, while Yasmani Grandal gets the start on his weaker side of the plate. After looking somewhat uncomfortable physically at the plate (in terms of stretching and wincing), Yasiel Puig is back in the lineup as well, which could be interpreted as a positive sign for his health. I know some are saying that the Dodgers might be trying to showcase Puig for a trade right now, but trading him would be pretty dumb. I can’t wait for July 31st to be gone.
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It looks like Hyun-Jin Ryu is closer to returning:
#Ryu threw his 2nd live BP at Camelback Ranch today
(3 IP, 51-pitch). Touched 91 mph ! Goodbye AZ 👋🏻 pic.twitter.com/Rk6kzjcZYL— Joseph Kim (@blackwings2011) July 29, 2018
Look at that disrespectful t-shirt.
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The Dodgers are celebrating last night’s weird controversy in an odd way:
#ShittlessSunday pic.twitter.com/E5NH24jLAN
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) July 29, 2018
Whatever works, I guess.
