Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After another dramatic late-inning win last night, the Dodgers find themselves a game away from sweeping a potential playoff foe for the second straight series. Over the weekend, they fell short of sweeping the Cardinals with a loss on Sunday. Today, they have the chance to sweep the Rockies and take a 2.5 game lead in the NL West with only nine games remaining in the regular season. Each team has one more series against the Diamondbacks, who are all-but out of the race (and actually rested their starters today in a white flag type of move). The Dodgers see the Padres and Giants for their remaining six games, while the Rockies play the Phillies and Nationals. On paper, the Dodgers have the advantage in the remaining schedule.
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Rockies
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Dodgers
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7:10 PM
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Los Angeles
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CF
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Blackmon |
LF
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Taylor | |
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2B
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LeMahieu |
3B
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Turner | |
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RF
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Dahl |
SS
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Machado | |
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3B
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Arenado |
1B
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Bellinger | |
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LF
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Parra |
RF
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Kemp | |
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SS
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Desmond |
CF
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Hernández | |
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1B
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McMahon | C | Grandal | |
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C
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Iannetta |
2B
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Dozier | |
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P
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Anderson (L)
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P
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Buehler (R)
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Walker Buehler starts for the Dodgers today, coming off arguably the best outing by a Dodger starter this season. Last Friday in St. Louis, Buehler tossed eight shutout innings and allowed two hits and walked two batters while striking out nine. He matched a career-high 105 pitches, but looked rather dominant the entire outing. Both of the singles he allowed came in the fifth inning, and both walks came in the eighth. Watching Buehler hand the ball off to Kenley Jansen for the save is definitely something I could get used to. Today will be Buehler’s fifth time seeing the Rockies, with three of the previous matchups coming at Coors Field. When he saw them in LA on May 21, Buehler allowed two hits and a run in seven innings. He won’t win the Rookie of the Year award, but Buehler has been as-advertised in his first year as a starter.
Tyler Anderson is making his 31st start of the season for the Rockies tonight. They’ve only won 11 of his previous 30 starts, which could bode well for the Dodgers. Anderson owns a 4.82 ERA/4.60 FIP and a 1.306 WHIP, but his numbers have actually been better at Coors than on the road. In 14 starts away from Colorado this season, Anderson has a 5.18 ERA and both his strikeout rate and walk rate are worse than they are at home. Anderson owns reverse splits, as righties have a .238/.304/.447 triple slash against the lefty. Lefties slash .292/.345/.504 against him, although he’s faced nearly four times as many righties as lefties. In his last start, Anderson allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings against the Giants. His start before that came at home against the Dodgers, and it did not go well. Anderson only recorded eight outs, and while he only allowed two earned runs, he threw 72 pitches and couldn’t get out of the third inning. However, Anderson was dominant in his only start this season at Dodger Stadium. He allowed four hits and a walk in eight shutout innings while striking out eight.
Possibly due to his reverse splits, the Dodgers aren’t rolling with their usual all-righty lineup. Cody Bellinger starts at first and switch hitting Yasmani Grandal starts behind the plate. Bellinger in the lineup is nice, but removing David Freese from the lineup instead of Brian Dozier is questionable. Dozier has two hits (both doubles) in his last 36 plate appearances. For the Rockies, Trevor Story remains out of the lineup. Ian Desmond starts at short with Ryan McMahon starting at first.
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Brim wrote smart words about Buehler and his changeup use earlier today. Go read it.
I wrote about Walker Buehler's changeup. He throws it 3% of the time (less recently). Even so, there's an interesting parallel on his own team. Today for @theathleticla https://t.co/YzMkJGEqZa pic.twitter.com/cLqIWEaTsE
— Daniel Brim (@DanielBrim) September 19, 2018
After reading it, go buy this unrelated shirt.
Turner Ward returning the kissing favor to Yasiel Puig is now an awesome shirt – Via @ChadMoriyama – https://t.co/xh0KLsVgBo pic.twitter.com/TJImrZ3uyM
— Dodgers Digest (@DodgersDigest) September 18, 2018
If you don’t you’ll stub your toe.
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A quick reminder that tonight’s game will be on ESPN and not blacked out in Los Angeles.
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#Dodgers Yasiel Puig was allowed to leave the stadium before the end of last night's game in order to deal with burglary at his home. Puig did not want to talk about the situation during BP this afternoon.
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) September 20, 2018
Stop burglarizing Yasiel Puig, pls.
