Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers lost last night to the last-place Padres, which isn’t as surprising as it should be. That, coupled with the Rockies beating down Arizona last night means the Dodgers only have a 1.5-game lead in the division and their magic number remain at eight games with eight games remaining. The Dodgers have an easy remaining schedule on paper, but they need to reverse this crap where they beat good teams and lose to trash teams.
|
Padres
|
Dodgers
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
6:10 PM
|
Los Angeles
|
|||
|
SS
|
Galvis |
LF
|
Pederson | |
|
RF
|
Reyes |
3B
|
Turner | |
|
LF
|
Renfroe |
1B
|
Muncy | |
|
C
|
Hedges |
SS
|
Machado | |
|
1B
|
Hosmer |
CF
|
Bellinger | |
|
3B
|
Myers |
RF
|
Puig | |
|
CF
|
Margot | C | Grandal | |
|
2B
|
Spangenberg |
2B
|
Taylor | |
|
P
|
Nix (R)
|
P
|
Hill (L)
|
Rich Hill was originally scheduled to start yesterday, but was pushed back a day. This move keeps him from facing Arizona next week and could keep Hill off the NLDS roster, if you really want to think ahead.
Coincidental facts:
Braves are hitting .271/.338/.449, best-in-NL 109 wRC+ vs. LHP (.251/.321/.414, 95 wRC+ vs. RHP)
Ross Stripling, a RHP, is starting tonight (vs SD) instead of LHP Rich Hill, which lines up Stripling behind Kershaw and Buehler (for now)
— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) September 21, 2018
Hill has been nothing if not consistent in September so far. In three starts, Hill has gone six, five and five innings and struck out eight, seven and eight batters. He’s allowed exactly four runs in each outing, and he’s recorded the win in each of those three games. That gives him a third as many wins as Jacob deGrom has all season, despite allowing four runs once in 31 starts. I only added this to trigger Allan #NotMyMVP. Hill’s last start wasn’t as terrible as his statline makes it seem. He allowed two hits in five innings in St. Louis but issued four walks and allowed a grand slam to Patrick Wisdom, with each of those baserunners coming off walks. It was really one disaster inning for Hill, who got 17 runs of support in that game. Hill dominated the Padres the last time he saw them, allowing two hits in six shutout innings while striking out eight on August 24.
Jacob Nix gets his eighth major league start today and sees the Dodgers for the first time. The 22-year-old rookie is the 14th-ranked Padre prospect on MLB Pipeline and has shown flashes in the majors this season. In his first start on August 10, Nix threw six shutout innings against the Phillies. He followed that up by recording only two outs and allowing five runs against Arizona. On August 28, Nix allowed one run in 8 1/3 innings against the Mariners, needing only 79 pitches to record 25 outs. He allowed eight hits and didn’t walk or strike out a batter, but that’s a shockingly efficient and BABIP-friendly start. Nix has a four-pitch mix and throws his fastball 62.5 percent of the time. He averages 92.9 MPH with his fastball and 76.8 MPH with his curve, which he throws 21 percent of the time.
This is probably the best possible Dodger lineup against a right handed pitcher. Manny Machado hits cleanup with Max Muncy starting at first and hitting third.
——
Matt Kemp with the socks & flip-flops on the field pic.twitter.com/3obvMxz0KI
— Stacie Wheeler (@StacieMWheeler) September 22, 2018
Stacie is at the stadium today for all the socks+slides reporting we need.
——
You guys all need new shirts right?
Dodgers hitting coach Turner Ward is currently wearing a “Pucker Up Puig” t-shirt, which shows him giving Yasiel Puig a peck on the cheek. How sweet.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) September 22, 2018
These shirts can be found here.
