Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Following a great outing by Kenta Maeda last night, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks have split the first two games of this series. Today, the Dodgers look for their 79th win of the season and their 10th win in the last 12 games. They’ve won nine of the 14 games against Arizona this season, and today is the final time Arizona will play in LA in the 2019 regular season. The two teams still have a four-game series in Arizona to end August.
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Diamondbacks
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Dodgers
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1:10 P.M.
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Los Angeles
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LF
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Locastro |
RF
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Pederson | |
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CF
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Marte |
2B
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Muncy | |
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3B
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Escobar |
3B
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Turner | |
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1B
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Walker |
1B
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Bellinger | |
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2B
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Flores |
SS
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Seager | |
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LF
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Jones |
C
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Smith | |
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SS
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Ahmed | LF | Beaty | |
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C
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Kelly |
CF
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Negrón | |
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P
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Leake (R) |
P
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Ryu (L) |
Hyun-Jin Ryu starts today for the first time in August, as he’s been on the IL with a sore neck. His last start came on the final day of July in Colorado, the same place Ryu turned in his worst outing of the season. He solved Coors Field in his last start, tossing six shutout frames to cap off an incredible July. In five July starts, Ryu allowed two earned runs in 32 2/3 innings, lowering his ERA from a pedestrian 1.83 at the end of June to a 1.53 now. Pretty decent. Ryu has made 21 starts this season and has allowed 23 earned runs. That’s kind of absurd.
This will be Ryu’s third look at the Diamondbacks in 2019. He started opening day against Arizona and allowed a run and stuck out eight in six innings. Ryu started in Arizona on June 4 and threw seven shutout innings, allowing only three hits but striking out only two batters. Adam Jones is the only D-Back to score off Ryu this season, as he took Ryu deep in the sixth inning on opening day.
Mike Leake makes his second start for Arizona today after being acquired in a nice trade deadline move. Leake went to school at ASU and resides there now. It also reportedly makes travel easier for his father.
“Besides being home for Leake, who has a place in Paradise Valley, Arizona also is where his in-laws live and is his parents’ winter home. His father, Chris, who is paralyzed from the waist down following a fall from a roof in 2013, spends the summers in Montana. His father’s condition has limited his ability to travel to see Leake pitch and was said to be part of the reason he was willing to take less to sign with the Diamondbacks four years ago.” (per Nick Piecoro of the AZ Central).
Leake posted a 4.27 ERA in 22 starts in Seattle before being moved to Arizona. His first start as a Diamondback came five days ago, and Leake allowed three runs (two earned) in 5 1/3 innings against the Phillies. He worked around trouble often, as the Phillies recorded 11 hits off him.
Leake has not been great this season, as his average exit velocity against (91.2 MPH) is one of the highest in baseball. 43.6 percent of balls hit off Leake are classified as “hard hit”. He is stingy with the free passes, as his 3.3 percent walk rate is the second-best among qualified pitchers only behind Ryu. Don’t expect a ton of free passes in today’s game.
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Please show some respect to Chad in this trying time.
Casey Sadler has been excellent in his short Dodger career, but has been optioned to Triple-A to make room for Ryu.
Sadler allowed a run in his first Dodger outing, but hasn’t allowed one in his other eight appearances as a Dodger. He’ll almost assuredly be back up in September, and the final part of the season seems like it’ll mostly be an audition to see which pitchers make up the October bullpen.
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The Dodgers may soon get some of their versatility back.
Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernandez have each been out since mid-late July, Taylor with a fractured forearm and Hernandez with a sprained hand. They both likely will begin rehab assignments next week while the Dodgers are on the road.
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The Dodger bullpen is short two relievers today. Sadler is off the active roster, and Kenley Jansen won’t be available today.
Jansen’s thrown 37 pitches in the last two games. He pitched the ninth inning in a non-save situation last night and allowed a single.
