Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers look to bounce back from last night’s rough outing in game two against the Yankees. Hyun-Jin Ryu picked an inopportune time for his worst outing of the season, as he doubled the amount of earned runs he’s given up at home in 2019 in only 4 1/3 innings. Meanwhile, the Dodger offense looked hopeless against James Paxton, who matched the season-high across baseball for swinging strikes in a game with 29 (H/T Lindsey Adler). Today’s a new day, and the Dodgers send a pitcher at the start of his career to face a Yankee pitcher nearing the end of his career.
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Yankees
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Dodgers
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1:05 p.m.
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Los Angeles
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1B
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LeMahieu |
CF
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Pollock | |
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RF
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Judge |
3B
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Turner | |
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SS
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Gregorius |
C
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Smith | |
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2B
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Torres |
RF
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Bellinger | |
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CF
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Gardner |
SS
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Taylor | |
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3B
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Urshela |
2B
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Muncy | |
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LF
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Tauchman | LF | Hernández | |
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C
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Romine |
1B
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Gyorko | |
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P
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Sabathia (L) |
P
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Gonsolin (R) |
Tony Gonsolin faces his toughest test tonight as he goes up against a dangerous Yankee lineup that hit five homers last night. Gonsolin had a rough debut in June, but since then has proven his ability in the Majors. He turned in a six-inning, two-hit shutout against the Cardinals earlier in August before being demoted back to the minors. He was recalled for a start in Atlanta last weekend and needed 72 pitches to get through only four innings, but held the Braves to only one run. Gonsolin hasn’t shied away from the zone in the majors, as he’s walked only one batter in 18 innings this season.
Opposing Gonsolin will be C.C. Sabathia, who announced in the offseason that the 2019 season would be his final year. Sabathia has struggled this season, with a 5.01 ERA in 93 1/3 innings. He missed roughly three weeks with knee inflammation, returning from the IL August 18th. He allowed four runs in three innings against Cleveland in his return. In his last five starts Sabathia has allowed 21 earned runs in 24 1/4 innings and allowed 10 homers. The 19-year veteran has played only half a season in the NL, and today will be Sabathia’s third career start at Dodger Stadium (out of 556 career starts). He’s 1-0 at Dodger Stadium, allowing two runs in 15 innings. The last time he started in LA, the only pitchers to appear in the game were Sabathia, Mariano Rivera, Vicente Padilla and Ronald Belisario. So maybe that’s not the most predictive stat.
Sabathia is one of the softest-throwing pitchers in baseball, which should be a nice change from Paxton yesterday. He primarily throws a cutter that averages 88.3 MPH to righties and a sinker that averages 89 MPH to lefties. Sabathia’s slider has been his out pitch this season, with a 32.3 percent strikeout rate on it.
Corey Seager isn’t in the lineup today, with Chris Taylor sliding over to short and Enrique Hernandez starting in left. Jedd Gyorko gets the start at first base with Max Muncy starting at second.
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After finishing last night’s game at third base, Russell Martin will be out for 3-7 days.
Martin has been placed on the bereavement list, which means he will miss be gone at least three days but no more than a week. Austin Barnes is back from Triple A OKC and will resume the role of backup catcher.
Barnes will be behind the plate tomorrow and go back down to OKC Tuesday before being called up again on September 1 when rosters expand.
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Rich Hill threw his bullpen session.
He’ll reportedly throw another one in a couple days before facing hitters.
Alex Verdugo is also not expected to return until after rosters expand.
Per his Instagram story, Verdugo took some swings off a tee yesterday.
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Ryu has struggled in his last two starts, and the Dodgers might give him some extra rest when rosters expand.
His 152 2/3 innings is the most he’s thrown since 2014. He’s only had one other inning since then with over 100 innings, so a bit of fatigue shouldn’t be surprising. Load management SZN.
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Julio Urias will throw during his suspension.
He’ll throw a bullpen at Camelback with the expectation that he’ll be ready to return to the bullpen on September 3.
