Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (10-2) are looking for their sixth consecutive win and the series sweep tonight against the Colorado Rockies (3-9). Julio Urias will make his third start of the season, matching up against Austin Gomber for the second time.
Naturally, every player in the league will be wearing number 42 today as it’s Jackie Robinson Day. I’m sure everyone knows, but today honors and commemorates the day Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier on April 15, 1947 making his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was the 1947 Rookie of the Year, six time All-Star, 1949 MVP, 1955 World Series Champion, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| CF | Hampson | SS | Taylor |
| LF | Tapia (L) | 3B | Turner |
| 2B | McMahon (L) | 2B | Muncy (L) |
| 1B | Cron | C | Smith |
| 3B | Fuentes | CF | Pollock |
| C | Díaz | 1B | Ríos (L) |
| RF | Daza | RF | McKinstry (L) |
| SS | Trejo | LF | Raley (L) |
| P | Gomber (L) | P | Urías (L) |
It’s a getaway day for the Dodgers with a 7:10 PM game tomorrow in San Diego, so Mookie Betts and Corey Seager will both have the night off. Gavin Lux was scratched an hour before the game with right wrist soreness, messing up my lineup entirely. We will get to see Max Muncy at second base, Chris Taylor at shortstop, AJ Pollock in center field and Edwin Rios at first base. Rios will make his second start of the season at first base, Taylor will make his first start of the year at short, naturally Luke Raley is making his first start in general, Pollock will make his first start in center field after just fifteen last season, and Muncy will make his first start of the season at second base after just eleven last season. Even though they’re not all playing, a fun thing to notice is that the team has six players with an OPS above 1.000, led by Justin Turner at 1.166. Taylor is seventh at .998.
After throwing five left-handed batters at Dustin May yesterday, the Rockies will make a handful of changes so that the only left-handed batters in the lineup are Raimel Tapia and Ryan McMahon. The 24 year-old Alan Trejo will make his first start of the season, starting at shortstop while Trevor Story has the day off.
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Even though they only have two starts under their belt, this is how Urías and Gomber matchup.
Urias had an outstanding first outing, allowing only three hits and one run over seven innings in Colorado but didn’t have the same success last time out. He allowed nine hits and three runs over five and two third innings against the Washington Nationals, where three of those hits and one run came during the first inning. In 2020 he allowed a total of ten runs in the first inning during his ten starts for a 9.00 ERA, while he allowed only ten runs in his other 45 innings for a 2.00 ERA. Hopefully he finds a way to get this under control and not struggle there as he has previously.
Here’s what I had to say about Gomber the last time these two met. “Gomber is a 27 year-old left handed pitcher making his debut for the Rockies. He was acquired in the trade that sent Nolan Arenado to St. Louis. Gomber made only four starts last season, while appearing out of the bullpen an additional ten times. It appears that Colorado intends to use him as a starter, where he allowed just one run in those four starts over 15.2 innings. The .243 BABIP he allowed was considerably low, but nothing impossible to recreate if he were pitching anywhere outside of Coors Field. He spent 2019 back in the minor leagues after a mediocre rookie season in 2018 where he featured a 4.44 ERA over 75.0 innings. He sits 92-94 with his fastball, mixing in a slider and a curveball for his off speed pitches.”
He’s made two starts since then, the three inning start against the Dodgers where he allowed just one run and one hit while walking seven, and against the Giants where he also only allowed a single hit while allowing two runs and walking four over six and a third innings. If he had managed to get an extra two outs and had totaled ten innings, he’d have the fourth lowest BABIP against him among 104 starters at .091. He’s also second in the league in walks allowed with eleven. He’ll need to be better than his last outing against the Dodgers because it was a miracle they didn’t score more that time.
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I’ll throw together a few good articles and tweets I’ve seen today in regards to Jackie Robinson Day.
This is a super cool gesture by Betts, Dave Roberts and other players.
This is another good read.
This handful of guys had great words to share in regards to what Jackie means to them.
Legend.
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This weekend we get the matchup we’ve all been waiting for: Walker Buehler and Ryan Weathers. In all seriousness, the pitching for this weekend series is stacked.
Some things like this often go unrealized because this team just seems to win at unprecedented rates.
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First pitch is at 7:10 PM PT on SNLA.
