Rockies @ Dodgers July 24, 2021: Gonsolin looks to end the skid

Photo: Stacie Wheeler

The Dodgers are once again down bad. David Price turned in his longest outing of the season, but with three relievers unavailable, the Dodgers blew another ninth-inning lead and dropped this one in the 10th. It was only the Rockies’ 10th win away from Colorado this season, and the Dodgers fourth-straight loss prevented them from gaining ground on the Giants, who lost to Pittsburgh earlier in the day.

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6:10 PM Los Angeles
LF Tapia (L) SS Taylor
2B Hampson 3B Turner
RF Blackmon (L) CF Pollock
SS Story 1B Pujols
3B McMahon (L) C Barnes
1B Cron 2B Neuse
CF Hilliard (L) RF McKinney (L)
C Nunez (L) LF Raley (L)
P Freeland (L) P Gonsolin (R)

Tony Gonsolin gets the start tonight. He’s coming off his worst outing of the season, where he lasted only 3 1/3 innings and allowed three runs, five hits and four walks to the Giants. Gonsolin was recovering from an injury and building his pitch count back up, but he’s failed to complete four innings in five of his eight starts. This was slightly more manageable when he was the fifth starter, but it’s a much bigger issue when he’s the number three. This will be Gonsolin’s first look at the Rockies this season. He started two games against them last season and combined to allow four runs (three earned) and strike out 18 in 11 innings.

Kyle Freeland gets his 11th start of the season tonight and his second straight start against the Dodgers. He allowed three runs and six hits in six innings and did a decent job keeping the Rockies in the game (before their bullpen gave up six runs in the final three innings). The lefty has a 5.36 ERA/5.65 FIP in 48 innings overall this season, and has surprisingly found more success at Coors so far. Obviously small sample sizes (five home and five road starts), and Freeland has a 4.56 ERA in 25 home innings and 6.26 ERA in 23 innings on the road. He’s allowed 16 runs on the road, and eight of those came in one start in Cincinnati.

Freeland has a five-pitch mix, mostly throwing a four-seam fastball and slider (27.5 and 27.1 percent of the time, respectfully). He only throws a curveball 13.4 percent of the time, but has only allowed two hits off it (out of 107 pitches).

This lineup is a HIPAA violation. If someone already got this joke off on Twitter, I have receipts that I texted this to Allan at 3:51. If you think the jokes I get off in my thread are bad, you should see the things he vetoes.

I have not read Cody’s deadline article about trading for Kris Bryant, but yes please.

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Mookie Betts, clearly, is not in the lineup for the seventh straight game. If only there was some list injured players could go on.

Gonna go ahead and fast forward to Monday. “Mookie Betts had hip replacement surgery on Sunday. Not going on the IL. Hope he can be back for the finale in San Francisco”.

In positive injury news, a promising Clayton Kershaw update.

Kershaw threw a 30-pitch bullpen today, and will throw a sim game next week in San Francisco. He would be the fifth-best hitter in tonight’s lineup.

Cody Bellinger is not in the lineup after re-injuring his hamstring yesterday. He ran in the outfield and fielded some fly balls, so hopefully the injury isn’t a full-reaggrivation.

Bellinger also took ground balls at first, and could play there to avoid having to roam around in the outfield.

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First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 PM PDT and will be shown on Sportsnet LA.

About Alex Campos

I've been writing about the Dodgers since I graduated from Long Beach State, where I covered the Dirtbags in my senior year. I'm either very good or very bad at puns.