Rockies @ Dodgers July 25, 2021: Gray vs. Gray

The Dodgers are going for the series win against the Rockies on Sunday afternoon. Future Dodger(?) Jon Gray is opposed by current Dodger Josiah Gray, who is making the first start of his career.

	1:10 p.m.		Los Angeles
LF	Tapia	SS	Taylor
2B	Rogers	RF	McKinney
RF	Blackmon	3B	Turner
SS	Story	C	Smith
1B	Cron	1B	Beaty
C	Diaz	CF	Pollock
CF	Hilliard	2B	McKinstry
3B	Fuentes	LF	Raley
P	Gray (R)	P	Gray (R)

Gray made his MLB debut on Tuesday against the Giants. Despite giving up four runs in four innings (three homers), he made a strong impression. He recorded seven strikeouts, walked juts one and, most impressively, generated 15 swinging strikes. Here’s the breakdown of which pitches generated whiffs:

• Fastball – 3
• Slider – 8
• Curveball – 4

His slider was used exclusively against righties in his debut, while his curveball had a 14:5 usage between lefties and righties. Look for more of the same today.

The Rockies are countering with Gray, who almost assuredly will be dealt by Friday’s trade deadline. Allan wrote about him as a target earlier this week.

“Who knows, he’s a free agent after this season, so it’s likely he’d just be a rental. However, it feels like there’s enough there with Gray, where he has more potential to be unlocked just by getting out of Coors, and with a team that gets the best out of their pitchers, such as the Dodgers. There’s a solid chance that if he were acquired, he’d perform even better than he has thus far.”

And Gray is coming off a strong 7-inning outing against the Dodgers last weekend. He seems like a guy who’s just going to take off once he gets out of Colorado. Not just because of the pitching environment, but if a team like the Dodgers, Astros or Rays got their hands on him, they could probably coax the best out of him.

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Corey Seager is fielding grounders (again). He's expected to head to Camelback Ranch tonight and play in games there.

— Matthew Moreno (@Matthew__Moreno) July 25, 2021

Getting Corey Seager back (preferably the 2020 version) would give the lineup quite the boost. Meanwhile…

Mookie Betts was in the training room earlier.

Dave Roberts: “Today we’ll make a decision on whether to IL him, or continue to kick it down the road."

— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) July 25, 2021

It’s literally a 10-day injured list. Just put Mookie Betts on it and be done with it.

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Giants haven’t yet named their starters for the three-game series starting Tuesday in San Francisco, but the Dodgers will stay in order with Julio Urías, Walker Buehler, and David Price

— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) July 25, 2021

The Dodgers’ Top 3 starters as of now. Here’s hoping they fare better than they did this past week.

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The Rays claimed former Angel and former Dodger Jake Reed.

— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) July 25, 2021

Jake Reed seems like a very Rays reliever. Best of luck to him.

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“Two people with knowledge of Dodgers clubhouse dynamics, who are unauthorized to speak publicly about the situation, said that a majority of players do not want Bauer back under any circumstances.” https://t.co/BRRQ5pEjgV

— Dustin Nosler (@DustinNosler) July 25, 2021

Here’s hoping that’s true.

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First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m.