Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
It wasn’t the most commanding win last night, but the Dodgers took care of business and made the defensive plays they were lacking in their early-season struggles. They earned their 99th win of the season and kept pace with the Giants, who beat the Rockies in Colorado yesterday. They remain one game back and look to win their 100th game of the season while the Diamondbacks look to win their 50th game of the season.
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| 5:10 PM | Phoenix | ||
| RF | Betts | 2B | Marte (S) |
| SS | Seager (L) | LF | Ramos (S) |
| 2B | T. Turner | RF | Varsho (L) |
| 1B | Muncy (L) | 1B | Walker |
| C | Smith | C | Kelly |
| 3B | J. Turner | 3B | Rojas (L) |
| LF | Taylor | SS | Vargas (S) |
| CF | Lux (L) | CF | McCarthy (L) |
| P | Kershaw (L) | P | Gallen (R) |
Clayton Kershaw makes his third start off the IL and his 21st start of the season tonight. The plan for Kershaw’s rlast start in Cincinnati was five innings/75 pitches, and Kershaw completed five innings in 74 pitches. He allowed an RBI groundout after allowing a double and a wild pitch, but allowed only three hits and struck out eight without issuing a walk. Kershaw’s return from his two-month IL stint came against the Diamondbacks in LA. He allowed a run and four hits in 4 1/3 innings before hitting his 50-pitch target. He’ll likely only have one more tune-up for the postseason, so (add shit about pitch target today)
This will be Kershaw’s third look at Arizona this season. He also started against the Diamondbacks on May 19, and held Arizona to two hits and two runs over six innings. He left the game trailing, but the Dodgers rallied in the seventh to take a 4-2 victory.
Zac Gallen starts for the 22nd time this season. He’s posted a 4.53 ERA/4.15 FIP in 109 1/3 innings this season and the Diamondbacks are only 4-17 when he starts. One of those four wins came on July 30 against the Dodgers, where Gallen allowed two runs over six innings and struck out eight. Gallen started against the Dodgers on September 13 with less success, allowing four runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. He’s allowed three or more earned runs in each of his last four starts and in seven of his nine outings since the beginning of August.
Gallen throws a fastball 53.7 percent of the time, and Baseball Savant also has him throwing a cutter eight percent of the time and a sinker 0.4 percent of the time. Gallen also throws a changeup (16.4 percent), curveball (12.2 percent) and slider (9.3 percent), and each of those pitches has a greater than 30 percent whiff rate. Despite throwing a slider less than 10 percent of the time, it’s the pitch he’s given up the most home runs off (six of his 16 home runs allowed have come off the slider).
Will Smith starts behind the plate and will catch Kershaw for the fifth time this season. Chris Taylor starts in left with Gavin Lux getting another start in center.
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Cody Bellinger got a haircut.
This was the first piece of news I saw on Twitter after hopping on to write this shit after my own haircut. Make of that what you will, I’m just saying you’ve never seen me and Bellinger in a room at the same time.
Re-sign Max Scherzer, pls.
.@Max_Scherzer made this kid’s week. 💙
— MLB (@MLB) September 25, 2021
Via: https://t.co/wYof7V2Sxm pic.twitter.com/TAHyFxY0Nm
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First pitch is scheduled for 5:10 PM PDT and will be shown on Sportsnet LA.
