Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
It’s been an eventful couple days for the Dodgers. They played horrible baseball for the second straight day on Wednesday, leading to a series loss against the Diamondbacks. Then earlier today, a pretty big bomb dropped (more on that after the preview-y parts of this thread). Tonight, the Dodgers begin a five-game homestand and play their first interleague game of the season as the Detroit Tigers visit LA. On April 23, the Tigers beat the Rockies 13-0 to inch towards a .500 record at 6-7. In five games since then, the Tigers have scored nine runs (four of which came in one game) and now they’re 6-12.
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| 7:10 PM | Los Angeles | ||
| CF | Hill | RF | Betts |
| LF | Grossman (S) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| SS | Baez | SS | T.Turner |
| DH | Cabrera | 3B | J.Turner |
| RF | Meadows (L) | DH | Muncy (L) |
| 1B | Torkelson | C | Smith |
| 3B | Candelario (S) | CF | Bellinger (L) |
| 2B | Schoop | LF | Taylor |
| C | Barnhart (S) | 2B | Lux (L) |
| P | Alexander (L) | P | Anderson (L) |
They couldn’t make this easy on me. Tyler Anderson gets the start for the Dodgers for the second time after his first two outings came in relief. He threw a season-high 80 pitches last time out and lasted 4 2/3 innings in San Diego. He allowed four hits, three walks and two runs in his 4 2/3 innings, leaving the game losing as the Dodgers couldn’t figure out Yu Darvish. He’s pitched four+ innings in each of his three outings and struck out exactly four batters each time out. Anderson hasn’t exactly been stellar, but he’s been exactly what a swing starter/piggyback guy needs to be so far this season. He may remain in the rotation a bit as Andrew Heaney reportedly still hasn’t thrown a ball since being shut down following his April 19 start.
Tyler Alexander starts for the Tigers. Last season, Alexander appeared in 41 games (15 starts) and posted a 3.81 ERA/4.39 FIP in 106 1/3 innings. Alexander’s FIP luck has turned through three starts last year, as he owns a 7.20 ERA and 3.67 FIP. Alexander opened the season with a relatively normal start, allowing three runs in 5 1/3 innings against Boston. He followed that up with a one-inning outing, as the Yankees made him throw 42 pitches in the first and scored two unearned runs (on a popup that Alexander made an error on). He then faced the Rockies, who scored five runs and had eight hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Baseball Savant has Alexander tagged with three different fastballs. Last season he threw a cutter the most often (36.2 percent of the time), and also threw a sinker (21.1 percent) and four-seam (14.7 percent). He also threw a changeup 18.4 percent of the time (all but 10 were thrown to righties) and mixed in a slider 9.6 percent of the time. He’s a low velocity pitcher, averaging under 90 MPH with each of his pitches so far this season.
The Dodgers roll out a normal lineup with Max Muncy serving as the DH tonight.
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Dustin already wrote about this, which I think absolves me of having to go too deep into this. Though I think my official stance should mostly be known by now (it rhymes with ‘Duck Krevor Sauer’).
I am quite excited to put this chapter of the Dodgers in the rearview.
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Tommy Kahnle checked another box off his rehab and should be back next week.
Kahnle survived back-to-back outings in the minors and will make one more appearance this weekend before being activated for the Giants series (beginning Tuesday).
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PDT and will be shown on Sportsnet LA.
