Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers were an out away from a five-game losing streak and a four-game sweep at the hand of the Phillies, but Gavin Lux turned in their first walk-off win of the season to salvage a horrible series. Today, the Dodgers welcome a Diamondback team that might be decent? Arizona was 6-11 when the Dodgers went into Arizona in late April, and the DBacks took two of three. Since then, they’re 10-6 and sitting above .500 with an 18-17 record overall, good for fourth right now in the NL West.
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| 7:10 PM | Los Angeles | ||
| DH | Varsho (L) | RF | Betts |
| RF | Smith (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 2B | Marte (S) | SS | T. Turner |
| 1B | Walker | DH | Smith |
| 3B | Rojas (L) | 3B | J. Turner |
| LF | Peralta (L) | 2B | Muncy (L) |
| SS | Perdomo (S) | CF | Taylor |
| CF | Thomas (L) | C | Barnes |
| C | Herrera (S) | LF | Lux (L) |
| P | Bumgarner (L) | P | Gonsolin |
Tony Gonsolin gets the ball tonight and is coming off another impressive start. As most of the Dodger rotation imploded, Gonsolin went out and tossed five one-hit innings in the only game the Dodgers won in Pittsburgh. He did struggle at times and issued a season-high four walks, but held the Pirates off the board (seven runs of run support in his five innings didn’t hurt). Gonsolin threw a season-high 84 pitches, making it only the second time in six starts he surpassed 80 pitches. He no longer has his piggyback partner as Tyler Anderson is in the rotation for the foreseeable future, but Gonsolin has continued to be effective (while struggling to go deep into games).
Opposing Gonsolin is an old nemesis, Madison Bumgarner. I spent a solid 10 minutes on this thread trying to verify there wasn’t a typo in baseball reference. Bumgarner currently owns a 1.78 ERA in 30 1/3 innings over seven starts. Bumgarner is coming off his longest start of the season, as he allowed two runs in 6 1/3 innings against the Marlins. He was fresh entering that game, as he was ejected in the first inning of his previous start in a viral clip of an ump show. Do you know how bad an ump has to be to make me be on Bumgarner’s side of something?
While MadBum has a shiny ERA, some of the underlying numbers are troublesome. He has a 4.69 FIP and has only struck out 20 batters in 30 1/3 innings while walking 12. He’s roughly middle-of-the-pack in average exit velocity, ranking 60th out of 113 pitchers with an 88.8 average exit velocity allowed. Bumgarner may be one of the bigger beneficiaries of the non-juiced ball, as he’s currently running the highest fly ball percentage (46.7 percent) of his career.
Cody Bellinger is out of the lineup for the first time this season, with Chris Taylor getting the start in center and Lux starting in left. Austin Barnes catches while Will Smith serves as the DH again.
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A roster move.
Caleb Ferguson is back on the active roster for the first time since September 2020, when he underwent Tommy John Surgery. Ferguson is expected to pitch tonight. Michael Grove had a solid debut yesterday, but has been optioned back to Triple-A.
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The Dodgers have a scheduled doubleheader tomorrow, as they make up one of the Diamondback games from the first week of the season that was cancelled due to the lockout.
Anderson will start the nightcap, but the early game starter is still unknown. Ryan Pepiot could get his second start. He isn’t required to wait 10 days after being optioned due to being the potential 27th-man in the doubleheader.
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Clayton Kershaw played catch.
Kershaw could throw a bullpen session Wednesday, which seems like a promising sign after the last update was some soreness.
David Price could be back soon.
Price could be activated tomorrow. He missed nearly three weeks with Covid and needing to build back up, but could be back this week.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be shown on Sportsnet LA.
