Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers dropped the first three games against the Phillies last week and escaped a four-game sweep with some late-inning heroics on Sunday. The Dodgers haven’t lost a game since last Saturday, as they swept Arizona in a four-game set and held on to the opener in Philadelphia last night. The Phillies have been struggling since leaving LA, as they scored three runs in three games in San Diego and were a couple outs away from being shut out in back to back games. They get an added boost to the lineup today as they look to keep the Dodgers from a seven-game winning streak
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|---|---|---|---|
| 3:05 PM | Philadelphia | ||
| RF | Betts | 1B | Hoskins |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | 3B | Bohm |
| SS | T. Turner | DH | Harper (L) |
| C | Smith | RF | Castellanos |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | LF | Schwarber (L) |
| DH | J. Turner | 2B | Segura |
| CF | Bellinger (L) | CF | Herrera (L) |
| LF | Taylor | C | Realmuto |
| 2B | Lux (L) | SS | Stott (L) |
| P | White (R) | P | Nola (R) |
The Dodgers chose to not bump Tony Gonsolin up to start today and will go with a bullpen game. Mitch White will get his first start of the season after making four starts for the big league club last season. White struggled as a starter last season. 16 of his 46 2/3 innings pitched last season came as a starter, and he allowed more earned runs and home runs in nearly half as many innings as a starter. One of his four starts came in Philadelphia, where he allowed two runs and three hits in four innings. He escaped trouble in that fourth inning as he issues three walks but was able to skate by allowing only one run in the inning. White’s longest appearance last season actually came as the long man in a bullpen game started by Justin Bruihl. Bruihl recorded the first five outs of the game, and White came in and finished out the game throwing a career-high 91 pitches. The hope is to get three innings and/or 45 pitches out of White today. As for the rest of the bullpen, Evan Phillips and Phil Bickford each threw over 20 pitches last night. Yency Almonte threw 17 and Alex Vesia and Craig Kimbrel also appeared, but threw fewer than 10 pitches.
Opposing White will be the Phillies ace, Aaron Nola. Nola started in LA on Sunday and held the Dodgers to two runs and four hits in seven innings as he threw a season-high 108 pitches. The Phillies won Nola’s first start of the season on Opening Day against Oakland, but have lost each of Nola’s last seven starts. Nola hasn’t been quite been dominant this season (3.64 ERA, 3.52 FIP), but he’s held opponents to a .658 OPS against him.
Nola throws a four-seamer 30.9 percent of the time, and opponents are only hitting .114 and slugging .143 off it (with expected numbers of .112 and .212, respectively). He throws a curveball 26.1 percent of the time and while it’s his best whiff pitch (38.8 percent whiff rate), six of the 11 hits he’s allowed on it have been for extra bases. He also throws a sinker (20.1 percent), changeup (17.1 percent) and cutter (5.8 percent).
Max Muncy is back in the lineup and starting at third with Justin Turner serving as the DH. The Phillies get Bryce Harper back in the lineup. Harper was the DH in the first three games at Dodger Stadium last week before having a procedure done on his elbow. In those three games, Harper reached base in nine of his 15 plate appearances and hit four doubles and three home runs.
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No major league news yet, but an exciting day on the minor league side.
Michael Grove, Bobby Miller, Nick Nastrini and Maddux Bruns are pitching in minor league games today. Three of those guys will look great in DC (bring me Juan Soto, pls). If any major league news breaks between the time I schedule this post and the time it posts, just act like I wrote about it we’re all adults here.
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First pitch is scheduled for 3:05 (wtf) PT and will be shown on Sportsnet LA.
