Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers rode their aces Tony Gonsolin and Tyler Anderson to wins in the first two games of the series against the Mets. What a completely normal sentence to type. I had planned to get this bit off last night, but Chad stole it right out from under me.
Anderson extended his scoreless streak to 26 innings and the Dodgers donged three times to take the second game of the four-game series and match the Mets with an NL-best 35th win of the season. Gonsolin and Anderson have been stellar for the Dodgers, who now turn to a pitcher that entered the season with a lot of Cy Young buzz but has been less-than-dominant so far in 2022.
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| 7:10 PM | Los Angeles | ||
| CF | Nimmo (L) | RF | Betts |
| RF | Marte | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| SS | Lindor (S) | SS | T. Turner |
| 1B | Alonso | DH | J. Turner |
| LF | McNeil (L) | LF | Taylor |
| 2B | Guillorme (L) | 3B | Alberto |
| 3B | Escobar (S) | CF | Bellinger (L) |
| DH | Plummer (L) | C | Barnes |
| C | Mazeika (L) | 2B | Lux (L) |
| P | Peterson (L) | P | Buehler (R) |
Walker Buehler starts for the 11th time this season. His last start was pretty concerning, as he allowed four runs in the first three innings against a Pirates lineup that featured like three players I knew existed before the game. Buehler bounced back and was able to complete six innings, but it was a rough start against a team he should have been able to dominate. He’s faced some pretty poor offenses in his last four starts (Philly, Arizona, Washington and Pittsburgh, who have the 9th, 19th, 20th and 27th-ranked team OPS’s, respectively) and hasn’t had any WALKER F BUEHLER starts. He allowed an .814 OPS against him and struck out only 17 batters in 22 innings over those four games. He’s completed six innings in only four of his first 10 starts and has struck out more than five in a game only five times.
Most of Buehler’s pitches have been effective, but his fastball has been troublesome so far this season. He’s thrown it a career-low 32.5 percent of the time and opponents are hitting .373 with a .642 slugging against it. It carries an xBA of .340 and an xSLG of .689, so it’s been getting punished so far this season. All five of the homers he’s allowed have come on the four seamer.
Opposing Buehler will be David Peterson. This will be the sixth start and seventh appearance overall for the Arcadia-born lefty. The Mets have won each of the five games he’s started, at least partially due to a large amount of run support (5+ runs in each game he’s started, 13 runs in each of his last two starts). Peterson’s been solid, with a 3.51 ERA/4.12 FIP in 25 2/3 innings over those five starts. He’s coming off his worst outing of the year, as he allowed four runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings against the Nationals on Monday and struck out only one batter while walking four.
Peterson has two fastballs that have been charted by Baseball Savant. He throws a four-seamer 33.5 percent of the time and a sinker 17.3 percent of the time. He also throws a slider 23.3 percent of the time, changeup 21 percent of the time (mostly to righties) and a curveball 4.8 percent of the time. His slider has been his best pitch, as 15 of his 23 strikeouts this season have ended on a slider and he’s gotten a whiff on 50.9 percent of his sliders.
Austin Barnes catches Buehler tonight with Will Smith getting the night off. Hanser Alberto starts at third and Justin Turner will serve as the DH.
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Some news on the rehab front.
Both Andrew Heaney and Max Muncy started rehab assignments at OKC tonight. Heaney allowed a run and two hits in three innings and struck out five batters in 39 pitches. Muncy walked and grounded out in two plate appearances before I scheduled this post.
Clayton Kershaw will make his first rehab start tomorrow in Rancho. He’ll go three innings and could be back in the rotation next weekend against the Giants.
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The Dodgers are retiring the number of Gil Hodges tonight, making Enrique Hernandez the last player to don the number for the Dodgers. 34 next, please.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be shown on Sportsnet LA.
