Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers had a relatively stress-free win last night, as Julio Urias tossed six very strong innings and the offense put up four runs off Ian Anderson. The pitching held up and allowed only one run to an offense averaging six runs per game in June, but it was far from a flawless game. The Dodgers still managed to go 1-9 with runners in scoring position and Daniel Hudson injured his ACL coming off the mound to field a ball in the eighth inning, likely costing him the rest of the 2022 season. Nevertheless, the Dodgers won their fourth straight game and look to secure a series win and a season-series win against Atlanta.
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| 4:15 PM | Atlanta | ||
| SS | T. Turner | RF | Acuña Jr. |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | SS | Swanson |
| DH | Smith | 1B | Olsen (L) |
| LF | Taylor | 3B | Riley |
| 3B | J. Turner | C | d’Arnaud |
| RF | Thompson | DH | Ozuna |
| 2B | Alberto | 2B | Arcia |
| CF | Bellinger (L) | LF | Duvall |
| C | Barnes | CF | Harris II (L) |
| P | White (R) | P | Fried (L) |
Andrew Heaney was slated to start today, but was placed on the IL again yesterday with left shoulder inflammation. There’s optimism that he wont miss as much time as he did earlier this season, as left shoulder inflammation cost him two months of the season already. In the meantime, the Dodgers called Mitch White back up to fill in the rotation. This will be White’s fifth major league start and 10th appearance overall in 2022. White has been pretty solid this season, especially against teams not from Pennsylvania. In his four starts this season, White has a 3.31 ERA/3.85 FIP in 16 1/3 innings. Opponents in these starts are only OPSing .558 against him. All six of the runs he’s allowed as a starter came in his two starts against the Phillies and Pirates, as they each put up three runs against him. His other two starts came on the road in Arizona and in Chicago (against the White Sox), and White held both teams off the board and allowed only two hits in each game. White was the only Dodger to allow a run to the Braves on April 20, as he got the ball in the ninth inning of a 5-0 game and allowed back-to-back two-out doubles to lose the shutout.
Opposing White will be Max Fried. Fried is one of the top starters in the NL, with a 2.77 ERA/2.70 FIP in 87 2/3 innings so far this season. He’s only failed to complete six innings in three of his 14 starts and only once in his last 12 starts. Atlanta is 10-4 when Fried starts and have won each of his last six outings. Fried dominated the Dodgers back in April as he recorded 21 outs and faced 22 batters in seven innings (that is good). He didn’t allow a hit through five innings, and when Hanser Alberto led off the sixth with a single Fried was able to erase him on a double play.
Fried has the sixth-lowest walk rate among qualified starters this season, walking only 4.3 percent of batters he faces. An interesting matchup against a Dodger offense with the best walk rate in all of baseball (10.3 percent, the Yankees are the only other team above 10). Fried’s four-seamer has been his worst pitch this year (and the pitch he throws the most, at 30.9 percent). It’s his only pitch with a batting average against over .220 (.312) and his only pitch with a slugging percentage against over .300 (.468). Four of the six home runs he’s allowed this season have been on the four-seamer.
Will Smith will DH tonight with Austin Barnes starting behind the plate. Alberto returns and starts at second and Trayce Thompson gets another start in right.
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Anderson struggled for the Braves last night.
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Alberto was reactivated from the paternity list and White was officially called up. Hudson was placed on the IL as an MRI confirmed a torn ACL. Stefen Romero was designated for assignment.
Tommy Kahnle, Danny Duffy and Victor Gonzalez are all on track to return after the trade deadline. It would still be nice if the Dodgers could add a reliever or three via trade, but depending on how effectively they return that could be a strong boost. Bullpen just needs to hold it together until then.
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Didn’t get to write this yesterday because I didn’t have Game Thread, but please consider donating to abortion funds if you have the means. Here’s a resource for some broken down by state. It’s hard to give a shit about sports when rights are being stripped from women in like half the country.
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First pitch is scheduled for 4:15 PM PT and will be shown on FOX with Joe Davis on the call, so maybe it won’t be that bad (it will still be bad (John Smoltz is the color guy today)).
