Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers entered the break on quite a roll, winning 15 of 17 as they finished off a two-game sweep in Anaheim on Saturday. Clayton Kershaw got his All-Star start on Tuesday, but Tony Gonsolin took the loss as he allowed three runs and two dongs in his All-Star debut.
The Dodgers are 60-30 and hold the second-largest division lead in all of baseball, at 10 games ahead of the Padres. Today they welcome the Giants back to LA. The Giants also ended the first half strong, winning five of six and taking three of four against the Brewers. The home team has won each of the five games between the two teams this season, with the Dodgers sweeping a two-game set in early May and the Giants sweeping three in early June.
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| 7:10 PM | Los Angeles | ||
| DH | Wade Jr. (L) | RF | Betts |
| 1B | Belt (L) | SS | T. Turner |
| 2B | Flores | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| LF | Pederson (L) | C | Smith |
| 3B | Longoria | DH | J. Turner |
| RF | Gonzalez (L) | 2B | Alberto |
| SS | Estrada | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| CF | Yastrzemski (L) | LF | Thompson |
| C | Wynns | CF | Bellinger (L) |
| P | Rodon (L) | P | White (R) |
Mitch White gets the ball to open the second half for the Dodgers. White had been on a bit of a hot streak (2.22 ERA, .550 OPS against) over five starts. That streak came to a harsh end in St. Louis last Saturday, as White allowed six runs and 10 hits over five innings. He allowed two homers in five innings after having allowed four in his previous 40 innings this season. He had to wear it a bit, as he matched his career-high facing 26 batters and got the Dodgers through five, but David Price allowed a seventh run in the bottom of the eighth inning that proved to be the deciding run in a 7-6 Cardinal win. This will be White’s first career start against the Giants, but he saw them three times out of the bullpen last season. He allowed two runs and three hits in 3 2/3 innings scattered over three outings.
Opposing White is Carlos Rodon. Rodon was named a replacement for the NL All-Star team, but then was replaced by Tyler Anderson after dealing with a blister. Rodon has been excellent for the Giants, with a 2.66 ERA/2.14 FIP in 105 innings. His 30.8 percent strikeout rate is fifth among all qualified starters in baseball and second among NL pitchers. Rodon has struck out 12 in a game three different times this season, but has struggled a bit with pitch count this month. Two of his three July starts have lasted only five innings, and he needed 101 pitches to get through the first and 99 to get through his most recent. Sandwiched between those was a gem he threw in San Diego, where he allowed a run and three hits in a complete-game, 12 strikeout effort. Rodon has seen the Dodgers twice this season. In his start at Dodger Stadium, Rodon struck out only three batters and allowed two runs over six innings in a 3-1 Dodger win. In San Francisco, Rodon struck out eight and allowed only two hits in six shutout innings.
Rodon does it all with basically two pitches. He’s thrown a fastball (averaging 96 MPH) 62.1 percent of the time this season and slider 31.9 percent of the time. He’s mixed in some curveballs and changeups, but primarily sticks with those two offerings.
Hanser Alberto hits sixth today, and Cody Bellinger gets the start against the lefty (on his bobblehead day) and bats ninth.
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Some pitching injury updates.
Andrew Heaney will pitch in a rehab start tonight and could be back after only one rehab start. White is likely lined up to start Tuesday against the Nationals, so that could be the target return for Heaney.
Dustin May will make his second rehab start tomorrow for OKC. He pitched two innings for the ACL Dodgers on Saturday and if all goes well, he’ll bump up to four innings his next rehab start. Seems like enough time to showcase for the Nationals imo.
Finally, Walker Buehler will be six weeks removed from his injury tomorrow. His initial timetable was 6-8 weeks optimistically, but now it seems like a September return to the rotation is more likely.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be shown only on ESPN.
