Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers won again last night, but it was hard to find a Dodger fan that really gave a shit about that. When news of the passing of Vin Scully broke, everything else seemed secondary. I don’t have much to add that hasn’t already been written by people better than me at this, but as a 31-year-old born and raised in Los Angeles, this was akin to losing a grandparent. If you haven’t read it already, do yourself a favor and read what Brim wrote about Vin earlier.
The Dodgers apparently won 9-5 last night, so they have a chance to wrap up a series victory win a win tonight. They became the first NL team to reach 70 wins and are tied with the Yankees for the most wins in baseball, having played three fewer games.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 6:45 PM | San Francisco | ||
| RF | Betts | RF | Slater |
| SS | T. Turner | 2B | Flores |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | 1B | Belt (L) |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | DH | Mercedes |
| CF | Thompson | 3B | Davis |
| 2B | Lux (L) | LF | Gonzalez (L) |
| DH | Vargas | C | Bart |
| LF | Outman (L) | SS | Machado |
| C | Barnes | CF | Johnson (S) |
| P | Urias (L) | P | Cobb (R) |
Julio Urias makes his 21st start of the season. He’s coming off a strong start at Coors Field, where allowed two runs and four hits in seven innings, which matched his season-high. He got through those seven innings in only 89 pitches, and it was his second seven-inning outing in his last three starts. Urias has allowed two or fewer runs in 15 of his 20 starts this season and has dominated the Giants in his three starts against them this season. He’s completed exactly six innings in each of those three starts and has allowed four, three and two hits in each of those starts. He’s only allowed two runs in the three games, both coming in the first inning on June 12 when Austin Slater and Mike Yastrzemski both took him deep. That was also the start where Urias struck out a season-high 10 batters.
Alex Cobb starts for the Giants tonight. A couple weeks ago, Cobb had never pitched against the Dodgers in his 11-year career. He started in LA on July 24 and allowed eight hits and four runs in 5 2/3 innings. Three of the four runs came in the third, as the Dodgers had a pair of singles and a pair of doubles in the inning. He’s coming off one of his most dominant starts of the season against the Cubs. Cobb struck out a season-high 11 batters and allowed one run in six innings.
Cobb has a lot more red on his savant page than you’d expect from a 4.06 ERA/1.280 WHIP guy. He throws three pitches, and his expected batting average and slugging percentages on each pitch is lower than his actual batting average and slugging percentages against. He mostly throws a sinker and splitter, throwing them 43.4 and 43.1 percent of the time, respectively. He mixes in a curveball 13.3 of the time and has allowed two homers on 174 curveballs. He’s allowed three homers on 568 sinkers and one homer on 564 splitters this season.
Each team has a rookie making their Major League debut tonight. Bryce Johnson was called up by the Giants and starts in center tonight. For the Dodgers, Miguel Vargas was called up yesterday and will be making his debut tonight. Vargas was Dustin’s second-ranked and Josh’s third-ranked prospect in their preseason top-30 prospect list. All he’s done this season is slash .291/.382/.497 in 437 plate appearances at AAA. Joey Gallo isn’t in the lineup, but arrived and will be available today. If he splash hits in his first Dodger AB, he gets a statue thems the rules.
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The Dodgers are already honoring Scully.
They’ll wear this patch on their jersey for the rest of the season. They’ll also honor Scully pregame when the team returns to LA on Friday.
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Dodger reliever on the mend updates.
Brusdar Graterol still throws hard, as he reportedly hit 100 in a bullpen and is close to facing hitters. Blake Treinen faced hitters and touched 97, and could begin a rehab assignment in his next outing.
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First pitch is scheduled for 6:45 PM PT and will be shown on Sportsnet LA.
