Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After a 5-3 victory against the Giants (51-55) last night, the Dodgers (71-33) have now won eight of their last nine, five in a row, and eight consecutive against the Giants. They’re 27-5 (.844) since dropping two in a row against the Rockies at the end of June. As San Diego (61-47) visits for three games in a series that I’m sure will be overreacted to in one way or another, the Dodgers currently lead the season series with a record of 5-2. In those seven games, the Dodgers have outscored the Padres by a score of 35-14. Tony Gonsolin has been scuffling a bit as of late but will look to get back on track against the left-handed Sean Manaea. The division lead is 12.5 games.
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| 7:10 PM | Los Angeles | ||
| LF | Profar (S) | RF | Betts |
| RF | Soto (L) | SS | T. Turner |
| DH | Machado | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 1B | Bell (S) | C | Smith |
| 2B | Cronenworth (L) | 2B | Taylor |
| 3B | Drury | 3B | Alberto |
| CF | Grisham (L) | DH | Vargas |
| C | Alfaro | LF | Thompson |
| SS | Kim | CF | Bellinger (L) |
| P | Manaea (L) | P | Gonsolin (R) |
Miguel Vargas will get the start at DH, as Chris Taylor will make his return from the Injured List against the left-handed Manaea starting at second base, while Gavin Lux has the day off. Taylor last played on 7/4. With Justin Turner still on the injured list, Hanser Alberto will be at third base with Trayce Thompson in left field. Thompson was cut by the Padres earlier in the year after just six games and 16 plate appearances, slashing .071/.188/.071 for San Diego. Over his 33 games and 105 plate appearances for the Dodgers this season, he’s been slashing .275/.371/.495, for a 146 wRC+. Alberto has a .301/.301/.425 slash against left-handed pitching, a .726 OPS and 103 wRC+ in 73 plate appearances. Vargas will be making his home debut and his second career start.
Here’s how the two offenses compare going into tonight.
The Dodgers have been much better than the Padres offensively thus far. That’s obvious, however you’d imagine the gap would shrink significantly with the Padres’ offensive overhaul at the trade deadline. They added Juan Soto (153 wRC+) who will log time in right field, over what was previously occupied by Will Myers (63 wRC+), Nomar Mazara (100 wRC+), and Jose Azocar (72 wRC+). They added Josh Bell (143 wRC+) who’ll take plate appearances over Eric Hosmer (105 wRC+), and additionally added Brandon Drury (133 wRC+) who’ll take plate appearances from the likes of C.J. Abrams (75 wRC+), and Ha-Seong Kim (103 wRC+) to an extent. That’s huge for them. They’ll also get Fernando Tatis Jr. back in a few weeks or less.
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Here’s how the two pitchers matchup
Manaea (6-5) earned his sixth win his last time out, allowing two runs on four hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in six innings against the Twins. Manaea navigated the first four frames unscathed but ran into trouble after that, surrendering solo home runs in the fifth and sixth innings while stranding the bases loaded in the fifth. His seven strikeouts match his best total across his last nine starts. He now possesses a 4.25 ERA and 1.27 WHIP with 111 strikeouts in 110 innings across 19 starts. Manaea had his second worst start of the season against the Dodgers back in April, where he went 4.1 innings with six earned runs.
Here’s his pitch mix, predominantly using only three pitches.
Gonsolin (12-1) allowed three runs on five hits, a walk with one hit batter while striking out six over five innings to earn the win over the Rockies on Sunday. He limited the damage to the third inning, when he gave up a solo home run to Brian Serven and a two-run single to Randal Grichuk. Gonsolin did well enough to earn his first win in his last three starts, and still has a 2.41 ERA, 0.90 WHIP and 96 strikeouts to 28 walks across 104.2 innings in 19 starts this year. The shine has been coming off as of late, as he’s surrendered 12 runs in his last 16 innings. He’ll look to steer out of the skid against San Diego, hopefully matching his performance against them a month ago, where he went 7.2 innings allowing just one run on four hits with 8 strikeouts.
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A few moving parts, but the most important one is Clayton Kershaw hitting the injured list. It seems as if the expectation is he’ll be out a few weeks to a month.
In the absence of Walker Buehler, Kershaw, Dustin May (for now), and Mitch White, guys like Ryan Pepiot will have an opportunity to step up.
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Some solid matchups this weekend.
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Tommy Kahnle returning in time for September and October would be fantastic.
Same deal with Brusdar Graterol and Blake Treinen.
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First pitch is at 7:10 PM PDT on SNLA and MLB Network.
