Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Coming off a 3-1 series win in Miami, the Dodgers (90-38) took the first of three games against the Mets (82-48) in New York last night by a score of 4-3. Just as everyone expected, Heath Hembree got the win yesterday and Jake Reed got the save. For a potential playoff preview game, Dave Roberts went with two relievers in high leverage situations that weren’t on the roster the day before.
It’s good that the Dodgers won the game against Taijuan Walker as they’ll be facing the best pitcher in baseball today, Jacob deGrom. Tyler Anderson has been excellent in his own right, so it should be a good matchup, but doing anything at all against deGrom is a tough task.
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| 4:10 PM | New York | ||
| RF | Betts | CF | Nimmo (L) |
| SS | T. Turner | RF | Marte |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | SS | Lindor (S) |
| C | Smith | 1B | Alonso |
| DH | Muncy (L) | DH | Ruf |
| 3B | Turner | LF | Canha |
| 2B | Lux (L) | 2B | McNeil (L) |
| LF | Gallo (L) | 3B | Escobar (S) |
| C | Bellinger (L) | C | Nido |
| P | Anderson (L) | P | deGrom (R) |
The Mets run out nearly an identical lineup as yesterday, with the sole change being Tomas Nido starting at catcher over James McCann. The Dodgers will also run out a similar lineup, with Will Smith starting over Austin Barnes at catcher and Trayce Thompson having the day off.
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Here’s how the two starters matchup. Anderson’s rankings are among 52 qualified starters, whereas deGrom has only made five starts this season.
Anderson has been great, a clear top twenty pitcher in all of baseball. Anderson didn’t factor into the decision in Friday’s extra-inning win over the Marlins, giving up one earned run on three hits and two walks over 5.1 innings. The Dodgers committed three errors on the night, one of which contributed to a two-run sixth inning by Miami that chased Anderson from the game. He’s been sharp since the All-Star break, posting a 2.08 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 30 strikeouts to three walks through 43.1 innings over seven outings with five quality starts. He faced the Mets earlier in the season and went six scoreless innings allowing just three hits with five strikeouts.
DeGrom earned his third win of the season last time out, coming against Colorado last Thursday. He went six innings and allowed one run on three hits and one walk while striking out nine. DeGrom served up a sixth-inning solo home run to Ryan McMahon, but that was the extent of the damage against him. DeGrom has yet to reach 100 pitches in a game this season, throwing 87 in his previous outing and 95 in his start prior. Through five starts, he’s posted a 2.15 ERA and a minuscule 0.55 WHIP along with a jaw-dropping 44.7% strikeout rate, with 46 strikeouts to two walks.
He’s relied on just two pitches this year because they’re so dominant he rarely needs to throw anything else. His fastball averages 99.3 MPH, gets up to 102, and he throws that 48% of the time, and his slider averages 93.0 MPH and he throws that 44% of the time. He very rarely mixes in a low 90’s changeup and mid 80’s curveball. They’re great pitches, but he hasn’t needed to throw anything besides fastball and slider.
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The United States WBC roster is getting stacked, so hopefully every other team puts together strong rosters.
Cool to see the Dodgers visiting the Jackie Robinson Museum while they’re out there.
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Danny Duffy making the team sometime in September as a possible relief option would be cool.
Yency Almonte has been so good for the Dodgers this year, getting him back will be a huge boost.
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First pitch is at 4:10 PM PDT on SNLA and MLB Network.
