Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers reverted to some bad habits last night, as they went 1 for 17 with runners in scoring position and Craig Kimbrel issued three walks (one intentionally) in extras to walk in the losing run. The win/loss doesn’t matter as much as health for the Dodgers right now, and as Chad pointed out on Twitter last night, if an outing like this helps prevent Kimbrel from pitching in leverage situations (or at all) in October, was it really a loss? It helped the Padres remain 2.5 up on the Phillies for the final Wild Card spot in the NL, which was the worst part of it. Tonight, the Dodgers look to even up the series and bolster their ace’s Cy Young case.
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| 6:40 PM | San Diego | ||
| RF | Betts | SS | Kim |
| SS | T. Turner | RF | Soto (L) |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | 3B | Machado |
| C | Smith | DH | Drury |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | 1B | Myers |
| LF | Gallo (L) | 2B | Cronenworth (L) |
| 2B | Lux (L) | LF | Profar (S) |
| DH | Taylor | C | Nola |
| CF | Bellinger (L) | CF | Azocar |
| P | Urías (L) | P | Musgrove (R) |
Julio Urias becomes the first Dodger to make 30 starts this season, and unless Tyler Anderson gets three more starts this week will be the only Dodger to make 30 this season. He was one of two that did last year (Walker Buehler was the other). Urias has definitely inserted himself into the Cy Young convo, as he leads the NL with a 2.25 ERA. The award is probably still Sandy Alcantara‘s to lose (a 2.32 ERA in almost 60 more innings), but Urias has been one of the most effective pitchers in baseball this season. Urias has allowed 11 earned runs in his last 12 starts and has allowed three or more runs in only five of his 29 starts this season. He’s only topped 100 pitches once this season and the Dodgers are 20-9 when Urias pitches, but have won 16 of his last 17 starts.
Urias made consecutive starts against the Padres at the beginning of the month. The Dodgers won both games and he allowed three runs and seven hits in 13 innings over the two games. All three of those runs came on Manny Machado solo homers.
Opposing Urias is Joe Musgrove. Musgrove signed an extension with the Padres on August 1, and since then has struggled a bit. In 10 starts since, Musgrove has a 4.12 ERA after posting a 2.65 in his 18 starts prior to the extension. He’s turned it around a bit in his last two starts, where he allowed nine hits and one run over 11 innings against two good offenses in Atlanta and St. Louis. This will be Musgrove’s third look at the Dodgers this season. He struck out 10 at Dodger Stadium at the end of June, but took the loss as he allowed three runs over seven innings. A few weeks ago, the Dodgers scored four runs in 5 1/3 innings in an 11-2 Dodger win.
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The Dodgers get a big piece of their bullpen back.
Yency Almonte is back after being sidelined with an elbow injury since August 3. Almonte broke out in a big way, as he allowed only four runs in 31 1/3 innings before the injury and earned a spot as a high leverage arm for the Dodgers. To make room, Phil Bickford was placed on the IL with shoulder fatigue.
Justin Turner is out of the lineup today and will be out for a couple days.
Turner came up limping last night and won’t play for a few days.
Tony Gonsolin will return next week.
Gonsolin threw 27 pitches over two scoreless innings for OKC last night and will start Monday against the Rockies. He’s scheduled to go three innings Monday, and the hope it to build him up to four before the postseason.
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The Dodgers named their starters for the final two games of the regular season.
Following Gonsolin, Urias will get his final start of the season next Tuesday and Clayton Kershaw will start the regular season finale next Wednesday. The Dodgers won’t play again until October 11, so that won’t necessarily be the order they pitch in the NLDS.
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The Dodgers end the season with six against the Rockies. On Saturday, they will honor Jaime Jarrin.
Jarrin has been the spanish voice of the Dodgers since 1959 and will be retiring at the end of the season. The ceremony will begin at 5 PM.
Shoutout Jaime Escalante.
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First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 PM PT and will be shown on Sportsnet LA.
