Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Having completely failed to earn a Top 4 win total in baseball history, the Los Angeles Dodgers (110-51) finally wrap up the regular season this afternoon. I did realize the Dodgers have the most wins in the NL since the Pirates went 110-42 back in 1909 and a win would make them the second-most wins by an NL team behind only the 1906 Cubs with the all-time record of 116-36.
Having lost three straight to the Rockies (69-93), the Dodgers are looking to avoid their first four-game losing streak since May 11 to 14 back in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Colorado has just 27 road victories this season, the second-fewest in the league so a fourth straight in Los Angeles (which would account for 14.3% of their entire season at that point) would be a little disappointing even if the game is meaningless.
After Julio Urias wrapped up his regular season last night, it’ll be Clayton Kershaw concluding his age 34 season in what will probably be a brief outing before the Dodgers await the Padres or Mets arriving to Los Angeles in the NLDS.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 1:20 PM | Los Angeles | ||
| RF | Grichuk | RF | Betts |
| LF | Bouchard | SS | T. Turner |
| 3B | McMachon (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 2B | Rodgers | C | Smith |
| DH | Montero | DH | Muncy (L) |
| 1B | Toglia (S) | 3B | J. Turner |
| SS | Tovar | 2B | Lux (L) |
| CF | Hampson | CF | Bellinger (L) |
| C | Serven | LF | Gallo (L) |
| P | Gomber (R) | P | Kershaw (L) |
At 121 1/3 innings in 21 starts this season, Kershaw is going to end 2022 with his third-lowest innings total ahead of last year’s 121 2/3 and 2008’s 107 2/3 (obviously excluding 2020’s 58 1/3 across 10 of the 60 games). At a 2.30 ERA, he could land with his sixth, seventh or eighth-best total in a season. The FIP at 2.56 is currently sixth and likely to end there unless something drastic happens today.
The 3.7 WAR on FanGraphs is his best since 2017 and ranks tied for 18th in baseball (among pitchers with 120+ innings) with a 26.9 K%. Tied for 11th in baseball with a 4.6 BB%, that 22.3 K-BB% is 14th. Add in the 46.9 GB%, tied for 24th this season, and Kershaw’s slider/four-seamer/curveball once again found a way to be effective.
As for the Rockies, reports say it should be Austin Gomber and his 5.62 ERA/4.51 FIP/4.19 xFIP in 121 2/3 innings. Two of those innings came against the Dodgers back on July 28, giving up 2 hits and 1 run with 1 strikeout at Dodger Stadium.
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Dustin May and Blake Treinen were out throwing this morning before first pitch.
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A pretty cool stat from Eric Stephen on Evan Phillips ahead of today’s game.
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First pitch is set for 1:20 p.m. on SportsNet LA.
