Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers suffered their first shutout loss of the season last night, as they failed to score a run and only mustered three hits against Alex Wood and five Giant relievers. Dustin May struggled with his command for the first time this season, and while he bounced back to turn in a solid outing, his two first inning runs allowed were too much to overcome. Evan Phillips got his first game action since last Thursday and allowed three runs in the eighth inning, giving the Giants a 5-0 win.
Today, the Dodgers look to take the series and remain over .500 to close out their first road trip of the season.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 6:45 PM | San Francisco | ||
| RF | Betts | SS | Estrada |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | 1B | Flores |
| C | Smith | RF | Conforto (L) |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | 3B | Davis |
| DH | Martinez | DH | Ruf |
| CF | Outman (L) | 2B | Villar |
| 2B | Vargas | CF | Yastrzemski (L) |
| LF | Peralta (L) | C | Bart |
| SS | Rojas | LF | Ramos |
| P | Kershaw (L) | P | Cobb (R) |
Clayton Kershaw gets his 401st career start tonight. After a strong first start of the season, Kershaw faltered a bit in Arizona over the weekend. He allowed a pair of runs through five innings, but gave up the lead on back-to-back homers to open the sixth inning and put the Dodgers behind, where they remained. It kicked off the frustrating weekend that saw the Dodgers allow 23 combined runs on Saturday and Sunday to drop the series.
Unlike Arizona, Kershaw historically dominates in San Francisco. He’s pitched in San Francisco 28 times, which is more than he has anywhere besides Dodger Stadium. In those games, opponents have a triple slash of .189/.224/.265, and Kershaw has a 1.60 ERA/0.839 WHIP. Kershaw only made one start last season in San Francisco, and it came as his first start off the IL. He lasted four innings and pair of second inning runs, which were the only runs in the game until the eighth inning.
Alex Cobb gets his third start of the season tonight. He allowed four hits and two runs (one unearned) in only 3.2 innings in his first start, but six of the 10 outs he recorded were strikeouts. Cobb followed that up with a strong start against the Royals, where he completed seven innings and allowed only two runs and seven hits. This is Cobb’s 12th year in the Majors, and last season was the first time he ever faced the Dodgers in the regular season. His first year in San Francisco went well overall, as he posted a 3.73 ERA/2.80 FIP in 149 2/3 innings. He didn’t have as much success agains the Dodgers, with a 4.98 ERA in four starts (12 ER in 21 2/3 innings). In his two starts against the Dodgers in San Francisco, he lasted 5 1/3 and 6 1/3 innings and allowed two and three earned runs, respectively. The Giants lost each of his four starts against the Dodgers.
Cobb primarily works with three pitches, with some outlier pitches being tracked on Baseball Savant as a four seamer. His primary fastball is a sinker that averaged 94.8 MPH last season (95MPH so far this season). Last season, he threw his splitter more (42.5 percent, compared to 42 percent sinkers) and he threw a curveball 15.3 percent of the time. Cobb seems to have added a new pitch to his arsenal this season (much like Julio Urias), as for the first time he’s been tracked as throwing a slider (31 times this season, 30 of which against right-handed batters).
Will Smith catches Kershaw for the first time today. Mookie Betts moves back to right field with Miguel Vargas starting at second.
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First pitch is scheduled for 6:45 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
