Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers wrapped up their (likely) toughest road trip of the season. They lost three of four and barely had a pitching rotation in St. Louis, took two of three in Atlanta and dropped two of three in Tampa Bay. They bounced back from another rough Gavin Stone outing in an extremely normal non-juiced-baseball finale yesterday, as Chris Taylor and Trayce Thompson nearly led the Dodgers to a wild win. They went 4-6 on the road trip and saw their lead in the NL West shrink from three games to 1.5 games.
After six straight games against teams with the best records in each league, the Dodgers return home to open up a series against the team with the second-lowest winning percentage in the NL (fifth-lowest overall). The Nationals are 23-30 and in last place in the NL East. They’re coming off a series in Kansas City where they took two of three and scored 18 runs in the series. The Nationals actually have a better team ERA than the Dodgers (4.46 vs 4.50), but their OPS leader would be the sixth-highest among Dodger regulars.
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| 6:10 PM | Los Angeles | ||
| RF | Thomas | SS | Betts |
| 2B | Garcia (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 3B | Candelario (S) | C | Smith |
| DH | Meneses | DH | Martinez |
| 1B | Smith (L) | LF | Peralta (L) |
| LF | Dickerson (L) | RF | Heyward (L) |
| C | Ruiz (S) | 2B | Vargas |
| SS | Abrams (L) | CF | Outman (L) |
| CF | Call | 3B | Taylor |
| P | Williams (R) | P | Miller (R) |
Bobby Miller makes his second start of the season and his career, and makes his regular season debut at Dodger Stadium. Miller debuted on Tuesday in Atlanta and was extremely impressive, as he allowed a run in the first inning and allowed only two more hits and a walk through five innings. Miller looked unfazed against a very strong Atlanta lineup and struck out five while maintaining his velocity through a season-high 95 pitches. He averaged 99.4 MPH on his fastball, but when it got hit it got hit pretty hard. Miller’s fastball was put in play five times and it was responsible for three of the four hits, with an average exit velocity against of 103.4 MPH. Miller threw a first pitch strike 70 percent of the time and 50.5 percent of his pitches were in the zone.
Trevor Williams gets the start for the Nationals in his return to the rotation. This will be Williams’ 11th start of the season after nine of his 30 appearances for the Mets in 2022 came out of the bullpen. Williams has a 4.32 ERA/5.05 FIP in 50 innings and his coming off two of his longest starts of the season. Two outings ago, Williams completed six innings in Miami and allowed three runs and five hits. He followed that up with a 5 2/3 inning outing against the Padres, where he allowed three runs on three hits and two homers. Williams has allowed three or more runs in five of his 10 outings and hasn’t struck out more than five yet this season. One of Williams’ nine starts last season came against the Dodgers, and he allowed two runs over five innings in LA. Trea Turner hit a two-run homer off him in the first inning, but were kept off the board over the remaining four innings of Williams’ night. The Nats are six games under .500, but are 6-4 in games that Williams starts.
Williams throws a four-seamer 48.8 percent of the time and it averages 90.3 MPH. He also throws a sinker 16.3 percent of the time, changeup 15.8 of the time (almost exclusively to lefties), slider 10.5 percent (almost exclusively to righties), curveball 6.4 percent and a sweeper 2.2 percent, according to Baseball Savant.
Max Muncy remains out of the lineup after leaving yesterday’s game with a hamstring cramp. Muncy might not be available to hit tonight and could be in the lineup tomorrow, as doctors decided he didn’t need an MRI. Taylor starts at third, and Mookie Betts starts at short with the three lefties starting in the outfield.
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Two injured pitchers are currently with the team.
Daniel Hudson will throw a bullpen tomorrow and could begin throwing to hitters next week. There’s still no timetable for his return and who knows how he’ll return around a year after his torn ACL last june, but he could be a nice boost to an overworked bullpen.
Michael Grove is also in the clubhouse despite still being on a rehab assignment. Stone has struggled in his time in the Majors and could be the guy to go down when Grove or Julio Urias return. Stone would be lined up to throw Saturday against the Yankees, but the Dodgers are off Thursday so his spot could be skipped.
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First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
