Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers looked dead in the water in the early game, but finally broke through in the eighth inning after an Austin Barnes safety squeeze and Mookie Betts two-run single gave them a 3-1 lead. Eury Perez was nearly unhittable for the Marlins, but the Caleb Ferguson/Ryan Pepiot combo gave the Dodgers six innings of one-run ball. Ryan Yarbrough and Evan Phillips combined for three perfect innings, and the Dodgers got back in the win column to even up the series. Tonight is the regularly scheduled Saturday game, with Julio Urias looking to continue his strong August against Braxton Garrett.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 6:10 PM | Los Angeles | ||
| RF | Soler | RF | Betts |
| 2B | Arraez (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| DH | Bell (S) | C | Smith |
| 3B | Burger | DH | Martinez |
| 1B | Gurriel | 2B | Rosario |
| CF | Chisholm Jr. (L) | LF | Taylor |
| LF | Garcia | CF | Outman (L) |
| C | Fortes | 3B | Hernández |
| SS | Berti | SS | Rojas |
| P | Garrett (L) | P | Urias (L) |
Urias has been looking like himself recently. He’s faced some weak competition, but in his three August starts he’s allowed three earned runs, 11 hits and only two walks in 18 innings. All three of those runs came last time out against the Rockies, as he allowed an RBI single in the third and a two-run homer in the fourth. Urias did get through seven innings and matched his career-high with 12 strikeouts. Urias should also have a relatively-rested bullpen behind him. Gus Varland, Alex Vesia and Victor Gonzalez were all used yesterday but Varland was the only one that threw a notable amount of pitches. Ferguson is probably down after throwing 22 pitches to get out of the first in the early game, but Pepiot and Yarbrough combined for seven innings and the only other reliever they used was Philips, who needed five pitches to record three outs for the save. The Dodgers are now off tomorrow and were already scheduled off Monday before opening a road trip in Cleveland on Tuesday, so today shouldn’t be a case where the Dodgers need length out of Urias.
Garrett makes his 24th start and 25th appearance overall for the Marlins today. Garrett began the season as the long man in the bullpen, tossing three innings in relief in the Marlins’ third game of the season. He was sent down after that game but came back up the following week and has remained in the rotation ever since. He’s been mostly solid to great, as he’s allowed three or fewer runs in 18 of his 23 starts and one or fewer in 12 of those. He’s had a few blowups, including a game against Atlanta where he allowed 11 runs and 14 hits in 4 1/3 innings. He’s coming off five scoreless against the Astros, but he only recorded one strikeout in that game. Garrett has seen the Dodgers once in the four years he’s pitched in the Majors. Back in May 2021, Garrett allowed three runs in three innings in LA. He loaded the bases to lead off the eighth inning and DJ Peters (remember that guy) hit two-run single before getting himself TOOTBLAN’d. Betts followed that up with a sac fly, and Garrett got out of the inning with another lineout.
Garrett has thrown his sinker more than ever this year (29.9 percent of the time, his most-used pitch). His 49.3 ground ball rate is the 10th-highest among pitchers with 120+ innings thrown this year. His walk rate is also the fourth-lowest in that threshold, as he’s walked only 4.1 percent of batters he’s faced. However, his 46.9 percent hard-hit rate is the second-highest and his average exit velocity against is 91 MPH, the fourth-highest. Garrett also comes with a slider, cutter, change, curve and four-seamer.
J.D. Martinez is in the lineup for the nightcap at DH. Will Smith slides back behind the plate, and Betts moves to right. Max Muncy gets the late game off with Enrique Hernandez getting the start at third and Miguel Rojas back at short.
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First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
