Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
I won’t dive too deeply into it myself right now, because there’s no guarantee it is the case and I don’t really think I’m the right person for it, but this could be Clayton Kershaw‘s final regular season start at Dodger Stadium.
Kershaw is still scheduled to start next Saturday in San Francisco, which will be his 422nd regular season start across his 16 seasons with the Dodgers, and should be on the mound for Game 1 or Game 2 of the NLDS in Los Angles. Today will be start 215 at Dodger Stadium where Kershaw holds a 2.20 ERA, 0.969 WHIP and 1,593 strikeouts in 1,408 2/3 innings. Today will also be Kershaw’s 56th career start, and 58th career appearance, against the Giants who have managed a 2.02 ERA and 0.906 with 392 strikeouts in 383 innings.
Opposing Kershaw for what might be a historic start is … John Brebbia as the opener with the Giants sitting three games back of the Cubs for the final National League Wild Card spot. The Marlins and Reds sit between the Giants and Cubs 1.0 and 1.5 games back of the final playoff spot respectively. The win last night for San Fransisco jumped their playoff odds back to 2.2%, but Brebbia and a possible bulk appearance for Ross Stripling and his 5.40 ERA/5.43 FIP in 81 2/3 innings doesn’t feel ideal when you need to win just about every remaining game?
Of course, Sean Manaea had been mostly terrible against the Dodgers for the past year and a half before the offense forgot how to score last night.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| LF | Slater | 2B | Betts |
| 2B | Estrada | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 3B | Davis | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| 1B | Flores | DH | Martinez |
| DH | Haniger | CF | Outman (L) |
| SS | Luciano | SS | Rojas |
| RF | Matos | LF | Peralta (L) |
| CF | Fitzgerald | RF | Heyward (L) |
| C | Bailey (S) | C | Barnes |
| P | Brebbia (R) | P | Kershaw (L) |
Miguel Rojas, No. 6 hitter. That’s the first time since July 8th that Rojas has started a game that high in the batting order and just the fourth time this season he’s started a game higher than 7th with two other starts at No. 6 on June 28th and July 1st.
The rest of the order follows the assumption of a right-handed bulk pitcher in the game as David Peralta and Jason Heyward are down at No. 7 and No. 8. Austin Barnes is behind the plate to catch Kershaw for the 12th time this season as he and Will Smith have actually split Kershaw’s 22 starts almost equally this yea with 66 innings for Barnes and 55 1/3 for Smith.
For the Giants, it is nearly all right-handed hitters against Kershaw with Patrick Bailey as the switch hitter at No 9.
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As expected, Michael Grove returns to the Dodgers with Gavin Stone sent back down following his 4 1/3 innings last night.
The Dodgers activated RHP Michael Grove from the injured list and optioned RHP Gavin Stone.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 23, 2023
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First pitch is set for 6:10 p.m. PT from Dodger Stadium on SportsNet LA and MLB TV now that we are done with Apple TV+.
