Giants @ Dodgers April 3, 2024: Dodgers look for a sweep behind Glasnow

The Dodgers held on for a win last night despite throwing a bullpen game (for some reason) against Giants’ ace Logan Webb, who got quite a bit of assistance from home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi and still failed to get out of the fourth. The Dodgers tagged last year’s Cy Young runner-up for seven hits and five runs in three 2/3 innings despite him getting this strike zone all night.

Seems good. He needed 96 pitches to get those 11 outs, and the Dodgers clearly didn’t have much trouble with him. It was a very impressive offensive performance for four innings, but they only mustered two hits and three walks over the final four innings. The bullpen game kinda worked out, despite Dave Roberts leaving both Ryan Yarbrough and Michael Grove in too long and needing Evan Phillips for a four-out save. Tonight, the Dodgers look to wrap up their first homestand of 2024 with a sweep of the Giants.

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7:10 P.M. Los Angeles
CF Lee (L) 2B Betts
1B Wade Jr. (L) DH Ohtani (L)
DH Soler 1B Freeman (L)
LF Conforto (L) C Smith
3B Chapman RF T. Hernández
2B Estrada 3B Muncy (L)
RF Yastrzemski (L) CF K. Hernández
C Bailey (S) LF Taylor
SS Ahmed SS Rojas
P Harrison (L) P Glasnow (R)

Tyler Glasnow makes his third start of the season and got an extra day of rest thanks to the bullpen game. Glasnow followed up a solid Seoul Series start with a strong start in the home opener. He allowed two hits and a run over six innings against the Cardinals (really against Paul Goldschmidt, who had a single and homer). So far, Glasnow has found success despite a lack of strikeouts. Last season, Glasnow’s 33.4 percent strikeout rate was the second-highest among pitchers with over 120 innings pitched, and he struck out six or more in 19 of his 21 starts. He’s only struck out 19 percent of batters faced this season, and has strikeout totals of three and five. It’s hard to read a whole lot into the Seoul start as every pitcher seemed to struggle there, but you figure Glasnow should find the strikeout pitch soon. Today marks Glasnow’s fourth time facing the Giants. He faced them in San Francisco last season and allowed a run and three hits over six innings.

The Dodgers get a look at Giants top prospect (and number 22 overall on Pipeline) Kyle Harrison. He came up late last season and fared pretty well in two starts against the Dodgers. In LA, Harrison allowed two runs and three hits over 5 1/3 innings but struck out only two. In the regular season finale Harrison threw five no-hit innings against the Dodgers, but walked two and hit three batters. Harrison secured a rotation spot and pitched well in the second game of the season. He held the Padres to two runs (both solo homers) and six hits over six innings. He threw 76 pitches and got only five swinging strikes.

Harrison leaned on his fastball against the Padres as he threw it 72.4 percent of the time. In his seven starts last season, he threw it 60.7 percent of the time. He also throws a slurve and a changeup (almost exclusively to righties). It’s obviously a minuscule sample size, but so far in his Major League career he’s struggled a bit against lefties. He’s faced lefties only 45 times, but has allowed 13 hits (three homers and three doubles) and issued five walks with only three strikeouts. He’s faced righties 125 times and has allowed 22 hits (12 extra base hits) and issued six walks with 37 strikeouts.

The Dodgers use one of their lefty lineups today, with Mookie Betts moving to second and Miguel Rojas starting at short. Max Muncy starts at third with Enrique Hernandez in center and Chris Taylor in left.

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Taylor Trammell was officially added to the roster today, as Jason Heyward was placed on the IL.

The Dodgers actually placed a player on the IL after one day and aren’t playing short-handed for a week. This is growth, people. Trammell has crushed in the minors for most of his career, but has a .639 OPS in 351 plate appearances over parts of three major league seasons.

The Dodgers might be going back to the “maybe the dude couldn’t see shit in Seattle” well, as Trammell has faired a bit better on the road in his career. Neither split is great, but he’s OPSing .489 in Seattle and .761 away. A lot of that OPS has come from slugging, as 22 of his 34 hits on the road have been for extra bases (10 homers and 12 doubles).

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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.

About Alex Campos

I've been writing about the Dodgers since I graduated from Long Beach State, where I covered the Dirtbags in my senior year. I'm either very good or very bad at puns.