Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
That SEO, babyyyy. The Dodgers dropped the series finale in Chicago 8-1, but survived a nearly three hour rain delay and got out of that shit situation healthy, so in a way they won the series. In another, more realistic way, they lost a series for the first time in 2024.
They look to bounce back as they travel to Minnesota for their first interleague series of the season. The Dodgers went 30-16 against AL opponents last season and took two of three when Minnesota traveled to LA in May. The only loss came against today’s starter for Minnesota, Bailey Ober.
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| 4:40 P.M. | Minnesota | ||
| SS | Betts | RF | Margot |
| DH | Ohtani (L) | SS | Correa |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | DH | Jeffers |
| C | Smith | CF | Buxton |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | 3B | Miranda |
| RF | T. Hernández | 2B | Farmer |
| 2B | Lux (L) | C | Vazquez |
| CF | Outman (L) | 1B | Santana (S) |
| LF | Trammell (L) | LF | Martin |
| P | Paxton (L) | P | Ober (R) |
James Paxton gets his second start after a solid Dodger debut last week against the Giants. He tossed five shutout innings, but allowed nine baserunners. He walked five batters and needed 97 pitches to complete those five innings, but was able to navigate around traffic to keep San Francisco off the board. Paxton threw 70 percent fastballs to the Giants, up from 56.6 and 56.7 percent fastballs in his last two relatively full seasons (2023 and 2020). Paxton pitched in Minnesota last June and allowed three runs and three hits in 6 1/3 innings. He only allowed a hit and a walk through his first four innings, but allowed a single and hit a batter before serving up a three-run homer to Christian Vazquez in the fifth.
Bailey Ober gets the ball for Minnesota today and looks to improve off his season debut. It would be hard not to, as he currently owns a 54.00 ERA. He’s outperforming it with a FIP of only 33.18 though. It was a nightmare start in Kansas City, as Ober allowed two singles and a three run homer in the first. He got out of the inning after allowing a couple more baserunners, but allowed back to back homers to lead off the second. Bobby Witt Jr. followed up the homers with a triple, and scored on a Salvador Perez single. Ober allowed a double to end his outing, and both runners scored off reliever Kody Funderburk (though one of those runs was unearned).
Ober’s been quietly very good for the last couple seasons. In 200 1/3 innings over the last two seasons, Ober has a 3.37 ERA/3.67 FIP with a 24.5 percent strikeout rate and only five percent walk rate. Ober beat the Dodgers last May, as he held them scoreless for four innings before he allowed a Miguel Rojas double and Freddie Freeman RBI single to lose the shutout. He allowed six hits and a walk over six innings and struck out six Dodgers.
Last season, Ober threw a fastball 45.7 percent of the time. He threw a change 28 percent of the time and threw it to both lefties (381 times) and righties (271 times). In his first start this season, he threw that change 10 times, nine of which were to lefties. He failed to get a whiff on it and the two that were put in play were both hit out. He seemingly debuted a cutter in his first start, a pitch that hasn’t been tracked for him in his career on Savant. He also mixes in a slider and curve.
Taylor Trammell gets his first start as a Dodger, as he starts in left with Teoscar Hernandez in right. Old friends Kyle Farmer and Manuel Margot start for Minnesota.
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No real updates before the game.
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— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) April 8, 2024
A huge sponsor add for me, the guy that pulled a muscle in his back on Friday and was in too much pain to put socks on yesterday. Send help.
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First pitch is scheduled for 4:40 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
