Dodgers @ Twins April 10, 2024: The season’s first early morning getaway day

Realistically, I know very few people are going to read this Game Thread.

We’re just 15 games into the season, so there’s very little interesting information I can offer you right now. Add in the 10:10 a.m. start for everyone in the Pacific Time Zone, plus the fact that it’s in the middle of the week, and there’s very little reason to believe the game is going to be seen live by that many Dodger fans, let alone anyone need 1,000 words on the game at 9 a.m.

So while I know I don’t need to truly try that hard with this thread, I can’t entirely slack off since I feel there’s some duty to offer up a few interesting bits of information. Still, this should be much shorter than it usually is when I take these posts.

With that said…

Now 10-4 after Tuesday’s victory, the Dodgers are somehow already four games up on the Padres (6-8) and D-backs (5-7).

Dodgers already have a 4-game lead in the NL West, where no other team is above .500.

In 2023, when they won 100 games, the Dodgers did not have a 4-game lead until July 22.

— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) April 10, 2024

Granted, the combined record of their five opponents so far is 26-32 with only the Cubs currently above .500. That just so happens to be the only team to beat the Dodgers in a series this year. However, the Dodgers only trail the 10-2 Yankees, the 9-3 Pirates (wait, what) and the 8-3 Cleveland Guardians in win percentage entering play on Wednesday, and can sweep the Twins (3-6) while still keeping them winless at home today.

	10:10 A.M.		Minneapolis
2B	Betts	2B	Julien (L)
DH	Ohtani (L)	SS	Correa
1B	Freeman (L)	RF	Kirilloff (L)
RF	T. Hernandez	DH	Buxton
3B	Muncy (L)	LF	Margot
LF	E. Hernandez	CF	Martin
CF	Outman (L)	1B	Santana (S)
SS	Rojas	C	Vazquez
C	Barnes	3B	Farmer
P	Miller (R)	P	Paddack (R)

No surprise, Will Smith is out of the lineup today with Austin Barnes behind the plate to catch Bobby Miller. Also absent from yesterday’s lineup against the right-handed Louie Varland are Chris Taylor who is currently 1-for-26 this season with 13 strikeouts to 5 walks and Gavin Lux who is 7-for-39 with 10 strikeouts to 3 walks. In their place will be Enrique Hernandez (4-for-22, 6 strikeouts, 1 walk) and Miguel Rojas (5-for-16, 3 strikeouts, 0 walks). With how they are all hitting to start the season, it doesn’t really feel like a drop off for a getaway day.

The Twins sent out a trio of former Dodgers as they say goodbye for the 2024 season. Manuel Margot, Carlos Santana and Kyle Farmer are all back in the lineup for Minnesota as it looks drastically different for the third time in three games. The Twins have 9 hits in the two games with 4 of those being solo home runs. Through their first seven games of the season, the Twins had just 3 home runs so the Dodgers were at least kind enough to go ahead and more than double that total while still winning the series.

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Miller will be on the mound for the Dodgers with one relatively successful game and one pretty rough outing in 2024.

Opening the season at home against the Cardinals, Miller struck out 11 in 6 innings of work while allowing just two hits and one walk on March 29. The second time out this year, on April 5 against the Cubs, Miller allowed four hits and two walks in 1 2/3 innings that included just three strikeouts. Allowing five runs to score, the game was easily among the worst of Miller’s young career that is still just 24 total appearances. It didn’t feel like that was the direction he was headed as Miller struck out the side swinging in the first inning, once on a changeup, once on a slider and once on a fastball. After getting a first-pitch groundout to open the 2nd inning, things went south as a 2-0 homer against Miller’s fastball was followed by a walk, a single against the fastball, a single against the curve, a fly out, an 8-pitch walk and a double against the fastball that was preceded by a wild pitch during the 9-pitch at-bat. A 43-pitch inning in early April really doesn’t seem like something Miller should be trying to work through, so that was it.

Opening the season with a 41.9% four-seamer usage, the total leaped to 53.4% in his second start. With the curve and changeup both at 15.5% in the second start against the Cubs, the change was at 21.5% to open the season. Miller threw the changeup nine times against the Cubs with just one swing, the miss to close out the strikeout in the 1st inning. Other than one called strike, the pitch was called a ball seven times in the outing. Notably Miller missed with it when he walked Michael Busch on a 3-2 count as the second batter of the 2nd inning and then missed twice with it to open the at-bat against Ian Happ in the 8-pitch walk. Back on March 29 against the Cardinals, Miller’s changeup got three swing and misses, had a pair of called strikes, was fouled off three times and put in play three times across 20 total pitches.

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For the Twins, it’ll be former Padres pitcher Chris Paddack, who has seven career games against the Dodgers. Appearing in just five games for Minnesota in 2022, Paddack had Tommy John surgery that May before returning to the Twins in late September last season.

The last time the Dodgers saw Paddack was actually in his debut for the Twins, April 13, 2022. Allowing 3 runs on 6 hits, Paddack lasted 4 innings at Target Field while striking out 3. He also managed to pitch against them in his final outing for the Padres on Sept. 11, 2021, allowing 4 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks across 4 2/3 innings.

With just eight appearances and 31 1/3 innings since the 2021 season, Paddack’s numbers with the Twins don’t hold much weight. His four-seamer usage sat at 61.5% in his final season with the Padres, followed by 26.2% changeups and 12.3% curves. Paddack added a slider as a very rare fourth pitch as a Twin, but really it is the change that has risen up to a third of his usage in his three appearances since returning from surgery while the fastball came down just above it.

Paddack’s season debut against the Brewers went ok, with 2 strikeouts, 2 walks, 6 hits and 2 runs allowed in 4 innings. He ended up at 82 pitches and started half of the 18 batters he faced with a first-pitch strike.

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Given that it’s 9 a.m., there’s not much to offer in terms of news. Here’s Shohei Ohtani throwing a baseball though:

State of #Dodgers Shohei Ohtani’s throwing program pic.twitter.com/j5VrGp1AaM

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) April 10, 2024

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As mentioned above, first pitch for the game is scheduled for 10:10 a.m PT on SportsNet LA and MLB Network for anyone out of the markets.