Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Remember how much better we were all feeling about the pitching staff coming into this season? Good times. The Dodgers walked 14 Padres last night, which *checks notes* is a lot. James Paxton was responsible for eight of those, but the bullpen also continued their struggles and gave up a three-run double to Jurickson Profar (of course) to drop the rubber match of the series. Today, the Dodgers open up a week against NL East opponents with three games against Washington before the Mets come to town. The Dodgers are opting to give Yoshinobu Yamamoto an extra day of rest before Thursday’s off day, so they have two TBA’s on the schedule for the Nats. Washington is coming off a bad series loss in Oakland. They split the first two games, but they allowed six runs with two outs in the sixth inning yesterday to give Oakland a 7-6 win. Last season the Dodgers took four of six from the Nats, including two of three in LA.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| SS | Abrams (L) | 2B | Betts |
| DH | Winker (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| RF | Thomas | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 1B | Gallo (L) | C | Smith |
| 2B | Garcia (L) | RF | T. Hernández |
| 3B | Senzel | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| LF | Rosario (L) | CF | K. Hernández |
| C | Adams | LF | Taylor |
| CF | Young | SS | Rojas |
| P | Parker (L) | P | Glasnow (R) |
Tyler Glasnow gets his fifth start of the season and is coming off one of the strongest starts of his career. Glasnow shoved against the Twins last Tuesday, as he needed 88 pitches to strike out 14 batters in seven shutout innings. He allowed only three hits (two doubles) and didn’t walk a batter (65 of his 88 pitches were strikes). It was an ace-like performance and one the Dodgers could absolutely use following last night’s walk-fest. Glasnow’s past against the Nationals is a microcosm of his big league career. He struggled against the Nationals during his time in Pittsburgh (14 1/3 innings, 15 runs allowed/13 earned runs allowed) but dominated in his only start against them as a Ray (seven innings, one run, 11 strikeouts).
Lefty Mitchell Parker makes his Major League debut for the Nats. This has to be the first time a player has started his career facing three former MVPs right. Parker is Washington’s 21st-ranked prospect after being drafted in the fifth round in 2020. A 6’4 lefty making his debut smells like five shutout against the Dodgers, but he does have issues with command. He had back to back seasons over 11 percent walk rates. He’s shown better command in some extremely limited innings so far in 2024. He didn’t issue a walk over six scoreless innings over four Spring Training outings and made one start at AAA, where he only allowed an unearned run over four innings with only one walk. Pipeline says his fastball sits 91-95 and he threw it 60 percent of the time last season.
Chris Taylor is back in the lineup after sitting the last two days. James Outman and Gavin Lux sit against a lefty with Enrique Hernandez starting in center and Miguel Rojas starting at short, moving Mookie Betts to second. The Dodgers will miss out on a couple old friends in this series, as Josiah Gray and Keibert Ruiz are both on the IL. Joey Gallo is in the lineup and hitting fourth for Washington.
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Some injury updates on Jason Heyward, Walker Buehler and Brusdar Graterol.
A couple of injury/rehab updates.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) April 15, 2024
Dave Roberts said Jason Heyward is looking like he’ll need a rehab assignment before returning.
Walker Buehler will pitch on rehab Thursday and then there will be a conversation about his return.
Brusdar Graterol threw a bullpen today.
Heyward will require a rehab assignment before returning. He’s resumed some baseball activities but is still dealing with soreness.
Buehler’s rehab start on Friday got cut short after he took a comebacker off his hand, but he will pitch Thursday. There’s a chance he returns to the big league rotation next week if he gets his pitch count up on Thursday and comes out of it feeling good.
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The Dodgers made a roster move, with another couple moves expected in the next couple days.
Dodgers make it official: Ricky Vanasco is up, and J.P. Feyereisen has been optioned.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) April 16, 2024
No roster moves announced yet, but Kyle Hurt and Ricky Vanasco are at Dodger Stadium today
— Jack Harris (@ByJackHarris) April 15, 2024
Landon Knack is also expected to be called up this week, as @FabianArdaya said. TBD if it will be for a start or bulk-relief role, per source
Ricky Vanasco is up and will make his MLB debut if/when he gets into a game. He’s allowed a run and two hits over four innings so far this season at OKC, but has walked six batters (and struck out eight). He broke out a bit last year in Tulsa, where he allowed four runs and only nine walks in 23 2/3 innings. J.P. Feyereisen was optioned after a rough outing yesterday.
Kyle Hurt is also with the team, but it doesn’t seem like he’ll be activated today. Landon Knack is also expected to be called up this week and will likely pitch in the next couple days. He last pitched on the 10th. Bruce wrote about all three of these arms in his preseason top prospect list.
First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be shown on Sportsnet LA and MLB Network (out of market).
