Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
This has been a strange series in Arizona. In the first game, the Dodgers did not strike out the entire game for the first time since 2006. Last night’s game was delayed because of bees. The bees and the heroics of Matt Hilton were a nice distraction from an annoying 4-3 extra innings loss that saw the Dodgers revert to their inability to hit with runners in scoring position. They went 1-11 with runners in scoring position and their first two runs came on Arizona mistakes (a wild pitch and a balk). It was only the Dodgers’ second loss of the roadtrip, which feels a lot better than the 3-6 homestand they had in mid-April. The Dodgers are 6-2 since that homestand, and look to close out the road trip with another series win.
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| 6:40 P.M. | Phoenix | ||
| SS | Betts | RF | McCarthy (L) |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | LF | Gurriel Jr. |
| DH | Smith | 2B | Marte (S) |
| RF | T. Hernández | 1B | Walker |
| 3B | K. Hernández | DH | Pederson (L) |
| CF | Pages | 3B | Suárez |
| 2B | Rojas | CF | Carroll |
| LF | Taylor | SS | Alexander |
| C | Barnes | C | Barnhart (L) |
| P | Yamamoto (R) | P | Montgomery (L) |
Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets his first look at the Diamondbacks tonight. Yamamoto held the Nationals to four hits and one walk over six shutout innings last time out, arguably the best start of his career despite nearly being decapitated by an Eddie Rosario comebacker. He’s been quite good in North America. Ignoring his disastrous debut in Korea, Yamamoto has a 2.00 ERA/2.57 FIP and is allowing a .590 OPS. This is without his fastball being as effective as everyone thought. Hitters are hitting .316 with a .605 slugging off his fastball, and despite throwing it only 38.3 percent of the time he’s allowed as many hits off it (12) as he has his three other offerings combined.
Zac Gallen was originally slated to start tonight after he exited his last start early with a tight hamstring. The bee delay caused Arizona to use a bullpen game last night, meaning Jordan Montgomery will start tonight. That’s great for me, as Allan already deep dived into Montgomery last night. Go read that. And stop being so mad on Discord, Allan.
Shohei Ohtani sits for the first time this season, with Will Smith serving as DH and Austin Barnes behind the plate. Mookie Betts starts at short again with Miguel Rojas at second, and Enrique Hernandez starts at third with Chris Taylor in left.
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J.P. Feyereisen is back with the team, as yesterday’s starter Landon Knack was sent down.
The Dodgers recalled RHP J.P. Feyereisen and optioned RHP Landon Knack.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 2, 2024
Knack was solid in the three starts over the last couple weeks. He allowed five runs and 11 hits in 16 innings and only walked five batters, which is pretty solid for a rookie getting his first taste of big league action.
The Dodgers needed some relief reinforcements as Joe Kelly pitched in back to back games and seemed to tweak something last night (but finished his outing). Daniel Hudson also pitched in the first two games of the series and Michael Grove threw 34 pitches on Sunday and 25 last night. Knack’s demotion also makes way for the potential return of Walker Buehler, who threw five innings and 75 pitches in a rehab start last night. Knack’s spot in the rotation would come Monday to open the series against Miami.
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First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
