Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (33-21) dropped the second game of the series last night against the Cincinnati Reds (22-30), by a score of 3-1. They got out-hit again, and out-pitched, again. Not pretty. It’s now four consecutive losses, and they’ll look to get things going today before heading to New York to face the Mets (21-30). Brent Suter will open a bullpen game for the Reds, while Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts for the Dodgers.
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| 9:10 a.m. | Cincinnati | ||
| SS | Betts | LF | Hurtubise (L) |
| DH | Ohtani (L) | SS | De La Cruz (S) |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | 1B | Steer |
| LF | Hernández, T. | RF | Fraley (L) |
| CF | Pages | 2B | India |
| 2B | Lux (L) | DH | Martini (L) |
| RF | Heyward (L) | 3B | Espinal |
| 3B | Hernández, K. | C | Maile |
| C | Barnes | CF | Benson (L) |
| P | Yamamoto (R) | P | Suter (L) |
Suter is just acting as an opener, so the lineup will stay pretty similar for the Dodgers as they likely plan to face a majority of right-handed pitchers. Gavin Lux and Jason Heyward will be in the lineup and won’t have an ideal matchup if they make it to Suter while he’s still in the game, but regardless it’s Brent Suter not Randy Johnson. Austin Barnes will be behind the plate as Will Smith takes a day off. The Reds will run out a similar lineup, as they’re all hitting well against a struggling Dodgers team. They’ll look to just keep producing well, top to bottom.
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Here’s how Yamamoto and Suter matchup. Yamamoto’s rankings are amongst 83 qualified starting pitchers, while Suter has primarily been used out of the bullpen.
Suter has worked multiple innings at times this year, but hasn’t gone more than one inning in any of his last seven appearances. They’ll probably look to get two innings out of him, or three in a perfect world. It’s possible Nick Martinez (4.81 ERA) could get some run today and pick up a few innings as well, but it seems like overall it’ll be an all hands on deck situation for Cincinnati today. In his last outing, he gave up five runs on eight hits and a walk over 4.2 innings. He’s been streaky this year in his flex role, with a 4.81 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, and 31 strikeouts to six walks through 43 innings.
Yamamoto earned his fifth win in his last outing, going 6.1 innings against the Diamondbacks. He allowed two runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out eight. He wasn’t perfect, but it was a strong outing and exactly what the Dodgers needed at the time to continue their winning streak. Unfortunately that win was the most recent win for the Dodgers, so they’ll hope he can get them back to their winning ways. He’s sitting with a 3.16 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, and 61 strikeouts to eleven walks through 54 innings and ten starts.
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Shohei Ohtani was hit in the leg by a pickoff in the prior series against the Reds, so it seems he’s nursing a very minor injury.
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First pitch is at 9:10 a.m. PT on SNLA and MLB Network.
