Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Alex was slated to do the game thread for the Monday’s game, and he made it through the intro before the rainout was officially announced. I’ll cover the rest of the thread as well, as the second game of the doubleheader, but this intro was his work.
“The Dodgers hit a new low yesterday, as a 4-1 loss to the Reds completed a Cincinnati sweep and gave the Dodgers their first five-game losing streak since 2019. They’ve scored 11 runs in those five games with six of those coming in one game (and four of those runs coming in one inning). They’re still 11 games over .500 and 5.5 games ahead of the Giants and Padres in the NL West, but it’s been ugly as hell lately.
Enter the Mets, whose whole ethos is ‘it’s been ugly as hell lately’. The Dodgers and Mets met at Dodger Stadium in April and the Mets took the first two to cap off a six-game winning streak and push their record to 12-8. The Dodgers took the finale 10-0 and since then, it’s been a mess in New York. They’re 22-30 now and have lost nine of the last 10 series they’ve played (the one win was a two-game series in St. Louis). They snapped their own five game losing streak yesterday with a three-run ninth inning to walk off the Giants.”
Tyler Glasnow will be on the mound for the first game, up against the right-handed Tylor Megill, making his third start of the season. Based on the results of today’s starters, I guess we’ll see if Tyler or Tylor is the better way to spell the name.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 1:10 P.M. | Queens | ||
| SS | Betts | SS | Lindor (S) |
| DH | Ohtani (L) | 1B | Alonso |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | LF | Nimmo (L) |
| C | Smith | DH | Martinez |
| LF | T. Hernández | RF | Stewart (L) |
| 2B | Lux (L) | CF | Taylor |
| 3B | Taylor | 2B | McNeil (L) |
| RF | Heyward (L) | 3B | Baty (L) |
| CF | Pages | C | Nido |
| P | Glasnow (R) | P | Megill (R) |
The Dodgers switch things up a bit, with Chris Taylor starting at third base over Kiké Hernández, and Miguel Vargas not starting in game one. Here’s how these two offenses compare.
Since the beginning of May, the Dodgers are led by Shohei Ohtani unsurprisingly (196 wRC+, 1.036 OPS), Teoscar Hernández (156 wRC+, .898 OPS), Mookie Betts (130 wRC+, .786 OPS), and Freddie Freeman (125 wRC+, .799 OPS). Will Smith is slashing .194/.308/.373 in May, good for a a .681 OPS and 95 wRC+. That’s a decent line for a slump, but that still slots him as the fifth best hitter on the team this month. Not going to make an argument that the team isn’t great offensively, they still are, but they haven’t been dominant this month. They’re tenth in wRC+ at 106, which is quite poor for this team. When Betts and Freeman are simply very good and not other otherworldly, combined with a slow month for Smith, the holes at the bottom of the order really show.
Gavin Lux has a .654 OPS and 88 wRC+ in May which is… progress. After him, Jason Heyward (.527 OPS, 56 wRC+) hasn’t gotten things going yet, Andy Pages is slumping(.535 OPS, 53 wRC+) with a 37.1% strikeout rate, Kiké hasn’t been great (.528 OPS, 60 wRC+), Miguel Rojas is coming back to Earth (.583 OPS, 67 wRC+), and Austin Barnes has fallen off entirely (.348 OPS, 7 wRC+). Vargas could clearly be a boost to the lineup and he’s right there….I don’t get it at all.
For the Mets in May, Brandon Nimmo (134 wRC+), Harrison Bader (125 wRC+), old friend J.D. Martinez (123 wRC+), and Pete Alonso (108 wRC+) have all been good. Mark Vientos is worthy of mention, as he’s been up for just a couple weeks in May, but is slashing .320/.414/.720 in 29 plate appearances.
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Here’s how Glasnow and Megill match up. Megill is making just his third start of the season, so the numbers below are from his 2023 campaign. Glasnow’s rankings are amongst 82 qualified starters.
Megill allowed two earned runs on four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in five innings in his last outing, his first since the beginning of the season. He left that initial outing with a right shoulder strain, and missed seven weeks. He was dependable in the New York rotation last year despite mixed results, and their rotation could use the reliability. He averages 95.8 MPH on his four-seamer, going to a low-90’s cutter against lefties, and an upper-80’s slider against right-handed batters. He also mixes in a splitter and curveball that he’ll throw against both lefties and righties.
Glasnow was tagged with his second loss of the year in his last outing against Arizona, as he allowed three runs on four hits and one walk with six strikeouts in five innings. He cruised early, starting his outing with four scoreless innings, before a rough fifth inning. He allowed a walk, two hits, and a wild pitch resulting in all three earned runs and a high enough pitch count to not return for the sixth. After four consecutive starts in which he went at least six innings, he’s now gone just five innings in back to back outings. He still leads baseball in strikeouts with 87, and all his underlying numbers look excellent. Just a bit of improved consistency will put him back in the Cy Young conversation.
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Evan Phillips is back soon. The team hasn’t hit well recently, but the bullpen has had some bad performances as of late. Max Muncy is still shelved, as oblique injuries can be difficult for hitters to recover from. Bobby Miller should be back within a couple weeks.
Hopefully Glasnow and Gavin Stone can log some innings in these two games to make the bullpen work minimally.
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First pitch is at 1:10 p.m. PDT on SNLA and MLB Network.
