Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers kicked off the post-All-Star break schedule in a pretty good way, as they swept the Red Sox over the weekend. It wasn’t exactly a dominant series, but they came from behind in the first two games and were able to hold on last night despite Evan Phillips failing to close out a five-run ninth inning lead. Despite that, they’ve bounced back from the 1-6 stretch heading into the break and have an eight game lead over the Diamondbacks and Padres in the West.
They’re 11 up on the Giants, who come to town for the final four games between the two teams this season (unless the Giants make a playoff push). The Dodgers have won six of nine games between the two teams this season, but the Giants took two of three the last time they faced off to end June. The Giants came out of the break in Colorado and dropped the first two, but avoided the sweep yesterday and Jorge Soler managed to out-distance Shohei Ohtani‘s insane dong with a 478-footer to lead off the game. The Dodgers swept the Giants in the three games they played in LA to begin April. They took the first game 8-3 and the next two both by a score of 5-4.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| DH | Soler | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| 1B | Wade Jr. (L) | C | Smith |
| CF | Ramos | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| C | Bailey (S) | RF | T. Hernández |
| LF | Conforto (L) | CF | Pages |
| 3B | Chapman | LF | Vargas |
| RF | Yastrzemski (L) | 3B | Taylor |
| SS | Fitzgerald | 2B | Lux (L) |
| 2B | Wisely (L) | SS | K. Hernández |
| P | Snell (L) | P | Ryan (R) |
River Ryan was officially called up to make his Major League debut today. Instead of reading my words on that, Bruce took a deep dive on what to expect out of the 25-year-old righty.
The Dodgers get their first look at Blake Snell as a Giant tonight. He’s had a tumultuous start to his Giant career. He got a late start to the season due to signing during Spring Training and was awful in his first three starts. He went down with an adductor injury and returned in late May for three slightly-better-but-still-bad starts. He had a 9.51 ERA over those six starts and failed to complete five innings in any start. He might have done so in his start on June 2, but left the game with a groin strain with two outs in the fifth. He missed another month, which may have been a blessing in disguise. He returned in early July and has been excellent in his two starts since. He allowed a hit and three walks in five shutout innings against the Blue Jays on July 9 but only struck out three batters. Last time out was much more dominant, as he allowed one hit and struck out eight with no walks against the Twins. He was perfect for six innings before old friend Manuel Margot led off the seventh with a single. Snell still managed to face the minimum as he got a double play and a strikeout to wrap up his night.
Snell has dominated the Dodgers in the past. He has a 2.59 ERA in 62 2/3 innings over 13 starts against LA in his career and has allowed a .559 OPS against Dodger batters, the sixth-lowest among all teams. He faced the Dodgers four times as a Padre in 2023 and allowed 10 hits and seven runs in 23 innings. He walked more batters (12) than he allowed hits and struck out 26.
Obviously a very small sample size, but Snell’s thrown his fastball slightly less this season than he ever has in his career. It’s still his most-used pitch, but he’s thrown it 47.9 percent of the time. His curve has been dominant and he’s thrown it 21.1 percent of the time. He’s only allowed three hits on 140 total curves (all singles) and it has a 40.6 percent whiff rate. He’s also thrown a change 16.6 percent of the time and a slider 14.5 percent.
Miguel Rojas left last night’s game and is out of the lineup today. Enrique Hernandez gets the start at short and reigning National League Player of the Week Gavin Lux gets a rare start against a lefty.
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Ryan needed to be added to both the 26-man and 40-man rosters, and that spelled the end for last night’s starter James Paxton.
#Dodgers selected the contract of right-handed pitcher River Ryan and designated left-handed pitcher James Paxton for assignment.
— Kirsten Watson (@kirsten_watson) July 22, 2024
The roster crunch could be wild over the next two weeks, and Paxton was the first casualty as he was DFA’d. This was probably a move that would happen sooner or later, but Paxton had been one of the only constants in the Dodger rotation this season. He was one of three Dodger pitchers with 18 starts this season, but threw 20 fewer innings than Tyler Glasnow. It wasn’t always pretty and he wasn’t always effective, but it did help the Dodgers survive the first half onslaught of injuries.
He maxed out his contract incentives with his 18th start of the season last night, so at least the Dodgers weren’t scummy about it. They have 10 days to find a trade for him, which is convenient with the trade deadline a week from tomorrow.
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A slew of updates regarding Mookie Betts, Walker Buehler, Bobby Miller and Ryan Brasier.
Mookie Betts has started swinging again for the first time since breaking his hand, Dave Roberts said
— Jack Harris (@ByJackHarris) July 22, 2024
That’s the biggest step yet in his recovery process
#Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he had a good conversation with Walker Buehler and believes the time away did him good. He’ll throw a bullpen today and will need a couple rehab starts depending on how everything keeps progressing.
— Juan Toribio (@juanctoribio) July 22, 2024
Roberts also said Bobby Miller will start at least once more for OKC, and that he “absolutely” will return to the Dodgers
— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) July 22, 2024
“I don’t know when, but we are counting on it.”
#Dodgers RHP Ryan Brasier will throw to hitters in LA once more on Tuesday and begin rehab stint with triple-A OKC on Saturday.
— Mike DiGiovanna (@MikeDiGiovanna) July 22, 2024
Betts hit a big milestone as he swung a bat for the first time since breaking his hand last month. Buehler will throw a bullpen and need a few rehab starts before potentially returning. Miller had a strong rehab start on Saturday and will need at least one more before potentially returning as well. Brasier hasn’t started a rehab assignment yet, but will throw to hitters tomorrow before beginning his this weekend.
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The Dodgers might be going with a closer by committee for a bit.
Dave Roberts said Evan Phillips would still pitch in leverage situations but stopped short of calling him the closer
— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) July 22, 2024
Phillips pitched the last two days so he’s likely unavailable tonight or tomorrow anyway
Phillips will still be a leverage arm, but they’ll give him a chance to work through his recent struggles. Phillips allowed five runs in his first 26 appearances this season, but has allowed eight in his seven July appearances and has allowed at least one run in five of those seven outings.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
