Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (63-45) lost a tough one last night, losing in the tenth inning against the Padres (58-51) with a final score of 6-5. The team took a 5-0 lead after the first inning, and proceeded to get three hits over the remaining nine innings. The bullpen now has a 6.75 ERA over their past 13 games, and has blown three 5-run leads in that stretch. Reinforcements are on the way in the rotation, bullpen, and in the field, but the team is struggling in the meantime. Hoping for a series split, Clayton Kershaw will be making his second start of the year, up against Dylan Cease, fresh off a no-hitter.
The Dodgers are 3-6 against the Padres this year despite being outscored by just three runs (45-42) in those games. They haven’t lost a season long series to San Diego since 2010 in the regular season, so with just four games remaining between the two they’ll need to win out to keep that streak alive. Speaking of streaks, here’s some more that are about to be or are at risk of being snapped. The Dodgers haven’t had a full month with a record below .500 since going 11-14 in April of 2018, so at 11-12 they need a win today to keep that going. Their run differential of -26 in July (103 runs scored, 129 runs allowed) will be their first month with a negative run differential since they were a -22 in September of 2017, which included an elven game losing streak and a 1-16 stretch. Additionally, their 129 runs allowed in July is exceptionally high, as they allowed a season high of 133 runs in May of last year over 28 games (4.75 runs allowed per game), and they’ve allowed 129 in just 23 games (5.6 per game). If they surpass that 133 runs allowed mark, it’ll be their most allowed in a month since August of 2016. It goes to show how lucky we’ve been to watch this team in recent years, but they are having one of their worst pitching months over the last decade.
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| 5:40 P.M. | San Diego | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | DH | Arraez (L) |
| C | Smith | LF | Profar (S) |
| 2B | Lux (L) | 2B | Bogaerts |
| LF | T. Hernández | 3B | Machado |
| RF | Heyward (L) | 1B | Solano |
| CF | Pages | CF | Merrill (L) |
| 1B | Biggio (L) | SS | Kim |
| 3B | K. Hernández | C | Campusano |
| SS | Ahmed | RF | Johnson (S) |
| P | Glasnow (R) | P | Waldron (R) |
The Dodgers run out the exact same lineup as they did yesterday. Assuming that Amed Rosario is still not available, they’re short one position player after trading Miguel Vargas, and thus don’t have a ton of flexibility to adjust the current lineup anyways.
The Padres will change things up a bit against the left-handed Kershaw. Last night’s hero, Donovan Solano, will start at first base over Jake Cronenworth. Luis Campusano will start over Kyle Higashioka, and Bryce Johnson will start over old friend David Peralta. The Padres haven’t been great against lefties this year, with the 17th ranked wRC+ at 101, and 22nd ranked OPS at .695.
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Here’s how tonight’s starters compare. Kershaw has obviously made just one start, so his numbers are from 2023, while Cease’s ranks are among 68 qualified starters.
Cease was having a bit of an up and down season for San Diego through the majority of the first half, but has really turned it on as of late, and comes into this start in a ridiculous run of form. He threw a no-hitter last time out, striking out nine with three walks against the Nationals. He was exceptional, and it was just building off his prior two fantastic outings as well. He’s now logged a total of six outings with at least six innings pitched and zero hits allowed, and has now done so in three consecutive outings. He’s thrown 22 innings over his last three starts with thirty strikeouts to seven walks and an insane two total hits allowed. He averaged 96.5 mph on his four-seam fastball over his first 19 starts, but is averaging 98.2 over his last three. He goes to the fastball nearly 44% of the time, pairing it with a sharp slider that sits in the upper-80’s that he throws 42% of the time. He mixes in the rare curve, sweeper, and changeup, but primarily sticks to two pitches.
Kershaw was quite good in his season debut, making his return from off-season shoulder surgery. He allowed two runs on six hits and two walks over four innings with six strikeouts. Some of his mistakes caught too much of the zone, and his command wasn’t fantastic, but overall it was a solid outing for him. His average fastball velocity of 90.6 mph is right in line with where it was last year at 90.7 mph, essentially the same that it’s been since 2017 where he sat near 93. He got 14 whiffs in 36 swings, generally a great idea as to where your stuff is at. He also threw six changeups last outing after throwing just 33 total last year, which was the most changeups he’s thrown in an entire season since throwing 81 in…..2013. Maybe he’ll be lean into it a little more this season just as a change of pace against right-handed batters. The San Diego lineup isn’t perfect, but they always bring their A-game against the Dodgers, especially at home.
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Lots of updates and news prior to today’s game.
Tyler Glasnow logging the first quality-start for a Dodgers’ starter since the end of May is part of why the bullpen has been worked as hard as it has. Starters going deeper into games turns into less innings for the bullpen to cover, which turns into a well rested bullpen, which generally performs better. Better outings from starting pitchers will help get the team back on track.
Good look into the future roster situation that’ll arise once people start returning from injuries.
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Michael Grove returning to the bullpen should provide some help, as he can occasionally go more than a single inning.
Max Muncy returning from the dead would provide a huge boost to the lineup. Mookie Betts still appears to be on track to return around the middle of August.
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Newly acquired starter, Jack Flaherty, was activated and will pitch this weekend against Oakland.
Cool to see that he’s excited about pitching for the team he grew up watching as a local guy.
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First pitch is at 5:40 p.m. PT on SNLA.
