Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (66-47) beat the Phillies (66-46) last night by a score of 5-3 in the series opener, led by a Tyler Glasnow quality start. Despite all the Dodgers’ struggles over the last couple of months, they’re now just a half game out of the best record in the National League. Clayton Kershaw will be on the mound looking to bounce back from his awful outing in San Diego, and try to get things trending in the right direction again. The young left-handed Cristopher Sánchez will be on the mound for the Phillies as they try to avoid losing their seventh consecutive series.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| DH | Schwarber (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| SS | Turner | LF | T. Hernández |
| 1B | Harper (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 3B | Bohm | C | Smith |
| C | Realmuto | 2B | Rosario |
| RF | Castellanos | 3B | K. Hernández |
| LF | Hays | RF | Pages |
| CF | Marsh (L) | SS | Ahmed |
| 2B | Sosa | CF | Kiermaier (L) |
| P | Sanchez (L) | P | Kershaw (L) |
Both teams will run out similar lineups as to yesterday, with a few subtle changes. J.T. Realmuto will catch over Garrett Stubbs and Edmundo Sosa will play second base over Bryson Stott. The Dodgers will give Gavin Lux a day off against the left-handed Sanchez, after playing the majority of the second half with his offensive resurgence. Amed Rosario was acquired to play against lefties, so he’ll be in at second base. Andy Pages will slide over to his natural position in right field, while Kevin Kiermaier will start in center field.
As both starting pitchers are left-handed, here’s how these two teams have fared against southpaws.
Against lefties, Kyle Schwarber is hitting .340 with a 1.037 OPS, compared to his career mark of .749. It’s primarily fueled by an outrageous .438 BABIP, but he’s still running a very interesting reverse split. After him, Bryce Harper has a 167 wRC+ and .969 OPS vs. lefties this year, Trea Turner is at a 154 wRC+ and .905 OPS, and generally soft-hitting Edmundo Sosa has a 152 wRC+ and .910 OPS against lefties. Nick Castellanos is having a down year with a .698 OPS and -0.4 fWAR, but still has a .795 OPS against lefties. The Phillies got Austin Hays from the Orioles at the trade deadline as an outfield option against lefties, with a 144 wRC+ and .862 OPS against them this year.
Teoscar Hernández has done a similar thing for the Dodgers, with a 162 wRC+ and .962 OPS against lefties. He’s followed by Will Smith with a 162 wRC+ and .977 OPS, and Shohei Ohtani (139 wRC+, .847 OPS). Andy Pages has a role with this team and it’s likely in this situation, as he has a 123 wRC+ and .789 OPS against lefties. Freddie Freeman has just a 115 wRC+ and .755 OPS against lefties this season, but has just a .248 BABIP against them compared to his career average of .342. This is also Amed Rosario’s role, slashing .330/.352/.470 against lefties, for a 135 wRC+.
Kiermaier can’t hit lefties, but hitting isn’t really his role. Assuming everyone returns from their injuries, the offense can handle having Kiermaier in the nine hole with the elite defense he provides. The team as currently constructed doesn’t have a better option in center against left-handed pitching, so this will have to do until Tommy Edman is back.
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Kershaw had a really tough outing to watch in his second start of the season, coming on the road against the Padres. He allowed seven runs (three earned) on six hits and a walk while not generating a single strikeout. It was the first regular-season start of his career in which he failed to record at least one strikeout. He threw 83 pitches over 3.2 innings, and is likely close to being fully built up. Hopefully it was just a blip, and the San Diego offense was just hot and locked in.
Sanchez took the loss in his last outing, allowing six runs on eight hits and a walk in 5.2 innings with seven strikeouts. It wasn’t a great outing, but he didn’t pitch terribly the whole time either. He gave up a grand slam in the second inning and then cruised through the next three before allowing two singles in the sixth inning. Both of those inherited runners scored, resulting in quite an ugly final line. It’s been a bit of a tale of two seasons for him so far, as he had a 2.41 ERA, 2.39 FIP, and a 1.19 WHIP through his first 16 starts, but has really struggled since. He has a 1-4 record over his five outings since, with a 6.59 ERA, 3.97 FIP, and a 1.57 WHIP over 27.1 innings. One of those starts came against the Dodgers, where he allowed two runs on five hits and one walk over six innings with five strikeouts in Philadelphia. His ERA is up to 3.36 on the season, with a 1.28 WHIP and 98 strikeouts in 120.2 innings pitched.
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Bruce puts a ton of work into these prospect rankings, and it’s really worth a read. Guys like Edgardo Henriquez and Dalton Rushing are featured in here, who might make their major league debuts sooner than you’d think.
Eduardo Quintero and Emil Morales seem to be the next big prospects the Dodgers’ have, although they are both quite some time away. Read about them in more detail in Bruce’s article!
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Ohtani will probably have difficulty keeping up with Marcell Ozuna in the RBI department if he keeps batting leadoff, but L-R-L to start the order does probably make the most sense.
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Yoshinobu Yamamoto continues to trend in the right direction.
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First pitch is at 7:10 PT on SNLA and MLB Network.
