Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers had a disappointing end to their series in Milwaukee yesterday afternoon. They jumped out to a strong start in the first two games, but played a pair of sloppy games and blew an eighth-inning lead yesterday to leave with a split and only a two game lead in the NL West.
Today, they head to St. Louis for a three-game weekend series against the struggling Cardinals. The Cardinals have been hovering around .500 all season, but fell back below the mark thanks to a four-game losing streak. They dropped the final game in Kansas City before heading to a hitter-friendly Cincinnati ballpark, where they scored four runs over three losses. The Reds and Cardinals are now tied for second in the NL Central, but are both 60-61 and nine games behind the Brewers. The Dodgers opened their domestic 2024 schedule by winning three of four against the Cardinals in LA. They outscored St. Louis 23-14 in the four games and the lone Cardinal win came in extras after the Dodgers scored two in the bottom of the ninth to tie it.
 |
 |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 5:15 P.M. | St. Louis | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | SS | Winn |
| RF | Betts | DH | Contreras |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | LF | Pham |
| LF | T. Hernández | 3B | Arenado |
| 2B | Lux (L) | 1B | Goldschmidt |
| C | Smith | 2B | Donovan (L) |
| SS | Rojas | RF | Walker |
| CF | Kiermaier (L) | C | Pages |
| 3B | K. Hernández | CF | Scott II (L) |
| P | Wrobleski (R) | P | Mikolas (R) |
As expected, Justin Wrobleski returns to make his fifth Major League start tonight and to give Tyler Glasnow an extra day of rest. Wrobleski’s thrown 20 innings over his four starts and overall has allowed 17 hits, nine earned runs and four homers. Most of that damage came in his first two starts, where he allowed 10 hits and seven runs. In his final two starts before being sent down., Wrobleski shut out the Red Sox over 4 1/3 innings and came an out away from six shutout in Houston. He allowed a pair of singles to start the sixth before recording two outs. Evan Phillips came in for the final out, but allowed four straight singles to score both inherited runners before Anthony Banda came in to finish the job. Wrobleski made two starts back in at AAA and struggled, allowing seven runs and 10 walks in 10 1/3 innings. He maxed out at 84 pitches in his four big league starts, but threw 101 in his first start back at OKC and 96 his last time out.
Miles Mikolas starts for St Louis. He made friends in LA after making comments before his Opening Day start against the Dodgers.
#STLCards RHP Miles Mikolas on opening vs. the #Dodgers : “We’re not exactly a low payroll team, but you got the Dodgers playing checkbook baseball. We’re going to be the hardest working group of Midwestern farmers we can be. … It would be great to stick it to the Dodgers.”
— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) March 16, 2024
The Dodgers responded by putting up five runs and two homers in 4 1/3 off the midwestern farmer from Florida making nearly 19 million dollars this season (which would be the third-highest salary on the Dodgers behind Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, shoutout the Shohei Ohtani deferral loophole). Mikolas’ season hasn’t gotten much better since that first start. The lowest ERA he’s had after any start has been a 4.59 on June 16 after he allowed a run over 6 1/3 innings against the Cubs. He hasn’t struck out more than six batters in a game this season and his 16.1 percent strikeout rate is the lowest among qualified starters in baseball. He hasn’t missed a start this season and does also have the fourth-best walk rate among qualified starters (4.0 percent), but it’s been a rough season for Mikolas. He’s really struggled of late, with a 7.11 ERA and only 14 strikeouts over his last five starts. He hasn’t allowed a homer in his last three starts, but served up four homers in his final start before the All-Star break.
Mikolas has thrown a four-seamer 26.6 percent of the time and a slider 24.5 percent of the time this season. Those two pitches make up about 50 percent of his pitches this season, and both have a batting average against over .300 and slugging against over .500. He’s thrown a sinker 23 percent of the time a that’s been his best pitch, with a .225 average and .331 slugging against it. It’s also his most-used strikeout pitch, with 25 of his 89 strikeouts coming on the sinker. He’s thrown a curve 11.4 percent, change 9.5 percent, sweeper 4.7 percent and a slow curve 0.3 percent of the time (probably some tracking issues or something.
——
Dave Roberts hopped on a radio show earlier today and offered some injury updates for Tommy Edman and Max Muncy.
Dave Roberts gives the latest on the #Dodgers injuries:
— MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (@MLBNetworkRadio) August 16, 2024
Justin Wrobleski will start tonight
Tommy Edman returns Monday
Max Muncy returns Tuesday
? https://t.co/6YbqEWG3tX pic.twitter.com/I2hVLIICUH
Edman is expected to return Monday and Muncy is expected to return on Tuesday, both against the Mariners when the Dodgers return to LA. They’ll need two 40-man spots to bring them off the 60-day IL (and a third tomorrow to bring Ryan Brasier back), so it’ll be interesting to see how they handle that.
Bobby Miller is also with the team in St. Louis, and could be activated tomorrow.
Roberts said Bobby Miller will likely be active tomorrow.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) August 16, 2024
“Anything is on the table” in terms of how Miller will be used, but Roberts emphasized it’s for “coverage.”
Tyler Glasnow is currently listed to start tomorrow. https://t.co/XbdYFbKOou
Glasnow’s start tomorrow might be in jeopardy, as they’re being vague about their pitching plans. Clayton Kershaw is still pencilled in for the Sunday morning start.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto faced hitters today.
#Dodgers Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw 17 pitches to 5 hitters in 1 simulated inning today. Said he will do two more live BP sessions before a decision will be made on a rehab assignment
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) August 16, 2024
His outing was shortened by the heat in St. Louis, but he’ll throw two more live BPs before potentially beginning a rehab assignment. His return will also require a 40-man roster move, but the active roster move might be easier if he doesn’t return before rosters expand in September.
——
Important Ohtani update.
Shohei Ohtani will wear custom cleats for #PlayersWeekend that feature his dog, Decoy ? pic.twitter.com/z10klPcqRf
— MLB (@MLB) August 16, 2024
I would pay an unhealthy amount of money for some Decoy Jordan 1’s @Nike. While they aren’t doing Players Weekend uniforms anymore, the cleats and bats have been strong around baseball so far.
——
They still haven’t announced the roster move for Wrobleski, so pretend I wrote about that here.
Chad, don’t get mad at me, I need to get back to making Hawaii a dynasty in NCAA 25. They haven’t even announced their lineup yet, but Cardinal beat writer Katie Woo posted a pic of both lineups so I just went based on that.
Update
It was Tyler Glasnow going on the IL.
The Dodgers recalled LHP Justin Wrobleski and placed RHP Tyler Glasnow on the injured list with right elbow tendinitis.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 17, 2024
——
First pitch is scheduled for 5:15 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
