Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers handled business over the Mariners on Wednesday, completing the sweep with an 8-4 win that led to the firing of manager Scott Servais. They got some help from the Mets last night, who put up a five-run ninth en route to an 8-3 win over the Padres. The Dodgers enter the weekend four games up on Arizona and 4.5 up on the Padres.
Today they open a weekend series against the Rays, who have been having an uncharacteristically mediocre season. They’ve been hovering around .500 most of this season and haven’t been more than three games above or below .500 in two months. They helped the Dodgers out last weekend by taking two of three against the Diamondbacks, but split a four-game set in Oakland capped off by a 3-1 loss yesterday afternoon.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| 1B | Díaz | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| 2B | Lowe (L) | RF | Betts |
| 3B | Caminero | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| DH | Morel | LF | T. Hernández |
| LF | Lowe (L) | C | Smith |
| RF | DeLuca | CF | Edman (S) |
| CF | Siri | SS | Rojas |
| C | Brantly (L) | 2B | Lux (L) |
| SS | Walls (S) | 3B | K. Hernández |
| P | Alexander (L) | P | Miller (R) |
Bobby Miller makes his ninth major league start of the season and his second since being called back up last weekend. Miller’s struggled continued in St. Louis, as he allowed four runs and eight hits over 4 2/3 innings and only recorded one strikeout. He needed 91 pitches to record those 14 outs and somehow threw four wild pitches (none of them led to a run but still not ideal). That outing actually dropped his ERA to 8.02, also not ideal. For all his struggles, Miller has remained dominant in LA. Only two of his eight starts have come in LA and he’s allowed two runs in 11 innings with 15 strikeouts. He shut the Cardinals out through six innings in his first start of the season during opening weekend, and on July 2 he held the Diamondbacks to two runs and four hits over five innings. He did follow that up with a nine-run outing in Philly, though.
Tyler Alexander gets the ball for the Rays tonight. It’ll be his seventh start and 17th appearance overall this season, as he’s been used as a long reliever and a bulk-boi after an opener. Today, he’ll feature as the starter. Alexander has a 5.17 ERA/4.93 FIP over 76 2/3 innings and did miss nearly two months earlier this season with shoulder fatigue. Since returning on July 23, Alexander’s only allowed five runs in 20 innings over five starts and has allowed a .645 OPS against. This will be his first time starting a game since returning. The lefty doesn’t any drastic platoon splits (righties OPS .780, lefties .788), but has fared much better away from the Trop (.872 OPS and 6.33 ERA at home, .615 and 3.18 on the road). Alexander’s only career outing against the Dodgers was not great. In 2022, Alexander’s Tigers came to LA and he gave up four runs and two homers in only 2 1/3 innings.
Alexander essentially throws five pitches, three of which are fastballs. He throws a cutter 33.2 percent of the time, four-seamer 22.4 percent, sweeper 17.4 percent, changeup 14.6 percent and sinker 11.7 percent. His four-seamer only averages 89.3 MPH, but he has a 25.3 percent whiff rate on it and opponents are only hitting .227 off it.
Max Muncy gets his first day off since returning on Monday. Enrique Hernandez gets the start at third and hits ninth. Gavin Lux gets a rare start against a lefty, but slides down to eighth in the lineup after moving up in the order for the last month with his hot streak.
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Chris Taylor is back, and Jason Heyward was the roster casualty.
The Dodgers activated IF/OF Chris Taylor and designated OF Jason Heyward for assignment.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 22, 2024
Heyward’s lack of versatility likely cost him his spot in LA. It’ll be interesting to see how the Dodgers get Taylor playing time (and whether he’ll even be better than their other utility guy). He’s not in the lineup tonight.
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Yoshinobu Yamamoto survived his bullpen session yesterday and will have another one before a potential rehab assignment.
Yamamoto will start a rehab game next Wednesday for 2 innings if all goes well with his next bullpen session. #Dodgers
— David Vassegh (@THEREAL_DV) August 23, 2024
His rehab start would come next Wednesday and he’d start with two innings. The OKC minor league season ends on September 22, so he’d potentially be able to get 4-5 rehab starts in to build up before returning down the stretch.
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A disclaimer for my future threads, if I ever miss any CT3 news it’s because I’ve muted the word “Taylor” on Twitter for non-Chris reasons. It’s Allan’s job to warn me when I might miss something so all blame goes to him.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
