Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (77-52) won the opening game of their weekend series against the Tampa Bay Rays (64-64) in spectacular fashion, with Shohei Ohtani hitting a walk-off grand slam to secure his spot in the 40/40 club. He also did so in the fewest number of games at 126, well ahead of the previous fastest mark of 147 games by Alfonso Soriano. Additionally, the only other left-handed batter in the 40/40 club is Barry Bonds in 1996. 50/50 might be possible as anything is with Ohtani. He has 33 games left to notch ten of each, as the Dodgers simultaneously hope to gain create some space in the NL West. They’re 11-3 in their last 14 games, and have won five in a row. They’ve put a bit of ground between themselves and Arizona (73-56) and San Diego (73-57). Clayton Kershaw will be on the mound for the Dodgers, making his sixth start of the year, up against the young right-handed Taj Bradley.
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| 6:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| 1B | Díaz | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| DH | B. Lowe (L) | RF | Betts |
| 3B | Caminero | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 2B | Morel | LF | T. Hernández |
| LF | Carlson (S) | 2B | Lux (L) |
| CF | DeLuca | C | Smith |
| RF | J. Lowe (L) | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| SS | Caballero | CF | Edman (S) |
| C | Jackson | SS | Rojas |
| P | Bradley (R) | P | Kershaw (L) |
Tommy Edman added two more hits last night, continuing to show his value, with four hits and three runs scored in four games. He’ll be in center field again tonight with Miguel Rojas starting at shortstop. Kiké Hernandez started at third base last night and added two hits, one being the game tying three run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning. Max Muncy will start tonight against the right-handed Bradley.
Meanwhile for the Rays, Junior Caminero is a monster. The 21 year-old took a 100 MPH four-seamer above the zone from Bobby Miller and hit it out to right-center. He had three of the hardest hit balls from the game last night, at 109.2, 111.0, and 112.6. He is looking the part of the unanimous top-three prospect in the game. The Rays made a few additional changes, namely getting recently acquired Dylan Carlson into the game over Jose Siri. Carlson had a .515 OPS and 51 wRC+ in 59 games with the Cardinals this season, but is up to an .804 OPS and 134 wRC+ with the Rays.
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Here’s how Bradley and Kershaw compare.
Bradley took the loss his last time out in Oakland, allowing three runs on five hits and three walks with just two strikeouts over six innings. It continued a rough stretch for him, which is now up to four consecutive losses. Prior to this stretch, he had been one of the better pitchers in baseball over the last two months. He had a pectoral strain in early spring, delaying his season debut until the beginning of May, but he really hit his stride a month into his year. He had a nine start stretch where he allowed just five earned runs over 55.0 innings pitched, resulting in a 0.82 ERA, 2.50 FIP, 0.89 WHIP, and 65 strikeouts with just a .161 batting average allowed. That lasted until the end of July, where he has now allowed 18 earned runs over his last 20.0 innings, an ERA of 8.10, with a 6.22 FIP, 1.75 WHIP, and 17 strikeouts to nine walks. His true talent level is obviously somewhere in between. A possible concerning trend is that he did this last year as well to an extent, with a 7.11 ERA over his final 13 starts.
He sits in the upper-90’s with his four-seam fastball, going to a low-90’s splitter 28.3% of the time as his primary offspeed pitch. He also throws a low-90’s cutter 20.4% of the time, meaning you’re seeing 90 MPH+ almost all the time with Bradley. He throws a curveball just 10% of the time that averages 79 MPH, just to keep hitters honest. He’s still just 23 years-old and was a very highly ranked pitching prospect, and he has the stuff and command to dominate nearly every time he takes the mound.
Kershaw had his best outing of the season his last time out, allowing four hits and one walk with two strikeouts over six scoreless innings in St. Louis. He didn’t generate a ton of swing-and-miss, but did create a lot of soft contact and induced two double plays. Hopefully this was a sign of him really settling in after his offseason shoulder surgery. He had a bit of a rough outing in San Diego, allowing three earned runs over 3.2 innings, but has put up great results ever since. He’s allowed just two earned runs over his last three starts and 16.1 innings pitched, with 13 strikeouts to three walks. Thus far, he’s averaging a career low fastball velocity at just 90.0 MPH, down from 90.7 MPH last year which has been near his average for the past handful of seasons. He clearly can survive at that velocity, especially as he throws the four-seamer just 34.7% of the time, so as long as he can maintain the limited velocity he currently owns he should be fine. He’s getting less whiffs, less chase, and thus naturally allowing more contact this year, but the results have been good so far. I’d like to see more swing-and-miss at some point, but for now the team just needs quality outings and he’s been providing those as of late.
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It seems unlikely that money is a very motivating factor to Kershaw at this point, but assuming he hits that ten start mark, a $20M player option might be enticing.
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Japanese, Korean and English calls of Shohei Ohtani entering the 40/40 club! pic.twitter.com/JMHFl6oDBI
— James¹⁷¹⁸🎌 (@ShotimeLAD) August 24, 2024
This is fun, the Korean and Japanese calls on last night’s grand slam were electric.
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Seems like the UCL recovery is going well.
Whether it’s true or not, in my head they’re slow playing Tyler Glasnow and going to get him ready to make just a handful of starts prior to the postseason. Just need him sharp and healthy for October.
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First pitch is at 6:10 p.m. on SNLA.
