Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (78-54) dropped the first game of a three game set last night against the Baltimore Orioles (77-56) by a score of 3-2. It was close the whole game, and despite Jack Flaherty‘s quality start, the Dodgers couldn’t manage a run after the third inning. They had ample opportunities, as they were a combined 1-8 with runners in scoring position. The bullpen was great with Alex Vesia, Ryan Brasier, and Michael Kopech all doing their jobs, just unfortunate the offense couldn’t do more against Cole Irvin and his 4.79 ERA. The Dodgers had a favorable matchup to take the first game of this series last night, but they’ll really have their work cut out for them if they want to win this series now, as tonight will feature the former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes, up against Walker Buehler who has been all over the place.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| LF | Cowser (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| DH | Rutschman (S) | RF | Betts |
| SS | Henderson (L) | 2B | Lux (L) |
| RF | Santander (S) | LF | T. Hernández |
| 1B | O’ Hearn (L) | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| CF | Mullins (L) | C | Smith |
| 3B | Urías | SS | Edman (S) |
| 2B | Holliday (L) | CF | Kiermaier (L) |
| C | McCann | 1B | K. Hernández |
| P | Burnes (R) | P | Buehler (R) |
The Dodgers will run out a slightly different lineup tonight against the right-handed Burnes, with Kevin Kiermaier getting the start in center field while Tommy Edman slides over to shortstop. Gavin Lux is back in the lineup after a day off against a lefty as Chris Taylor heads to the bench. Freddie Freeman is still out with his finger issue and Dave Roberts says that he might not play in this series. Buehler needs all the help he can get, so getting Kiermaier in center field obviously helps. The Orioles will run out nearly an identical lineup as to yesterday, with James McCann catching as Adley Rutschman shifts to DH and Eloy Jiménez sits.
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Here’s how Buehler and Burnes compare. Burnes’ ranks are among 61 qualified starters.
Burnes won the 2021 National League Cy Young award with a great season with the Brewers in which he posted a 2.43 ERA and a ridiculous 1.63 FIP with 234 strikeouts to just 34 walks and seven home runs allowed in 167.0 innings. It’s hard to repeat that obviously, and he has regressed slightly in the three seasons since 2021. Still, his 722.0 innings pitched since 2021 trails just Aaron Nola and Logan Webb, and he’s ninth in innings pitched this season in his first year with Baltimore at 159.1. His stuff as a whole has fallen off a bit year by year since 2021, and it’s shown primarily in his strikeout rate, dropping from 12.61 strikeouts per nine innings (35.6%) in ’21 to 8.25 per nine innings and a 22.5% rate this year. His stuff is still great, but his cutter and curve have dropped off from among the best pitches in baseball to simply great.
He’ll be making his last start of a dreadful August tonight, with an 8.74 ERA over 20.2 innings, raising his ERA on the season from 2.47 to 3.28, effectively ending any chance at the American League Cy Young award. He allowed five earned runs on eight hits and two walks his last time out after allowing eight runs on ten hits and three walks in the outing prior. He throws his famous cutter that sits at 95.6 MPH 43.8% of the time, going to his low-80’s curveball and upper-80’s slider as his primary breaking balls. He mixes in a changeup and sinker to round out his mix, but primarily sticks with the first three. His Savant page is still bright red.
He’s still among the top pitchers in the league and is primed to get paid very handsomely this offseason. Not sure I’d expect the Dodgers to be in on him, but they could use some stability in the rotation that he provides like not many can.
Anyways, when it comes to Buehler it’s been a real struggle this season. He allowed three runs on seven hits and three walks over four innings his last time out, recording just one strikeout. He allowed two runs in the first but managed to keep the ball in the yard for just the second time in his ten starts if you’re looking for a positive way to spin it. He threw six scoreless innings back in his third outing of the year on May 18, but it’s been incredibly ugly since, with a 6.97 ERA, 6.65 FIP, and 1.87 WHIP over his last seven outings. He’s made two starts since returning to the rotation after nearly two months away, and has allowed six earned runs in 7.1 innings with four strikeouts to seven walks. He hasn’t had much command of anything yet and hasn’t seemed to have a semblance of a game plan either. Hopefully tonight is different.
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Eric always finds some fun stats, and when it involves Kiké he’s usually in some crazy utility player group.
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Shohei Ohtani continues to progress well from his elbow surgery that is easy to forget about. He’s having the season he is while recovering from UCL surgery.
Looking for good Tyler Glasnow news this coming Friday in regards to his eventual return. Austin Barnes should be back tomorrow and Brusdar Graterol looks to be headed towards another rehab assignment shortly.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a good first rehab outing in OKC as he ramps up to return in a few weeks.
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First pitch is at 7:10 PT on SNLA and MLB Network.
