Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (89-62) dropped the first game of their three game series against the Marlins (56-95) last night by a score of 9-11, behind a disastrous pitching performance. The team was coming off a huge series split with the Atlanta Braves (81-70) in which they won the final two games by considerable margins. The pitching struggles started once again by Bobby Miller, who is likely done for the season after that outing. Hopefully he figures it out and gets right for 2025. Due to Miller’s outing, Michael Grove was asked to go multiple innings, a situation in which he has struggled this year, and to nobody’s surprise he struggled in that spot. They got lucky with a Padres loss, but had no excuse to give up eleven runs to the Marlins (who traded their entire roster at the deadline). Tonight, the left-handed Ryan Weathers will be making his first start in the majors since June 7, after missing over three months with a left index finger strain. Landon Knack will be on the mound for the Dodgers, hoping to right the ship.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 3:40 PM | Miami | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | SS | Edwards (S) |
| 2B | Betts | 3B | Norby |
| RF | T. Hernández | LF | Sánchez (L) |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | 1B | Burger |
| SS | Edman (S) | DH | Bride |
| C | Smith | CF | Stowers (L) |
| CF | Pages | 2B | Lopez |
| 3B | K. Hernández | RF | Conine (L) |
| LF | Taylor | C | Fortes |
| P | Knack (R) | P | Weathers (L) |
The Marlins will run out the same lineup as yesterday, as it put together eleven runs on 15 hits and four walks with just seven strikeouts. Jesús Sánchez was 5-5 yesterday with two doubles, upping his season OPS from .715 to .734, and his 96 wRC+ up to 101. All of the Marlins’ starters reached base last night, and outside of the rookie Griffin Conine, they all logged at least one hit. Hopefully the Dodgers manage to pitch better today. That was just the third time this season that the Marlins had scored eleven or more runs, and the sixth time they’d scored ten or more. The Dodgers have scored eleven or more runs ten times, and in the double digits 16 times.
This Miami lineup features so much inexperience as a whole, it’s pretty astounding. Here’s how their career totals compare to Freddie Freeman‘s career thus far.
Crazy.
For the Dodgers, there’s a couple iterations of how the lineup can be constructed against lefties. This one is a bit different due to Miguel Rojas getting the day off, but there are still a few interesting decisions. Max Muncy and Gavin Lux are out of the lineup today, likely resting the former, and a necessary move for the latter. Generally, they’d go with Kiké Hernández at third base with Chris Taylor at second base or vice versa, but today they decide to go with Mookie Betts at second base, heading back to the infield for the first time since his return from the Injured List on August 12. Chris Taylor will be in left field instead of Teoscar Hernández, who will slide over to right field.
Very curious as to why they’re trying this, as Taylor has been very bad this season and they could just start him at second base and keep everything else the same. Maybe they want to give Mookie some reps at second base if need be — say Andy Pages crushes it and needs a spot (RF?), Lux loses his ability to field or hit or both, Taylor could need some outfield reps as he might end up in left field predominantly in the postseason, etc. They’re probably evaluating a few options here. Additionally, Tommy Edman will be at shortstop instead of center field with Rojas needing the day off. Pages will be in center field.
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Here’s how Knack and Weathers compare.
Weathers had been pitching great in his first full season with the Marlins after being included in a trade last year with the San Diego Padres. He seemed to be breaking out this year, looking much improved compared to his first few seasons in the majors. He had a 5.88 ERA and 5.64 FIP over the first 156.0 innings of his career with San Diego and Miami from 2021-2023, but despite that is still just 24 years-old. It made sense for the Padres to move him at the time, and made sense for the Marlins to give him a real shot. He threw 78 pitches in his most recent rehab start, so he’s close to being fully built up again. He kept the Dodgers in check back in the beginning of May with a quality start, going six innings allowing just three earned runs.
He’s dropped the usage of his four-seam fastball down to 40.4% of the time, compared to that number being over 50% the first three years of his career. He’s mixed in a real sinker for the first time in his career throwing it just over 12% of the time for a different look after just throwing just eleven total sinkers last season. He throws a good mid-80’s changeup against right-handed batters that has resulted in just a .243 xwOBA, allowing a .193 batting average on that pitch. The star of his rotation is his low-80’s sweeper that he’ll throw to both left and right-handed batters, creating devastating results. Opponents are hitting just .119 against it with a staggering 55.3% whiff rate.
Knack had been having a great season until his last outing in which he got demolished by the Braves. It was easily his worst outing of the year, allowing five earned runs on seven hits and two walks over two innings. He was coming off a great outing against the Guardians where he allowed just two runs over six innings with eight strikeouts, but it’s no surprise the results matched what the peripherals had shown for quite some time. If he manages a couple strong starts to end the season he could be in the mix for a postseason role as the final starter or as long relief, so this start is very important for him.
Outside of Knack, there’s not a lot to say. Miller exited the game yesterday after two innings and giving up four earned runs, which is most definitely bad. I understand that when your starter goes two innings, more guys have to pitch, and the bullpen has to cover more innings, etc. However, they still gave up seven runs in seven innings to the 2024 Miami Marlins. That’s just not going to cut it.
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With the injuries to the rotation, it makes sense to try and deal with this before the postseason. They’ll need both his glove and funny enough, his bat, in order to get where they want to go this October.
Clayton Kershaw is determined to pitch again this season and in the playoffs.
Should the Dodgers make the NLCS or World Series, they might be adding a couple pitchers to their roster. Who knows.
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Zach Logue last pitched on September 12, and seems to be in a long relief role for the time being.
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First pitch is at 3:40 PT on SNLA.
