Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers handled their business against the Padres, taking two of three to clinch the NL West at home last night. Somehow, they have the best record in baseball entering the final weekend and are a game up on the Phillies for the one-seed in the NL. As it sits now, the Dodgers would play the winner of the Padres/Mets wild card round while Phillies would play the winner of Arizona/Milwaukee. These matchups may not be finalized until Monday, as the Mets and Braves (one game behind the Mets and Diamondbacks) got hurricane’d out and will be made up on Monday. Either way, the Dodgers are locked into a top-2 seed and will play their first playoff game at home on Saturday.
First, they have three in Colorado against the last-place Rockies. It’s extremely nice that these games at Coors don’t really matter. The Dodgers are 7-3 against Colorado this season and took three of four in their only series at Coors.
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| 5:10 P.M. | Denver | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | DH | Blackmon (L) |
| RF | Betts | SS | Tovar |
| 2B | Lux (L) | 3B | McMahon (L) |
| LF | T. Hernández | CF | Doyle |
| SS | Edman (S) | 1B | Toglia (S) |
| 1B | K. Hernández | 2B | Rodgers |
| CF | Pages | LF | Jones (L) |
| 3B | Taylor | C | Stallings |
| C | Barnes | RF | Cave (L) |
| P | Brasier (R) | P | Quantrill (R) |
Ryan Brasier serves as the opener for the scheduled bullpen game. Ben Casparius is on the roster so maybe he’ll be deployed to take down multiple innings, as many Dodger relievers were used in the last two wins over San Diego. Evan Phillips, Blake Treinen and Michael Kopech each threw Wednesday and Thursday so I’d assume they’re all unavailable tonight.
The Rockies are going with a traditional starters, as Cal Quantrill makes his 29th start of the season. He’s posted a 4.72 ERA/5.15 FIP in his first year in Colorado, but has struggled since mid-June. Quantrill had a 3.30 ERA through his first 14 starts, but has a 6.41 ERA in his last 14. That rough patch started against the Dodgers at Coors, where Quantrill allowed three runs and 10 baserunners in five innings. His most recent start also came against the Dodgers (in LA), in the lone Rockie win last weekend. Quantrill allowed three runs and 10 baserunners again (this time in 4 2/3 innings) but the Dodgers failed to score off the Colorado bullpen. Mookie Betts took him deep in the third inning and Hunter Feduccia drove in his first career run in the fourth.
Quantrill has an unfortunate combo for a pitcher. Among pitchers with over 140 innings pitched this season, Quantrill has the fourth-lowest strikeout rate (17.2 percent) and the second-worst walk rate (10.5 percent) in baseball. He also gets the second-fewest swings out of the zone (per FanGraphs) at 27.4 percent. He also has the fifth-highest hard-hit rate (36 percent). It’s not great. He throws a sinker most-often at 40 percent usage, but his 43.5 percent ground ball rate is pretty middle-of-the-pack. He’s also thrown a splitter 32.3 percent, cutter 13.3 percent, curve 12.6 percent and has thrown a few changeups but none since May.
Not the most hungover post-clinch lineup, as Betts and Shohei Ohtani are both playing. Freddie Freeman didn’t travel to Colorado after turning his ankle, so expect Enrique Hernandez to get playing time at first this series. Will Smith and Max Muncy both sit, with Austin Barnes behind the plate and Chris Taylor starting at third. Andy Pages gets the start in center, which should be interesting in Coors. Most players will likely get some days off in this series, but reportedly Ohtani will likely play all three games.
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The NLDS starters are known, but not necessarily the order in which they’ll appear. Tony Gonsolin will likely not appear in the first round, as it’ll be some combination of Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler and Landon Knack.
Dave Roberts reaffirmed that he expects Freddie Freeman to be good to go once the NLDS starts.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) September 27, 2024
Other roster notes:
– Seems like starters will be Flaherty, Yamamoto, Buehler, Knack (in some order)
– “Unless something really unforeseen happens,” Tony Gonsolin won’t be an option.
Yamamoto starts tomorrow, while Buehler and Flaherty started the last two games. Knack hasn’t pitched since Tuesday, so assuming he doesn’t throw tomorrow or one of the first two games of the DS he could go two weeks without pitching in a real game.
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First pitch is scheduled for 5:10 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
