Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
It didn’t take long for the 2025 Dodgers to create a special moment, with an underweight Mookie Betts hitting a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning, and a walk-off three run shot in the bottom of the tenth. It was a very back and forth game, with the win probability showcasing just that.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a solid outing, pitching around some traffic and generating plenty of whiffs while doing so. He set a career high in strikeouts with ten, racking up ten whiffs on 14 swings at the splitter, and three whiffs out of four swings on the cutter which could be a nice development for him. He’s getting more movement on all of his pitches thus far, and the results have been great. He gave up two solo home runs yesterday, one coming on a great swing by Dillon Dingler on a low and inside splitter, and one off a sinker so far inside that Gleyber Torres actually got injured doing so.
For a full recap of the game, including the ring ceremony prior to first pitch, check out Chad’s recap from last night.
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| 6:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| 3B | McKinstry (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| LF | Greene (L) | RF | T. Hernández |
| 1B | Torkelson | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| DH | Carpenter (L) | C | Smith |
| 2B | Keith (L) | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| RF | Margot | CF | Pages |
| SS | Sweeney (L) | LF | Conforto (L) |
| C | Rogers | 2B | Edman (L) |
| CF | Kreidler | SS | Rojas |
| P | Olson (R) | P | Sasaki (R) |
Austin Barnes had a back and forth kind of day, as he left runners in scoring position and struck out twice in three plate appearances, but also made a great tag on Manuel Margot in the bottom of the ninth inning to keep the game tied. Will Smith pinch hit for Barnes in the bottom of the tenth and promptly singled to left field to tie the game and set the stage for Betts. Smith will be back in the lineup today after having yesterday off (besides one at-bat). The majority of the team is hitting in some capacity, although Max Muncy is scuffling to start his season, with one hit in 16 plate appearances, mixing in eight strikeouts and two walks. He has faced Justin Steele and Tarik Skubal thus far, but it’d be nice to seem him get going soon. Tommy Edman will once again be at second base in the absence of Kiké Hernández, while Andy Pages starts in center field. Miguel Rojas will start at shortstop with Betts having the day off.
Manuel Margot has been problematic so far, with three hits in six at-bats including two RBI. Dingler will have the day off despite a solo homer and a triple last night, with Jake Rogers taking over behind the dish. Riley Greene has three hits this series, building upon his first All-Star appearance in 2024. The always dangerous Kerry Carpenter will remain in the lineup against the right-handed Sasaki.
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Here’s how tonight’s starters, Reese Olson and Roki Sasaki, fared in 2024.
Once again, in regard to Sasaki I’ll point you towards Alex’s preview before Sasaki’s start in Tokyo.
Brim wrote a fantastic primer on Sasaki before he signed and Chad covered the signing, so give those a read to get hyped. The 23-year-old righty looked the part of a phenom in his two Spring outings, one start and one piggyback outing behind Yamamoto. He threw seven shutout innings total and allowed three hits and three walks with seven strikeouts over the two games. Sasaki debuted against the Reds on March 4 and was clearly amped up, averaging 98.0 MPH on his fastball and topping out at 99.8. The velo didn’t help him get a ton of whiffs, with only one whiff on nine swings at the heater. On the other hand, his 80-grade splitter came as advertised with seven whiffs on eight swings and an average RPM of only 518. His second outing and only start came in the Dodgers’ Cactus League finale and he tossed four shutout innings. This time, his fastball topped out at only 97.4 MPH and averaged 96.3 MPH and he failed to get a whiff on hit. The splitter still played, as three of the four swings off it were whiffs. His fastball velocity was a concern in 2024, as he lost two MPH off his average and his whiff rate decreased from 24 percent in 2023 to 13.1 percent in 2024. The lack of whiffs in his two Spring outings could be a concern, but it doesn’t detract from the excitement of his first Major League start.
His first outing showcased both his potential stardom, as well as his imperfections as a young starter adjusting to a new league. He allowed just one hit over three innings, but issued five walks with three strikeouts. His fastball was humming early, reaching 100.5 MPH in the first inning, but dropped down to 96 after a few high stress innings. He had a difficult time finding the zone with any of his offerings and was ultimately lucky to escape with just one earned run.
Olson had a solid spring with a 4.30 ERA, coming off his second consecutive season with a sub-four ERA. He had some command issues in the minor leagues, but the 25 year-old has managed to keep his walk-rate under control in the big leagues. He was substantially better against right-handed batters last season, with a .253/.332/.380 line allowed against lefties, compared to .220/.250/.310 against right-handed batters. He avoids barrels and generates grounders at a high rate, with the twelfth highest rate (50.6%) of 126 starting pitchers last year with at least 100 innings pitched. He has a five-pitch mix, with both a four-seam fastball and a sinker clocking in the mid-90’s, with a slider and a changeup both in the mid-80’s. He throws in a curve that comes in around 80 MPH against left-handed batters just to mix things up. Both his slider and changeup resulted in whiff rates north of 40%, and he’s a potential four-seam tweak (or scrapping it completely) from a breakout season.
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Good to see that Kiké is available and didn’t need more than a couple days off.
Still seems like Shohei Ohtani won’t debut on the mound anytime soon. Unfortunate, but understandable to be conservative, especially considering his value with the bat.
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First pitch is at 6:10 PT on SNLA.
