Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers battled back after another wild outing from Roki Sasaki on Saturday to complete a sweep of the Tigers. After an extremely rare Sunday off, the Dodgers close out the homestand with a three-game set against a team that came into the season as possibly their biggest threat for another NL pennant. The Braves haven’t quite looked the part just yet, as they’re still waiting for reinforcements and opened the season with a really rough series in San Diego. The first two games of the series were decently close, as the Padres came through with big hits late in the game to secure the wins. Saturday was another close game, as a seventh-inning RBI single by the Padres was the only run scored in the game. Sunday was less close, as Nick Pivetta made his Padre debut and tossed seven innings of one-hit ball in a 5-0 win. In all, Atlanta was outscored 17-7 over the four games and haven’t scored since the fifth inning of Friday’s game. Imagine going scoreless for 20+ innings. The Braves are without Ronald Acuña Jr., Spencer Strider and Sean Murphy, but that isn’t the way you want to start a season.
They’re coming off an injury-riddled season that saw them end the same way 2025 began, by being swept in San Diego. The Padres knocked them out in the Wild Card to set up the NLDS with the Dodgers. Acuńa only played in 49 games before tearing his ACL in May and Strider only threw nine innings before a UCL injury ended his 2024 season. Acuña’s timeline is unknown but they reportedly hope to have him back in May, while Strider pitched twice in the Spring and made his first rehab start on Saturday. The Dodgers took five of seven from Atlanta last season, sweeping them in LA in May and splitting a four-game set in Atlanta in September.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| CF | Harris II (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| 3B | Riley | SS | Betts |
| 1B | Olson (L) | RF | T. Hernández |
| DH | Ozuna | LF | Conforto (L) |
| 2B | Albies (S) | C | Smith |
| C | Baldwin (L) | 2B | Edman (S) |
| RF | De La Cruz | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| LF | Kelenic (L) | 1B | K. Hernández |
| SS | Arcia | CF | Pages |
| P | Holmes (R) | P | Glasnow (R) |
Tyler Glasnow gets his first start of the regular season tonight. His 2024 season was pretty strong, but was cut short with an elbow issue that sidelined him following his August 11 start against the Pirates. He made four Spring starts and pitched in one of the exhibition games in Tokyo. Glasnow struck out 19 batters in 11 innings in the Spring and struck out seven Hanshin Tigers in four shutout innings a few weeks ago. Glasnow finished the 2024 season with a 3.49 ERA/2.90 FIP in 134 innings, which was a career high. Among pitchers with 130 or more innings thrown last season, Glasnow’s 32.2 strikeout rate was the third-highest in baseball, only behind Garrett Crochet and Paul Skenes and just ahead of Cy Young winner Chris Sale. His .189 batting average against was the fourth-lowest in baseball and despite not being a sinkerballer, only 10 pitchers posted a higher ground ball rate than Glasnow’s 48.6 percent. Glasnow came pretty much as-advertised as he was decently dominant when he was healthy, but wasn’t able to remain healthy throughout the season. Glasnow saw Atlanta last May and held them to two runs and five hits over seven innings with 10 strikeouts and only one walk issued.
Old friend Grant Holmes gets the start for Atlanta. The former Dodger prospect finally made his Major League debut last season and pitched pretty solidly mostly in relief for Atlanta. Holmes posted a 3.56 ERA in 68 1/3 innings over 26 outings (seven starts) and struck out 70 with only 15 walks. He topped out at 98 pitches last season and was generally used in multi-inning roles even as a reliever, with 20 of his 26 outings lasting more than an inning. One of his one-inning outings came against the Dodgers in September, when he worked around a one-out single for a scoreless frame. Holmes pitched in four Spring games, the first two in relief and the final two as a starter. He only allowed three runs in 15 1/3 innings and topped out at 93 pitches. He threw a perfect inning in relief on Opening Day against the Padres and struck out two.
Holmes is primarily a fastball/slider/curveball guy, throwing one of those three pitches over 90 percent of the time in his time in the Majors last season. The slider and curve were excellent last season, generating over 40 percent whiff rates. He mixed in a cutter 8.2 percent of the time last season and it got punished in a very tiny sample size. He allowed a .467 average and .867 slugging percentage on 84 cutters thrown.
Freddie Freeman is out of the lineup after reportedly tweaking his ankle doing very important baseball things.
Freddie Freeman is out of the lineup. He had a slip in the shower this weekend and tweaked the ankle. Dave Roberts said Freeman feels he could go out and play but the Dodgers feel it’s wise to give him a day. https://t.co/KVthxYPMj7
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) March 31, 2025
Freeman tweaked his ankle slipping in the shower, which is maybe the most I’ve ever related to an athlete. He’s considered day to day. Enrique Hernandez gets the start at first and Michael Conforto slides up to the cleanup spot. Atlanta is noticeably missing their big free agent acquisition in the lineup.
Jurickson Profar was suspended earlier today after testing positive for something that has “Gonad” in the name. Sometimes, the world is still good.
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Shohei Ohtani threw a bullpen on Saturday.
Roberts said Shohei Ohtani’s bullpen on Saturday went well. 25 pitches – all fastballs.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) March 31, 2025
Ohtani threw 25 fastballs and it reportedly went well. No updates on when his next bullpen will be yet.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
