Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Paul Skenes out-ace’d Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the marquee opener last night, throwing 6 1/3 shutout as the Pirates won 3-0. Yamamoto issued a career-high four walks after only walking seven batters in his first five outings, and the Dodger offense never had more than one runner on base, which doesn’t seem conducive to winning. It was their third straight loss and moved them to 16-10, good for third in the NL West entering today’s games. Today, they look to right the ship with Roki Sasaki coming off the longest start of his short career in Texas.
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| 6:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| CF | Cruz (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| RF | Reynolds (S) | SS | Betts |
| DH | McCutchen | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 1B | Valdez (L) | RF | T. Hernández |
| C | Bart | 2B | Edman (S) |
| 3B | Hayes | C | Smith |
| 2B | Frazier (L) | LF | Conforto (L) |
| LF | Pham | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| SS | Kiner-Falefa | CF | Pages |
| P | Keller (R) | P | Sasaki (R) |
Sasaki completed six innings for the first time in his career last Saturday in Texas. He allowed two hits and two runs on 78 pitches and struck out four, but issued three walks and gave up a homer to Kyle Higashioka. Sasaki was in line for his first win with a 3-2 lead, but Kirby Yates allowed a double and a homer in the ninth for the lone loss in the lone star state. The results for Sasaki were mostly fine, but his fastball velocity was a bit concerning. After starting the season averaging 98 on it in Tokyo, his velocity dipped a bit down to the 96 MPH range for his first three stateside starts. His lowest average fastball velocity was 96.1 MPH before last Saturday, when that dropped down to 94.7. Hopefully that was just a blip, but definitely something to monitor tonight in LA (where is it colder than it’s ever been in recorded history, don’t fact check me).
Mitch Keller makes his sixth start of the season for the Pirates. His overall numbers aren’t great, but that’s mostly due to one nightmare start. Keller has a 4.18 ERA/3.92 FIP in 28 innings, with most of the damage coming in his second start of the season against the Yankees. Keller allowed a run over six innings in his first start, then followed that up allowing seven in 3 2/3 innings to the Yankees. He did that without allowing a homer, which makes it even more impressive. Keller allowed eight hits, walked four and hit two batters in that start. He followed that up with his best start of the season, throwing 7 1/3 shutout against the Cardinals with only four hits and one walk allowed. Keller’s coming off two other solid starts, allowing three runs in six innings against the Nats and two runs over five against the Guardians, both games that Pittsburgh ended up losing. Keller has struggled against the Dodgers in his career, with a 7.54 ERA in 22 innings over five starts. A lot of that damage came last year when he started in LA and allowed seven earned in four innings. Freddie Freeman took Keller deep in the first, and Shohei Ohtani hit a two run shot in a five run third inning.
The Dodgers roll out the same exact lineup as last night. Former Giant Joey Bart starts behind the plate for the Pirates, who shift some spots in the lineup but start nearly all the same players.
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Yoendrys Gomez is here and active, taking Noah Davis‘ spot on the roster.
The Dodgers added RHP Yoendrys Gómez to the active roster and optioned RHP Noah Davis.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 26, 2025
Gomez allowed three runs in 10 innings for the Yankees before being DFA’d. In a vacuum that’s pretty decent, but he also issued nine walks (and walked seven in 11 Major League innings last season). Seems like he’ll fit right in. Davis took down the final two innings last night and only walked run without allowing a hit or run.
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Ohtani threw his first bullpen session since returning from the Paternity List.
Shohei Ohtani is throwing a bullpen session right now
— Jack Harris (@ByJackHarris) April 26, 2025
It’s his first one since returning from the paternity list last week
Haven’t seen any updates on how it went, but I assume (as of scheduling this post) probably “fine”.
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First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
