Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (26-13) beat the Diamondbacks (20-19) in a thriller last night, with a six run ninth inning comeback resulting in a 14-11 win. Chad had to rewrite his recap last night, as going into the ninth inning it looked as if the Dodgers were going to have blown an 8-3 lead. If you missed the game or highlights of it, the recap ended up quite elaborate. It was a game of the year candidate, and featured the aforementioned six run ninth inning, as well as a five run third inning. Tonight will be a tough one with the recently acquired star, Corbin Burnes, getting the ball for Arizona, up against Dustin May.
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| 5:10 P.M. | Phoenix | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | RF | Carroll (L) |
| SS | Betts | 2B | Marte (S) |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | DH | Smith (L) |
| RF | Pages | 1B | Naylor (L) |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | 3B | Suárez |
| 2B | K. Hernández | C | Moreno |
| LF | Conforto (L) | CF | Thomas (L) |
| CF | Kim (L) | LF | Tawa |
| C | Barnes | SS | Perdomo (S) |
| P | May (R) | P | Burnes (R) |
After teeing off on the left-handed Eduardo Rodriguez, the lineup will be slightly more formidable tonight with the majority of the starters back in the lineup. They’re limited without Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman, but this offense is still more than capable of putting runs on the board. Kiké Hernández will start at second base, while Hyeseong Kim gets his second start in center field. Michael Conforto is back in the lineup, as is Max Muncy. Both made an impact late last night, with Muncy tying the game in the ninth inning on a single, while Conforto got hit by a pitch to set up Shohei Ohtani for the go-ahead three run homer. Will Smith gets a day off after three walks last night and Austin Barnes is back in the order, hitting ninth.
May needs to be careful, as Ketel Marte added two home runs yesterday, while Eugenio Suárez and Randal Grichuk added homers of their own, and most notably Lourdes Gurriel Jr. had a game tying grand slam. This Arizona offense is no joke, and due to their spotty starting pitching and injury riddled bullpen, they have slugfests like last night quite often. May needs to log some innings for his bullpen, and hope the Dodgers can put some runs on the board against Burnes. There are likely runs to be had against the Arizona bullpen after Burnes is out of the game.
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Here’s how tonight’s starters have performed thus far among 127 pitchers with at least 30 innings pitched.
May allowed four runs on five hits and two walks over 5.2 innings his last time out against the Braves. He allowed two home runs to Austin Riley that accounted for all the damage. He’d allowed just one home run over his first five starts, but two hanging sweepers changed that in a hurry. More or less, May has been solid, but is going through a rough stretch currently, having given up at least three runs in each of his last three starts. He’s generating ground balls at a very high clip, with the seventh highest rate in baseball at 53.7%. He generally limits home runs as well, so he really just needs to reel in the walks a bit. His .218 batting average allowed is great, the free passes are the only thing really holding him back.
Corbin Burnes last started on April 30, as he missed a start with right shoulder inflammation. Unlike Dodgers starters, the inflammation only cost Burnes one outing, while the same supposed issue results in missed weeks or longer for Dodger pitchers. Burnes’ first two outings with Arizona weren’t great, allowing four earned runs in each outing, but he’s settled in with a 2.70 ERA over his next four. Even though he’s been better, he’s had a disappointing start to his Diamondbacks career, as his stuff has looked diminished and the underlying data isn’t great either. His velocity is down about a tick and a half across the board, resulting in less chase, less whiffs, more contact, and more walks. His 5.13 FIP, 4.64 SIERA, 4.39 xFIP, 20.0% strikeout rate, and 12.1% walk rate are all career worsts. The ERA has been fine, but Arizona has $210 million committed to him and they need him to pitch accordingly. The Dodgers saw him once last year, where he allowed one run on six hits with four strikeouts across five innings.
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Lou Trivino has had a few solid seasons under his belt, most notably in Oakland in 2018-2021. He threw 21.2 innings with the Yankees in 2022, but missed the entirety of the 2023 and 2024 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery.
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The Dodgers aren’t desperate for innings per say, so it’s very unlikely they alter Ohtani’s rehab schedule, but they really could use another starter.
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First pitch is at 5:10 PT on SNLA.
