Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After dropping the opening game of a nine game homestand, the Dodgers (28-15) bounced back last night in a big way beating the Athletics (22-21) by a score of 9-3. Yoshinobu Yamamoto wasn’t at his best, but as good starting pitchers do, he still managed to post a six inning three earned run quality start, earning his fifth win of the season. Alex Vesia, Kirby Yates, and Ben Casparius held the A’s scoreless for the remaining three innings, while buying the offense enough time to put up an five-spot in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Dodgers will look for the series win tonight in what is essentially a bullpen game, albeit the team will look to Matt Sauer and likely Justin Wrobleski for as many innings as possible. The story of the night is obviously the Dodgers’ top prospect, Dalton Rushing, making his MLB debut behind the plate as we enter the post-Austin Barnes era.
Chad wrote a great piece about Barnes earlier today, detailing his importance to this franchise over the past decade.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| SS | Wilson | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| LF | Soderstrom (L) | SS | Betts |
| CF | Brown (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| DH | Rooker | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| C | Langeliers | RF | Pages |
| RF | Butler (L) | LF | Conforto (L) |
| 3B | Urshela | C | Rushing (L) |
| 1B | Kurtz (L) | CF | Outman (L) |
| 2B | Schuemann | 2B | Kim (L) |
| P | Bido (R) | P | Sauer (R) |
Max Muncy added a three-run home run last night in the bottom of the eighth inning, essentially putting the game on ice and allowing Tanner Scott to stop warming up. It was his second home run of the season and first in over two weeks, finally getting his OPS above .600. His last 16 games dating back to April 26, he’s looked more like his previous self, slashing .218/.358/.400, with only the power lagging behind. He has eleven walks to just 13 strikeouts over those 67 plate appearances, controlling the zone with the ability we’re used to seeing. His career slash line is .226/.350/.468, so if the power comes back a bit, he might just be in the clear.
Shohei Ohtani, Andy Pages, and Hyeseong Kim each added home runs of their own, the latter being the first of Kim’s career. He’s hitting .360 over 25 plate appearances and eleven games, potentially forcing the Dodgers to make another difficult decision whenever both Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernández are back from injury. Most notably, Rushing will be batting seventh tonight, sandwiched between Michael Conforto and James Outman, somehow currently being the most dangerous of the three. In all seriousness, Conforto has been seeing the ball well as of late, but Rushing’s path towards production is very clear. Get Will Smith some days off and hit better than Barnes.
Rushing was the Dodgers’ top pick in the 2022 draft, being selected 40th overall. He mashed his way through the minors, showing advanced plate discipline, power, and feel, at every level. He had an .856 OPS in High-A, an .891 OPS in AA, a .907 OPS in AAA last year, and a .938 OPS thus far in AAA. He missed a handful of games in early April, but over his previous 18 games he slashed .328/.461/.607, with a 19.7% walk rate and 14.5% strikeout rate, essentially forcing the Dodgers’ hand. He’s unanimously a top 30 prospect in the sport, most recently up to 15th at MLB Pipeline and eighth at FanGraphs. Something else he’s impressed with is his ability to hit against left-handed pitching, despite batting from the same side. He has a 1.060 OPS against lefties this year in AAA, as well as an .898 OPS against them in 2024 and a .971 OPS in 2023, pretty impressive stuff. An advanced bat and glove behind the plate that doesn’t have to be platooned is an All-Star, hopefully he pans out and forces the Dodgers to find a way to consistently get him in the lineup.
After going 4-5 with two homers in the series opener, Jacob Wilson was held hitless in four plate appearances last night, dropping his average to … .354. So far he’s the clear frontrunner for American League Rookie of the Year, and he’s actually pacing toward down ballot MVP votes. Long season ahead for him, but he’s been excellent for the A’s. Tyler Soderstrom had himself a great game last night, adding a home run and a double, as well as an outfield assist. The A’s are eighth in wRC+ at 112, seventh in OPS at .750, and fifth in batting average at .261, so they’re not an easy team to keep off the board, especially without a proven starter on the mound.
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Sauer is making his first MLB start tonight, as his first 18 career outings have all been out of the bullpen in some capacity. He last pitched on May 11 for just one inning requiring nine pitches, but has gone four or more innings in two of his four appearances thus far. He threw four scoreless innings in Miami, after throwing five innings of one run ball against the Marlins in the series prior. He’s allowed just two earned runs over 11.2 innings thus far, and with Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Roki Sasaki on the shelf, there’s room for him to stay on the roster if he keeps performing well and eating innings. Wrobleski was also called up as J.P. Feyereisen was optioned to Triple-A, and Wrobleski will likely enter the game after Sauer, depending on how the game unfolds. Wrobleski has made just one start in the bigs this year, allowing eight earned runs over five innings against the Nationals back on April 8. Everyone including himself will hope he has better luck this time around.
Osvaldo Bido started last season as a multi-inning reliever for Oakland and transitioned to a starting pitcher after seeing success in his relief role. His final nine outings were as a starter, with a 3.40 ERA and 3.14 FIP over 45.0 innings. However, his performance has dropped off in his first full season as a starting pitcher, with a 4.75 ERA, 5.91 FIP, and a 1.51 WHIP over 41.2 innings. His strikeout rate is nearly half of what it was last year (24.3%), sitting at 14.5%, while his walk rate remains slightly worse than average. He’s allowing more frequent and harder contact than last year, and has simply just had a poor start to his 2025 campaign. Part of his poor numbers on the season come down to an eight run outing against the Rangers in the middle of April, as he’s given up four earned runs or fewer in the rest of his outings. He’s coming off a decent outing against the Yankees, allowing three earned runs over 5.1 innings, despite giving up eight hits and two walks.
It’s a favorable matchup for the Dodgers, but who knows how Sauer and Wrobleski will look. Rushing additionally has a soft landing spot against Bido and the A’s relief staff, so hopefully he has a solid debut.
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Clayton Kershaw is just 32 strikeouts from 3000, which would make him just the 20th pitcher to reach that mark.
Hopefully Glasnow and all of the 14 other injured pitchers the Dodgers have, continue to progress well.
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First pitch is at 7:10 PT on SNLA.
