Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Chad’s recap last night wrapped up the Dodgers’ (32-20) disappointing performance in the second game of this three game series against the Mets (31-21) quite well.
“The Dodgers had their short winning streak of three games come to an end, as after a wild extra innings affair yesterday, the lineup apparently took the night off in a 5-2 loss.”
That’s about it. The silver lining is that they somehow managed to win the first game of the series despite both teams trying very hard to lose it. They allowed a very acceptable five earned runs over eight innings with Tony Gonsolin, Anthony Banda, and Bobby Miller on the mound, a result I would’ve taken if offered prior to the game. Today, Landon Knack looks to bounce back from some recent poor performance, although facing the Mets in New York isn’t exactly a desirable landing spot. Kodai Senga and his 1.43 ERA counters for New York.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 4:10 PT | New York | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | SS | Lindor (S) |
| SS | Betts | 3B | Vientos |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | RF | Soto (L) |
| C | Smith | 1B | Alonso |
| RF | T. Hernández | LF | McNeil (L) |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | C | Torrens |
| CF | Pages | DH | Young (L) |
| LF | Conforto (L) | CF | Taylor |
| 2B | Edman (S) | 2B | Baty (L) |
| P | Knack (R) | P | Senga (R) |
The offense was bad yesterday, as they allowed David Peterson to throw 7.2 innings of two run ball, with one of those runs scoring via a missed call on a foul ball off the bat of Dalton Rushing. Shohei Ohtani was particularly bad, going 0-4 with three strikeouts at the top of the order. The “MV3” has two hits in 25 at-bats over the first two games, and oftentimes the offense only goes as far as those three go. They need to be better. Michael Conforto, Max Muncy, and Will Smith all rejoin the lineup, with Smith returning from a day off, while the former two had the night off against the left-handed Peterson.
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Here’s how Senga and Knack compare. It’s not very pretty.
Senga took his third loss of the season his last time out against the Red Sox, allowing three runs on five hits and three walks over six innings. Despite his National League leading 1.43 ERA and a good team behind him, his 4-3 record is unimpressive due to abysmal run support. Of 142 qualified pitchers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto has by far the worst run support of any pitcher in baseball, with the Dodgers averaging just 1.6 runs while he’s on the mound, but Senga hasn’t had it much better. The Mets are averaging just two runs while he’s on the mound, the seventh worst mark in the sport. He’s held the opponent scoreless in five of his nine outings thus far, and has yet to allow more than three runs in a single outing.
He’s been very difficult for right-handed batters to solve this season, with just a .474 OPS and a 0.87 WHIP against righties, compared to a .715 OPS and 1.46 WHIP against left-handed batters. He’s allowed just one home run this season, despite a very similar batted ball profile as his 2023 rookie year, in which he allowed 17 homers in 166.1 innings. That season he had a home run to fly ball rate of 11.6%, compared to 1.9% this year. League average is 11.1% this year, and without a long track record showing the ability to suppress the long ball, you’d expect the homers to return at some point. If anything, his stuff has taken a slight step back, with his strikeout rate down to an average 23.0% mark, compared to his above-average 29.1% rate back in 2023. He’s down about a tick on his four-seamer, averaging 94.8 MPH this year, while losing a bit of movement on the rest of his arsenal as well. He primarily throws the four-seamer, a cutter, and his infamous fork-ball, but also has the ability to toss in a sinker, slider, sweeper, and curve to mix things up.
He faced the Dodgers twice in the National League Championship Series last year, making his first start in nearly five months in Game 1. He went 1.1 innings with four walks and three earned runs allowed in that outing, while going 1.2 innings with two walks and three earned runs in Game 6.
Knack allowed four runs on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts over five innings his last time out against Arizona. He entered the game after Jack Dreyer in the third inning, and allowed all four runs in his first inning via a pair of two-run homers. He toughed out the next four innings, finishing with 106 pitches and ultimately providing some relief for the bullpen.
Knack’s stuff grades out fine, with Stuff+ thinking both his slider (109) and his changeup (113) are above-average pitches, with his fastball (92) just barely below the league-average mark of 97. He’s always going to have a tendency to give up the long ball due to his style of pitching, but his 19.2% HR/FB rate is nearly double league-average. His BABIP (.313) should drop, as fly balls have the lowest BABIP compared to ground balls and liners, and even while pitching poorly, that HR/FB rate should drop as well. He needs to walk fewer batters (9.5%) as he was better in that department last year (6.3%), get some better luck on batted balls, and hope that the homers come with nobody on base. He has the makings of a capable back of the rotation starter, but he needs to be sharper to get there.
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Ohtani threw 22 pitches earlier today, his first time facing live batters as he recovers from surgery. He’s still likely two months out, but this is a huge step in his progression. They won’t rush him back despite the clear need for pitching help.
🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/s5XCi4TNJQ
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 25, 2025
I’m sure it’ll be electric when Ohtani does eventually make his pitching debut with the Dodgers.
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First pitch is at 4:10 PT on ESPN.
