Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers fell back into some bad habits over the weekend, dropping two of three against the Mets to bring their record on the road down to .500. Tanner Scott imploded in the opener, blowing a three-run lead in the ninth but the offense eventually picked him up in the 13th to start the roadtrip with a win. However, they lost on Saturday and Sunday and scored a combined three runs in those two games, all of which coming early in the games. They scored twice in the second on Saturday, Shohei Ohtani led off Sunday with a homer, and the Mets held them scoreless for the remainder of both of those games. Tony Gonsolin struggled on Saturday, and Landon Knack was mostly solid yesterday but was burned by a pair of errors leading to three runs allowed, only one of which was earned.
Despite all that, at 32-21 the Dodgers are still tied for the third-best winning percentage in baseball and second in the NL, but they continue their brutal schedule with a three game set in Cleveland. The Guardians are 29-23, four games behind the Tigers in the AL Central but took three of four against Detroit over the weekend. Cleveland took the first three games and outscored the Tigers 17-6 in those three games, but got absolutely wrecked by Tarik Skubal yesterday. Skubal threw a complete game shutout with two hits allowed and 13 strikeouts without walking a batter. IMO, the Dodgers should just do that.
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| 3:10 PT | Cleveland | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | LF | Kwan (L) |
| SS | Betts | C | Naylor (L) |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | 3B | Ramirez (S) |
| RF | T. Hernández | 1B | Manzardo (L) |
| C | Smith | DH | Thomas |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | RF | Schneemann (L) |
| CF | Pages | SS | Arias |
| LF | Conforto (L) | CF | Martinez (S) |
| 2B | Kim (L) | 2B | Wilson |
| P | Yamamoto (R) | P | Williams (R) |
Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets the ball coming off his best start of the season last Tuesday. Yama threw a career-high 110 pitches in seven innings of one-hit ball and struck out nine with two walks allowed. It was a nice return to form for Yamamoto, who’d allowed eight runs in 11 innings over his previous two starts. Yamamoto also started May with a one-hit outing in Atlanta, so it’s been a month of very high high’s and some pretty rough lows. Yamamoto did record his fewest whiffs of the season last time out against Arizona (8), but only three of the 12 balls put in play off Yamamoto had an expected batting average over .200. It’ll be interesting to see how Yamamoto responds to a career-high in pitches and five days of rest as opposed to six. The other two times he’s topped 100 pitches this season Yamamoto has combined to allow one earned run (two unearned) in 15 innings, but both of those starts came with six days of rest. Yamamoto’s never faced the Guardians and has only faced one current Guardian (Nolan Jones, who went 2-4 with two RBIs against Yamamoto for the Rockies last season but isn’t starting today).
Gavin Williams makes his 11th start of the season for the Guardians today. He’s posted a 3.94 ERA/4.23 FIP in 48 innings over his first 10 starts and has struggled with his command. He’s issued multiple walks in eight of his 10 starts and his 12.4 percent walk rate is tied for the highest in baseball among pitchers with 40+ innings pitched this season. Williams has provided better results in May, with a 2.25 ERA and 3.28 FIP over his last four starts. He’s only averaging five innings per start and has thrown over 95 pitches in each of those starts, so the efficiency issues are still there. Williams does have a 30.4 percent whiff rate and has generated 10 or more whiffs in eight of his 10 starts, which has helped him post a 27.3 percent strikeout rate.
Basically every pitch Williams throws has a whiff rate higher than 20 percent. He throws a fastball 50.7 percent of the time and his 96.9 average MPH makes it one of the faster velos for a starter in baseball. He’s thrown a sweeper 25.7 percent of the time, curve 17.8 percent and a cutter 5.1 percent of the time. He’s also thrown like four sinkers and two changeups according to Savant. The Dodgers have had Williams’ number so far, having faced him once in each of the last two seasons. In 2023, Williams allowed five earned (plus two unearned) and eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. Last season the Dodgers chased Williams in the first inning, putting up five runs on three walks and two hits in only 2/3 of an inning. He started the game getting Ohtani to ground out, but walked the next three batters before giving up a double, sac fly and single before being pulled. Pedro Avila came on in relief and immediately allowed a two-run homer to Andy Pages to close Willams’ line.
Tommy Edman sits tonight, with Hyeseong Kim at second and Pages in center.
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Nothing really happening pregame, but Chris Taylor does have a new home.
Free agent super-utility man Chris Taylor has signed with the Angels and will be in center field tonight against the Yankees, source tells @TheAthletic.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) May 26, 2025
Taylor returns to the AL West, signing with the Angels. He’s starting in center for them tonight. If he sticks in Anaheim, he won’t make a return to Dodger Stadium this season unless they meet in the World Series (lol), but the Dodgers do play three in Anaheim in August.
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First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
