Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (35-22) overcame a three run deficit last night, ultimately defeating the Yankees (35-21) by a score of 8-5, handing Max Fried his first loss of the year. Chad recapped the game last night, and pointed out that the last time these two teams met, the Dodgers also overcame an early deficit.
“…but the Dodgers rallied again (not unlike the last game in the 2024 World Series) to score six unanswered runs in an 8-5 victory to start the series.”
It was great that Tony Gonsolin toughed out six innings despite giving up five runs over the first three, because Landon Knack has also struggled this year and matches up poorly against the Yankees. New York will counter with the rookie right-hander Will Warren, looking to continue his great season.
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| 4:15 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| CF | Grisham (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| DH | Judge | RF | T. Hernández |
| RF | Bellinger (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 1B | Goldschmidt | C | Smith |
| LF | Domínguez (S) | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| SS | Volpe | CF | Pages |
| C | Wells (L) | LF | Conforto (L) |
| 2B | LeMahieu | 2B | Edman (S) |
| 3B | Vivas (L) | SS | Kim (L) |
| P | Warren (R) | P | Knack (R) |
The top of the order did their job last night, with Shohei Ohtani hitting two homers off Fried, Freddie Freeman adding two doubles and a single, Will Smith with two singles, and Andy Pages with two singles and three runs batted in. Michael Conforto added a single and a walk, with Miguel Rojas as the only real non-factor at the plate. Rojas was hitless in four plate appearances, and most notably grounded into an inning ending double play in the bottom of sixth inning with the bases loaded. Ohtani was on deck and had already hit two home runs, there’s almost zero reason to even swing in that circumstance.
Rojas has a .557 OPS and 56 wRC+ across 87 plate appearances this season, after a .748 OPS and 111 wRC+ last year. 2024 was a clear outlier for him, with a .605 OPS in 2022, a .612 OPS in 2023, while trending that direction again this year. Last season at shortstop he had eight defensive runs saved (DRS), eleven outs above average (OAA), and a fielding run value (FRV) of +9, with similar performance the two years prior as well. Thus far he has zero DRS, one OAA, and a FRV of zero, while grading out marginally below average at third base and average at second base.
With Hyeseong Kim, Tommy Edman, and Mookie Betts all plus defensive shortstops, having a glove first infielder off the bench feels relatively superfluous. Of 333 batters with at least 80 plate appearances, his 56 wRC+ is 305th. Of those below him, there are a few defensive backup catchers, a few young players that have been optioned back to Triple-A, and a handful of guys who have been designated for assignment. If the organization will cut ties with two iconic players from this era in Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor, I’m not sure Rojas is all that safe.
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Here’s how Knack and Warren compare.
Warren was great in his last outing against the Rockies that was unfortunately cut short due to a rain delay in the fifth inning. He allowed two runs on two hits and two walks with seven strikeouts over four innings on just 57 pitches. Prior to that outing he went 5.2 scoreless innings against the Rangers, with ten strikeouts while allowing five hits and just one walk. He’s in a great run of form right now, allowing three or fewer runs in addition to seven or more strikeouts in each of his previous five starts. He has a 2.70 ERA, 1.50 FIP, and a 1.13 WHIP over those five starts, with 41 strikeouts to eight walks over 26.1 innings pitched.
Knack took the loss his last time out, although he was much improved in that outing, allowing one earned run on four hits and no walks over six innings with five strikeouts. He served up a homer to Pete Alonso in the first inning, but allowed just three hits over the next five innings. It was his first quality start of the season, lowering his ERA from 6.17 to 5.22 with that outing.
Here’s what I wrote prior to Knack’s previous outing against the Mets:
“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.”
He has a spot in the rotation so long as he can remain serviceable and log some innings, but he’ll have another tough task today against the Yankees.
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Chuckie Robinson was designated for assignment by the Angels this past weekend, although it is slightly strange adding another catcher with Dalton Rushing, Smith, and Hunter Feduccia. Tyler Glasnow was transferred to the 60-Day IL, which isn’t really much of a surprise. He’s been throwing, but is still building up, and was likely on this timeline all along. He’s eligible to return near the end of June.
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Ohtani continues to rehab, throwing his second live BP earlier today.
Just have to trust that the Dodgers know what they’re doing with this toe injury.
Emmet Sheehan returning to the team would be a huge boost to the rotation. Michael Kopech and Edgardo Henriquez as bullpen reinforcements will help ease the load on everyone.
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First pitch is at 4:15 PT on FOX.
