Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After a grueling seven game homestand featuring three games against the Yankees and four against the Mets, the Dodgers (38-26) came into St. Louis (35-28) looking a little flat. They were shutout for just the fourth time this season, ultimately dropping the series opener by a score of 5-0. It wasn’t for a lack of opportunities, with a total of ten hits and three extra-base hits, but with the inability to turn those hits and baserunners into runs.
They were 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, which is just never going to get it done. The Dodgers own a 155 wRC+, .941 OPS, and 30 home runs with runners in scoring position, leading all of baseball, in addition to leading in batting average (.308), OBP (.385), and slugging (.556). Just a bit of an off night. In this morning’s game, Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be on the mound for the Dodgers attempting to right the ship, as Erick Fedde looks to keep the Cardinals in the NL Central fight.
Hyeseong Kim is back in the lineup after a few days off. He had fouled a ball off his leg pretty hard in one of the games against the Mets, so giving him some rest made sense. Will Smith is back in the lineup as Dalton Rushing heads to the bench.
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Here’s how Yamamoto and Fedde compare among 80 qualified starting pitchers.
Yamamoto took the loss on Sunday against the Yankees in his worst start of the season, going just 3.2 innings allowing four runs on seven hits and three walks. He’d gone at least five innings in each of his first 12 starts, generally being quite efficient and incredibly effective, looking like he might be a contender for the Cy Young early this year. He’s still had a great year overall, but the results have tapered off a bit as of late.
Over his first five starts after the Tokyo series, he pitched exclusively on six days rest, with a 0.30 ERA, 1.74 FIP, 0.87 WHIP, and 35 strikeouts to ten walks over 30 innings. Since then due to injuries in the rotation in combination with poor performances as a whole, he’s been shifted to five days rest, and the results haven’t been great. Over those next five starts, he has a 4.55 ERA, 4.13 FIP, 1.19 WHIP, yet still a decent strikeout to walk ratio of 28:10 over 27.2 innings. Most notably the command has been worse, he’s labored through long innings even when he’s been able to prevent runs, and just hasn’t been as sharp overall. Hope the extra day of rest is the key.
The Cardinals received Fedde last year in the three-team deal with the Dodgers and White Sox that sent Tommy Edman and Michael Kopech to Los Angeles. Fedde took the loss his last time out, allowing two runs on four hits with three walks and five strikeouts over six innings. He hadn’t been pitching very well as of late, so the quality start was a step in the right direction despite the loss. He generated 14 whiffs in that outing, leading to just his third outing with five or more strikeouts this season.
He had a 21.2% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate last season, nearly identical to league-average for a starting pitcher, but in his first full year as a Cardinal, both numbers are trending in the wrong direction. Either way, it’s hard to argue that he’s been anything besides solid for St. Louis thus far, with his 3.82 ERA over nearly 70 innings. He’s been inconsistent with outings of six and seven earned runs, mixed in with a complete game shutout a month ago against the Nationals. He faced the Dodgers last year while still a member of the White Sox, and went six innings allowing four runs on five hits and one walk. Hopefully the bats show up today, including with runners in scoring position.
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The Dodgers activated RHPs Michael Kopech and Kirby Yates from the injured list, designated RHP Chris Stratton for assignment and placed RHP Tony Gonsolin on the injured list with right elbow discomfort.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 7, 2025
Good news, the Dodgers get two key relievers in Michael Kopech and Kirby Yates back. Bad news, they lost another starter in Tony Gonsolin. Also, Chris Stratton is gone again.
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Alex Freeland sizzles his 26th extra-base hit — 7th homer — for the Triple-A @OKC_comets ?
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 7, 2025
MLB's No. 45 prospect (@Dodgers) has reached base safely in 21 of his past 22 games. pic.twitter.com/c4oLEyd1i6
There’s still an outside shot that Alex Freeland eventually has a case for being on the major league roster, but the team will likely need to see him get hot and sustain that performance. Hitting well from both sides would go a long way.
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First pitch is at 11:15 PT on SNLA.
