Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Despite not being in great form heading into San Diego (38-29) for their first matchup of the season, the Dodgers (41-28) found a way to win the series and maintain their lead in the NL West prior to meeting with the San Francisco Giants (40-29). San Francisco has been playing great recently despite losing their most recent game with the Colorado Rockies via walkoff. They had won seven in a row prior to that, with a streak of six consecutive wins by one run. That’s fun for them, but certainly unsustainable. The Dodgers currently hold a one game lead over the Giants and two over the Padres, but have these three games against the Giants and four more against the Padres directly after this series. It’ll be interesting to see how the NL West standings look one week from today. The Dodgers’ ace, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, will be on the mound tonight in the series opener, up against Logan Webb, the Giants’ respective ace.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| CF | Lee (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| SS | Adames | SS | Betts |
| LF | Ramos | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 1B | Smith (L) | C | Smith |
| DH | Flores | RF | T. Hernández |
| 3B | Schmitt | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| RF | Yastrzemski (L) | CF | Pages |
| 2B | Fitzgerald | LF | Conforto (L) |
| C | Knizer | 2B | Edman (S) |
| P | Webb (R) | P | Yamamoto (R) |
Against the right-handed Webb, the Dodgers will send out what is essentially their “A” lineup, depending on your opinion of Hyeseong Kim at the moment. He will be on the bench tonight, and in exchange, Tommy Edman will be starting at second base, with Andy Pages in center field, and Michael Conforto in left field.
The Giants are without their star third baseman Matt Chapman, as he recently hit the Injured List with a hand injury he sustained diving back to a base earlier this week. They also just lost their Gold Glove catcher, Patrick Bailey to injury as well, as he was placed on the IL with a neck strain just two days ago. Andrew Knizner will start behind the plate in his absence, while Casey Schmitt covers third base and Dominic Smith starts at first base.
Here’s how the two offenses have fared this season.
In regard to the two injured Giants, Bailey had been terrible at the plate this year with a 46 wRC+ and .517 OPS, but his defense behind the plate is so stellar that this is still a huge loss. The Giants have had a fantastic start to their season from both their starting rotation and relievers, and Bailey is a significant reason behind that. Chapman’s 133 wRC+ trails just Heliot Ramos (139) for the team lead, while his 2.5 fWAR does lead the team. He trailed just José Ramírez (3.2) and Manny Machado (2.7) in fWAR by third basemen, prior to injuring his hand.
Naturally, losing Chapman is a huge blow to a team that already struggles offensively. Ramos is having a great year after a breakout 2024 season, with a 139 wRC+ and .846 OPS as San Francisco’s everyday left fielder. His .295 batting average is ninth best in the National League, while him and Chapman have been driving the limited offense on this team. Jung Hoo Lee is having a good year coming off his injury shortened rookie season, with a 119 wRC+ and 2.0 fWAR thus far. Wilmer Flores has a 111 wRC+, an above-average mark, but essentially average for a designated hitter. Mike Yastrzemski has a 104 wRC+, right in line with his average of 105 over the last four seasons. Schmitt, Tyler Fitzgerald, and Willy Adames, have all been below-average, while Smith (29 PA), and Knizner (12 PA) have hardly played. They’ve had some good performances recently as they traveled to Colorado to play the Rockies, but even so, since May 17 their 83 wRC+ is the third worst mark in the league, while their .638 OPS is higher than only the Padres (.618).
The Dodgers haven’t exactly been sharp over that nearly month long stretch, yet while they’ve “slumped”, they have just the seventh ranked OPS (.747) and wRC+ (110) over that stretch. With All-Star voting opening up recently, the Dodgers have three clear stars in Freddie Freeman (176 wRC+, 2.7 fWAR), Shohei Ohtani (174 wRC+, 3.2 fWAR), and Will Smith (164 wRC+, 2.5 fWAR). Andy Pages (127 wRC+, 2.4 fWAR) and Mookie Betts (118 wRC+, 2.1 fWAR) both have made strong cases for themselves, with the latter likely getting the nod due to his track record despite a sluggish offensive start. Teoscar Hernández had a 159 wRC+ and .933 OPS prior to going down with his groin injury on May 5, which cost him two weeks. More importantly however, it appeared to sap any confidence and success he had at the plate prior to the injury, as he has struggled mightily since returning on May 19. He’s hitting just .173 over 21 games and 87 plate appearances since returning from injury, with 28 strikeouts to four walks and just a .527 OPS over that stretch. He’s come up to bat in some big spots since returning, but has unfortunately been most likely to strikeout on a slider low and away in those spots. The team (and himself) will likely be hoping he is on the other side of that struggle now, after a go-ahead three run homer against the Padres on Wednesday, ultimately providing the boost the Dodgers needed to win that game.
Separately, Max Muncy would likely be an All-Star if he had been wearing his new prescription glasses for the entire season. Since first wearing them on April 30, he has slashed .282/.412/.556, good for a 170 wRC+ with 27 strikeouts to 26 walks. He’s somehow now hitting .238 which would be his best since 2021, and is approaching an .800 OPS despite his dreadful start. Conforto has hit safely in five of his last six games, including a game-tying solo home run Wednesday in San Diego. Over his last 13 games dating back to May 26, he’s slashing .222/.383/.389, good for a 127 wRC+, with eight walks to seven strikeouts. Maybe he’s turning it around?
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Here’s how Yamamoto and Webb compare among 78 qualified starting pitchers.
Yamamoto had a very rough outing against the Yankees two starts ago, where he went just 3.2 innings allowing four runs on seven hits and three walks, but bounced back strongly his last time out. He tossed six scoreless innings against the Cardinals, allowing just four hits and two walks with nine strikeouts. Unsurprisingly, he received no-decision in that outing, as his team averages just 2.1 runs while he’s on the mound, the third lowest mark in all of baseball. Webb is great, so the bats will have to show up ready to play in order to provide Yamamoto some breathing room.
Webb allowed two runs on six hits and no walks over six innings his last time out against the Braves, racking up a total of ten strikeouts. That’s no longer out of the norm for Webb as he’s done that four times thus far, despite not being known as a strikeout pitcher prior to this season. He’s been consistent and effective as always, known for being one of the most reliable starters in the game. His strikeouts are way up, his walks are down, and even while his BABIP (.342) is a career high and well above his career average (.312), his 76.8% strand rate is a career best. He’s racking up strikeouts, limiting hard contact and keeping it on the ground when it is hit hard. It’s a tough matchup for anyone, despite the Dodgers generally having success against him. He has a career 3.34 ERA, but a 4.11 mark against the Dodgers over 16 starts and 85.1 innings pitched.
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It would be incredible to get Tyler Glasnow and Blake Treinen back. It’s more important that they’re available for the stretch run, but seeing they’re both progressing well is promising. Blake Snell threw a bullpen session as well, so everything is currently looking up.
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First pitch is at 7:10 PT on SNLA and MLB Network.
