Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After disappointing results against the Cardinals (39-35) and Mets (45-29) in which the Dodgers (46-29) went 3-4 while looking sloppy and inconsistent, they’ve turned it around and dialed in their focus against their two closest challengers in the NL West. They took two of three against San Francisco (41-33) this past weekend, and are now on the verge of a four game sweep against the Padres (39-34) after taking two of three in San Diego last week. Last Friday after the loss against the Giants, the Dodgers relinquished the solo lead of the NL West to San Francisco. Their recent run of form all of a sudden has Los Angeles 4.0 games ahead of the Giants, and 6.0 games clear of the Padres. Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be on the mound tonight as the Dodgers look for their first series sweep since the end of April against the Marlins. The right-handed rookie Ryan Bergert will be making his fourth career start tonight as the Padres look to avoid the sweep and slipping further down in the standings.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| RF | Tatis Jr. | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| 1B | Arraez (L) | SS | Betts |
| 3B | Machado | C | Smith |
| LF | Sheets (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| SS | Bogaerts | RF | T. Hernández |
| 2B | Cronenworth (L) | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| DH | Iglesias | LF | Pages |
| CF | Johnson (S) | 2B | Edman (S) |
| C | Maldonado | CF | Kim (L) |
| P | Bergert (R) | P | Yamamoto (R) |
Yesterday Dave Roberts mentioned that Hyeseong Kim has earned more playing time and that this would likely be at the expense of Michael Conforto to an extent. It’s warranted, as they’ve both played themselves into that position for better or worse. Today is another example of that, with Conforto sitting against a rookie right-handed pitcher, in exchange for Kim. Kim starts in center field with Andy Pages sliding over to left field and Tommy Edman starts at second base.
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Here’s how Yamamoto and Bergert have fared.
Yamamoto had been struggling as of late and last time out was arguably his worst outing of the year. He allowed five runs on six hits and an atrocious five walks with four strikeouts over 4.2 innings against the Giants. He’d been pitching once a week over his first seven games, and has now gone on five days rest in each of his last seven starts due to the state of the rotation. While he does have a couple scoreless outings and a pair of quality starts, he’s been wild and streaky over those previous seven outings. It’s resulted in a 4.46 ERA, 4.45 FIP, and a 1.25 WHIP with 17 walks and 41 strikeouts over 38.1 innings pitched. His five walks issued in his last outing were the most in his Major League career, while his control and command was likely the worst it had been since he’s arrived. He allowed multiple homers for the third time this season, including a grand slam to Casey Schmitt to really cap it off.
Bergert had been in Triple-A the majority of this season but was recalled in the beginning of June due to Michael King‘s injury and Yu Darvish‘s setback. He’s now making his fourth start of the season, looking to build upon a solid appearance against the Diamondbacks his last time out. He allowed three runs on three hits and two walks with eight strikeouts across five innings, reaching that mark in each of his first three starts. He’s walked eight batters over his 15.1 innings as a starter, so there is room for improvement in that department. He throws a high spin four-seam with vertical life as his primary offering, throwing it half the time. He pairs it with two variations of a breaking-ball, a tight upper-80’s slider, as well as a mid-80’s sweeper with significantly more horizontal movement. With some patience, the Dodgers should be able to hit Bergert, who is pitching with the goal of staying in the rotation for the foreseeable future.
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It was initially reported that there were ICE agents outside of Dodger Stadium this morning, although ICE stated they weren’t there, while the Department of Homeland Security said that there were U.S. Customs and Border Patrol vehicles outside of the stadium. Whatever it was, it’s messy.
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Jack Little is a 27 year-old right-handed reliever who is slated to make his MLB debut at some point this season. He has a 2.20 ERA with 33 strikeouts in 32.2 Triple-A innings thus far.
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First pitch is at 7:10 PT on SNLA.
