Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (52-31) continued their winning ways last night, upping their streak to five in a row after a 5-4 win against Kansas City (39-44) in their series opener. It was exciting early, with a total of seven runs being scored across the first two innings, before stagnating with both offenses being shut down almost entirely over the remaining seven innings. Chad’s recap last night covered it all. Shohei Ohtani will make his third “start” of the season today, up against one of Kansas City’s best arms, Seth Lugo.
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| 1:10 PM | Kansas City | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | 2B | India |
| SS | Betts | DH | Witt Jr. |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | SS | Garcia |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | 1B | Pasquantino (L) |
| RF | T. Hernández | C | Perez |
| CF | Pages | RF | Caglianone (L) |
| LF | Conforto (L) | 3B | Loftin |
| 2B | Kim (L) | LF | Waters (S) |
| C | Rushing (L) | CF | Isbel (L) |
| P | Ohtani (R) | P | Lugo (R) |
The Dodgers will switch things up against the right-handed Lugo, as Michael Conforto and Hyeseong Kim find their way back into the lineup, while Dalton Rushing starts for Will Smith. Conforto is coming off two multi-hit games in Colorado, homering in each of them, while Kim gets his first start since Sunday against Washington. A stretch of lefties, mixed with wanting to get Conforto and Kiké Hernández going, left limited playing for Kim recently.
The Royals run out a pretty similar lineup, with Bobby Witt Jr. shifting to designated hitter this afternoon. Maikel Garcia will start at shortstop, Nick Loftin starts at third base, and Drew Waters starts over John Rave.
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Shohei Ohtani will be on the mound today as the Dodgers hope to get two innings from him before going to the bullpen for some bulk innings. He threw one inning his last time out, facing four batters due to an error by Mookie Betts. He pitched well, with better command of his stuff, and notched his first two strikeouts as a member of the Dodgers’ pitching staff.
Lugo has been great for the Royals after signing a three-year $45M deal prior to the 2024 season. He’s coming off a 206.2 inning 2024 season, where he posted a 3.00 ERA, 3.25 FIP, and a 1.09 WHIP. His 22 quality starts last year were second only to Zack Wheeler‘s 26, and his 206.2 innings were second only to Logan Gilbert‘s 208.2. He was a first-time All-Star last season and came second in Cy Young voting, albeit without a real chance to win over Tarik Skubal.
It’s been a similar year for Lugo thus far, with a 2.93 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP, with a slightly elevated FIP at 4.26. He’s been bit by the long ball much more this season, giving up 12 in 83.0 innings, compared to 16 all of last season. He allowed one run on two hits and no walks with seven strikeouts over 6.1 innings his last time out against the Padres, his former team. Ohtani and Muncy can only do so much, the rest of the lineup will need to be on their game to put up runs against Lugo.
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No official timelines for any of Blake Snell, Blake Treinen, or Roki Sasaki, but it’s good to see they’re all progressing well. All seem to be targeting a return after the All-Star Break.
The recently acquired Alexis Diaz has been looking good in Triple-A, and will likely be making an argument for being recalled to the majors if he keeps trending in this direction.
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First pitch is at 1:10 PT on SNLA.
