Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers wrapped up their weekend road trip with a comfy 5-1 win over the Royals on Sunday. Justin Wrobleski continued to impress, allowing four baserunners over six innings before Kirby Yates and Jack Dreyer threw perfect innings to wrap up the series win. They won five of six on the road trip and after starting June with a 5-7 record, they finished the month 17-10. They were off last night while the Giants and Padres both lost, giving the Dodgers a 7.5 game lead on San Diego and an 8 game lead on the Giants.
Tonight, they open a three-game set and a six-game homestand with the White Sox. Chicago is decidedly not the worst team in baseball this season, as their 28-56 record is still considerably better than the Rockies’ 19-65 mark. They’re coming off a series win against the Giants, losing Friday but winning the two games over the weekend. They have the lowest team OPS by nearly 20 points (somehow the Rangers have the second-lowest?), but their pitching isn’t overly atrocious. Their 4.11 team ERA is the 11th-worst in baseball (better than the Dodgers’ 4.22 team ERA), but they do have the second-lowest team strikeout rate in baseball.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| DH | Tauchman (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| SS | Meidroth | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| LF | Benintendi (L) | C | Smith |
| 1B | Vargas | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| C | Teel (L) | RF | T. Hernández |
| 2B | Sosa | CF | Pages |
| 3B | Rojas (L) | LF | Conforto (L) |
| CF | Baldwin (S) | 2B | Edman (S) |
| RF | Taylor | SS | Kim (L) |
| P | Smith (R) | P | Yamamoto (R) |
Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets the ball coming off a shortened start in Denver. Yamamoto allowed one hit over five innings before it started absolutely dumping rain while the Dodgers were hitting in the sixth. The rain did actually lead Yamamoto to getting some run support, as Chase Dollander was dominant through five before Max Muncy knocked a fully rain-aided RBI single. The delay did end both pitchers nights, so Yamamoto only threw 56 pitches after a couple 100+ pitch starts. His control has bounced back pretty nicely in his last couple starts. Yamamoto had walked 16 batters over six starts from Mid-May to Mid-June, but has only walked one in his last two starts. He only issued 22 walks in 90 innings last season and has already issued 31 in 89 2/3 this season.
Rookie Shane Smith gets his 16th start of the season for the White Sox after being nabbed from Milwaukee in the Rule 5 draft. He had an incredible start to his career, with a 2.37 ERA over his first 13 starts with six of those starts being one or zero earned runs (though two of those had seven combined unearned runs). Things have gone south for Smith in his last two starts. Smith faced the Cardinals on June 17 and allowed five earned (and one unearned) over 4 1/3 innings. Last time out against the Diamondbacks, he allowed five earned in only two innings to bump his ERA up to 3.38. He’s only allowed five homers in his 15 starts and hasn’t allowed more than one in a game so far. This falls in line with his Minor League career, as he only allowed 11 homers in 157 innings over 19 starts/73 overall appearances in parts of three Minor League seasons.
Smith mostly has a four-pitch mix. He’s thrown a four-seamer 44.3 percent of the time and averages 95.2 MPH on it. He’s thrown a change 21.2 percent, slider 16.4 percent and curve 11.3 percent of the time. He’s also mixed in a sinker and sweeper, but only about 6.5 percent combined. Each of his four main pitches has whiff rate at or above 23 percent.
Mookie Betts gets a rare day off, with Hyeseong Kim getting the start at short. Dave Roberts called it a mental day off for Betts, who posted a .633 OPS in June. Old friend Miguel Vargas gets the start at first for the White Sox, who are without Luis Robert Jr. as he went on the IL over the weekend.
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The Dodgers placed Michael Kopech on the IL and brought Will Klein back to the roster.
#Dodgers recalled right-handed pitcher Will Klein and placed right-handed pitcher Michael Kopech on the injured list with right knee inflammation, retroactive to June 28.
— Kirsten Watson (@kirsten_watson) July 1, 2025
Kopech reportedly woke up with some knee discomfort and they’re putting him on the IL as a precaution (in before he’s out until September and has to have his leg amputated or some shit). Klein returns and has been pretty impressive in his couple innings of work in LA. He tossed two scoreless innings in Colorado last Wednesday and has struck out five of the 15 batters he’s faced in the Majors this season.
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Lots of pitching updates regarding Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Blake Treinen and Shohei Ohtani.
Tyler Glasnow will pitch for Triple-A OKC on Thursday. The expectation is five innings and 75 pitches.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) July 1, 2025
Blake Snell and Blake Treinen will throw Live BPs tomorrow.
Shohei Ohtani will make his next pitching start on Saturday, paired with Justin Wrobleski this time. Ben Casparius will pitch in some capacity on Friday. Sunday is TBD but could be an opening for Em met Sheehan to return to #Dodgers
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) July 2, 2025
Glasnow’s pitching Thursday for OKC and it could be his final rehab outing before returning to the rotation. He threw 66 pitches in his rehab start last Friday, but only got through 2 1/3 innings with five runs and seven hits allowed. The goal is five innings/75 pitches on Thursday, and could be back in LA next week before the All-Star Break.
The Blakes will both throw live BPs tomorrow, and Ohtani will make his next start Saturday against Houston. Emmet Sheehan is making another start with OKC tonight, and could return to LA Sunday.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
