Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (54-32) won the opening game of this three game set against the Chicago White Sox (28-57) last night by a score of 6-1 in a game that was out of reach nearly immediately. The offense exploded for four runs in the bottom of the first inning, a rarity in a Yoshinobu Yamamoto start, who cruised through seven innings earning his eighth win of the season. The Dodgers are now looking for their seventh consecutive series win, having beat the Padres in two separate series, the Giants, Nationals, Rockies, and most recently, the Royals. The White Sox will use the left-handed Brandon Eisert to open the game, ideally going one or two innings before handing the ball over to the right-handed Sean Burke who is expected to throw bulk innings tonight.
The main story is that Clayton Kershaw will be on the mound tonight on the precipice of history, entering this outing with 2997 career strikeouts. With three more strikeouts, he will become the 20th pitcher to reach 3000 strikeouts, and just the fourth left-handed pitcher to reach that mark, joining CC Sabathia, Steve Carlton, and Randy Johnson. He will also be just the fifth pitcher to log 3000 strikeouts with just one team. John Smoltz had 3011 with the Braves, Carlton had 3031 with the Phillies, Bob Gibson had 3117 with the Cardinals, and Walter Johnson had 3509 with the Senators.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| SS | Meidroth | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| LF | Slater | SS | Betts |
| 1B | Vargas | C | Smith |
| DH | Benintendi (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| C | Quero (S) | RF | Pages |
| 2B | Sosa | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| RF | Tauchman (L) | LF | Conforto (L) |
| CF | Taylor | CF | Edman (S) |
| 3B | Capra | 2B | Kim (L) |
| P | Eisert (L) | P | Kershaw (L) |
Shohei Ohtani hit his 30th home run of the season last night, while Andy Pages and Michael Conforto each drove in a pair. It is Ohtani’s fifth consecutive season with at least 30 home runs, and since that streak started in 2021, only Aaron Judge (226) has hit more homers than Ohtani’s 208. Mookie Betts is back in the lineup tonight, while Teoscar Hernández has the night off. Andy Pages slides over to right field, Tommy Edman returns to center field duties, and Hyeseong Kim remains in the lineup as the second baseman.
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Here’s how Eisert and Kershaw compare, despite the former primarily making relief appearances.
This excerpt I wrote in a game thread prior to one of Kershaw’s more recent starts still holds true going into today, although I updated the stats to account for his last two outings.
“Kershaw’s season started shakily, with a five earned run outing against the Angels in which he didn’t appear particularly sharp at all. He’s shaken off some rust since then, with a 2.08 ERA, 3.89 FIP, and a 1.10 WHIP, with 27 strikeouts to ten walks over 34.2 innings. He’s averaging just 88.9 MPH on his four-seam fastball, 85.6 on his slider, and 72.0 on his curveball, and yet is somehow still getting results. A veteran Hall of Fame pitcher with nearly 3000 innings under his belt seemingly just knows how to get outs. He likely won’t ever demonstrate a level of overpowering dominance again, but he’s getting results and winning games.”
He allowed one run on two hits and one walk with five strikeouts across six scoreless innings his last time out against the Rockies, earning his fourth consecutive win. He opened his season with four consecutive no-decisions, and has earned the win in every outing since. Over that stretch he has allowed a total of four runs over 23.0 innings with 21 strikeouts to four walks.
Eisert is likely only in the game to get through Shohei Ohtani and possibly Freddie Freeman so that Sean Burke has to do that as little as possible during his outing. Eisert is a rookie with a funky mix, predominantly throwing changeups and sliders in the mid-80’s, and mixing in a four-seam fastball just a quarter of the time. He’s been effective thus far and might have a spot in this White Sox bullpen for the foreseeable future.
Burke has a 4.22 ERA, 4.85 FIP, a 1.42 WHIP, and 68 strikeouts to 37 walks over 81.0 innings thus far. He’s had significant issues his third time going through the order, with a total of 13 earned runs allowed in 15.0 innings while facing the order a third time, pointing toward the reasoning behind the decision to start Eisert. Overall he’s been sharp as of late, with a 3.55 ERA and 3.06 FIP over his last six outings, including three quality starts. He allowed seven earned runs over 3.2 innings on the road in Houston a few weeks ago, but besides that has allowed two or fewer runs in eight of his last ten starts. He predominantly relies on three pitches, a mid-90’s four-seamer, a mid-80’s slider, and a curveball that hovers right around 80 MPH.
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This is Will Smith‘s third All-Star selection, but his first time as the starting catcher for the National League. Well deserved. Also assisted by Austin Barnes and Dalton Rushing lightening his workload, as he’s having a career year.
Freddie Freeman will be the starting first baseman for the National League once again. Despite recent struggles, his numbers on the year still indicate that he deserves the selection.
Ohtani didn’t receive an individual post yet, but naturally he will be the starting DH for the National League. It’s his fifth consecutive selection.
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First pitch is at 7:10 PT on SNLA and MLB Network.
