Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Things continued to be bleak for the Dodgers, who dropped their fourth straight in the opener in Milwaukee. Yoshinobu Yamamoto turned in the worst start of his career, as he failed to get out of the first allowing three earned (and two unearned) while recording only two outs. The offense didn’t do much either with the lone run coming on Esteury Ruiz‘s first hit as a Dodger. They’ve scored one run in three of the last four games and only have seven total runs during this losing streak, which according to my math is not good. They look to snap the slump today against a talented rookie coming off his first rough start.
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| 4:40 PM | Milwaukee | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | RF | Frelick (L) |
| SS | Betts | C | Contreras |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | CF | Chourio |
| RF | Pages | DH | Yelich (L) |
| LF | Conforto (L) | 1B | Vaughn |
| 2B | Kim (L) | LF | Collins (S) |
| C | Rushing (L) | 2B | Turang (L) |
| CF | Outman (L) | 3B | Monasterio |
| 3B | Rojas | SS | Ortiz |
| P | Kershaw (L) | P | Misiorowski (R) |
Clayton Kershaw gets the ball in his first start since reaching the 3,000 strikeout mark. The milestone overshadowed a rough start for Kershaw against the White Sox, where he allowed four runs and seven hits through the first three innings. It was starting to look like he wouldn’t get his third strikeout to hit 3,000, but Dave Roberts left him in for three more innings and he buckled down a bit. He did allow a baserunner in each of the final three innings, but kept the White Sox off the board (and his sixth-inning double and Michael A. Taylor attempted steal knocked Max Muncy out for at least six weeks). Still, Kershaw got his milestone and kept the Dodgers in the game enough (along with the bullpen) for a three-run ninth inning capped off with a Freddie Freeman walkoff single. That was the last time the Dodgers won a game, which is less than ideal. This will be Kershaw’s 20th time seeing the Brewers in the regular season. He has a 2.85 ERA in 116 2/3 innings in his career against Milwaukee, which seems great until you realize he only has a higher ERA against six other teams. Turns out, Kershaw’s had a pretty good career.
The offense looks to get going against rookie Jacob Misiorowski, who was four when Kershaw was drafted. He (yes I’ll be referring to him as he or Miz for the rest of this thread) had a phenomenal start to his career, tossing five no-hit innings in his Major League debut against the Cardinals. He did issue four walks in that game and left after slipping on the mound and tweaking his ankle, but he followed that up with six perfect innings in Minnesota. He did go out for the seventh though, and allowed a leadoff walk and a two-run homer to end his night with a still strong line. He threw five shutout in his third start, but came down to earth a bit last time out against the Mets. He got the first two outs of the second inning, but allowed two walks and an infield single before serving up a grand slam. He allowed another homer right after the slam for a fifth run in the inning, and only managed to go 3 2/3 total in the game.
Miz was the Brewers’ second ranked prospect on Pipeline (shoutout their top ranked prospect, Jesus Made) and number 21 in all of baseball. They gave him an 80 grade on the fastball, which can reach triple digits and has averaged 99.2 MPH so far in the Majors. His two other primary pitches received high grades as well, with a 70 grade curve (he’s only thrown 10.2 percent of the time in the Majors but has yet to allow a hit on it) and a 60 grade slider (29.4 percent usage, two of his three homers allowed have come off this pitch). His control and the repeatability of his delivery could eventually land him in the bullpen, but so far so good for the 23 year old.
Dalton Rushing gets the start behind the plate with Will Smith set to catch Tyler Glasnow in his return from the IL tomorrow. Michael Conforto hits fifth and Hyeseong Kim hits sixth, if you want to know the state of the current lineup. James Outman gets another start in center after doubling yesterday.
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Alexis Diaz and Landon Knack are both with the team in Milwaukee, but only Diaz was activated today. Julian Fernandez is reportedly back down to OKC after allowing two runs in two innings yesterday.
#Dodgers are going to add Alexis Diaz tonight and send Julian Fernandez back to OKC. Landon Knack is here on taxi squad to see how bullpen is heading into Tyler Glasnow’s first start tomorrow
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) July 8, 2025
Diaz returns to the Majors for the first time since being traded to LA by the Reds at the end of April. Diaz is a former All-Star closer and still only 28 years old, but struggled a bit last season and lost the closer role and continued his struggles this season. He allowed eight runs in six Major League innings this year over six appearances, with all the damage coming in two of the outings. In his other four, he combined to only allow one hit. He also walked five with only three strikeouts in those six innings. These trends continued at OKC, where Diaz allowed five runs in 4 2/3 innings over six outings and only allowed two hits, but issued seven walks with only three strikeouts and hit two batters. They believe the stuff was there, but he wasn’t commanding consistently. Knack is there as backup for Glasnow tomorrow after a heavy day of bullpen usage yesterday.
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First pitch is scheduled for 4:40 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA and TBS.
