Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (61-43) opened up their road trip against the Boston Red Sox (55-50) last night with a 5-2 victory, including four shutout innings from the bullpen. Chad’s recap detailed everything, but in short, Emmet Sheehan toughed out five innings while the bullpen had his back and the offense strung together ten hits and three walks. Teoscar Hernández showed signs of life with a much needed two-run homer in the eighth inning, providing some insurance for Ben Casparius to pick up his first career save. The Dodgers will go for the series victory today, but they’ll have their work cut out for them as they face the left-handed Garrett Crochet, one of the top pitchers in the sport. The Dodgers counter with their own lefty, Clayton Kershaw, as one of the games best young left-handed starters matches up against one of the greatest lefties of all time.
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| 4:15 PM | Boston | |||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | DH | Refsnyder | |
| C | Smith | 3B | Bregman | |
| RF | T. Hernández | RF | Anthony (L) | |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | 2B | Gonzalez | |
| CF | Pages | SS | Story | |
| 3B | Edman (S) | C | Narváez | |
| SS | Rojas | LF | Duran (L) | |
| LF | Ruiz | CF | Rafaela | |
| 2B | Kim (L) | 1B | Toro (S) | |
| P | Kershaw (L) | P | Crochet (L) |
The Red Sox change things up a bit against the left-handed Kershaw. Jarren Duran slides over to left field and drops down to seventh in the order, while Ceddanne Rafaela moves back to center field. The lefty Wilyer Abreu has the night off against Kershaw, so Roman Anthony starts in right field. Rob Refsnyder is at DH in place of Masataka Yoshida, and Romy Gonzalez is at second base. Mookie Betts is out of the starting lineup once again, and it’s unclear if he’ll be available off the bench tonight. Esteury Ruiz starts in left field over Michael Conforto against the left-handed Crochet.
Boston has been better against left-handed pitching this year compared to RHP, with the seventh ranked wRC+ at 107, and the fourth ranked OPS at .762. Gonzalez (1.065 OPS), Bregman (.988), and Refsnyder (.933) have all been particularly dangerous, while Carlos Narváez (.835) and Rafaela (.769) have also been strong.
The Dodgers have also been good against left-handed pitching, with the third best marks in wRC+ (112) and OPS (.763). They’re led by Teoscar (.984 OPS), Will Smith (.952), and Shohei Ohtani (.902), while Miguel Rojas (.832), Betts (.775), and Andy Pages (.760) have all performed well.
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Here’s how the two lefties have fared.
Kershaw allowed one earned run on five hits and one walk with two strikeouts over 4.1 innings against the Brewers his last time out. He generated ten whiffs, but managed only the two strikeouts, after six consecutive starts with three or more. He didn’t have his best stuff by any means and had an atrocious defensive performance behind him, but he still kept the game close. It’s incredible what he’s been able to do this season with diminished stuff and oftentimes command issues as well. He allowed five earned runs to the Angels over four innings in his season debut, and has been more or less great ever since. In 51 innings since that outing, he has just a 2.65 ERA, allowing two runs or fewer in eight of his ten starts. He just finds a way to get outs while minimizing damage.
The Red Sox traded for Crochet this offseason, and boy oh boy has it turned out great for them. He’s currently fighting Tarik Skubal for the Triple Crown and most likely, the American League Cy Young award as well. The two are deadlocked in ERA at 2.19, while Crochet has a league-leading 11 wins, compared to Skubal’s 10, and he has 165 strikeouts to Skubal’s 164. They both pitch today, so while the race is fun to follow, the Dodgers will be looking to diminish Crochet’s case. It’s probably unlikely due to his talent and form as of late, but one can hope. He had a rough start at home near the end of June, coughing up five earned runs against the Reds, but has rebounded strongly in his three starts since. His last time out he allowed one earned run on the road against the Cubs over six innings, on the heels of a three hit complete game shutout against the Rays. Even including that start against Cincinnati, he has a 1.90 ERA, 1.89 FIP, and a 1.06 WHIP over his last seven starts, pitching into the ninth inning twice.
The Dodgers haven’t been great at making starting pitchers work recently, and if they don’t find a way to drive up Crochet’s pitch count, he will be in there the whole game.
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Katie Woo of the Athletic reports that the Cardinals have made right-handed relievers Ryan Helsley and Phil Maton available, two options the Dodgers are likely to be interested in.
Fabian Ardaya echoed similar information about the Cardinals, but also added that the Dodgers are interested in the left-handed utility player, Brendan Donovan.
Lastly, Ken Rosenthal detailed that while the Dodgers are looking to acquire relief help, it’s unlikely that they pay the extremely high price tag required to land the best of the best.
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Blake Treinen returning would alleviate a ton of the Dodger bullpen issues.
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First pitch is at 4:15 PT on FOX.
