Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (73-57) dropped the second game against the Padres in a very similar way to the first game. Nestor Cortes took a perfect game into the sixth as the Dodgers only recorded two hits (and scored their lone run on an Alex Freeland homer, much like Friday). Tyler Glasnow struggled with his command again, walking four batters and needing 83 pitches to get through four innings. Ben Casparius and Justin Wrobleski did save the bullpen, but Wrobo allowed two runs in the bottom of the eighth to put the game out of reach and prevent the Padres from having to use Mason Miller or Robert Suarez. That was the game the Dodgers needed in the series, and now the Padres lead the West by a game and have the chance to avenge the sweep from last weekend with a sweep of their own.
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| 1:10 PM | San Diego | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | RF | Tatis Jr. |
| SS | Betts | 1B | Arraez (L) |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | 3B | Machado |
| RF | T. Hernández | DH | O’Hearn (L) |
| 3B | Freeland (S) | SS | Bogaerts |
| CF | Pages | LF | Sheets (L) |
| LF | Conforto (L) | CF | Laureano |
| 2B | Rojas | 2B | Cronenworth (L) |
| C | Rushing (L) | C | Diaz |
| P | Yamamoto (R) | P | Pivetta (R) |
Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets the ball coming off a solid start in Denver. Yama got through seven innings for the sixth time this season, but gave up more runs (three) than he had in the other five of those games. After two perfect innings, Yama issued a leadoff walk in the third and a single to right that was the first of two bad Teoscar Hernandez plays. He allowed the runners to advance to second and third on the misplay, and both runners scored on a single. Yamamoto didn’t allow another baserunner until Ezequiel Tovar‘s seventh-inning solo homer tied the game at three, setting up a walkoff after some more bad Hernandez defense. Yamamoto saw the Padres back in June in LA and took the loss after allowing three runs in 6 1/3 innings. The offense got blanked by Ryan Bergert and three relievers through the first eight innings, but started fighting back down 5-0 in the ninth. Sean Reynolds walked two of the three Dodgers he faced, which forced Suarez into the game. Suarez allowed an RBI single and an RBI groundout before falling behind 3-0 to Shohei Ohtani, hitting him with a fastball up and in and getting ejected. Yuki Matsui allowed a run on a wild pitch, but struck Dalton Rushing out for a 5-3 win.
The Dodgers get their second look at Nick Pivetta today. They saw him in San Diego back in June and jumped on him for five runs (four earned) in only four innings. Ohtani led the game off with a double and scored on a Freddie Freeman double two batters later. Hernandez reached on an error that allowed Freeman to get to third, and he scored the unearned run on a Will Smith sac fly. The Dodgers (Dustin May) immediately gave up the lead, but they put up three more runs off Pivetta in the third on two singles, a passed ball, a sac fly and a Smith homer. May immediately gave up the lead again and Pivetta actually left the game with a 6-5 lead, but the bullpen was nearly perfect and the Dodgers won in extras.
Pivetta’s coming off a pair of excellent starts against the Giants. In 12 2/3 innings over the two starts Pivetta allowed seven hits, three walks and two runs with 15 strikeouts. He’s allowed one or zero runs in eight of his last 10 starts and the Padres have won seven of those 10. The Dodgers have had some poor BABIP luck in the first two games of the series, which doesn’t bode well for a matchup with Pivetta. His .231 BABIP is the second-lowest among qualified starters and that BABIP is even better at Petco (.220). He’s doing that despite running a below-average hard-hit rate (43.2 percent, in the 28th percentile) and one of the lowest ground ball rates in baseball (33.2 percent, fourth-lowest). Pivetta’s thrown seven different pitch types this season, but primarily throws three different pitches. He leads with a four-seamer (47.6 percent), curve (21.9 percent) and a sweeper (17.3 percent), but also throws a cutter (8 percent), sinker (3.6 percent), slider (1.3 percent) and has thrown five splitters).
Will Smith gets the day off amidst his biggest cold streak of the season. Rushing starts behind the plate. Lineup mainstay Buddy Kennedy is also off today, with Freeland starting at third and hitting fifth.
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No real updates before I’m scheduling this, so just pretend I put them here if anything breaks after.
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First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.
