Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers took back home field advantage on Saturday, winning Game 2 thanks to some late offense and a Yoshinobu Yamamoto masterclass. Yama tossed his second consecutive complete game and retired the final 20 batters he faced, holding the high-powered Toronto offense to a run and four hits for a 5-1 Dodger win.
The series in now tied 1-1 and back in LA for three games in the next three days, giving the Dodgers home field advantage and a chance to wrap up a second consecutive title without going back to Toronto. Both games have followed the winning scripts for each team so far. Toronto took Game 1 on the back of three homers and a rough day out of the Dodger bullpen, while the Dodgers took Game 2 behind dominant starting pitching and just enough late offense. Toronto had the second-best home record in baseball this season (54-27), but finished under .500 away from Toronto (40-41) and need a win in LA to get the series back home.
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| 5:00 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| DH | Springer | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| LF | Lukes (L) | SS | Betts |
| 1B | Guerrero Jr. | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 2B | Bichette | C | Smith |
| CF | Varsho (L) | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| C | Kirk | RF | T. Hernández |
| RF | Barger (L) | 2B | Edman (S) |
| 3B | Clement | LF | K. Hernández |
| SS | Gimenez (L) | CF | Pages |
| P | Scherzer (R) | P | Glasnow (R) |
Tyler Glasnow gets his first World Series start as a Dodger. He’s made two World Series starts and they both came against the Dodgers as a Ray back in 2020. It didn’t go well for him, as he took the loss in both games and combined to allow 10 runs and nine hits in 9 1/3 innings. He allowed six runs and walked six batters in 4 1/3 innings in Game 1, and followed that up with a bit of a better start in Game 5. He allowed four runs in five innings but somehow threw three wild pitches in that game. Glasnow had been pretty bad in the postseason prior to this season, but he’s been good in three outings this postseason. He had a bit of a rough relief outing in Game 1 against Philly, allowing four baserunners in 1 2/3 scoreless innings. He started Game 4 and was much better, allowing two hits and three walks over six shutout innings with eight strikeouts in the clincher. He turned in a strong Game 3 start against Milwaukee, allowing a run and three hits in 5 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts and three walks. The walks are a bit concerning, but he’s missing bats better than he has all season. Glasnow posted a season-high 41.9 percent whiff rate in his very first start of the season. In his two postseason starts, he’s posted 42.1 and 42.4 percents. His start against the Brewers featured his second- lowest in-zone rate of the season (44.4 percent). The Brewers are generally very disciplined, but Toronto is a whole new challenge in that regard. Glasnow hasn’t allowed a homer since August, which could be a big factor tonight.
Max Scherzer gets his second start of this postseason. He got the Game 4 start in Seattle and was solid, allowing two runs and three hits in 5 2/3 innings, but did issue four walks. Scherzer had a rough season overall, starting with a three-inning outing back in March. He got placed on the IL after that game with thumb inflammation and lat muscle soreness and ended up missing three months (insert joke about Dave Roberts overusing him) and returned in late June. He was mostly solid in his first 10 starts post-injury, posting a 3.47 ERA in 57 innings including a two-run, six inning outing in LA against the Dodgers. The wheels fell completely off in his final six starts of the season. He allowed four runs in a game in four of those six starts and his second-to-last start of the season only lasted 2/3 of an inning and he allowed seven earned.
Scherzer is typically a four-pitch pitcher. He leads with a fastball (48.5 percent), slider (23.7 percent), change (14 percent) and curve (11.9 percent). In the ALCS, he threw the fastball a bit more (51.7 percent) and the slider a bit less (18.4 percent). He didn’t allow a hit on his slider or curve. He allowed a single on a fastball and a single and a homer off his change. His 92.4 MPH average exit velocity in that game was his second-worst all season (95.6 MPH on March 29). When he faced the Dodgers back in August, Scherzer threw the fastball 53.1 percent of the time and averages a season-high 94.2 MPH on it. The Dodgers singled twice off his fastball and twice off his curve. They also hit a double and Mookie Betts homered off the slider.
The Dodgers keep the same starters but change up the lineup a bit. Max Muncy swaps places with Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman swaps with Enrique Hernandez. Andy Pages remains in the lineup in center after a 1-for-4 day on Saturday. Bo Bichette is back in the lineup for Toronto, starting at second and hitting fourth again.
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Betts is taking home some hardware.
Betts was named the winner of the Roberto Clemente award for his work in the community. He becomes the fourth Dodger to win the award, joining Steve Garvey (1981), Clayton Kershaw (2012) and Justin Turner (2022).
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First pitch is scheduled for 5 PM PT and will be on FOX.
