Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (11-4) played another sloppy game yesterday, dropping the finale against the Rangers to prevent a weekend sweep. Roki Sasaki only gave up two runs but labored for four innings as the offense was stymied by Jacob deGrom for a 5-2 loss.
Today, the Mets (7-9) come to town off a really bad homestand. They beat the Diamondbacks to start the homestand last Tuesday, but lost the next two and got swept by the A’s for a five-game losing streak. They scored six runs in the loss on Saturday, but scored just three runs in the other four games including getting shut out twice by the A’s. The Mets’ offense has not been great this season. As a team, they have the eighth-worst wRC+ (92) and OPS (.655). They’ve had seven players with more than 50 plate appearances this season, and of those only Luis Robert Jr. has an OPS over .600. Francisco Lindor (.572) and Bo Bichette (.593) have gotten off to really slow starts, and top prospect Carson Benge (.426) homered in his first career game but doesn’t have an extra base hit since. That does cut off Francisco Alvarez, who has a 1.016 OPS in 48 plate appearances. Juan Soto‘s been on the IL with a calf strain and isn’t expected back until the Mets return home next Tuesday, and things have gotten so bad they’ve called up Tommy Pham in the Year of our Lord 2026 to boost the offense.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| SS | Lindor (S) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| CF | Robert Jr. | RF | Tucker (L) |
| 1B | Vientos | C | Smith |
| 3B | Bichette | LF | T. Hernández |
| DH | Polanco (S) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| C | Alvarez | CF | Pages |
| LF | Pham | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| 2B | Semien | 2B | Espinal |
| RF | Taylor | SS | Rojas |
| P | Peterson (L) | P | Wrobleski (L) |
Justin Wrobleski gets his second start of the season and third appearance overall. Wrobo started the season as Sasaki’s piggyback, tossing the final four innings on March 30 and three of those innings were perfect. The other inning was extremely unperfect, as Wrobleski allowed three straight singles to start the inning. He did come an out away from stranding the bases loaded, but issued a walk and a two-run double for a three-run inning. Wrobleski got the start last Monday in Toronto and struggled in the first inning, but settled in and gave the Dodgers five strong innings. Wrobo issued a leadoff walk and got two outs, but allowed two two-out singles for a Toronto run. He did manage to strand the bases loaded in that first inning, but only allowed two walks and one baserunner on a passed ball over the next four innings. This will not only be Wrobleski’s first time facing the Mets, but he’s never faced anyone on the Mets roster (including the playoffs, the Dodgers kept him away from Bichette last October).
David Peterson gets his fourth start of the season and is looking to get back on track. Peterson started the season strong, with 5 1/3 shutout against the Pirates in the second game of the season. He followed that up allowing six runs (five earned) and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings in San Francisco and last time out allowed five earned in five innings against Arizona. The Mets lost both of those games 7-2 and he’s walked exactly two batters in all three of his starts. Peterson was excellent in a 2024 (2.90 ERA in 21 starts) and started 2025 off very strong, making his first All-Star team with a 3.06 ERA in 18 starts in the first half. Things fell off hard for Peterson, who posted a 6.34 ERA in his final 12 starts. He threw 50 more innings in the first half than he did the second, and still allowed more runs in the second half (42) than the first (37). He allowed four or more runs in six of those 12 second-half starts and managed to allow eight runs on eight hits with no homers in two innings against the Marlins. Peterson saw the Dodgers twice in the first half last season and he was good in both outings. He pitched into the eighth when they met in New York, allowing two runs and five hits in 7 2/3 innings in a 5-2 Mets win. The Dodgers got to him a little more a couple weeks later in LA, where he allowed three runs in seven innings in a 6-5 Dodger win.
Peterson leads with a sinker, which he threw 29.3 percent of the time last season and has thrown 34.1 percent of the time so far this season. The BABIP gods haven’t been friendly to it, as he’s allowed a .500 average off it this season (with a .397 xBA) and a .306 average off it last season (.292 xBA). He had the fifth-highest ground ball rate in baseball last season (54.7 percent) and has the eighth-highest ground ball rate so far this season (58 percent). Last season, Peterson also had the fourth-highest hard-hit rate in baseball (36.6 percent). Peterson also threw a four-seamer (22.3 percent), slider (19.1 percent), change (15.3 percent) and curve (13.7 percent) last season. So far this season, he’s thrown the four-seamer a bit less and the change a bit more.
Santiago Espinal gets the start at second against a lefty, with Miguel Rojas starting at short. For the Mets, Pham makes his debut in left.
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The Dodgers have their first bullpen shuffle of the season. Kyle Hurt is up for Ben Casparius, who hits the IL with shoulder inflammation.
Casparius struggled out of the pen yesterday, allowing a hit and walk in his first inning of work. He came back out for a second inning and gave up another single and walk before giving way to Will Klein, who allowed both runners to score. Hurt is back in the Majors for the first time since 2024, when he pitched in three games in the Majors but had his minor league season cut short due to Tommy John.
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Edwin Díaz is feeling good.
Díaz passed his testing and reportedly is feeling better. Roberts expects Díaz to pitch in this series, depending on what the training staff says.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.
