Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The series opener between the Dodgers (18-9) and Cubs (17-10) saw a continuation of the Dodgers’ recent tepid offense, but they turned that around last night against Colin Rea and Javier Assad, putting up six earned runs on each of them over six innings. The offense put up a total of twelve runs on 14 hits and six walks, a breakout performance after struggling at the plate as of late. Today will be a true test of where they’re at, as they face the left-handed Shota Imanaga who is in great form at the moment. The Dodgers counter with their own lefty in Justin Wrobleski who has been as good as nearly any pitcher in baseball at preventing runs. Should be a good rubber match between two of the better teams in baseball.
Santiago Espinal and Miguel Rojas will get the start today against the left-handed Imanaga, while Max Muncy and Alex Freeland have the day off. Freeland had a good game last night, but has struggled at the plate most of the season, so he’ll continue to be in a platoon against lefties. Muncy reached all three times last night including a two-run homer to start the scoring, but is a bit under the weather right now. Will Smith is still nursing a sore back, so Dalton Rushing will get another start. He had a decent day at the plate yesterday but was a little rough on the defensive side, with a poor challenge decision and allowing a baserunner to advance on a ball in the dirt. He’ll need to tighten that up, but that’s all part of the process for a young developing player.
——
Imanaga has been great for Chicago this season, with a 2.17 ERA, 2.91 FIP, and a ridiculous 0.72 WHIP through five starts and 29.0 innings. His 2024 rookie season was excellent, with a 2.91 ERA over 173.1 innings resulting in a fourth place finish for National League Rookie of the Year. He regressed last year, dealing with some health issues and decreased velocity, logging a 3.73 ERA across 144.2 innings which was still quite respectable. The velocity has returned for him, and while someone who sits in the upper-90’s can afford to give up some velocity, if you’re sitting near 91 mph, there’s not much room to lose velo. He’s sitting at 92.0 this year after 90.8 in 2025 and 91.7 in 2024. His command has been excellent, the stuff has ticked up, and he’s coming off a seven inning outing where he allowed just one earned run against the Phillies. He struck out just one batter but that was a bit of a fluke for him, coming off an eleven strikeout start, also against the Phillies.
Wrobleski had to make his previous start at Coors Field, a true litmus test for any pitcher having a good start to their season, as he was coming off an eight inning scoreless gem against the Mets. He simply followed it up with seven innings of one run baseball on eight hits and no walks. It lowered his season ERA to 1.88, having allowed just five earned runs in 24.0 innings. The strikeouts and whiffs still haven’t arrived with somehow just nine strikeouts thus far, but I’m sure that’ll turn around in some capacity. He struck out over ten batters per nine innings last season, and while some of that was out of the bullpen with increased velocity, he isn’t all of a sudden only going to strike out four batters per nine innings. He’ll take the run prevention anyway he can get it however, but for continued success he will need to figure out how to generate some strikeouts again.
——
In other news,
Having a backup catcher that is an actual threat at the plate is very helpful for Smith while also making Dave Roberts job easier.
Roki Sasaki‘s splitter velocity was up four full ticks last night, averaging 90.8 mph after sitting at 86.8 all season. Interesting development, and the whiffs and command were improved as well.
======
First pitch is at 1:10 PT on SNLA.
