Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (19-9) took two of three against the Cubs over the weekend in a decently dominant showing. They were a Friday night bullpen implosion away from a sweep against a team that came in with a nine game winning streak, but scored 12 runs on Saturday and put up 6 behind six scoreless somehow from Justin Wrobleski, who was struggling for most of the start.
It was a nice bounceback after a lackluster roadtrip, and now the Dodgers close out the homestand with three against Miami. On one hand, Miami is in second place in the NL East. On the other hand, they’re 13-15, a half game better than the last-place Rockies. The Marlins beat the Giants on Friday to get to .500, but lost both games over the weekend for another series loss. They’ve only won two of the eight series they’ve played this season, taking two of three against the White Sox to open the season and two of three against the Cardinals to end their last homestand before traveling to San Francisco. The Marlins have a perfectly equal run differential this season, with 126 runs allowed and 126 runs scored. They’re 10-6 in Miami, but have one of the worst records on the road this season (3-9, only better than 3-10 Astros). The Marlins are a contact-oriented team, with the sixth-best team batting average (.255) but the 15th-best team slugging percentage (.386). They’ve also struck out 20.3 percent of the time, which is the fifth-best in all of baseball. They’ve only hit 20 homers this season, which is only ahead of Boston, San Francisco and Milwaukee who have all hit 19. They’ve been led by Xavier Edwards, who leads the NL with a .343 batting average and has walked the same number of times he’s struck out (15).
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| CF | Marsee (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| LF | Stowers (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| SS | Lopez | C | Smith |
| 2B | Edwards (S) | RF | Tucker (L) |
| DH | Hicks (L) | LF | T. Hernández |
| C | Ramírez | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| RF | Caissie (L) | CF | Pages |
| 3B | Sanoja | SS | Kim (L) |
| 1B | Norby | 2B | Freeland (S) |
| P | Paddack (R) | P | Yamamoto (R) |
Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets the ball coming off arguably his worst start of the season in San Francisco. Of course, Yama’s bar is so high that three runs over seven innings is somehow a disappointing outing. It didn’t really look like Yamamoto would get out of the first inning in that start, as he allowed four hits and three runs and Alex Call and Teoscar Hernandez nearly killed each other for his first out. He stranded two runners in that inning to escape even more trouble, but only allowed two hits and a walk over the next six innings to keep the Dodgers in the game and protect the bullpen in the middle of a 13 game in 13 days stretch. Yamamoto’s struck out seven batters in back-to-back starts after topping out at six in his first three starts and he’s gone over 100 pitches in his last two. The Dodgers scored eight runs on Opening Day behind Yamamoto, but have scored seven total in his other four starts with only four of those coming while Yamamoto was in the game. Yamamoto missed the Marlins last season, but turned in his longest start of his rookie season against them in 2024. He only needed 97 pitches to get through eight innings in his eighth career start, allowing two solo homers and striking out only five. Despite starting against the Marlins two seasons ago, he’s never faced anyone currently on the Marlins roster.
Chris Paddack gets his fifth start and sixth appearance for the Marlins this season. The former top-100 prospect hasn’t lived up to that potential in parts of eight MLB seasons with a 4.71 ERA in 605 2/3 career innings. While the Marlins have been bad away from Miami this season, Paddack has been much better on the road. He has a 6.38 ERA/4.63 FIP in 24 innings over four starts and one relief outing. 13 of the 17 runs Paddack’s allowed this season came in his two starts in Miami. Paddack opened the season in Miami against the White Sox and gave up eight runs on eight hits and two homers in 4 innings. Paddack followed that up with three consecutive road outings and allowed four earned runs (one unearned) in 15 1/3 innings. He started again in Miami last time out and gave up eight hits and five runs in 4 2/3 innings against the Cards. Paddack does have more strikeouts in his 8 2/3 innings at home (13) than on the road (12) and has only issued one walk at home, but has done a much better job limiting damage on the road. Paddack’s allowed 15 hits on the road but only three were for extra bases (one double and two homers). At home he’s allowed 16 hits but seven have gone for extra bases (four doubles three homers). His slugging percentage allowed at home (.690) is higher than his OPS allowed on the road (.664). Paddack’s seen the Dodgers nine times in his career and has mostly struggled against them. He has a 5.91 ERA in 42 career innings against the Dodgers and has allowed a .841 OPS against them. Paddack did shove last time he faced the Dodgers, allowing one run and four hits with eight strikeouts as a Twin last season with the lone run coming on a Shohei Ohtani homer.
Paddack leads with a four-seamer (30.6 percent) and change (25.4 percent). He also mixes in a cutter (13.3 percent), sweeper (12.6 percent), sinker (9.2 percent) and curve (9 percent). Paddack started throwing a slider in 2022 but it seems like he’s scrapped that and now throws a sweeper for the first time in his career.
Will Smith returns to the Dodger lineup, hitting third after sitting the last two days with bat tightness. No old friends in the Marlins lineup, but Esteury Ruiz is on the bench and received his World Series ring before the game.
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Ohtani starts tomorrow, but might not be in the lineup.
Shohei Ohtani starts on the mound again Tuesday, but it’s a possibility he won’t hit, Dave Roberts said. Couples of factors playing into the decision: Ohtani would be pitching on traditional rest (not six-day like they’ve tried) & a 12:10 pm game on Wednesday #Dodgers
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) April 27, 2026
The Dodgers have an afternoon game on Wednesday and an off day Thursday, but Ohtani will be making his first start on regular rest. His last three starts have also come before an off day for the Dodgers, so he won’t have that extra day of rest before his next game.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.
