Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (22-13) showed signs of life on offense in the opener against the Astros (14-22), putting up more runs (8) than they scored during their recent four-game losing streak. Alex Freeland‘s second-inning homer was the first Dodger homer since April 26, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto had another rough first inning before settling down and getting through six solid. The offense put up eight runs despite leaving 10 runners on and going 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position, but they took advantage of the worst pitching staff in baseball so far this season. Today, the Dodgers look to get a series win after two straight series losses and have the reigning NL Pitcher of the Month on the hill.
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| 5:10 P.M. | Houston | ||
| DH | Rushing (L) | SS | Correa |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | LF | Alvarez (L) |
| C | Smith | 1B | Paredes |
| RF | Tucker (L) | DH | Walker |
| LF | T. Hernández | 2B | Altuve |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | RF | Smith |
| CF | Pages | CF | Cole (L) |
| 2B | Freeland (S) | C | Vázquez |
| SS | Rojas | 3B | Allen |
| P | Ohtani (R) | P | Lambert (R) |
Shohei Ohtani makes his sixth start of the season on the hill. He took his first loss of the season against Miami last time out, allowing two runs (one earned) and five hits over six innings. The unearned run came after Augustin Ramirez broke early for a steal, but Ohtani threw the ball wide into center field to put Ramirez on third to set up a sac fly. The Marlins small-balled their way to a second run on a walk, sac bunt and single for an insurmountable 2-0 lead. The earned run raised his ERA to 0.60 on the season with two earned runs in 30 innings. He’s gone exactly six innings in each of his five starts but did need a season-high 104 pitches to finish six against Miami. Dave Roberts said prior to yesterday’s game that Ohtani would be in the lineup and on the hill today, but changed his mind postgame and he won’t hit today. Unfortunately Ohtani has been hitting like a pitcher (derogatory) of late and is hitless in his last 24 plate appearances. He’s only struck out four times in that span and drawn six walks, but it hasn’t been pretty at the plate of late.
Peter Lambert gets his fourth start of the season for Houston. Lambert pitched in parts of four seasons between 2019 and 2024 with the Rockies but battled injuries, making only 38 starts (77 appearances overall). Lambert spent the 2025 season in the NPB with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and posted a 4.26 ERA in 116 1/3 innings. Houston signed him to a minor league deal and called him up with their laundry list of pitching injuries, and so far so good. He’s allowed six runs in 15 1/3 innings across his three starts with four of those runs coming in his debut against the Cardinals. He followed that up with six shutout in Cleveland, but struggled a bit last time out in Baltimore. Lambert only allowed two runs and two hits in 4 1/3 innings, but issued three walks with three strikeouts and needed 91 pitches to record those 14 outs. Lambert struck out eight batters in each of his first two starts, but Baltimore made him work for it. Like Ohtani, Lambert hasn’t allowed a homer yet this season after allowing 45 in 243 2/3 innings as a Rockie.
Lambert has some impressive underlying numbers in his limited sample size. He’s running a 34.1 percent whiff rate and a 28.8 percent strikeout rate this season and has only allowed three extra-base hits with a .279 expected slugging percentage against. Lambert throws six different pitch types with five of them being used over 10 percent, and only two of those pitches have a whiff rate under 30 percent. He leads with a fastball (31.8 percent usage, 94.8 average velo) and also throws a change (23.8 percent), slider (16.2 percent), cutter (15.2 percent) and slurve (10.8 percent). He’s also been tracked throwing six sinkers so far this season. His slurve has been the only not great pitch, with an 18.2 percent whiff rate and two of the three doubles he’s allowed have come off it.
Dalton Rushing serves as the DH tonight and hits leadoff. Miguel Rojas gets a rare start against a righty starter with Hyeseong Kim sitting.
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Enrique Hernandez is starting his rehab assignment today.
The Comets open their home series against Salt Lake tonight at 6:05 PM CT. Tonight is Bark in the Park presented by @TitosVodka w/ special appearance by Professional Eater Joey Chestnut presented by @kfor pic.twitter.com/U7vulkvNBk
— Oklahoma City Comets (@OKC_comets) May 5, 2026
Hernandez starts at third and hits second for OKC in their game that should start right around when this post goes live. Gonna need to know what Joey Chestnut is up to at this game.
No other news has dropped before I’m scheduling this, but who knows maybe Brock Stewart is active by now.
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First pitch is scheduled for 5:10 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA and TBS (out of market).
