Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (36-20) closed out a sweep against the Rockies on Wednesday with a 4-1 win for a five game winning streak. They’ve won 12 of their last 14 and all of a sudden have a 4.5 game lead in the NL West over the Diamondbacks, who now find themselves tied for second with the Padres with a better run differential. The Dodgers are one of the hottest teams in baseball and welcome one of the other hottest teams in baseball to LA for the weekend. The Phillies (29-27) were overshadowed by the Mets’ struggles early in the season, but started the season 9-19 and fired manager Rob Thomson on April 28. Now under former Dodger manager Don Mattingly, they’ve won 20 of their last 28 games and now find themselves over .500 and in second in the NL West, though they’re still 8.5 back of Atlanta. They did hit a bit of a cold patch last week, losing two of three against the Reds and Guardians. They bounced back to do the Dodgers a favor this week, sweeping the Padres in San Diego with two shutout wins. Last season, the Phillies won two of three against the Dodgers in both LA and Philly before the Dodgers gentlemen’s swept them in the NLDS on Orion Kerkering‘s monumental walk-off error.
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| 7:15 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| DH | Schwarber (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| SS | Turner | CF | Pages |
| 1B | Harper (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 3B | Bohm | SS | Betts |
| 2B | Stott (L) | RF | Tucker (L) |
| C | Realmuto | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| LF | Marsh (L) | C | Smith |
| RF | García | LF | Call |
| CF | Berroa (S) | 2B | Freeland (S) |
| P | Wheeler (R) | P | Wrobleski (L) |
Justin Wrobleski gets the ball looking to right the ship after another rough start in Milwaukee. Wrobo started the opener of the series and got himself in immediate trouble, giving up two singles and a homer to the first three batters he faced. William Contreras‘ homer didn’t kill the rally, as Wrobo got an out and then gave up three more singles to load the bases. He gave up a sac fly for a fourth run of the first inning and another walk loaded the bases, but struck out Jackson Chourio to end a rough first. Wrobo gave up a fifth run in the second, but only allowed one baserunner (that was erased on a double play) after that to get through five to at least save the Dodger bullpen a bit. It was a continuation of a rough stretch for Wrobleski, who had a 1.25 ERA through his first six starts. His 3.15 FIP was a bit more telling, and now his ERA sits at 3.07 with a 3.52 FIP in nine starts. Wrobleski’s allowed 14 runs over 19 2/3 innings in his last three starts and has allowed four runs in an inning in two of the three. It’s been a weird reversion to the mean for Wrobo, who allowed a .222 BABIP in those first six starts and only struck out 15 batters in 36 innings but has a .317 BABIP and 16 strikeouts in the three starts since. Wrobo is looking for redemption from his last couple starts, but also is looking for redemption after a disastrous relief outing against the Phillies last September. The Dodgers were somehow beating Cristopher Sanchez 4-0 through five innings, but Wrobleski replaced Shohei Ohtani on the mound to start the sixth. He got a leadoff groundout, but gave up three straight singles, a two-run double and a three-run Brandon Marsh homer before recording another out. Wrobleski allowed six batted balls in his 1/3 inning of work and only Kyle Schwarber‘s single was under 90 MPH exit velo (only 89.3 MPH, weight room). Each batted ball also had an xBA of at least .440, with even Bryston Stott’s groundout coming with a .620 xBA.
Zack Wheeler gets his seventh start of the season for the Phillies and is still dominating at 36 years old. Wheeler’s finished top-10 in Cy Young voting in each of the last three years, and now has a 1.67 ERA/2.22 FIP in 37 2/3 innings this season. Wheeler started the season on the IL after ending last season on the IL with a blood clot in his shoulder. He had thoracic outlet surgery in the offseason and made his 2026 debut on April 25 in Atlanta. The Phillies have won each of Wheeler’s six starts and outside of his season debut, Wheeler’s gone at least six innings in all of them. Wheeler allowed six earned runs in his first three starts, but has only allowed one in his last three and is coming off consecutive scoreless outings against Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Wheeler out-dueled Paul Skenes on May 17, tossing seven shutout innings with four hits and a walk allowed and eight strikeouts. Last time out against Cleveland, Wheeler only allowed two hits and a walk over six shutout but did need 99 pitches to get through six. He’s yet to cross the 100 pitch mark this season. Wheeler didn’t face the Dodgers last season, but in July 2024 he allowed one run and three hits over five innings before leaving the game with a minor back injury that kept him out a couple weeks. Wheeler’s faced the Dodgers seven times in his career and the overall numbers aren’t great (4.35 ERA, 1.200 WHIP), but most of that damage came earlier in Wheeler’s career. The Dodgers scored 14 runs in 16 innings over three Wheeler starts in 2017 and 2018, but in four starts since have only scored five runs in 23 1/3 innings.
Wheeler gets a lot of chase and doesn’t walk a lot of batters. Among pitchers with 30+ innings pitched this season, Wheeler has the highest chase rate (38.6 percent) and a top-20 walk rate (5.7 percent). Wheeler leads with a fastball that averages 95 MPH (36.8 percent usage) and also throws a sinker (17.1 percent), splitter (14.6 percent), sweeper, cutter (both 11.8 percent) and curve (7.9 percent). Batters are only 3-for-39 with 15 strikeouts off his four-seamer, but his lone homer allowed came off the pitch against the A’s.
The bottom of the Dodger order is taken over by Alex’s today, with Alex Call hitting eighth and starting in left and Alex Freeland hitting ninth and playing second.
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Teoscar Hernández will be placed on the IL, with Ryan Ward getting called up for the second time this season.
The Dodgers recalled IF/OF Ryan Ward, signed IF/OF Santiago Espinal, optioned IF/OF Hyeseong Kim and placed OF Teoscar Hernández on the injured list a left hamstring strain. In order to make room on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers transferred LHP Blake Snell to the 60-day injured…
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 30, 2026
Teo left Wednesday’s game with a hamstring strain and they’re calling it a Grade 1, which is the mildest of the strains. Ward returns after a quick call up back in April and had mostly been playing first base for OKC in the meantime, but gives them another option in the outfield in Hernandez’s absence.
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That move was expected, but the Dodgers also made an unexpected move. Santiago Espinal was re-signed and returns to the Major League roster, with Hyeseong Kim getting optioned to AAA.
Espinal was recently DFA’d, but returns and will play a similar role as he did prior to the DFA. He’ll reportedly be in the lineup tomorrow against lefty Jesus Luzardo. They said Freeland would get more opportunity at second, so in that case it makes sense to demote Kim and get him consistent playing time. Personally, not entirely sure what Freeland’s shown at the Major League level to warrant the PT over Kim, but Kim’s been struggling hard of late and has gotten more strikeout prone lately.
The Dodgers naturally made the moves official right as I as about to hit publish. They needed a spot on the 40-man so Blake Snell was moved to the 60-day IL. This won’t move his timeline as he’s already not expected back until the second half of the season
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In other injury news, Jack Dreyer faced hitters today.
Jack Dreyer, who threw live BP today, may not need a rehab assignment, Dave Roberts said. He’s on track to be activated after a min stint.
— Maddie Lee (@maddie_m_lee) May 29, 2026
Dreyer is expected to return right around when his 15 days on the IL are up (which I believe would put him back early next week, Tuesday is day 15 for him). He might not need a rehab assignment.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:15 PM PT and will be an Apple exclusive.
