Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (46-27) dropped two of three games against the Chicago White Sox (38-32) this past weekend, marking their first series loss in over a month. Their last series loss came in the beginning of May against the Atlanta Braves (46-25), and have won every three game series since, while splitting a pair of four game series against both the Giants (29-43) and Diamondbacks (37-35). They bounced back last night against the Tampa Bay Rays (41-28) in their series opener, a quality side who currently own the second best record in the American League. Eric Lauer managed to toss a quality start despite allowing three runs within the first two innings, with the Dodgers now winning in each of his four starts with the team.
He’s received the win in just one of those outings, but now has a 3.22 ERA across 22.1 innings for the Dodgers. Kyle Tucker hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the second inning to level the score, before Miguel Rojas hit a go-ahead pinch hit home run in the seventh inning, ultimately becoming the winning run. The team will look to get back toward their series winning ways with a victory tonight behind Justin Wrobleski, looking for his team leading eighth win. They’ll have their work cut out for them against the right-handed Drew Rasmussen who has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this season.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| DH | Díaz | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| RF | Slater | CF | Pages |
| 1B | Aranda (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 3B | Caminero | SS | Betts |
| LF | Vilade | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| 2B | Williamson | RF | Tucker (L) |
| CF | Simpson (L) | LF | Ward (L) |
| C | Fortes | 2B | Freeland (S) |
| SS | Walls (S) | C | Robinson |
| P | Rasmussen (R) | P | Wrobleski (L) |
The Dodgers will run out a nearly identical lineup as the one last night, with the lone difference being Chuckie Robinson behind the plate over Dalton Rushing. Andy Pages has struggled mightily in June after a very hot start to the season, slashing just .172/.206/.310 in 63 plate appearances since the beginning of the month. Freddie Freeman has an .872 OPS in June, and is slashing .309/.414/.596 over the last calendar month dating back to May 17. Max Muncy is slashing .327/.426/.615 over his last 17 games, continuing to prove that he’s arguably the best third baseman in the game (as Dustin said a few weeks ago).
The Rays will switch things around a bit, but will get Chandler Simpson into the game in center field over Cedric Mullins. Simpson is the fastest player in the game, but has graded out as a below-average center fielder despite being a clear plus defender in left field.
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Here’s how Wrobleski and Rasmussen have fared this season, as two of the better starting pitchers in baseball thus far.
Wrobleski had just a 1.25 ERA over his first six outings, but ran into some inevitable regression soon after that, giving up a total of 14 earned runs in his next three starts against the Braves, Angels, and Brewers. He followed that stretch up with two consecutive great outings, featuring seven innings of one run ball against the Phillies, and six shutout innings against Arizona. However, he couldn’t keep that going into his most recent start against the Pirates, struggling to make it through the fifth inning, while allowing four earned runs on six hits and two walks, including two home runs while logging just one strikeout.
His stuff had ticked up a bit over his previous couple outings, but he just couldn’t get things under control in Pittsburgh, and will look to put that outing behind him against a Tampa Bay offense that has struggled a bit against lefties as we saw last night against Lauer.
Rasmussen has flown under the radar for years now, in part due to being in Tampa Bay, and in part due to his injury history and limited workload. However, if you actually look into Rasmussen, you’ll see one of the most consistent, well above-average starting pitchers in the game every time he takes the mound. He has a career 2.87 ERA across 533.2 innings, with an ERA between 2.62 and 2.84 every season dating back to 2021. He has missed significant time in three of those seasons, but is coming off 31 starts and 150.0 innings with a 2.76 ERA in 2025.
He’s carried that performance into 2026 so far, ranking among the best in batting average allowed (.191), WHIP (0.88), walk rate (4.6%), and K-BB% (22.7%).
This is the Statcast profile of a very good starting pitcher. He’s picked up the win in each of his last two outings, throwing seven scoreless innings in back-to-back starts, while logging 22 strikeouts to just one walk. His last time out against the Red Sox he allowed just two hits and set a career-high in strikeouts with 13.
His low-90’s cutter is actually his primary pitch, going to it nearly a third of the time. He’s a fastball heavy pitcher overall, with his cutter, mid-90’s sinker, and four-seam fastball making up nearly 85% of his entire arsenal. He’s primarily sinker and cutter against right-handed batters, swapping the sinker for the four-seamer against lefties. When it comes to his non-fastballs, he throws a mid-80’s sweeper to right-handed batters, and a very dominant changeup that sits around 90 mph against lefties. He’s quite the pitcher and is in great form, so the bats will have to be locked in to put up runs against Rasmussen tonight.
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In other news,
Farewell Santiago Espinal….for now.
Good to hear that Shohei is healthy and that the knee seems to be a relatively minor thing.
Positive Tyler Glasnow news is always welcome, especially after a couple setbacks. He was never going to throw 180 innings in the regular season, so I’m sure that the team is making sure that he is absolutely 100% before ramping back up.
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First pitch is at 7:10 PT on SNLA.
