Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The All-Star break came at an ideal time for the Dodgers, who played their sloppiest baseball of the season headed into the break. They dropped four of six last week against the Rockies and Diamondbacks, capped off by getting swept by Arizona over the weekend. They committed nine errors in those six games and continued a strange trend of being pretty awful headed into the All-Star Game.
Yes, lmao. Arbitrary for emphasis, but:
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) July 12, 2026
2024: 1-6
2025: 2-7
2026: 2-5
They’re still 61-36, 11.5 games up in the NL West and 1.5 up on the Brewers for the best record in baseball. They aren’t exactly easing into the second half (ish) of the season, as they return from the break on a nine-game east coast road trip. They start the road trip with three in the Bronx against the Yankees, who are one of five teams in the AL with a winning record. They’re 54-42 but three behind the Rays in the AL East despite having a run differential nearly 60 runs better (+91 for the Yankees, +32 for Tampa). The Yankees were 46-28 a month ago and three games up on the Rays, but went 4-12 after that before ending the first half with a four-game win streak. They’ve been without Aaron Judge since the end of May with a broken rib and don’t expect him back any time soon, but Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt each have OPS’s over .900 and Cody Bellinger put together an All-Star first half and won the MVP of the All Star game.
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| 4:40 P.M. | New York City | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | CF | Grisham (L) |
| CF | Pages | DH | Rice (L) |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | 1B | Goldschmidt |
| SS | Betts | LF | Bellinger (L) |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | RF | Domínguez (S) |
| RF | Tucker (L) | 2B | Chisholm Jr. (L) |
| LF | T. Hernández | SS | Caballero |
| C | Rushing (L) | 3B | McMahon (L) |
| 2B | Edman (S) | C | Wells (L) |
| P | Sasaki (R) | P | Cole (R) |
Roki Sasaki opens up the second half after a terrible stretch heading into the break. Sasaki started the season struggling and was able to get his ERA down to 4.03 after his first start of June, but the wheels fell off after that. In his last five starts, Sasaki posted an 8.61 ERA/ 8.14 FIP and gave up nine homers in only 23 innings. 13 of the 22 runs he surrendered came in two starts in Chicago and against the Padres. He did show some glimpses in his most recent start against the Rockies last Wednesday, skating by with a quality start allowing three runs in six innings. The Dodgers gave Sasaki three runs in the bottom of the first, but he allowed a pair of solo homers in the second and a walk-wild pitch-groundout-sac fly to tie the game up in the third. Sasaki immediately fell in trouble again in the fourth as he gave up a single and double to start the frame, but got nine consecutive outs with four strikeouts over the next three innings to get that quality start and keep the Dodgers in the game long enough for a Mookie Betts game-winning single in the eighth.
Gerrit Cole gets the ball for the Yankees and is making his 10th start back from Tommy John surgery after suffering an elbow injury in Spring Training last season. Cole started for the Yankees the last time the Dodgers visited Yankee Stadium, the infamous Game 5 Yankee disasterclass. Cole allowed two walks and no hits through the first four innings of that game and had a 5-0 lead headed into the fifth in what seemed almost certainly like a game that would send the series back to LA. Aaron Judge dropped a line drive, Anthony Volpe tried to get a force out and Cole forgot to cover first base as the Dodgers put up five unearned in the fifth in a game they’d eventually win 7-6.
Cole returned off the IL and looked like prime Cole in his first two starts, allowing six hits in 12 2/3 shutout innings with 12 strikeouts and three walks. He’s fallen back to earth since, allowing 22 runs and 42 hits in 36 1/3 innings over his last seven starts. Cole completed six innings in his first two starts but has only done so twice in the seven starts since. Cole last pitched last Wednesday and allowed three runs and seven hits in 6 1/3 innings for a quality start, but the Yankees were shut out by Shane McClanahan and the Rays’ bullpen. Cole threw 97 pitches in that start, his most since returning from TJ.
Very limited sample sizes, but Cole’s fastball is currently averaging his highest velocity since 2022 at 96.8 MPH. He’s only thrown it 44.9 percent of the time in his first nine starts which would be the lowest usage of his fastball in his career. He’s also throwing a slider (19.1 percent), change (15.1 percent), knuckle curve (13.3 percent) and sinker (7.5 percent). Among starters with 40+ innings pitched this season, Cole has the fifth-highest in zone rate (54.3 percent) and his 5.3 percent walk rate is in the 93rd percentile. His whiffs have nearly disappeared though with a third percentile 17.8 percent whiff rate.
The Dodgers kick off the second half without any big changes to the lineup. Shohei Ohtani is in the lineup and leading off after missing the All-Star game with knee discomfort. Dalton Rushing starts behind the plate hitting eighth, and Tommy Edman draws the start at second hitting ninth.
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Some positive injury notes this morning about Enrique Hernandez and Blake Snell.
Some #Dodgers rehab updates to start the second half:
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) July 17, 2026
Kiké Hernández will start a rehab assignment with OKC tonight (in Tacoma).
Blake Snell will start a rehab assignment with OKC on Saturday.
Two key players inching closer to returns.
Kiké is scheduled to start his rehab assignment tonight with OKC, and Snell will join him and make his first rehab start tomorrow. Not listed by Katie, but Edwin Diaz is also scheduled to make his second rehab outing with Ontario tonight. Diaz made his first appearance last Saturday and struck out his first two batters before giving up a single to Dustin Crenshaw, who got caught stealing to end his inning. Diaz also got a game in with the ACL Dodgers on Tuesday and struck out two of the three batters he faced in a perfect inning.
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The Dodgers haven’t fully reset their rotation post break, but the pitching matchups for this weekend are set. Emmet Sheehan and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start the next two games for the Dodgers, and Ryan Weathers and Cam Schlittler will start for the Yankees.
Probable pitchers for #Dodgers v Yankees:
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) July 17, 2026
* Fri 4 pm PT – RHP Roki Sasaki (3-5, 5.33) v RHP Gerrit Cole (3-4, 4.04)
* Sat 5 pm – RHP Emmet Sheehan (4-6, 4.81) v LHP Ryan Weathers (3-7, 4.15)
* Sun 4:20 pm – RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (9-6, 2.85) v RHP Cam Schlittler (9-5, 2.05)
Tonight’s game is the only one that isn’t a national broadcast. Tomorrow will be on Fox, and Sunday’s finale will be on Peacock.
No telling how the Dodgers will line up after this weekend, but Ohtani is pencilled to start Wednesday in the finale in Philly.
Dave Roberts clarifies Shohei Ohtani received a lubricating shot for his knee over the break, not a draining procedure. Said the “expectation” is Ohtani takes a pitching start Wednesday vs. PHI. #Dodgers
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) July 17, 2026
He got his knee lubed up over the break and could continue getting the majority of his starts on Wednesdays. They have this coming Thursday off and hope to get him his starts before an off day through the rest of the season.
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Remember when they wouldn’t put Will Smith on the IL.
Is best case scenario for Will Smith’s return mid-August? “Oh yeah,” Dave Roberts said.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) July 17, 2026
Smith is resting his sore neck this week, Roberts said. No pain in the neck now.
Now, the “best case” for Smith’s return is considered to be mid-August, which would mean a little over two months out with this neck injury. He’s going to rest the neck for the week and hopefully ramp back up to return to baseball activities after. Relatedly, Dustin wrote about the Dodgers potentially adding some more catching depth at the deadline.
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First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.
