Dodgers @ Phillies July 20, 2026: Emmet Sheehan takes the ball in Philly against Cristopher Sanchez, Dodgers swing a minor trade with the Rockies

Photo: Cody Bashore

The Dodgers (63-37) survived their first doubleheader of the season yesterday, taking the morning game against the Yankees before dropping the finale. It was still a nice series win against one of the top teams in the AL and a nice start to the second half after a terrible end to the first half.

Today, they continue their east coast road trip kicking off a three game set in Philly. The Phillies are 55-45, three back of Atlanta in the NL East and currently hold the second Wild Card spot in the NL. They’re coming off a tough series loss, dropping two of three at home against the last-place Mets. They won the middle game of the series 6-1, but only scored one run in each of the other two games. The Dodgers took two of three when the Phillies came to LA at the end of May, similarly winning the first and last games of the series but the Phillies took the middle game.

A bit of a change in the Dodger lineup, as Tommy Edman hits third for the first time this season. He starts at third with Max Muncy sitting against a lefty, and Mookie Betts slides to fifth in the order behind Freddie Freeman. Miguel Rojas starts at second, and Alex Call draws the start in right with Kyle Tucker sitting after a rough day yesterday.

Emmet Sheehan was scheduled to start Saturday in New York, but they moved him back to Monday after Saturday’s game was pushed due to rain. The Dodgers have lost six of Sheehan’s last seven starts and he’s only completed six innings once in that stretch after doing so four times in his first 10 starts. Sheehan pitched into the sixth in his last start against Arizona and started the game in dominant fashion, allowing only one baserunner and striking out seven through four innings. He gave up back-to-back doubles for the first Diamondback run in the fifth and then gave up an unearned run on an Andy Pages error. He started the sixth with a walk that moved to second on a passed ball and moved to third on a sac fly to end his night. Edgardo Henriquez came in and issued a walk to put runners on the corners before a grounder got past Max Muncy to score Sheehan’s runner. Sheehan’s never faced the Phillies in the regular season, but pitched twice in the NLDS last year and gave up two runs in three innings of relief.

All-Star starter Cristopher Sanchez starts for Philly. Sanchez has a 2.62 ERA in 127 1/3 innings over 20 starts, but has gotten roughed up in his last two (technically three) starts. In his first start in July, Sanchez gave up 12 hits and nine runs in 3 1/3 innings in Kansas City. He did a much better job preventing runs in his last official start against the Tigers, allowing only two runs in seven innings but he did give up 10 hits in that game. Sanchez also started the All-Star game and gave up three hits, two walks and three runs in his only inning of work. Sanchez has struggled in his career against the Dodgers with a 4.01 ERA in four career starts. He missed the Dodgers earlier this season but gave up four runs in both of his starts against the Dodgers last season. He fared much better in his two playoff starts against the Dodgers in the NLDS, allowing three runs and nine hits in 12 innings.

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The Dodgers acquired reliever Seth Halvorsen from the Rockies for Nick Frasso and Landyn Vidourek.

Halvorsen seems maybe interesting. He’s a huge velo guy, averaging 98.8 MPH on the fastball. However, he has a 15.6 percent walk rate this season and started a rehab assignment yesterday after dealing with shoulder inflammation. He’s under team control until 2031 and has options left.

Peeking at Halvorsen's Savant page, his arm angle went from 41 degrees in 2024 to 51 degrees this year. Unsurprisingly, he stopped getting as much east-west movement on his pitches. Wonder if that'll come into play once they get him in the lab.

Jared Massey (@jaredjmassey.bsky.social) 2026-07-20T18:44:58.973Z

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First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 PM PT and will be on ESPN.

About Alex Campos

I've been writing about the Dodgers since I graduated from Long Beach State, where I covered the Dirtbags in my senior year. I'm either very good or very bad at puns.