Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (67-40) dropped the opener against the Mariners as they ended up on the short end of a home run derby at Dodger Stadium. Shohei Ohtani and Max Muncy hit homers for the Dodgers as they gave Justin Wrobleski five runs of support. Wrobo had his first blow up start of the season, still getting through six innings but giving up five runs on four homers. Wrobo left the game tied, but Dominic Canzone hit hit second homer of the game in the eighth off Alex Vesia to give Seattle a 7-5 lead. The Dodgers scored in the ninth and had the tying run on third with no outs, but managed to bungle that for a 7-6 loss. Today, the Dodgers look to snap their mini losing streak and send the right pitcher to the mound to do so.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| 2B | Young (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| LF | Arozarena | CF | Pages |
| CF | Rodríguez | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| RF | Canzone (L) | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| C | Raleigh (S) | 2B | Edman (S) |
| 1B | Naylor (L) | SS | Betts |
| DH | Refsnyder | RF | Tucker (L) |
| 3B | Wilson | LF | T. Hernández |
| SS | Emerson (L) | C | Rushing (L) |
| P | Hancock (R) | P | Lauer (L) |
Crazy to say that about Eric Lauer, but all Lauer has done as a Dodger is put the team in a position to win. They’ve won each of his eight appearances and he’s allowed three or fewer runs in each outing. Four of his seven starts have been quality starts, two of the others were on pace to be but he was pulled before finishing the sixth inning, and his one non-start was six no-hit innings after an opener against the Twins. He’s posted a 3.35 ERA as a Dodger, but his 5.46 FIP and 4.06 xERA both tell a different story. He’s only struck out 26 batters in 45 2/3 innings and is running a .207 BABIP with the Dodgers, so there’s definitely a lot of room for regression there. Lauer’s allowed exactly three runs in each of his last three starts, completing six in Sacramento and against the Rockies but getting pulled with one out in the sixth in Philly last time out. Lauer hasn’t seen the Mariners yet this season, but faced them out of the bullpen last season with Toronto. Lauer came in after an opener and tossed 4 2/3 scoreless innings allowing one hit and one walk with five strikeouts.
Another popular trade candidate gets the ball for Seattle. Emerson Hancock makes his 20th start of the season and he’s finally living up to his draft status. He was picked sixth overall in the 2020 draft and posted a 3.86 ERA in 380 innings in the Minors, but posted ERA’s of 4.50, 4.75 and 4.90 in his parts of three Major League seasons. He only totaled 162 2/3 innings over those three seasons and posted a 5.24 ERA in 44 2/3 innings as a 26-year-old in AAA last season, which really took away a lot of the prospect shine. This season, his 3.16 ERA is the eighth-best among AL pitchers with 100+ innings and has the second-best ERA among Mariner starters. He’s had a couple blowup starts, but has allowed two or fewer runs in 14 of his 19 starts and has completed five innings in 17 of his starts. One of those short starts came in his final start before the break after he got hit in the hand by a comebacker and injured a finger, but he bounced back allowing two runs and five hits in six innings last time out against the Reds. Hancock and last night’s starter Luis Castillo seem to be the likely trade candidates from the Mariners as they look for offense and look to clear room moving forward for Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan, their top two prospects and two of the top 10 prospects in baseball per Pipeline.
Hancock also seems like a prime regression candidate based on the amount of blue on his Savant page. His 6.3 percent walk rate is quite good (81st percentile), but he’s below-average in nearly every other metric. His 26.8 percent chase rate is in the 15th percentile and his 43.6 percent hard-hit rate is 17th percentile.
A normal starting lineup, but Mookie Betts drops down to sixth in the order with Tommy Edman moving up to fifth. Andy Pages remains hitting second despite his struggles there. It’s also crazy that Seattle has two Emerson’s in there today, with Colt Emerson starting at short after getting scratched before yesterday’s game.
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Edwin Diaz is officially back, and Charlie Barnes was designated for assignment.
The Dodgers activated RHP Edwin Díaz from the injured list and designated LHP Charlie Barnes for assignment.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 29, 2026
Diaz only pitched in seven games before dealing with some bodies in his elbow that’s kept him out since April 19. Diaz allowed one run and converted all four of his save opportunities in his first five outings, but gave up three runs in each of his next two outings before leaving a game at Coors with a trainer. Diaz made seven rehab outings between three levels and allowed a walk and a hit over his first four innings with seven strikeouts. His final three outings came at AAA and he allowed a run in two of those, topping out at 23 pitches in 2/3 of an inning on Sunday.
Barnes was DFA’d after making four appearances for the Dodgers. Three of them were scoreless innings in some non-leverage spots and the other was a heroic seven inning 12-hit seven-run performance against the A’s in a bullpen game to save the pen.
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The Dodgers still believe Ohtani will pitch again this season.
Andrew Friedman expects Shohei Ohtani will pitch again this season. The concern is Ohtani overcompensating while the knee heals, which is why he won’t be rushed back. He downplayed Ohtani’s bicep soreness as well.
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) July 29, 2026
“If it weren't for the knee, he would be pitching right now.”
They’re downplaying the bicep issue that broke yesterday and want to protect him from trying to push through the knee issue.
On other pitcher injury news, Tyler Glasnow threw a bullpen today.
Dave Roberts said Tyler Glasnow looked really good as he three two innings against hitters today in a live bullpen session. The plan is for him to go out on a rehab assignment next.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) July 29, 2026
He threw two innings and his next step should be to begin a rehab assignment.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.
