Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (80-52) dropped the opener in Atlanta in frustrating fashion. Tyler Glasnow made his return off the IL and got BABIP’d for three first inning runs. The bottom of the Dodger order carried the offense and tied the game and Alex Vesia, Evan Phillips and Jack Dreyer put up 0s out of the bullpen. Tanner Scott came into a tie game in the eighth and gave up a double and a single to give Atlanta the lead. Shohei Ohtani led off the ninth with a triple, but was stranded there for a 4-3 Atlanta win. The Dodgers have been getting some help from around the league, as the Padres and Brewers have each lost their last two games heading into today keeping the Dodgers 9.5 up in the West and a game back for the top record in the NL. They’re still three up on Atlanta for the 2 seed and the first round bye, but yesterday’s loss makes the next two games vital. Atlanta has won 3 of 4 against the Dodgers this season, so one more win would clinch the head-to-head tiebreaker for Atlanta.
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| 4:15 P.M. | Atlanta | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | DH | Baldwin (L) |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | RF | Acuña Jr. |
| SS | Betts | 1B | Olson (L) |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | SS | Dubón |
| 2B | Edman (S) | CF | Harris II (L) |
| RF | Tucker (L) | 2B | Albies (S) |
| CF | Thomas (L) | LF | Yastrzemski (L) |
| LF | T. Hernández | 3B | Riley |
| C | Feduccia (L) | C | Murphy |
| P | Sasaki (R) | P | Smith-Shawver (R) |
Roki Sasaki makes his 23rd start of his up-and-down season tonight. Sasaki’s been up since the All-Star Break, with a 2.31 ERA/3.00 FIP in 35 innings over his last six starts. He’s allowed exactly two runs in each of his last four starts and despite averaging nearly six innings per start in that stretch, he’s only been the winning pitcher in two of the starts. He doesn’t have a decision in any of his three starts this month and the Dodgers lost his first two starts of the month (both on Edwin Diaz blown saves), but won his most recent start at Coors. Sasaki needed 99 pitches to get through five innings and gave up seven hits which matches a season-high, but he only issued one walk after walking five in his previous start and struck out six. He still got a no-decision after Vesia gave up the lead in the seventh, but the Dodgers won 6-4 in 10 innings. Sasaki got his first Major League win in Atlanta last May after he allowed three runs in five innings. He gave up six hits in the game and three of them went for extra bases (an RBI double, a triple that led to a run and a solo homer to Ozzie Albies).
AJ Smith-Shawver makes his third start of the season for Atlanta and only his 18th start (19 total appearances) in parts of four Major League seasons. Smith-Shawver began last season in Atlanta’s rotation and posted a 3.86 ERA in nine starts before blowing out his elbow and needing Tommy John. He returned from TJ at the end of July and threw 69 pitches in 4 1/3 solid innings, giving up two runs and four hits. He was sent down for a couple starts to help build his pitch count, where he maxed out at 95 pitches. He came back up against the Twins last Wednesday and only got through 4 1/3 innings again, this time not necessarily due to the pitch count. He ran into a bit of trouble in the third inning but escaped with only one run allowed, but things fell apart in the fifth for Smith-Shawver. He got a popout to start the fifth, but allowed two singles and two walks to plate a run and was pulled with the bases loaded for Dylan Dodd, who gave up a two-run double for four earned runs charged to Smith-Shawver.
Smith-Shawver was Atlanta’s third-ranked prospect on Pipeline last year. He’s essentially a three-pitch pitcher, mostly leaning on a fastball, splitter and curve. Pipeline gave his slider a 55 grade and after throwing it 23.3 percent of the time in 2023, didn’t throw it in his lone start in 2024 and only threw it 4.2 and 4.9 percent of the time the last two seasons. Of course this is all very small sample sizes (nine starts last year, two this year).
Both teams roll out very similar lineups to last nights. Teoscar Hernández starts in left after Alex Call‘s strong night last night. Alek Thomas moves up to seventh in the order and Teo hits eighth. Atlanta’s lineup is the exact same as last night.
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The Dodgers haven’t set their rotation for the weekend, but did say that Tarik Skubal would make his homecoming start on Friday.
Ohtani is also going to throw a bullpen Friday, and could be in line for a one inning start in the finale on Sunday or in the first game of the following homestand Tuedsay against the Cardinals. In Ohtani’s build up from Tommy John last year, he made two one-inning starts, two two-inning starts and three three-inning starts as he ramped up. That was a return from an arm injury and not a knee issue, so hopefully he’ll be able to build up quicker before the playoffs. Eric Lauer is expected to piggyback with Ohtani for the time being.
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First pitch is scheduled at 4:15 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.
