Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Walker Buehler struggled again and the Dodger bats were stymied by Kyle Hendricks in last night’s 10-4 loss. The Dodgers had their chances, but left 10 runners on base and couldn’t keep former Dodgers Cody Bellinger and Michael Busch down. They combined to go 6-for-9 with a walk, two homers and six RBIs and have tortured the Dodgers all season. Tonight, Yoshinobu Yamamoto tries to figure them out as he makes his much-anticipated return from the IL against fellow countryman Shota Imanaga.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| LF | Happ (S) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| SS | Swanson | RF | Betts |
| DH | Suzuki | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| RF | Bellinger (L) | CF | Edman (S) |
| 3B | Parades | LF | Pages |
| 1B | Busch (L) | SS | Rojas |
| 2B | Hoerner | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| CF | Crow-Armstrong (L) | 2B | K. Hernández |
| C | Amaya | C | Barnes |
| P | Imanaga (L) | P | Yamamoto (R) |
Yamamoto makes his 15th start of the season and his first since leaving his June 15 start against the Royals after only two innings. His right tricep tightness fortunately didn’t require surgery, and he’s now back just under three months later. He figures to have three starts (including today) to build up for October after only making two rehab starts. He threw 53 pitches in only two innings last time out for OKC, as he labored through the first and had a 17-pitch walk to lead off the second inning. I haven’t seen any stated pitch counts for him, but it’d be surprising if he was out there too much longer than that. Yamamoto faced the Cubs back in Chicago in April and held them to three hits and two walks over five shutout innings. He struck out eight batters and needed 80 pitches to get through those five, which was his highest pitch count in his first three starts.
Imanaga has fallen back to earth after an unprecedented start to his Major League career. He allowed a total of five earned runs over his first nine starts and had a 1.89 ERA through his first 13. The wheels came all the way off in his 14th start of the season, and since then he’s been quite good but not as dominant as he started the season. He allowed 10 runs and 11 hits in three innings against the Mets on June 21. In 12 starts since then, he’s posted a 3.03 ERA and 4.07 FIP and the Cubs are 9-3 when he starts. Overall on the season, they’re 20-6 when he starts. He’s coming off his best start of the season against Pittsburgh, where he issued two walks and struck out seven in seven no-hit innings. Dave Roberts Craig Counsell pulled him after 95 pitches, but Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge were able to complete the combined no-no. He threw four shutout innings against the Dodgers back in April in a start that would be cut short by a rain delay.
Imanaga has been good overall, but has been elite at two things. His 34.8 percent chase rate is the second most among qualified starters, and his 4.1 percent walk rate is the fourth-lowest. He gets the highest percentage of swings in baseball (55.9 percent) and has been pretty fortunate with them, as he has the 10th-lowest BABIP in baseball. His hard-hit rate (38.3 percent) and barrel rate (8.3 percent) are both pretty middle-of-the-pack and he has the fifth-highest fly ball rate in baseball (47 percent). He primarily relies on his four-seamer (53 percent) and splitter (30.7 percent), but has also been tracked using six other pitches each less than eight percent of the time. My favorite is the one 53.9 MPH slow curve he allegedly threw on August 1 that got hit for a double.
Teoscar Hernandez remains out of the starting lineup today, but is reportedly available off the bench if needed. He could be back in there tomorrow. Austin Barnes starts behind the plate and Andy Pages draws the start in left with Enrique Hernandez at second. The Cubs roll out the exact same starting nine as last night.
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The Dodgers needed both a 26-man and 40-man roster move for Yamamoto. Nick Ramirez, who threw the final two innings last night, was designated for assignment to make room.
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Tony Gonsolin began his rehab assignment today.
Tony Gonsolin is physically present in OKC and will start a rehab assignment tonight.
— Alex Freedman (@azfreedman) September 10, 2024
It will the 15th rehab start for OKC this season — joining Buehler, Kershaw, Miller, and Yamamoto. Gonsolin will also be the 16th different Dodger to rehab with OKC this year.
That's a lot.
Tony Gonsolin — barely a year removed from Tommy John surgery — retired 6 of 8 batters faced on rehab assignment tonight in OKC.
— Alex Freedman (@azfreedman) September 10, 2024
2.0 IP | 2 H | 0 R | 0 BB | 3 K
32 pitches/24 strikes#Dodgers
Gonsolin started for OKC and allowed two hits over two shutout innings. He filled the strike zone and struck out three of the eight batters he faced. He probably won’t be back this season, but would be used out of the bullpen if he were to return down the stretch.
Tyler Glasnow survived his bullpen session today.
Tyler Glasnow’s bullpen today went well, Dave Roberts said. Next step is likely facing hitters for 2-3 innings in Atlanta. From there, could continue getting built up in big league games.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) September 10, 2024
He’ll face hitters in Atlanta on Friday and then will need to build back up to handle a workload in October. He’s been out just short of a month, so like Yamamoto he’s on the clock to try to build up for October with only about three weeks remaining this season.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA (in the LA area) and on TBS nationally.
