Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Last night’s game looked all too familiar, as Walker Buehler gave up two runs in the third and the Dodgers couldn’t solve Charlie Morton through the first four innings. They broke through with a run in the fifth and a run in the seventh, and Buehler miraculously got through six innings on 97 pitches after needing 70 pitches to get through the first three. Michael Kopech got himself in and out of trouble in the bottom of the eighth to keep it a 2-2 game, and the Dodgers exploded for seven two-out runs in the ninth for a comfortable 9-2 win. It was a much-needed performance in many ways. They needed a pitcher to actually look like a playoff caliber starter, they needed the offense to break out, and they needed a win as the Padres and Diamondbacks won once again. Today, they wrap up their four-game weekend series in Atlanta looking for a split and to keep control of the division.
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| 4:20 PM | Atlanta | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | CF | Harris II (L) |
| RF | Betts | RF | Soler |
| LF | T. Hernández | DH | Ozuna |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | 1B | Olson (L) |
| C | Smith | LF | Laureano |
| CF | Edman (S) | C | Murphy |
| SS | Rojas | SS | Arcia |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | 3B | Urshela |
| 2B | K. Hernández | 2B | Merrifield |
| P | Yamamoto (R) | P | Fried (L) |
Yoshinobu Yamamoto makes his second start back off the IL and 16th of the season for the Dodgers. Yamamoto’s return last week couldn’t have gone much better. He allowed one unearned run and three hits in four innings and eighth of his 12 outs were recorded via strikeout. He struck out the top of the Cubs’ order in both the first and third innings and got 11 whiffs in only 59 pitches. Dating back to pre-injury, Yamamoto hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last 17 innings and has 23 strikeouts with three walks in his last four outings.
Harvard-Westlake alumn Max Fried makes his 27th start for Atlanta tonight. Fried’s fantastic 2023 was interrupted by a forearm issue that cost him nearly three months, but he’s made some money back with a solid 2024 campaign so far. He missed a month this season with another minor forearm issue, but was an All-Star and has posted a 3.46 ERA/3.51 FIP in 153 2/3 innings this season. He’s struggled a bit since returning from the IL in early August, with a 4.34 ERA in eight starts. Last time out, he matched a season high by allowing 11 hits in a four-run, six inning start in Washington. He pitched pretty well when he saw the Dodgers back in May. He started the game by walking Mookie Betts and serving up a homer to Shohei Ohtani, but held the Dodgers down until an Ohtani single and Teoscar Hernandez homer in the sixth inning put the Dodgers up 4-0. It was the first of only three starts so far this season where Fried allowed more than one homer. He’s generally been very good against LA, with a .610 OPS allowed and 3.02 ERA in nine career starts against the Dodgers.
Fried has the second-highest groundball rate among qualified pitchers at 58.8 percent despite not really being a sinkerballer. He does throw a sinker 15.8 percent of the time this season which is his highest usage of it in his career, but it’s still his third-most-used pitch. He throws a four-seamer 32.9 percent, curve 21.2 percent, changeup 13.7 percent, and a slider/cutter/sweeper each less than eight percent of the time. He’s tied for the fifth-lowest average exit velocity (86.3 MPH) among pitchers with over 350 batted balls against. Fried actually has reverse splits this season, with righties posting a .562 OPS and lefties posting an .870 OPS off him.
Enrique Hernandez starts at second over Gavin Lux against a lefty. Max Muncy starts at third, and Teoscar Hernandez hits ahead of Freddie Freeman again after doing so Friday against Chris Sale.
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As expected, Austin Barnes was placed on the IL and Hunter Feduccia is back up.
Austin Barnes will officially go back on the IL. He has a new fracture on his toe. Dave Roberts still left the door open that Barnes could be back for the postseason.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) September 16, 2024
Barnes has a fracture in his big toe that’s apparently in a different spot from his fracture from last month. They’re hoping he can be back in October to get that one key single to force a dominant starter out of the game.
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In other injury news, Joe Kelly is in Atlanta and Anthony Banda could be back before the end of the season.
Some Dodgers updates from Dave Roberts:
— Jack Harris (@ByJackHarris) September 16, 2024
— Austin Barnes will be going on the IL with a toe fracture. Hunter Feduccia is currently en route and expected to be here by game time
— Joe Kelly rejoined the team today, and will likely be activated this week in Miami
— Anthony Banda…
Kelly rejoined the team and will probably be activated while they’re in Miami. Banda is playing catch in Arizona and they’re hoping he can be back soon.
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First pitch is scheduled for 4:20 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
