Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (64-46) won the opening game of this series against the Tampa Bay Rays (54-57) last night by a score of 5-0, resulting in their first shutout since April 20. That’s pretty indicative of the struggles the pitching staff has gone through over the last few months, that it’s taken over three months to hold an opposing team scoreless. Clayton Kershaw and Justin Wrobleski combined for all nine innings, preserving the bullpen which will be very important down the stretch. This morning, Blake Snell makes his return from the Injured List, after missing exactly four months with left shoulder inflammation. The right-handed Drew Rasmussen starts for the Rays, as he looks to get them back into the win column.
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| 10:10 AM | Tampa | |||
| SS | Betts | 1B | Díaz | |
| DH | Ohtani (L) | 2B | Kim | |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | DH | B. Lowe (L) | |
| RF | T. Hernández | 3B | Caminero | |
| LF | Conforto (L) | LF | Morel | |
| CF | Pages | RF | J. Lowe (L) | |
| 3B | Freeland (S) | CF | DeLuca | |
| C | Rushing (L) | SS | Walls (S) | |
| 2B | Rojas | C | Feduccia (L) | |
| P | Snell (L) | P | Rasmussen (R) |
The Rays will run out a very similar lineup as yesterday, where they had just six total baserunners. They’ll need to be better today, but don’t have a very favorable matchup with Snell on the mound. Old friend Hunter Feduccia get the start today behind the plate, as he’s been deserving of an MLB opportunity for quite some time now. You never know with him or with any starter returning from injury, so hopefully the offense makes his job easier by putting up some early runs.
Tommy Edman has the day off as Miguel Rojas starts at second base and Alex Freeland remains at third base. Freeland is better from his left side, and has put together good plate-appearances in his limited games thus far, adding two hits including his first RBI last night. Dalton Rushing will start over Will Smith, who would have a particularly exhausting day blocking with Snell pitching.
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Snell made just two starts for the Dodgers before hitting the injured list, and wasn’t sharp in either. He mentioned that he was trying to pitch through the inflammation figuring it would just go away by itself, so it would make sense that he wasn’t pitching up to his standards. He had a total of eight walks and just four strikeouts across nine innings, paired with ten hits as well. He spent five years with the Rays to begin his career, logging 556.0 innings with a 3.24 ERA, 3.54 FIP, and a 1.24 WHIP, including his first Cy Young award in 2018. Borrowing from Dustin’s post when the news broke back in November that the Dodgers had inked him to a five-year deal,
Pulling back for the larger picture, since Snell became this version of Blake Snell in 2018, he has a 3.03 ERA and 3.22 FIP in 878.1 innings with a whopping 1151 strikeouts (32.1 K%) and 384 walks (10.7 BB%).
Snell has grown a reputation for really locking in during the second half of the season, riding that ability to his second Cy Young award in 2023, in addition to his five-year deal this past offseason. Last year he dealt with a groin injury early in the season, but dominated once returning, with a 1.23 ERA, 1.77 FIP, a 0.78 WHIP, just a .123 batting average allowed, and 114 strikeouts to 30 walks across 80.1 innings pitched. Hopefully he can replicate that this year and into the postseason.
Rasmussen was sidelined for the majority of 2024 while recovering from an internal brace procedure he underwent in July of the 2023 season. He returned in August and pitched to a 2.83 ERA over 28.2 innings to finish the year, making appearances out of the bullpen and as a starter. He’s returned to full time starting duties this year and has seen that performance translate, with a 2.96 ERA, 3.53 FIP, and a 1.04 WHIP. Excellent stuff considering the ballpark he’s been pitching in, and right in line with where his ERA has been since joining the Rays in 2021.
Rasmussen is very over the top, and primarily just uses variations of fastballs to induce weak contact and whiffs. His four-seam fastball and sinker both come in near 95 mph, while his 90 mph cutter essentially rounds out his mix. The four-seamer cuts and rides more than the average four-seam fastball, the sinker doesn’t sink as much as you’d expect, and the cutter gets more movement than expected as well. A sweeper, curve, and changeup combine for the other ten percent of his arsenal, used just to keep hitters honest.
He earned his eighth win his last time out, allowing two runs on four hits and two walks over five innings against the Yankees. He threw 81 pitches, his most June 19, as the Rays have been lowering his usage after logging just 73.1 innings over his last two years due to injury. It’s possible he’s back to a full workload, but prior to the Yankees start, he had four consecutive outings of four innings or less due to pitch limits, not performance.
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Bruce took a look at the way the Dodgers operated at the trade deadline, and addressed how it impacts the current team, the future, and how people feel about it.
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Newly acquired reliever, Paul Gervase, will likely be back at some point, but will be headed to OKC for now.
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With Dustin May being traded to the Red Sox, it would appear the six-man rotation is set, with Emmet Sheehan grabbing the final spot.
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First pitch is at 10:10 a.m. PT on SNLA.
