Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (13-4) came out on top in a pitchers’ duel that lived up to the hype last night, with aces Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Nolan Mclean combining to allow two runs and six hits in 14 2/3 innings. The Mets (7-11) blinked first as Brooks Raley came in in the eighth and walked Miguel Rojas, who moved to second on a Santiago Espinal sac bunt. They intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani to bring up Kyle Tucker, who blooped a single to left to put the Dodgers up 2-1, setting the scene for an emotional Alex Vesia save.
Alex Vesia strikes out the side on just 10 pitches for the save plus reactions, including the suite of healthcare workers that supported him and his wife through their ordeal. pic.twitter.com/Vw2skZqkcp
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) April 15, 2026
The Dodgers have now won the first two games of a series for the fourth consecutive series. They finished off a sweep in Washington, but dropped the finales in Toronto and against the Rangers over the weekend.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| SS | Lindor (S) | RF | Tucker (L) |
| CF | Robert Jr. | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 1B | Baty (L) | C | Smith |
| 3B | Bichette | LF | T. Hernández |
| C | Alvarez | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| RF | Benge (L) | CF | Pages |
| 2B | Semien | DH | Rushing (L) |
| DH | Melendez (L) | SS | Kim (L) |
| LF | Pham | 2B | Freeland (S) |
| P | Holmes (R) | P | Ohtani (R) |
Ohtani makes his third start of the season and still hasn’t allowed an earned run. He’s gone exactly six innings in each of his two previous starts. In his season debut against the Guardians, he only allowed one hit and struck out six batters but did walk three and hit a batter. He started the finale in Toronto and allowed four hits and only one walk, but only struck out two Jays. He also gave up his lone run of the season after he walked Daulton Varsho and Will Smith allowed a passed ball before a run-scoring double. Ohtani’s pitch count has been in the normal starter range, with 87 pitches in his debut and 96 pitches his last time out. Ohtani’s never faced the Mets as a pitcher and has only faced three current Mets. Marcus Semien is 4-for-20 with six strikeouts and two walks against Ohtani. Luis Robert Jr. is only 1-for-8 with six strikeouts, and Bo Bichette has the lone extra base hit against Ohtani (a double) and is 2-for-5 with a walk and three strikeouts.
Clay Holmes gets his fourth start of the season for the Mets. He’s been excellent in his first three, with three runs and 12 hits allowed in 18 innings. It could be a bit of fool’s gold, as he’s only struck out 12 batters in those 18 innings and has walked eight. He’s also faced some not-quite-powerhouse offenses in St. Louis, San Francisco and Oakland/Sacramento/Vegas (the 18th, 26th and 24th best team OPS’s in baseball, respectively). Holmes made the first start of his career against the Dodgers back in 2018 as a Pirate and it did not go well, as he allowed four runs and five hits with two strikeouts and three walks in only 2 1/3 innings. That was his only start against the Dodgers, but he’s faced them seven other times as a reliever. He’s only allowed one run and five hits in eight innings of relief against the Dodgers in his career and has still not allowed a homer against them.
Holmes leads with a sinker, which he throws 47.9 percent of the time. Among starters with more than 10 innings pitched, Holmes has the highest ground ball rate at 61.5 percent and batters are only 5-for-30 off the sinker with two doubles. He’s thrown a sweeper 17.2 percent of the time (45 total) and still hasn’t allowed a hit on it and has a 50 percent whiff rate (how does one have a 50 percent whiff rate on an odd number of pitches?). He’s also thrown a change (14.6 percent), cutter (12.6 percent), curve (6.9 percent) and four-seamer (0.8 percent).
A bit of a shocker at the top of the lineup for the Dodgers, as Ohtani is not in there as a hitter. Tucker leads off and Dalton Rushing gets the start as the DH.
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Shohei Ohtani is starting on the mound but not in the lineup today. He was hit by a pitch in the shoulder on Monday and is feeling some soreness. The Dodgers wanted to take hitting off his plate so he could focus on the one thing tonight.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) April 15, 2026
Ohtani got hit in the shoulder in the first game against the Mets and was reportedly managing the soreness in between ABs yesterday. This marks the first time Ohtani has started a game on the hill and not been in the lineup as a hitter since 2021, when he did so a few times before MLB added a rule to keep him in the lineup after being removed as a pitcher. Ohtani threw five shutout innings last time he didn’t also hit, but things unravelled after five. He allowed a sac fly but got through the sixth and came back out for the seventh, which started with two walks and an RBI single to chase him from the game (and a third earned run scored on one of his inherited runners).
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A few injury updates today, starting with Blake Snell.
Another step forward for Snell as he works his way back from a shoulder injury.
Brock Stewart had his first rehab outings last night in Ontario and struck out all three batters he faced.
Brock Stewart struck out all three batters he faced in his first rehab game with Single-A Ontario.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) April 15, 2026
Dave Roberts said pregame that it's a Spring Training-like buildup for Stewart, and he'll probably be on the rehab assignment for three weeks.
He needed 15 pitches for his three strikeouts and will basically be having his Spring Training now.
Finally, Edwin Diaz is allegedly available to pitch tonight after not being used again in a save situation last night. After the game last night, Roberts said that Diaz threw a bullpen yesterday and needed the ok from the training staff before he returned to game action. He seemingly got that today, and should be able to pitch if needed.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be exclusively on ESPN.
