Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (15-4) began their seven game road trip last night with a comfortable 7-1 win against the Rockies (7-13) in the series opener. They took the lead in the first inning and never looked back, scoring in each of the first five innings while Tyler Glasnow cruised to his second win of the year. Every starter in the lineup aside from Teoscar Hernández had at least one hit, highlighted by Max Muncy who had two homers and a double. The bullpen was very rested coming into this series, and was aided even further with Glasnow going seven innings and Jack Dreyer covering the remaining two. They have twelve games over the next twelve days, so keeping the bullpen rested as much as possible will be very beneficial over this upcoming stretch. Last night was their fifth consecutive win, and they’ll look to keep things going tonight with Emmet Sheehan on the mound, up against the right-handed Ryan Feltner.
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| 5:10 P.M. | Denver | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | 2B | Julien (L) |
| RF | Tucker (L) | RF | Moniak (L) |
| CF | Pages | DH | Rumfield (L) |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | C | Goodman |
| LF | T. Hernández | SS | Tovar |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | 1B | Johnston (L) |
| C | Rushing (L) | CF | Doyle |
| 2B | Freeland (S) | 3B | Karros |
| SS | Rojas | LF | Beck |
| P | Sheehan (R) | P | Feltner (R) |
Both teams make some tweaks heading into the second game of this four game set. The Dodgers give Will Smith the day off amidst this stretch of the schedule with games for nearly two weeks straight. Dalton Rushing has been Dalton Crushing in his limited playing time, most recently hitting a grand slam off of Devin Williams in the eighth inning to secure the sweep against the Mets (7-14). He has an OPS of 1.909 in 18 plate appearances and looks to be finding his power stroke early this year. Miguel Rojas gets the start at shortstop over Hyeseong Kim who has also been playing well in the absence of Mookie Betts. Andy Pages will hit third in place of Smith, which is appropriate for the guy hitting .412 with a 1.144 OPS.
Hunter Goodman starts behind the plate tonight in place of Brett Sullivan, while Jordan Beck starts in left field over Jake McCarthy. Ezequiel Tovar had a hit last night as did Mickey Moniak, but Glasnow stifled Colorado’s offense all night. Emmet Sheehan is inherently an easier matchup for Colorado, but Sheehan had his best outing of the year his last time out.
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Sheehan last started against the Texas Rangers, earning his second win of the year despite giving up three earned runs. He looked like Sheehan of old despite the final line, he just simply couldn’t find a way to get Brandon Nimmo out. Nimmo hit two home runs against him, one on the second pitch of the game, and added a two-run shot in the sixth inning. Sandwiched in between the Nimmo homers was a much improved Sheehan, with his average fastball velocity up nearly a full tick at 95.2 mph. Even more importantly, he held most of his velocity as the game progressed, a significant concern in his first couple outings. He generated 16 whiffs including 11 on the slider, and struck out six while walking just one batter. It’s always tough to pitch in Colorado, but the Rockies have been struggling mightily at the plate lately.
Feltner will be making his fourth start of the year tonight, looking to improve upon his 7.30 ERA, 6.32 FIP, and 1.70 WHIP through 12.1 innings. He had a solid scoreless three inning outing in his season opener, but has given up ten earned runs across his two most recent outings. He had a 4.75 ERA with the Rockies last year in 30.1 innings, but needs to take a step forward in either command or stuff to improve upon his results over the last couple years. His velocity is up 1.6 mph this season, sitting at 95.2 on his four-seam fastball after averaging 93.6 last season. Adding velocity always helps, and he has a full six-pitch mix, featuring a sinker, slider, sweeper, curve, and changeup. He faced the Dodgers just once last year, and allowed five earned runs across 2.2 innings in Los Angeles, where he walked six batters and logged just one strikeout. He’ll look to get his season back on track tonight, but the Dodgers are swinging the bat well lately.
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If the Dodgers jump out to a big lead like they did last night, I wouldn’t be surprised if the team got Ryan Ward in the game to make his MLB debut. Dave Roberts said that the corresponding move isn’t injury related, which is encouraging.
Update
Actually, no roster move just yet.
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First pitch is at 5:10 PT on SNLA.
