Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After a much-needed off day, the Dodgers (20-11) head to St. Louis to follow up a disappointing series against the Marlins. The Dodgers came into the series on a high after blowing a series opener against the Cubs and scored 18 runs in two games to take that series. They started the Marlins series strong enough with a comeback victory, but only managed three runs in the final two games of that series and lost a series against a sub-.500 team with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow making the starts. Not exactly how you draw it up. Today, they open a six-game road trip with three against the surprising Cardinals. St. Louis was expected to be one of the worse teams in baseball, but have started 18-13 which is only good for third in the NL Central. They’re five games over .500 despite a -3 run differential. Like the Dodgers, St. Louis dropped two of three against the Marlins and got swept by the Mariners to move to only a game above .500, but swept a four-game set in Pittsburgh and put up four earned runs in five innings against Paul Skenes yesterday. Former top prospect Jordan Walker is starting to live up to that hype with a .906 OPS this season and they have four regulars OPSing over .800, which is more than the Dodgers. Things haven’t been as smooth on the pitching side, with the fifth-highest team ERA (4.76) and third-highest team FIP (4.74) in baseball. They have seemingly found their new closer in Riley O’Brien, who hasn’t allowed an earned run in 14 of his 15 outings. He’s blown two saves, but one came via a Manfred runner. The other came two appearances ago against the Mariners, where he allowed the only two earned runs he’s allowed this season. He’s struck out 17 batters in 15 1/3 innings and has only issued one walk (with two hit batsmen).
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| 5:15 P.M. | St. Louis | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | 2B | Wetherholt (L) |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | DH | Herrera |
| C | Smith | 1B | Burleson (L) |
| LF | T. Hernández | RF | Walker |
| RF | Tucker (L) | 3B | Gorman (L) |
| CF | Pages | SS | Winn |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | LF | Church (L) |
| SS | Rojas | C | Pagés |
| 2B | Espinal | CF | Scott II (L) |
| P | Sheehan (R) | P | Liberatore (L) |
Emmet Sheehan gets the ball for the Dodgers coming off his best start of the season against the Cubs. Sheehan held the Cubs to four baserunners over six shutout innings and matched a career-high with 10 strikeouts, but things fell apart in the seventh. He stayed in and got a popout but gave up a single before getting pulled for Alex Vesia, who started probably the worst bullpen performance for the Dodgers this season. Vesia allowed that single to score to give Sheehan an earned run and gave up two runs of his own, before Blake Treinen gave up the tying run in the eighth and Tanner Scott gave up two in the ninth for a 6-4 loss. Sheehan had a rough start to the season allowing three or more runs in each of his first three starts, but has only allowed three in his last two outings combined. Sheehan changed up his pitch usage in that game, throwing a slider more than the fastball for the first time this season. He threw 43 sliders and the Cubs went 1-for-11 with six strikeouts against it. Sheehan made his first and only start against the Cardinals last August, allowing two unearned runs and four hits in five innings. The second inning started with a Max Muncy error and Sheehan got the next two outs which would have gotten him out of the inning, but gave up a homer to Nolan Gorman for his two runs.
Matthew Liberatore makes his seventh start of the season. He’s had three excellent starts and three not so excellent starts, adding up to a 4.75 ERA/6.40 ERA in 30 1/3 innings. Liberatore started the season with a pair of good starts, allowing a run in five innings and a run in six innings against the Rays and Mets. He followed that up with back-to-back starts allowing four runs in five innings. He allowed one run in six innings in Houston, but last time out he gave up five runs and eight hits in only 3 1/3 against the Mariners. Liberatore’s faced the Dodgers seven times in his career but six came as a reliever. He made his only start against the Dodgers in LA last season and allowed two earned runs (one unearned) in four innings. Ohtani hit a two-run homer off him in the third, and Andy Pages led the fourth off with a single before advancing to second on a wild pitch and scored on a throwing error while stealing third.
Liberatore’s underlying numbers have not been great. He’s only struck out 19 batters in 30 1/3 innings which gives up a 14.1 percent strikeout rate, the fourth-lowest among pitchers with 30+ innings. He’s been tracked throwing seven different pitch types this season, but four of those fall under 10 percent. He leads with a four seamer (35.6 percent) and a slider (25.6 percent) and mixes in a changeup to righties (16.5 percent total usage but 22 percent usage against righties). He’s also thrown a curve (9.9 percent), sinker (8.9 percent), cutter (2.2 percent) and splitter (1.4 percent). His slider and change are his only pitches with higher than a 10 percent whiff rate and 12 of his 19 strikeouts have come off the slider.
The Dodgers roll with a righty-heavy lineup, starting Miguel Rojas at short and Santiago Espinal at second.
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Not really any update news before I’m scheduling this post, but Brock Stewart took another step in his rehab and could be back soon.
The rehabbing Brock Stewart cleared the all-important back-to-back hurdle. After a scoreless inning last night, he finished an inning tonight, striking out his only batter faced.
— Alex Freedman (@azfreedman) May 1, 2026
He's up to 9 strikeouts over 4.1 scoreless innings in his time with OKC.#Dodgers
Stewart went back-to-back for the first time which is generally the final test before activation. He tossed a scoreless inning on Wednesday and struck out his only batter on Thursday. If this is it, he finishes his rehab assignment with two walks and three hits allowed in 4 1/3 shutout innings across five outings. I doubt it would happen, but Treinen getting DFA’d in St. Louis would make me more happy than it should.
In other rehab news, Blake Snell is with the team in St. Louis.
Blake Snell is with the Dodgers in St.Louis and is throwing a bullpen.
— Adrian Medina (@AdrianMedina_16) May 1, 2026
He struck out 6 in his last rehab outing and is slated to join OKC Comets for his 3rd rehab start. #Dodgers pic.twitter.com/QJQ4as6PW6
He threw a bullpen today and with the Dodgers away from the West Coast, he’ll make his next start in OKC. His second rehab start went much better on Tuesday, as he allowed one hit over three shutout innings. He threw 39 pitches and 29 went for strikes.
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First pitch is scheduled for 5:15 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.
