Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (24-16) continued their stretch of bad baseball, dropping two of three over the weekend against Atlanta. The offense somehow put up three runs against Chris Sale in the win on Friday night, but only managed two ninth inning runs on Saturday and two eighth inning runs on Sunday in a pair of 7-2 losses. Blake Snell returned off the IL with a typically Snell start on Saturday, needing 77 pitches to get through three innings and had some rough batted ball luck but generated 16 whiffs. Justin Wrobleski followed suit with both his longest start and his best start of the season regarding strikeouts (7) and whiffs (13), but had to wear it and gave up seven runs on seven hits in 8 2/3 innings. It continued a rough stretch for the Dodgers, who were 16-6 after leaving Colorado on April 20 and are 8-10 since.
That patch started in their first series against todays’ opponent, the Giants. The Dodgers went up to San Francisco and dropped the first two games, scoring only one run in the first two games before winning the finale 3-0. While the Dodgers have struggled since that season, it could be a lot worse. The Giants were inching towards .500 in that series, but have gone 5-10 since. Sequencing is a funny thing, as the Giants and Dodgers have won the same number of series since they faced off (2). The Giants are coming off a series win against the Pirates, taking the rubber match in 12 innings yesterday. Dodger-killer Patrick Bailey is gone, as they surprisingly traded him to Cleveland for a pitching prospect and a draft pick on Saturday.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| RF | Lee (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| 2B | Arraez (L) | SS | Betts |
| 1B | Schmitt | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| DH | Devers (L) | RF | Tucker (L) |
| LF | Ramos | C | Smith |
| SS | Adames | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| 3B | Chapman | CF | Pages |
| CF | Bader | LF | T. Hernández |
| C | Rodriguez | 2B | Kim (L) |
| P | McDonald (R) | P | Sasaki (R) |
Roki Sasaki gets the ball after being pushed back a few days with Snell’s return. Sasaki last pitched April 2nd in St. Louis and completed six innings for the second time in his career. He worked around some traffic for two shutout innings before giving up two doubles and a homer for a three-run third before recording an out in the inning. He allowed another double with two outs in the inning but stranded that runner, but didn’t allow another baserunner over the next three innings to keep the Dodgers in the game and save the bullpen a bit. It didn’t matter much as the Dodgers only had four hits through 8 2/3 scoreless innings before threatening late, with four consecutive two-out singles to bring the game within a run. Today is Sasaki’s first look at the Giants.
Rookie Trevor McDonald gets his second start of the season and fourth career start (sixth appearance overall) for the Giants. McDonald was called up Saturday after Logan Webb hit the IL but made his season-debut a week ago against the Padres. McDonald allowed a first inning solo homer to Jackson Merrill, but only allowed one other hit and one HBP over the next six innings to give him a seven-inning, two hit outing with eight strikeouts and no walks. McDonald is the Giants’ 16th-ranked prospect on MLB Pipeline but has been excellent in his limited time in the Majors. He made his debut in the final game of the 2024 season and tossed the final three innings of a 6-1 Giants loss to the Cardinals, but threw three no-hit innings. He made three appearances last season and allowed three earned runs (three other unearned) over 15 innings. McDonald started against the Dodgers last September 21 and only struck out three, but threw six shutout innings with four hits allowed. They kept him in to start the seventh inning and things unraveled a bit with a leadoff walk and back-to-back singles for the first run of the game. Spencer Bivens relieved McDonald and stranded both runners to keep it a 1-0 game, and Blake Treinen came in and immediately gave up three runs for a 3-1 Giant win.
According to Pipeline, McDonald has a three quarters delivery that makes it hard to pick up the ball. It makes sense that with that delivery, his slider has been his best pitch. Pipeline gave it a 60 grade and he’s only allowed four hits on 147 sliders in his short Major League career. He threw that slider more than half the time last season (50.5 percent) and allowed two singles, a double and a homer while posting a 36.4 percent whiff rate. McDonald changed up his pitch usage a bit against the Padres in his start this season, throwing a sinker 63 percent of the time and a slider 30.9 percent of the time. He also threw three changeups (which is the pitch Merrill hit out) and two cutters.
Mookie Betts returns, starting at short and hitting second. Teoscar Hernandez slides down to eighth in the order, and Hyeseong Kim starts at second and hits ninth.
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Betts is back, and Alex Freeland got the short end of the roster crunch.
It will indeed be Alex Freeland who is optioned today for Mookie Betts. With Kim’s improved play + no guaranteed playing time, Dodgers believe it’s best for Freeland long-term to get consistent ABs in Triple A.@ByJackHarris first https://t.co/Vd7fXRbd47
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) May 11, 2026
Freeland won the second base job out of Spring but hasn’t been able to put it together outside of a couple games. His overall numbers aren’t pretty with a .235/.309/.337 slash line and 32 strikeouts/11 walks in 112 plate appearances. Kim has been good in his playing time since Betts’ injury with a .289/.353/.395 slash and 18 strikeouts/eight walks in 82 plate appearances and while Santiago Espinal has been worse, it makes sense to not keep Freeland up if he’s going to be sitting on the bench. Espinal’s probably next on the chopping block when another utility guy gets healthy, likely Enrique Hernandez who continues to rehab with OKC.
There were also some contractual considerations that went into the decision.
They extended it, suggesting he was gonna stick around through this and then be jettisoned later. https://t.co/rOhDLmhwE1
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) May 12, 2026
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.
