Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (56-30) won another blowout last night, taking down the A’s 9-3 to secure Dave Roberts‘ 1,000th career victory as a manager. The offense has scored nine runs in both games in Sacramento and they’ve gotten quality starts from Eric Lauer and Justin Wrobleski in a very hitter-friendly environment. They’re 7-1 on this road trip and have scored nine or more runs in four of their eight games, which seems good. Today they look to finish off a sweep of the A’s with a chance to grow their NL West lead to 13 thanks to a 23-3 Cub win over the Padres earlier.
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| 6:40 P.M. | Sacramento | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | DH | Langeliers |
| CF | Pages | 1B | Kurtz (L) |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | LF | Thomas |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | C | Heim (S) |
| RF | Tucker (L) | 3B | Kuroda-Grauer |
| LF | Edman (S) | RF | Butler (L) |
| 2B | Freeland (S) | CF | Bolte |
| SS | Rojas | 2B | McNeil (L) |
| C | Robinson | SS | Williams |
| P | Dreyer (L) | P | Ginn (R) |
The Dodgers opted to go with a bullpen game today rather than let Shohei Ohtani‘s ERA potentially die in this ballpark. Ohtani will start Friday at home against the Padres, and the Dodgers roll with a bullpen game starting with Jack Dreyer. The bullpen is actually in a solid place with only three relievers that are still on the team being used in the first two games of the series. Kyle Hurt and Dreyer each threw on Monday (15 and 12 pitches, respectively) and Brock Stewart threw 16 pitches yesterday. Jonathan Hernandez and Wyatt Mills were also used in Sacramento, but Hernandez was DFA’d and Mills was optioned today for Charlie Barnes. Barnes made two one-inning appearances for the Dodgers in May against the Angels, but has been a starter at OKC since and thrown 70+ pitches in each of his six starts there. He hasn’t pitched since Thursday and figures to be available for a bulk role today.
The A’s counter with former Dodger draft pick J.T. Ginn. The Dodgers selected Ginn in the first round of the 2018 draft and couldn’t come to an agreement with him, and he got drafted in the second round two years later by the Mets. Ginn’s been the best starter for the A’s this season (at least until Gage Jump got called up), with a 3.15 ERA in 88 2/3 innings over 18 appearances. Ginn started the season as a bulk reliever, giving up four runs in seven innings over his first three outings. They moved him into the rotation and he’s been pretty excellent, with a 2.98 ERA in his 15 starts and only two starts allowing more than three runs. Ginn has hit a little bit of a rough patch in his last two starts, allowing three runs in back-to-back starts against the Angels. Ginn’s been predictably worse at home, with a 4.07 ERA at home and a 2.31 ERA on the road. He’s actually allowed twice as many homers on the road, but has issued significantly more walks (22) and fewer strikeouts (29) at home than on the road (14 and 49). Ginn has never faced the Dodgers and has only ever faced one current Dodger. Chuckie Robinson is 1-for-2 against him.
Ginn is a sinkerballer and generates grounders 47.2 percent of the time, good for 14th-highest among qualified starters. He throws five different pitch types over 10 percent, but has very split usage against lefties and righties. Overall, he throws a sinker 34 percent of the time and a cutter, change, slider and four-seamer each between 10 and 20 percent of the time. Against righties, he uses his sinker 51.9 percent of the time, slider 21.5 percent of the time and a cutter 15.3 percent of the time while barely using his four-seamer or change. Against lefties, he relies on his changeup 29.2 percent of the time, cutter 21.9 percent and sinker 21.4 percent and throws a four-seamer 15 percent and a slider 12.6 percent). Each of his five pitches have over a 20 percent whiff rate.
Teoscar Hernandez gets the day off, with Tommy Edman getting the start in left and Alex Freeland starting at second. Robinson gets the start behind the plate. Mookie Betts was scratched from the lineup and Miguel Rojas gets a start against a righty.
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MLB’s Futures Game rosters were announced and the Dodgers will send Josue De Paula and Mike Sirota to Philly.
Josue De Paula, Mike Sirota will rep the #Dodgers at the Futures Game in Philly. https://t.co/GmEJf4qZlb
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) July 1, 2026
The Dodgers have six outfielders on MLB Pipeline’s new Top-100 prospect list, and two of them will feature in the Futures Game. JDP has a .948 OPS in Double A and is only three homers shy of his career-high with 13. Sirota has a 1.045 OPS split between Single and Double A and has a 64-game on-base streak heading into today. Former Dodger prospect Thayron Liranzo will also be there representing the Tigers.
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In absolutely shocking news that no one could have seen coming, Will Smith will be out until after the All-Star Break.
Will Smith (neck) won’t return until after the ASB, Dave Roberts said. No long-term concern, but Smith still hasn’t started resuming baseball activity.
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) July 1, 2026
“Certainly longer than all of us expected,” Roberts said of Smith’s absence.
All of us? He also reportedly said Enrique Hernandez won’t be back until after the break, but I figured that went without saying. On the other hand, Evan Phillips does figure to be back soon.
#Dodgers Dave Roberts did say Evan Phillips is expected back before AS break. Has checked all the boxes on his rehab just needs to be “normal reliever — pitch when the phone rings” rather than scheduled appearances
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) July 1, 2026
Phillips began his rehab assignment on June 4, so the 30 day rehab assignment max will be hit on Saturday. Phillips hasn’t pitched a full inning in each of his last four rehab outings, but ticked the back-to-back requirement and figures to be back on the homestand.
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First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
