Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (61-33) came away with a hard-fought series win against the Rockies on Wednesday as Mookie Betts‘ eighth inning RBI single gave the Dodgers a 4-3 win. All three games in the series were decided by a run, with the Dodgers winning the first and third games to remain 14.5 games up in the NL West.
Today, they welcome the technically-second-place Diamondbacks to LA for the final three games before the All-Star Break. The Diamondbacks and Padres split a four-game set in San Diego to start this week with Arizona taking the win in the finale yesterday. Arizona and San Diego are both 14.5 games back of the Dodgers and both 5.5 games out of a Wild Card spot. This is the third series between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks this season and they’ll only meet one more time this season. The Dodgers opened the season against Arizona and swept them in LA, outscoring them 16-8 in the three-game set. They played again in Arizona in June and split a four-game set with Arizona winning the first and last games and the Dodgers winning the middle two. Arizona finished that series three games above .500 and 6.5 games back in the division, and now five weeks later they’re a game below .500 and 14.5 games back.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| DH | Marte (S) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| SS | Perdomo (S) | CF | Pages |
| RF | Carroll (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| C | Moreno | SS | Betts |
| LF | Gurriel Jr. | 3B | Edman (S) |
| 2B | Vargas (S) | RF | Tucker (L) |
| 3B | Arenado | LF | T. Hernández |
| CF | Waldschmidt | 2B | Rojas |
| 1B | Tawa | C | Rushing (L) |
| P | Rodriguez (L) | P | Hurt (R) |
Shohei Ohtani was supposed to make his final pre-All-Star start today, but that won’t happen.
Full release from the Dodgers: https://t.co/VwWTxmMydd pic.twitter.com/9bOhEHnw9p
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) July 10, 2026
News on Shohei Ohtani, who was scratched from today's start with left knee irritation and will not play in this year's All Star Game. He will have his knee drained over the break and then will likely receive an injection.
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) July 10, 2026
More here, unlocked: https://t.co/hrWLoDwzS0
Ohtani was scratched with irritation in his knee like he’s been dealing with for a while now. He will still DH, but won’t pitch today and will use the All-Star Break to reportedly have his knee drained and get an injection. Remember last week how they let Ohtani throw 110 pitches to get through six innings for some reason. Kyle Hurt will start today and has maxed out at 26 pitches so far this season, but he was a starter in college and for most of his time in the minors before getting called up. The Dodger bullpen should be very well rested with a day off yesterday. Most of the big relievers threw in the finale on Wednesday, but Jack Dreyer and Edgardo Henriquez only threw 5 and 2 pitches, respectively. Alex Vesia threw 18 and Tanner Scott needed 11 for the save.
Eduardo Rodriguez makes his 19th start of the season for Arizona. Rodriguez is one of the Diamondbacks’ two All-Stars (along with Corbin Carroll) with a 2.25 ERA in 108 innings pitched this season. Rodriguez started the season pretty well, but kicked it up a notch at the beginning of May. He finished April with a 3.03 ERA, and in 12 starts since he’s posted a 1.91 and allowed more than two runs in only two of the 12 starts. He’s completed six or more innings 10 times in that span as well. One of his short starts was extremely weird, as he needed 85 pitches to record eight outs in Cincinnati and issued a season-high five walks. Rodriguez has been excellent in his two starts against the Dodgers this season, allowing one earned run (and one unearned) and nine hits in 11 innings. It’s impressive for a sub-.500 team to be 13-5 when one pitcher starts, but that’s the Diamondbacks’ record when Rodriguez takes the ball.
Rodriguez has had great results, but his underlying metrics have been pretty terrible.
That second half regression gonna be crazy. His xERA of 5.01 is the seventh-worst among qualified starters. Something must be in the water in Arizona, because the two worst xERA’s this season have been Merrill Kelly (7.47) and Zac Gallen (6.53). Their ERA’s are a lot more indicative of those numbers (5.38 and 6.34 respectively), but Rodriguez has been able to limit the runs. He has the sixth-worst difference between his 16.9 percent strikeout rate and 8.7 percent walk rate in baseball (again, Kelly and Gallen are the two worst at this). The average LOB rate for a pitcher is around 70 percent per Fangraphs, but Rodriguez has the second-best in baseball at 86.5 percent.
Max Muncy gets the day off against a lefty with Tommy Edman getting the start at third. Miguel Rojas starts at second.
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Ohtani is DHing today and should be fine to hit this weekend.
Dave Roberts said Shohei Ohtani would be pitching today if it were a postseason game. The plan is to have him DH and be available to pitch coming out of the All-Star break.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) July 10, 2026
This sounds like a thing the Dodgers say before a guy is out until 2033. He’s expected to slot back into the rotation after the break and he supposedly would have been able to pitch today if it was a playoff game.
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There’s a timetable for Enrique Hernandez‘s return.
The Dodgers kick off the second half with a nine-game east coast road trip with a little break to hang with a fascist. They return to LA on July 28 for six games against Seattle and Boston, and Kiké expects to be back during that time if things go well in his rehab assignment.
Kiké Hernández said he will not be going to the White House when #Dodgers visit July 23 — because he will be on rehab assignment in minors. Would he go if he were on the active roster? “Probably not”
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) July 10, 2026
My guy.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.
