Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers open a 3-game series with the Pirates tonight behind Ross Stripling. He’s coming off one of his more impressive outings of the season, holding the Red Sox scoreless on Saturday. Unrelated, the last time the two teams played, Clayton Kershaw had his worst outing of the season. He hasn’t pitched since.
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Pirates
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Dodgers
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7:10 p.m. PT
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Los Angeles
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| 2B | Harrison | 2B | Utley | |
| LF | Marte | SS | Seager | |
| CF | McCutchen | 3B | Turner | |
| RF | Polanco | RF | Reddick | |
| 3B | Freese | 1B | Gonzalez | |
| SS | Mercer | C | Grandal | |
| 1B | Rodriguez | CF | Pederson | |
| C | Fryer | LF | Kendrick | |
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P
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Nova (R)
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P
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Stripling (R)
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Pretty standard lineup of late. Once Josh Reddick gets back on track, I’d like to see him moved into the leadoff spot and Chase Utley dropped in the order. Utley still has a decent .326 on-base percentage, but since his incredible 2-home run game against the Mets on May 28 (53 games), he’s slashing just .214/.277/.316 with 13 walks and extra-base hits. Most of that has come atop the Dodger lineup, and he’s 37 years old, so it’d be foolish to expect he’d continue producing at the level he was in the season’s first two months.
Here’s some news from those on the beat.
Brandon McCarthy will start Saturday and Brett Anderson on Sunday, Dave Roberts says.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) August 12, 2016
Brandon McCarthy has been bad his last three starts, which I wrote about earlier. Brett Anderson will make his season debut on Sunday. It’d be nice if those fellas could provide some much-needed innings from the starting rotation.
Brandon McCarthy says he's ready to go for Saturday. Made some minor mechanical tweaks, hopes it helps his fastball command.
— Jack Baer (@JFordBaer) August 12, 2016
Here’s hoping!
Roberts said Julio Urias will pitch as long man out of #Dodgers bullpen for now
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) August 12, 2016
My analysis of how the Dodgers are handling Julio Urias‘ development this season:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Also, happy 20th birthday to him.
Joe Blanton is back from bereavement leave. Luis Avilan has been optioned.
— Andy McCullough (@ByMcCullough) August 12, 2016
Glad to have Joe Blanton back. I have no idea what has happened to Luis Avilan.
#Dodgers Clayton Kershaw played catch again today. Dave Roberts hesitant to say anything but still optimistic more progress "on the horizon"
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) August 13, 2016
I’ll believe it when I see it.
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