Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (95-52) may have stumbled against their NL West competitors during their historic and frustrating 11-game losing streak this month, but they looked like the pre-losing streak team against the NL East division champion Nationals (89-58) during a lopsided 7-0 win in the series opener Friday. Grab a cup of coffee for the Saturday morning matchup in Washington D.C. as the Boys in Blue aim to extend their lead over the Nats to seven games for the best record in the NL and pick up their fourth straight win.
|
Dodgers
|
Nationals
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
10:05 AM PT
|
Washington D.C.
|
|||
|
2B
|
Utley |
SS
|
Turner | |
|
SS
|
Seager |
LF
|
Kendrick | |
|
3B
|
Turner |
2B
|
Murphy | |
|
1B
|
Bellinger |
1B
|
Zimmerman | |
|
RF
|
Puig |
3B
|
Rendon | |
|
LF
|
Granderson |
RF
|
Werth | |
|
C
|
Barnes | CF | Taylor | |
|
CF
|
Pederson |
C
|
Severino | |
|
P
|
Hill (L) |
P
|
Cole (R) |
Rich Hill (9-8, 3.67 ERA, 3.98) makes his 23rd start of the year for the Dodgers, looking for his first win since August 18. In his last start, against Colorado, Hill went five innings and allowed two runs on four hits in the 8-1 loss to the Rockies.
The last time Hill pitched at Nationals Park was in Game 5 of the NLDS, the game Clayton Kershaw famously saved. Hill lost his command and lost Game 2 of the series, lasting only 4 1/3 innings after he allowed four runs on six hits in the 5-2 Dodgers loss. Even though he imploded in Game 2, Hill did come back to pitch admirably in Game 5 on short rest despite some bad luck and a comebacker off the wrist to start the game off.
Hill is 1-1 with a 4.34 ERA in four career regular season games (three starts) against the Nationals. His last start against D.C. during the regular season was in 2009 when he was with Baltimore. A successful start against Washington on Saturday would go a long way considering these two teams will likely meet up again this postseason.
The Nationals send rookie right-hander A.J. Cole (2-4, 4.30 ERA, 5.28 FIP), a September call-up, to the mound for a spot start against the veteran Hill. His last two appearances for the Nats have come out of the bullpen, and the Nats lost both those games to the Phillies and Braves. Dusty Baker doesn’t expect to keep Cole in his starting rotation after Saturday, but he’s looking to keep his starters fresh down the stretch with some extra rest.
Cole has made six starts for Washington this season and has never faced the Dodgers. Curtis Granderson and Chase Utley are the only current Dodgers to ever have faced Cole, and they’re both in the starting lineup.
Just a reminder that this game is exclusively on FOX.
——
Brandon McCarthy will be activated next week.
Roberts said Brandon McCarthy will join #Dodgers in LA and come off DL next week. Might pitch out of bullpen “to see what that looks like”
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) September 16, 2017
For all the Barnesy fans:
Austin Barnes is likely to start tomorrow night against Stephen Strasburg.
— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughTimes) September 16, 2017
Finally, sleeping in is not an option.
Dave Roberts spoke with Alex Verdugo, who showed up late today. Verdugo said he overslept. Roberts told him it couldn’t happen again.
— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughTimes) September 16, 2017
Set your alarm clocks, boys.
