Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After an off day yesterday, the Dodgers wrap up their homestand with a two-game series against the Padres. The Dodgers split their four-game weekend set against the Nationals, as they rode another dominant Hyun-Jin Ryu start to their 27th win of the season on Sunday. Today, they play their first of two against San Diego before another off day Thursday as begin an eight-game road trip in Cincinnati. This marks the Padres first visit to LA this season. The Dodgers went to San Diego and took two of three last week, coming back against the Padres bullpen in both wins but losing on their own bullpen failure in the finale. The Padres are coming off a series in Colorado where they allowed 26 runs in three games. They won the middle game of the series, but allowed 10 and 12 runs in the other two games.
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Padres
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Dodgers
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7:10 p.m.
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Los Angeles
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2B
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Kinsler |
LF
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Pederson | |
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RF
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Reyes |
1B
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Muncy | |
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SS
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Machado |
3B
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Turner | |
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LF
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Renfroe |
RF
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Bellinger | |
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1B
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Hosmer |
CF
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Verdugo | |
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3B
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France |
SS
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Seager | |
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CF
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Myers | 2B | Taylor | |
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C
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Hedges |
C
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Barnes | |
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P
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Paddack (R) |
P
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Kershaw (L) |
Clayton Kershaw makes his sixth start of the season tonight and is coming off a weird outing against the Braves last time out. He went 6 2/3 innings and allowed a season-high nine hits while striking out a season-low four batters. Kershaw looked mostly fine through six innings and got the two first outs of the seventh, but allowed a pair of swinging-bunt singles before a Josh Donaldson single gave the Braves a third run off Kershaw. Kershaw was pulled with two outs, and Scott Alexander allowed another single to give Kershaw a fourth earned run. Kershaw has gone at least six innings in each of his five starts, but has allowed five homers and hasn’t been quite the dominant Kershaw he used to be. The Dodgers haven’t lost any of his starts yet, but that might be a tougher task tonight as the Padres send out their ace.
Chris Paddack makes his eighth start of the season tonight. The 23-year-old rookie currently is a few innings shy of becoming a qualified starter and likely will after tonight. Among pitchers with 40 innings pitched this season, Paddack owns the second-lowest ERA (1.55), lowest WHIP (0.69) (nice) and the ninth-best strikeout rate (30.7 percent) in baseball. His .176 BABIP *probably* isn’t super sustainable, but Paddack has been a legit ace so far in 2019. He’s been elite in nearly all the not-spin-rate-related categories on Baseball Savant.
Paddack has a simple three-pitch mix. He throws a fastball 57.5 percent of the time with an average velocity just under 94 MPH. His changeup is roughly 10 MPH slower on average and he throws it 32.5 percent of the time. Paddack also throws a curveball 10 percent of the time.
Manny Machado makes his first visit to Dodger Stadium since signing in San Diego. He bats third and took Kershaw deep when they met in San Diego. Fernando Tatis Jr. remains sidelined and won’t be back tomorrow either, so the Dodgers will have to wait for their next Padres series to get their first look at him.
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This morning, the big unfortunate news surrounding Julio Urias‘ arrest broke. Dustin did a great job breaking that down.
Dustin pretty much captures my thoughts on it. Since that post, Urias was placed on administrative leave while MLB investigates the incident. After that investigation, we should know more and have a better idea of what options the Dodgers have.
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In the meantime, the Dodgers have replaced Urias on the active roster.
JT Chargois has been called up for the second time this season.
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Chargois got the call over rehabbing lefties Caleb Ferguson and Tony Cingrani. Cingrani will reportedly remain on a rehab assignment, but Ferguson will be back shortly.
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The Dodgers have a bunch of Mondays and Thursdays off in May, which allows them to move around the rotation a bit. They’ve announced two of their starters for the weekend in Cincinnati.
Rich Hill will start Friday and Walker Buehler will start Saturday. Sunday’s starter is TBD before a Monday off-day and the Dodgers’ first interleague series beginning Tuesday in Tampa Bay.
