Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers overcame a rough Walker Buehler outing last night and won a Coors-ass game thanks to a four-run ninth inning, led by Enrique Hernandez‘s pinch-hit three-run dong.
That gives the Dodgers seven wins in seven games over the Rockies in 2019 and twelve consecutive wins over their biggest NL West competition dating back to September 9. Seems good. The last four games have been tight late, with the three walk-offs last weekend (Did you buy shirts?!) and a tie game heading into the ninth last night. Despite the late victories, the Dodgers have outscored the Rockies 56-31 in 2019. Today, the Dodgers look for their 57th win of the season with their ace on the mound.
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Dodgers
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Rockies
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5:40 p.m.
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Denver
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1B
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Pederson |
RF
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Blackmon | |
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CF
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Verdugo |
CF
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Desmond | |
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3B
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Turner |
LF
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Dahl | |
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RF
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Bellinger |
3B
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Arenado | |
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2B
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Muncy |
1B
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Murphy | |
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LF
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Beaty |
C
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Iannetta | |
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SS
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Taylor | 2B | McMahon | |
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C
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Martin |
SS
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Hampson | |
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P
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Ryu (L) |
P
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Senzatela (R) |
Hyun-Jin Ryu gets the ball today and is coming off arguably his worst start of the season. He was only charged with one earned run, but three Rockies scored in six innings off Ryu. It was the first time Ryu had allowed three runs in a game this season, and he needed 107 pitches to complete the six innings. His ERA skyrocketed to 1.27 (seriously, one earned run in six innings and his ERA went up, he is ridiculous). He didn’t get a ton of help from the Dodger defense, but it’s arguably been the least dominant he’s looked since his injury in April. He also gave up two hits to Peter Lambert, who is apparently the greatest hitting pitcher of all time.
Ryu won’t face Lambert today. Instead, Antonio Senzatela gets the ball for the Rockies. Senzatela’s overall numbers are skewed by a couple exceptionally bad outings, but he fared well in Los Angeles last week. The righty allowed two runs in 6 1/3 innings and struck out five. He’s struggled with his walks this season, as his 9.9% walk rate is a career-worst. He walked four batters in each of the two games he pitched before facing the Dodgers, but issued only one walk in LA. He’s issued 34 walks this season with only 45 strikeouts, which isn’t the ratio you want.
Also not what you want:
Senzatela is in the bottom six percent of the league in strikeout rate, hart hit rate and expected batting average. That’s not really a product of Coors Field, Senzatela has been extremely hittable so far this year. Senzatela has also been hurt by Coors, as he owns a 6.21 ERA in 33 1/3 innings at home compared to a 3.92 ERA in 43 2/3 innings away from Satan Field.
The Dodgers roll out nearly the same lineup as last night, with the only difference being Russell Martin behind the plate instead of Austin Barnes.
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In yesterday’s thread, I wrote about the Dodgers having some top prospects promoted to Triple-A. Today, two of their top minor leaguers were selected to play in the Futures Game during the All-Star break. Dustin wrote about that earlier today.
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The ball could be flying today.
Last night’s game saw some bloopers reach the wall. Altitude is dumb. This should favor the Dodgers, who have more lefty power in the lineup today than the Rockies.
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David Freese could return before the All-Star break.
In limited playing time, Freese had a .999 OPS before going down with a hamstring injury. His return to the lineup could be a nice boost to an already-potent lineup, especially against left-handed pitching.
Scott Alexander is already dealing with arm pain, but has another ailment as well.
Alexander hasn’t pitched since June 5th, and isn’t expected to return for a couple weeks.
