Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After last night’s perfectly calming and stress free victory, the Dodgers find themselves with a single-digit magic number. Unfortunately, a Diamondback off day last night guaranteed that the Dodgers wouldn’t be able to clinch a playoff berth in their swimming pool.
Tonight, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks open up a four-game weekend series, the final four times the teams will square off in 2019 barring a Diamondback playoff run. The Dodgers currently have a 10-5 record against Arizona this season, with three of those five losses coming in the desert. Arizona has been streaky of late, as they lost four straight before winning three straight before losing three straight before winning their last three games coming into today. At 67-66, the Diamondbacks sit 20 games behind the Dodgers in the West and 4.5 games behind the Cubs for the second Wild Card spot.
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Dodgers
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D’Backs
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6:40 p.m.
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Phoenix
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LF
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Pederson |
CF
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Marte | |
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1B
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Beaty |
LF
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Locastro | |
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3B
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Turner |
3B
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Escobar | |
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RF
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Bellinger |
1B
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Walker | |
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CF
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Pollock |
2B
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Flores | |
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SS
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Seager |
RF
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Jones | |
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C
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Smith | SS | Ahmed | |
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2B
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Hernández |
C
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Kelly | |
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P
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Ryu (L) |
P
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Kelly (R) |
Hyun-Jin Ryu starts for the Dodgers and is in the midst of his worst stretch of the season. His ERA now stands at a trash 2.00 (which still leads the Majors), but two weeks ago it was at 1.45 after seven shutout innings against these Diamondbacks. Ryu started in Atlanta and allowed four runs in 5 2/3 innings, which at the time was his second-worst outing of the season. He then posted his worst outing of the season last time out against the Yankees, allowing seven runs and nine hits in 4.1 innings. Ryu’s 152 2/3 innings is the most he’s thrown since his rookie year in 2013, and the Dodgers are reportedly set to start load managing to prepare him to be effective in October.
Ryu’s facing a familiar foe, as he’s started against the Diamondbacks three times this season. He’s allowed only one run in those 20 innings, an Adam Jones home run on Opening Day. The Diamondbacks have also only managed 12 hits against Ryu this season, three more than the Yankees had in less than five innings.
Merrill Kelly starts for the Diamondbacks tonight, giving Arizona an all-Kelly battery. Kelly leads the National League with 13 losses this season, but Arizona has scored two or fewer runs in 11 of his 26 starts. The 30-year-old-rookie has a 4.86 ERA/4.77 FIP in 146 1/3 innings and has allowed 26 homers on the season. Kelly is also coming off a rough start, as last time out he allowed six runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Brewers.
Despite making 26 starts for a division rival, Kelly has only seen the Dodgers once so far this season. On July 3 in LA, Kelly allowed three runs in six innings against the Dodgers, who tied the game in the ninth and won on a 10th-inning Cody Bellinger walkoff. All the runs off Kelly came in the second inning, which started with a Bellinger homer and had four other singles leading to two more runs.
Max Muncy is out of the lineup, more on that in a bit. Cody Bellinger starts in right and Matt Beaty starts at first. For the Diamondbacks, Dodger-killer David Peralta was shut down for the remainder of the season after requiring shoulder surgery.
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Muncy news.
Not great, Bob. Muncy’s reportedly still in pain and will be out until early next week at best. There’s been a few comparisons to Chris Taylor‘s fracture that kept him sidelined for just over a month. If you want a reason to be slightly optimistic, the Dodgers have the Lux-ury of being able to call on their top prospect to replace Muncy if need be.
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Julio Urias will make his first appearance since receiving a 15-game suspension earlier this month.
Urias will start for Rancho Cucomonga in their playoff game tonight.
