Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Winners in two of their three games in San Diego without Mookie Betts taking an at-bat due to a swollen finger, the Dodgers return to Los Angeles for seven games.
The first three come against the Giants, again, as they arrive after four games in Colorado against the Rockies. Losers of four of their past five games, the Giants send Jeff Samardzija to the mound for his first start against the Dodgers this season.
The return to Dodger Stadium also means the return of Betts to the lineup, as he bats second Friday night. Edwin Rios gets a start at third base while Justin Turner starts at designated hitter. The Dodgers also dropped Max Muncy down a bit in the order as he hits sixth tonight.
Clearly he is motivated by the disrespect Dustin showed ranking him 11th in the February prospect list.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 6:40 p.m. | Los Angeles | ||
| RF | Slater | LF | Pederson (L) |
| CF | Yastrzemski (L) | RF | Betts |
| 2B | Solano | CF | Bellinger (L) |
| 3B | Longoria | DH | Turner |
| DH | Flores | SS | Seager (L) |
| 1B | Belt (L) | 1B | Muncy (L) |
| LF | Ruf | 2B | Taylor |
| C | Tromp | 3B | Rios (L) |
| SS | Dubon | C | Smith |
| P | Samardzija (R) | P | Urias (L) |
Countering Samardzija is Julio Urias, who threw five innings against the Giants on July 26th, allowing one run on five hits and three walks. Starting once in Arizona since, Urias pitched pretty well in what turned into a blowout victory for the Dodgers.
Allowing two runs on five hits and a walk, Urias hit 90 pitches across his six innings. In his two starts, Urias has allowed the second lowest Hard Hit % (15.2%) among pitchers to face at least 25 batters this season. Urias also ranks sixth with an exit velocity of 87.7 on fly balls and line drives. Honestly these don’t mean much this early, but it added something to this preview.
The advantage on the mound seems pretty clearly tilted in the Dodgers’ favor, with Samardzija allowing 10 runs in his 9 2/3 IP. The Giants dropped both of his starts, against the Padres and Rangers in San Francisco.
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During their day off, the Dodgers trimmed the roster down to 28.
I think Chad made this point on Twitter yesterday, but Kolarek’s departure (even if it is just temporary) means the Dodgers clearly believe in Jake McGee‘s early success, as well as Scott Alexander‘s return to at least his 2018 form.
Additionally, Dave Roberts went into a little more detail on the decision today.
Well … that didn’t work.
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Elsewhere around baseball, things aren’t going great.
And Daniel makes a good point about today’s testing results.
The Cardinals have played five games this season. The Dodgers will be at 14 after tonight.
