Astros @ Dodgers: Sept. 13, 2020: A bullpen game to avoid a sweep

With the Padres winning the first game of their doubleheader Sunday afternoon, the Dodgers enter tonight’s game with a 2.5-game lead on the NL West. That’s also the lead on the National League as the Padres are now two games ahead of the Braves.

It is Zack Greinke and Brusdar Graterol, the latter opening for a bullpen game. He last pitched on Sept. 9 in the victory against the D-backs, throwing just 10 pitches across 1 1/3 IP. His longest outing this season was 22 pitches and 1 2/3 IP back on Aug. 8 against the Giants. Graterol struck out two in his 1 inning of work at Houston earlier this season.

Meanwhile, Greinke is coming off of four consecutive starts with at least 3 runs allowed. He’s pitched six innings in three of those starts against some of the league’s best teams, with the A’s twice and Padres once.

He faced the Dodgers twice last season when he was still in Arizona, first in March when he allowed seven runs, including four homers. The second start came in June as he allowed four runs across 6 IP, though the D-backs did win the game thanks to four runs off of Dylan Floro in the 8th.

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	5:08 p.m.		Los Angeles
RF	Springer	RF	Betts
3B	Bregman	SS	Seager (L)
LF	Brantley (L)	LF	Pollock
SS	Correa	3B	Muncy (L)
DH	Reddick (L)	C	Smith
C	Maldonado	1B	Bellinger (L)
1B	Toro (S)	2B	Taylor
CF	Straw	DH	Pederson (L)
2B	Mayfield	CF	Hernandez
P	Greinke (R)	P	Graterol (R)

With Justin Turner still sidelined, Max Muncy keeps getting work at third base with Cody Bellinger at first. Also, no Gavin Lux tonight with both Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernandez in the lineup.

Speaking of Turner, here’s the update on he and a few other Dodgers.

Dave Roberts said Dustin May will throw a light bullpen and fielding drills today. He could start Wednesday against the Padres.

Mitch White is throwing a sim game today and is in line to start Friday in Denver. Justin Turner and Max Muncy are two of the hitters he’s facing.

— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) September 13, 2020

Mitch White looks like he will be getting a start in Coors, good luck with that. White already made his major league debut earlier this year, but this would be his first career start.

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Padres and Giants are cleared to play today, so big Dodgers-Padres remains set to start tomorrow. After additional testing, MLB determined that the test result that shut down the Padres-Giants series was a false positive.

— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) September 13, 2020

The Dodgers series against the Padres should be fine for next week. while playoff positioning is technically at stake, it really will just be a pretty entertaining look at the top two teams in the NL facing off again.

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In case anyone was hoping for a change at closer (I know many are), you’re out of luck for now.

#Dodgers Dave Roberts said he still has confidence in Kenley Jansen. When pushed, he answers: "As far as leash, he's our closer. But obviously performance matters and everyone in that clubhouse knows that."

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) September 13, 2020

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First pitch is scheduled for 5:08 p.m. PT/8:08 p.m. ET on ESPN (unfortunately).