Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After a disappointing 8-5 loss on opening day, the World Series champions look to bounce back for their first win of the 2021 season. The team had a very Coors Field type loss, where everything seemed to go the Rockies way. Cody Bellinger hit a two run home run that was also an out and a single and a RBI. In addition to that, they made two errors, had three wild pitches, grounded into three double-plays, and Austin Barnes managed to get injured. Dodgers baseball is back. Today features Trevor Bauer making his Dodgers debut against the right-handed Antonio Senzatela for the Rockies.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 5:40 P.M. | Denver | ||
| RF | Betts | LF | Tapia (L) |
| SS | Seager (L) | 3B | Fuentes |
| 3B | Turner | SS | Story |
| CF | Bellinger (L) | RF | Blackmon (L) |
| 1B | Muncy (L) | 1B | Cron |
| C | Smith | 2B | McMahon (L) |
| LF | Pollock | CF | Owings |
| 2B | Lux (L) | C | Nuñez (L) |
| P | Bauer (R) | P | Senzatela (R) |
The Dodgers will run out a very similar lineup as yesterday, with AJ Pollock starting in left field over Chris Taylor, and Will Smith starting over Barnes. For Colorado, Dom Nunez will start at catcher, while Ryan McMahon starts at second base against the right-handed Bauer.
There isn’t much to say about the offensive matchup. The Dodgers offense posted a league leading 122 wRC+ last year, compared to the Rockies 27th ranked 87 wRC+. Even though Nolan Arenado wasn’t great last season, that’s an already sub-par offense losing a premium bat.
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Here’s how Bauer and Senzatela compare based on their 2020 seasons.
Bauer has pitched in Coors Field just once, back in 2017 with Cleveland, where he allowed four runs on five hits and five walks over three and a third innings. Definitely room for improvement. Naturally, the stats favor him as he’s the reigning NL Cy Young winner. The argument that he pitched in the weakest divisions in baseball last season is valid, so starting his season in Colorado should offer a new challenge.
Senzatela is a very interesting pitcher. Among 81 starters with at least 40 innings pitched last season, his 3.44 ERA ranked 32nd, but when adjusting for pitching at Coors Field, his ERA- of 67 moved him down to 23rd. Of those 81 pitchers, his strikeout rate of 13.5% was the second lowest in the league. He sits 94-96 with the fastball, mixing in a mid-80’s slider as his primary off-speed pitch. He made three starts against the Dodgers last year, with a 4.76 ERA over 17 innings.
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Major League Baseball has decided to move the 2021 All-Star Game and 2021 MLB Draft out of Atlanta to a location that has yet to be determined. If you’re particularly interested in this subject, do adequate research before forming a strong opinion to properly understand the severity of the situation and why this happened.
The Dodgers are slated to host the All-Star Game next season, so naturally they won’t be considered as a location for this season.
Here’s what the Atlanta Braves had to say on the decision.
I’m not quite sure the two billion dollar franchise is the victim they’re painting themselves out to be. However, losing the the All-Star Game and the NLCS within half a year probably stings.
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In addition to everything that went wrong for the Dodgers yesterday, the worst was a called strike three in the ninth inning on Edwin Rios.
That pitch never crossed the plate.
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First pitch is at 5:40 PT on SNLA.
