Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (28-18) took the second game of the series yesterday by a score of 6-3, winning the first series of the season against the San Francisco Giants (28-18). Both of these teams now trail the Padres (29-17) by just one game. Julio Urias is on the mound for the Dodgers, with the team looking to sweep the Giants and win their seventh straight game. Anthony DeSclafani will start for the Giants and attempt to stop his team from dropping three in a row.
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|---|---|---|---|
| 1:05 PM | San Francisco | ||
| SS | Lux (L) | CF | Slater |
| 3B | Turner | 2B | Solano |
| 2B | Muncy (L) | RF | Yastrzemski (L) |
| C | Smith | 1B | Ruf |
| 1B | Beaty (L) | SS | Crawford (L) |
| CF | Taylor | 3B | Dubón |
| LF | Tsutsugo (L) | C | Casali |
| RF | Peters | LF | Tauchman (L) |
| P | Urías (L) | P | DeSclafini (R) |
With the right-handed DeSclafani pitching for the Giants, the Dodgers’ offense will face a right-handed starter for the first time this series, and with the left-handed Urías, the Giants will face a left-handed starter for the first time. The Giants rank tenth in wRC+ against left-handed pitching at 108, whereas the Dodgers rank 23rd at 91. The Dodgers are first in baseball with a 122 wRC+ against right-handed pitching while the Giants are 16th, at 97. Both teams seem to benefit from those matchups they’ll have today. Will Smith is behind the plate and DJ Peters will start in right field as Mookie Betts is out with left shoulder soreness. Albert Pujols will have the day off against the right-handed DeSclafani and Matt Beaty will start at first as Yoshi Tsutsugo starts in left field.
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Here’s how two of the top pitchers in the NL West matchup.
On Wednesday, DeSclafani gave up just one run on six hits with seven strikeouts and two walks over seven innings. The 31 year-old is piecing together what could be the best season of his career in his first year with the Giants. DeScalfani had spent the previous five years of his career with the Cincinnati Reds, with a 4.19 ERA, 4.27 FIP, and 1.29 WHIP over 623.1 innings. He’s also coming off a poor 2020 season, where he threw just 33 innings with a 7.22 ERA and 6.10 FIP. He sits in the mid 90’s with the fastball, primarily mixing in a high 80’s slider. Among 42 starters with at least 50 innings pitched, his 2.03 ERA is eighth, trailing the usual aces you would commonly think of.
Urías has won both of previous two starts, allowing just five hits and one walk in those two starts, over a combined 13.2 innings pitched. Last time out he went 6.1 innings against Arizona and allowed just one run on three hits. He’ll look to build on the strong season he’s put together against a Giants’ offense that hasn’t done much in the first two games of the series. Urías now features the second lowest walk-rate in baseball, issuing just seven walks over 56.1 innings, a 3.2% walk rate.
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Dodgers announced they placed Jimmy Nelson on the injured list with right forearm inflammation. Right-hander Phil Bickford was called up.
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) May 23, 2021
Not great.
Hopefully no huge deal for either of these guys.
Cody Bellinger, Zach McKinstry, AJ Pollock, and Tony Gonsolin all with injury updates, and all making progress to returning soon.
This is great to hear, as left field has been hurting in his absence.
Soon.
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This should be fun.
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First pitch is at 1:05 PM PDT on SNLA.
