Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers snapped out of a three-game losing streak with a 9-4 win last night, beating up on the Cardinals bullpen after starter Jack Flaherty left the game with an injury after the fifth inning. Today, the Dodgers look for a series win in what will hopefully be one of the last bullpen games we see for a while.
 |
 |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 7:10 PM | Los Angeles | ||
| 2B | Edman (S) | RF | Betts |
| CF | Carlson (S) | 2B | Muncy (L) |
| 1B | Goldschmidt | 3B | Turner |
| 3B | Arenado | C | Smith |
| C | Molina | SS | Lux (L) |
| LF | O’Neill | CF | Taylor |
| SS | Sosa | 1B | Pujols |
| RF | Rondon | LF | Beaty (L) |
| P | Gant (R) | P | Price (L) |
David Price gets his third bullpen-game start of the season. He’s been the starter in each of the last three bullpen games, and with Tony Gonsolin set to return after one more rehab outing, hopefully it’s the last bullpen game for a while. Price has been very good in four appearances since returning from a hamstring injury. In 6.2 innings over those four outings (two bullpen game starts and two one-inning relief appearances), allowing four hits and no runs with eight strikeouts and no walks. He faced eight Giants to start the Dodgers’ bullpen game on Thursday and struck out five batters in 2 2/3 perfect innings. Trevor Bauer gave the Dodgers 6 2/3 innings last night, and Victor Gonzalez, Nate Jones and Phil Bickford followed him. Bickford threw the most pitches of the three (10), but Gonzalez also appeared Sunday so he will likely be unavailable tonight.
John Gant makes his 10th start of the season. He’s had an extremely strange year, with a 1.81 ERA (good!) and a 4.06 FIP (not as good!). Opponents are batting .236 with a .291 slugging percentage against him (good!), but is allowing a .362 OBP. His 15.4 percent walk rate is the second-worst among pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched. Gant’s thrown 40.1 percent of his pitches in the zone this year, the 26th-lowest rate in baseball. That in itself isn’t such a bad thing, but it is when combined with the second-worst out-of-zone swing rate in baseball (24.1 percent).
Gant has only completed six innings once this season (shoutout Blake Snell and Allan’s hatred of Blake Snell). He hasn’t allowed a run in four if his nine starts and hasn’t allowed more than three runs in a game all season. However, Gant hasn’t struck out more than five batters in a game this season and has walked three or more batters in seven of his nine starts.
Albert Pujols gets the start at first tonight. It’ll be his 10th game against the Cardinals in his career and first since 2019. Cody Bellinger and Zach McKinstry each get their first day off since returning from the IL on Saturday, with Chris Taylor starting in center for Bellinger.
——
While some of the relievers that pitched yesterday could be available tonight, Blake Treinen‘s availability is up in the air.
Trenien was reportedly unavailable after not feeling right before last night’s game. I can almost guarantee we’ll know if he is or isn’t available after I schedule this stupid post and leave my laptop to play basketball.
——
The Dodgers got reinforcements over the weekend, and should get more this week.
AJ Pollock and Jimmy Nelson are expected to join the team at some point this weekend in Atlanta. Pollock left the game on May 14th after reaggravating a hamstring injury. Jimmy Nelson wasn’t feeling right after throwing two innings on May 20, and would be a welcome addition to a bullpen that hasn’t been quite as deep as expected.
——
First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PDT and will be shown on Sportsnet LA.
