Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
With a second consecutive 4-2 victory over the Padres, the Dodgers (25-15) won their fifth consecutive series and have put a six game gap between themselves and the Padres (19-21). The Arizona Diamondbacks (22-18) are still just three games back, but it’s likely they don’t hold second place in the NL West for the remainder of the season. If they do, kudos to them. Tony Gonsolin will be on the mound this Mother’s Day, up against the 23 year-old lefty Ryan Weathers.
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| 4:15 PM | Los Angeles | ||
| RF | Tatis Jr. | RF | Betts |
| 3B | Machado | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| LF | Soto (L) | DH | Martinez |
| SS | Bogaerts | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| 1B | Cronenworth (L) | 2B | Vargas |
| DH | Cruz | LF | Taylor |
| 2B | Kim | CF | Outman (L) |
| CF | Grisham (L) | SS | Rojas |
| C | Sullivan (L) | C | Barnes |
| P | Weathers (L) | P | Gonsolin (R) |
Against the left-handed Weathers, Jason Heyward and David Peralta will be available off the bench. Austin Barnes will be starting behind the plate today, hopefully it’s an easy win and Will Smith doesn’t need to be involved in any sort of pinch hitting scenario and gets the entire day off. Trayce Thompson will also be available off the bench, but it’s getting harder to see where he fits on the team. He doesn’t have a hit since April 12.
The Dodgers historically throughout their last decade or so have had issues with left-handed pitching. It feels that no matter the roster construction or who they acquire, it just remains an issue. Their 96 wRC+ against LHP puts them at 22nd, there .710 OPS at 23, and their .198 batting average is dead last. Not great!
Unrelated, just something to take a look at. This is how the two teams have fared with runners in scoring position.
I’m not trying to rag on San Diego here, just point out the difference between the two teams that are projected to finish at the top of their division. I’m sure the Padres will turn it around at some point, so it’s important the Dodgers put as much distance on them as possible early on.
Here’s a quick look at both starting pitchers.
Weather debuted at age 20 and was thrust into (mostly) a starting role during his first full season, before he had developed a third pitch. His fastball’s sinker shape and his history of velocity fluctuation has caused issues in his short career thus far, but he’s still just 23 years-old. He’s been solid in his limited stints with the big club in 2023, logging a 2.50 ERA, 1.11 WHIP in 18 innings over five appearances (three starts). He’s shown a third pitch this year for the first time, mixing in a low 80’s slider/sweeper that he throws 20% of the time. He still primarily throws his mid 90’s four-seam fastball with his mid 80’s changeup as his go to offspeed pitch.
Gonsolin gave up three unearned runs on three hits over six innings Monday, striking out six and taking a loss against the Brewers. He faced little resistance from Milwaukee through four shutout frames. He ran into trouble in the fifth after a fielding error, and Joey Wiemer made him pay with a three-run shot. It was the longest start of the year for Gonsolin, who threw 54 of 80 pitches for strikes as he works towards a full workload. He’s sporting a 1.93 ERA with ten strikeouts and five walks through 14 innings. His FIP is high due to his lack of strikeouts so far, averaging 6.43 per nine innings, with the increased walk rate as well, with 3.21 per nine. He also has a home run to fly-ball ratio of 12.5%, higher than his career average of 8.8%. Most importantly however, is that he has a 1.93 ERA. Ideally everything else just falls into place.
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Hopefully Noah Syndergaard truly is good to go tomorrow.
Terrible news for Clayton Kershaw.
In a much much much less important situation, hopefully Gavin Stone is fine.
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First pitch is at 1:10 PM on SNLA.
