NL Pitcher of the Month Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts the opener in Atlanta

The Dodgers took care of business at home, winning five of six and getting their offense back on track. It started ominously with a 3-0 loss at the hands of Paul Skenes and some Pirate relievers, but the Dodgers put up 51 runs in the last five games. That outburst pushed the Dodgers up to the third most runs scored in baseball behind the Cubs and Yankees. Today, they begin a stretch of 10 road games in 10 days and 19 games in 20 days with a three game series in Atlanta. The Dodgers saw Atlanta during the first homestand of the season and swept them to give Atlanta an 0-7 start to the season. Atlanta’s turned it around a bit since then and are now flirting with .500 at 14-16. They’ve won nine of their last 12 but are coming off a surprising loss as Chris Sale was outdueled by Chase Dollander and the 6-25 Rockies.

4:15 P.M.

Atlanta

DH
Ohtani (L)
LF
Verdugo (L)

SS
Betts
3B
Riley

1B
Freeman (L)
DH
Ozuna

RF
T. Hernández
1B
Olson (L)

C
Smith
C
Murphy

3B
Muncy (L)
2B
Albies (S)

CF
Pages
CF
Harris II (L)

LF
Conforto (L)
RF
White

2B
Rojas
SS
Allen

P
Yamamoto (R)
P
Holmes (R)

Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets the start today after arguably his worst start of the season against the Pirates. That’s more of a testament of how great his season has been, as his “worst” start was one earned run (two unearned runs) in five innings. He only struck out five and walked four batters for the first time in his Major League career. He essentially had to be perfect against Skenes and immediately wasn’t, walking the leadoff batter of the game and allowing a two-out RBI single. Yama held the Pirates to the lone run until the fifth, when a Max Muncy led the inning off with a throwing error that allowed Henry Davis to reach second. Yamamoto immediately allowed an RBI single and allowed a two-out RBI single for his two unearned runs in that game. Yamamoto pitched in Atlanta last September after his injury and threw 72 pitches over four shutout innings, allowing two walks and four hits with only three strikeouts.

The NL Pitcher of the Month, Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Congratulations Yoshinobu on an incredible start to the season! pic.twitter.com/Krn0Uowu5Z

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 2, 2025

Old friend Grant Holmes starts for Atlanta. The Dodgers beat up on Holmes in his first start of the season on March 31, with four hits, four walks and four runs over four innings. Teoscar Hernandez hit a two-run homer in the first and the Dodgers scored two on a Michael Conforto RBI double and a Tommy Edman sac fly in the third. Holmes bounced back nicely in the three start after that, allowing four runs and a .498 OPS against in 17 1/3 innings against Philadelphia, Toronto and Minnesota. Last time out didn’t go so well, as he allowed six runs and three homers in 5 2/3 innings against the Diamondbacks.

Holmes has the fifth-highest walk rate among pitchers with 20 or more innings pitched this season at 14.5 percent. Batters are only hitting .184 with a .665 OPS against Holmes this season, but righties have beaten up on him so far. Obviously everything is still in a very limited sample size, but righties are OPSing .932 off Holmes, with all five of the homers he’s allowed coming to righties. Holmes primarily throws a fastball (41.5 percent), slider (28.1 percent) and curve (19.4 percent) but has mixed in a cutter, change and sinker.

Edman remains out of the lineup after tweaking his ankle on Tuesday. He’s expected to work out today and if that goes well, could be back in there tomorrow. If not, an IL stint is definitely possible (the Dodgers would never have him out of the lineup for like six days before ILing). Miguel Rojas gets the start at second.

——

The Dodgers made a couple moves on their off day yesterday. Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen were both moved to the 60-day IL, and added J.P. Feyereisen and Ryan Loutos to the 40-man.

The Dodgers claimed RHP J.P. Feyereisen off waivers from the Arizona Diamondbacks and acquired RHP Ryan Loutos from the St. Louis Cardinals for cash considerations.

In order to make room on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers transferred RHPs Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen to the…

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 1, 2025

Kopech’s move to the 60-day IL doesn’t really move the needed on his return. He still hasn’t begun a rehab assignment and is still eligible to be activated in a couple weeks which obviously he won’t until he builds up a bit (pre-wrote this, more news on it in the next section). Treinen’s move means he’ll be out until at least Mid-June with the forearm sprain that landed him on the IL on April 19.

Feyereisen spent a year and a half as one of the best relievers in baseball with the Rays. He posted a 1.48 ERA over 56 appearances with Tampa, but missed the 2023 season with a shoulder injury. The Dodgers signed him last season and he made 10 appearances, seven of which were phenomenal and three of which were disastrous. It started terribly for Feyereisen, who allowed six runs in his first 1 1/3 innings over two early season outings against the Padres. Feyereisen returned in May and was dominant, allowing two hits and two walks over 7 2/3 scoreless innings spread over seven outings (most of which were low-leverage garbage time innings, but still promising). He made one more appearance in June in Colorado and allowed four runs in two innings before being sent back to the minors for the rest of the season. He signed with Arizona in March and threw a scoreless inning against the Cubs a few weeks ago, but allowed two runs in an inning against the Rays last Thursday and was DFA’d.

Loutos seems like an interesting addition. After a couple rough minor league seasons, he posted a 3.40 ERA in 53 innings at AAA last season, only surrendering three homers in 47 games. He made his Major League debut in June and allowed two hits and one walk in 2 1/3 innings over three Major League outings. He’s allowed three runs in eight innings in AAA so far this season, but was DFA’d and acquired for cash. Here’s an interesting story about him.

Signed as an amateur free agent pitcher.

Hired by the front office to help develop an app.

While he did the latter, he studied and added velocity to become a pitching prospect, reach the majors.

Here is Ryan Loutos’ story: https://t.co/JyeqY1Cv8R https://t.co/Iht69TL2ft

— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) May 1, 2025

Both pitchers have option years left (Feyereisen has one, Loutos has two) and should be able to provide some coverage in this busy stretch for the Dodgers.

——

An update on Kopech and Blake Snell.

Dave Roberts said Blake Snell is expected to restart playing catch next week in Miami. He’s on this trip.

Roberts also said Michael Kopech has started facing hitters in AZ. Expected to go on a rehab assignment next week.

— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) May 2, 2025

Snell hasn’t thrown since hitting the IL, but could play catch next week. Kopech could start a rehab assignment next week.

First pitch is scheduled for 4:15 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA

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