Last night was a disappointing game, as the Dodgers (68-51) lost the first game of this series against the Angles (57-62) by a score of 7-4, in a game that never felt as close as the final score was. This has been the case for over a month now, where the Dodgers just cannot find a way to string together three quality games in a row. Their last sweep was against the White Sox over a month ago, and that was also their last three game winning streak. Something a bit overlooked is that Jose Soriano is actually a very good pitcher when he’s on his game. He was throwing strikes early, and he generally finds success when his command is good. Emmet Sheehan will look to even the series against the Angels and prevent the Dodgers from losing five consecutive games against them this year. The right-handed Victor Mederos will be making his first career start today in place of Tyler Anderson who was scratched with back tightness.
6:38 PM
Anaheim
DH
Ohtani (L)
SS
Neto
SS
Betts
1B
Schanuel (L)
1B
Freeman (L)
DH
Trout
RF
T. Hernández
LF
Ward
3B
Muncy (L)
3B
Moncada (S)
CF
Pages
RF
Adell
LF
Conforto (L)
2B
Rengifo (S)
2B
Freeland (S)
C
O’Hoppe
C
Rushing (L)
CF
Teodosio
P
Sheehan (R)
P
Mederos (R)
The Angels don’t have a great offense, so Sheehan plus whoever comes in from the bullpen should find a way to keep them from scoring seven runs again. Not allowing two runs in the first inning would be a nice improvement.
For the Dodgers, Will Smith has the day off as Dalton Rushing starts behind the plate. Alex Call sits as Teoscar Hernández is back in right field. The offense needs to be better and more consistent still, as it can’t just be hoping that Max Muncy and Shohei Ohtani hit home runs.
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Sheehan allowed two unearned runs his last time out against the Cardinals, giving up four hits and one walk over five innings with five strikeouts. He earned the win, and despite not being particularly sharp over his last two outings with five total runs scored, they’ve all been unearned. On the season he now has a 3.00 ERA, 3.01 FIP, and a 1.20 WHIP with 31 strikeouts to 11 walks in 30.0 innings. He’ll look to keep his scoreless streak going with a good outing against the Angels.
Meanwhile, the 24 year-old Mederos will be making his first career MLB start. He’s thrown a total of 12.1 innings in the big leagues, the most recent being on July 7 out of the bullpen. He’s been used as a starter in Triple-A, with an impressive 3.39 ERA in 87.2 innings despite pitching half his games in Salt Lake, an extremely friendly hitting environment. He threw four shutout innings his last time out on Friday, so he’ll likely be limited today on short rest.
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Brock Stewart being injured after four appearances here is rough. Edgardo Henriquez is good however and has potential to be a huge postseason weapon, so it’s good he’s getting some run. Eli Ben-Porat wrote very positive things about Henriquez in Baseball America’s recent Statcast Standouts piece.
Sad news for Tony Gonsolin. Hopefully we see him pitch again sometime next season, but similar to Evan Phillips, he now has the possibility of being non-tendered.
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First pitch is at 6:38 PT on SNLA.
