Ohtani gets a surprise start as Dodgers look for their first win of September against another last place team

The Dodgers (78-62), surprisingly, didn’t resolve their offensive issues against Paul Skenes in the finale in Pittsburgh. Skenes tossed six shutout while Blake Snell allowed five runs in five innings and the offense did show some life in the ninth, but not enough to avoid opening September by getting swept by the last place team in the NL Central. Today, they open a weekend series against the last place team in the AL East, the Orioles. The Orioles (64-76) are the only team in the East under .500 and their -81 run differential is the third-worst in the AL. They had gone 2-9 in 11 games before beginning this week in San Diego but did the Dodgers a solid by sweeping the Padres, outscoring them 17-10. Baltimore’s pitching was suspect coming into the season, and they have the fourth-worst ERA out of their starters (4.82) and the seventh-worst bullpen ERA (4.56) in baseball. They’ve had seven starters make 10+ starts this season, and Trevor Rodgers (who starts tomorrow and has a 1.39 ERA) is the only one with a sub-4.00 ERA. The bigger surprise is their offensive mediocrity. They’re 15th (or tied for 15th) in baseball in wOBA, OPS and wRC+ but have the third worst strikeout rate and walk rate in baseball (23.5 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively).

4:05 P.M.

Baltimore

DH
Ohtani (L)
2B
Holliday (L)

SS
Betts
RF
Jackson

1B
Freeman (L)
SS
Henderson (L)

RF
T. Hernández
DH
Mountcastle

LF
Conforto (L)
CF
Cowser (L)

CF
Pages
3B
Rivera

2B
Kim (L)
LF
Beavers (L)

C
Rushing (L)
C
Basallo (L)

3B
Rojas
1B
Mayo (L)

P
Ohtani (R)
P
Kremer (R)

Tyler Glasnow gets the ball in the opener, which hasn’t exactly been good news for the Dodgers of late. Glasnow turned in a solid August with a 3.45 ERA/3.52 FIP in five starts, but the Dodgers lost four of those starts including two different seven inning starts. He allowed three runs in four innings two turns ago in San Diego and allowed three runs in seven innings last time out against the Diamondbacks, both losses as the Dodgers scored one run in each game. Glasnow’s seen the Orioles nine times in his career mostly with success, allowing a .632 OPS and a 3.96 ERA. Most of that rough ERA came in 2023, when Glasnow saw the Orioles three times and allowed 14 runs in 15 1/3 innings. In six starts against Baltimore from 2018-2020, Glasnow allowed eight runs in 34 2/3 innings.

This team is so annoying. Surprise in the lineup today, as Shohei Ohtani starts instead of Glasnow. After a couple rough starts, Ohtani bounced back nicely his last time out against the Reds. He allowed two hits and a run over five strong innings and struck out a season-high nine batters. This will be Ohtani’s third time facing the Orioles as a pitcher, and both previous times were pretty rough. In 12 combined innings, Ohtani allowed nine runs and nine hits with 12 strikeouts and two walks. He went seven innings in one start and five in the other, and in both starts allowed three homers. Both starts came in Baltimore as well.

Former Dodger prospect Dean Kremer gets his second look at the team that drafted him (and traded him for Manny Machado) in his 28th outing (27th start) of the season. It’s been a mostly rough season for Kremer, with a 4.52 ERA/4.04 FIP in 155 1/3 innings. His ERA was under 4.00 two starts ago, but he turned in back-to-back seven run starts. He allowed seven runs (six earned) with three homers in five innings against Houston on August 23, and last time out allowed seven earned in three innings in San Francisco. Kremer has shown the ability to dominate, with four starts of seven shutout innings and another start where he allowed one run over eight innings. He’s been very hit and miss, with 11 outings of one or zero runs allowed and nine outings of five or more runs allowed. He faced the Dodgers back in 2023 in Baltimore and allowed five runs on four hits in 4 2/3 innings, including homers to James Outman and Max Muncy.

Kremer essentially has a five-pitch mix. He’s thrown a four-seamer (26.6 percent), cutter (20.9 percent), splitter (20.7 percent), sinker (18.7 percent) and curve (12.9 percent). Savant also has him throwing three sliders this season, but they’ve never had him throwing a slider in the past and all three alleged sliders happened on April 27, so probably a classification error. His splitter is his best pitch, with a 39.4 percent whiff rate and .227 average (.199 xBA) and .348 slugging (.304 xSLG) against it.

Dalton Rushing starts behind the plate again for Will Smith, whose hand is reportedly feeling better but he still hasn’t gripped a bat yet. Michael Conforto hits fifth again for some reason.

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