After playing some very sloppy baseball in the week prior to the All-Star break, the Dodgers (69-40) have now won each of their first four series in the second half, most recently taking two of three from the Seattle Mariners (53-57). Roki Sasaki continued his excellent second half last night, picking up his fifth win of the season and his second in a row, outdueling Bryan Woo in Los Angeles. The offense took the lead in the first inning and never looked back, despite Seattle having a few chances throughout the game. The downside is that they had to use four relievers to finish the game, including Tanner Scott and Edwin Diaz with a bullpen game lined up for the series opener against the Boston Red Sox (57-51). Boston is as hot as any team in the sport, and will have the left-handed Ranger Suarez on the mound up against Edgardo Henriquez and the rest of the relief staff.
7:10 P.M.
Los Angeles
2B
Sogard (S)
DH
Ohtani (L)
CF
Rafaela
CF
Pages
RF
Abreu (L)
2B
Rojas
1B
Contreras
1B
Freeman (L)
DH
Yoshida (L)
SS
Betts
3B
Durbin
LF
T. Hernández
SS
Monasterio
RF
Tucker (L)
LF
Duran (L)
3B
K. Hernández
C
Narváez
C
Alfonzo (S)
P
Hancock (R)
P
Henriquez (R)
The offense will send out their equivalent of a bullpen game as well, with Tommy Edman, Max Muncy, and Dalton Rushing all having the day off. Miguel Rojas, Enrique Hernandez, and Eliezer Alfonzo will start in their place against the left-handed Ranger Suarez.
The Red Sox were 32-46 on June 24 after a loss to the Rockies, but have gone a ridiculous 25-5 since then, including a 15 game winning streak to firmly put themselves back into a playoff position despite a brutal start. Their offense mostly consists of guys having relatively average years, with just Willson Contreras having a standout season. Contreras has a 160 wRC+ and a .944 OPS, having been one of the best hitters in the game this year. Ceddanne Rafaela, Andruw Monasterio, Wilyer Abreu, and Masataka Yoshida have all been average or slightly-above at the plate, with only Jarren Duran and Carlos Narváez having truly awful years offensively. Those two are both hitting below the Mendoza line, with Duran having a .589 OPS and Narváez at .544. One of those is a catcher known mostly for his defense who in a way does bring value, and the other is Duran.
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Suarez has excelled in his first season of a five-year deal he signed with Boston this offseason, earning his second career All-Star selection. He gave up four earned runs in back-to-back outings to start his season, and since then has been one of the best pitchers in baseball, with a 2.51 ERA, a 2.16 FIP, and a 1.08 WHIP, with 98 strikeouts to just 23 walks in 87.0 innings and 16 starts. He’s had excellent command all year which is no surprise as it’s been a staple of his game his entire career, but the strikeouts are up compared to when he was in Philadelphia, and the home run suppression has improved as well. He’s allowed just five home runs this season, the fewest among any pitcher with at least 90 innings. He’s been dominant against lefties this year, so it makes sense to get Muncy and Rushing a day off.
Update – Brock Stewart was placed on the IL with yet another shoulder issue, and the left-handed veteran Cole Irvin was called up from Triple-A and is likely to take down the majority of the innings tonight.
The Dodgers will look to piece together nine innings any way they can, with Will Klein and Evan Phillips the two freshest arms in the pen. Neither pitched in the previous series against the Mariners, and the team probably hopes they can get multiple innings out of each of them if possible. Tanner Scott, Edwin Diaz, and Jack Dreyer all pitched the last two games and are likely down tonight regardless, leaving just Phillips, Klein, Henriquez, Vesia, and Irvin. The Dodgers obviously want to win every game they possibly can, but every now and then they’ll end up in a situation like they’re in today, where they just need to get through nine innings.
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In other news,
Unfortunately for the Dodgers but mostly Brock himself, he just cannot stay healthy.
Blake Snell returning will obviously be a huge boost to this rotation, and they hopefully don’t have to have someone like Cole Irvin and three relievers try and find a way to record 27 outs again.
Great update on Will Smith, as he looks to make his return from a back/neck issue.
