The Dodgers (70-53) have bounced back nicely after getting swept in Anaheim, taking the first two games against the Padres and putting themselves in position for their first sweep since the beginning of July. After a 3-2 nailbiter on Friday, the Dodgers made things much less stressful with a 6-0 win last night. The offense worked six walks and five runs in 3 1/3 innings off Dylan Cease while Blake Snell tossed six shutout to give the Dodgers their 70th win of the season. The win moved the Dodgers back into sole possession of first in the West and clinched the tiebreaker over the Padres. Today, they can take a two game lead into Coors this week before meeting up with the Padres again next weekend.
1:10 P.M.
Los Angeles
RF
Tatis Jr.
DH
Ohtani (L)
DH
Arraez (L)
SS
Betts
3B
Machado
C
Smith
CF
Merrill (L)
1B
Freeman (L)
SS
Bogaerts
RF
T. Hernández
1B
O’Hearn (L)
CF
Pages
LF
Laureano
LF
Conforto (L)
2B
Cronenworth (L)
2B
Freeland (S)
C
Fermin
3B
Kennedy
P
Darvish (R)
P
Glasnow (R)
Tyler Glasnow makes his 12th start of the season today. His last start came last Sunday, when the Dodgers had the chance to finish off a sweep of the Blue Jays. Glasnow was mostly fine in that game, allowing two runs and four hits in 5 2/3 innings. He struggled with his command again in that game, issuing four walks but mostly doing a fine job getting himself out of trouble. Glasnow allowed a single to lead off the sixth and recorded two outs, but allowed an RBI single for his second earned run before getting lifted for Anthony Banda. He left the game with a 3-2 lead, but Blake Treinen allowed back-to-back homers in the eighth and after the offense tied it in the ninth, Alex Vesia allowed a game-losing homer. It was a sour end to an excellent series against one of the best teams in the AL, and now the Dodgers aim to avoid repeating that feeling after an excellent start to their series with the Padres. Glasnow hasn’t seen the Padres yet this season, but was pretty good in three starts against the last season. Glasnow posted a 2.84 ERA in 19 innings against the Padres last season (six runs allowed in the three games) and allowed a .506 OPS against them. He started the season opener against the Padres in Seoul and allowed two runs in five innings, but walked a season-high four batters. His other two starts against the Padres came in San Diego. In May, he issued two walks but only one hit (a Luis Campusano solo homer) and 10 strikeouts over seven innings. He also completed seven innings against the Padres last July, but allowed three runs and six hits.
Yu Darvish makes his eighth start of the season after starting late with elbow inflammation during Spring Training. Yu’s overall numbers aren’t the nicest (5.61 ERA, a 20.7 percent strikeout rate which would be the worst of his career). A lot of that came from one nightmare start in St. Louis, when he allowed eight hits and eight runs in only 3 1/3 innings. He’s only allowed 13 runs in his other six starts and two of his last three starts have been excellent. He followed up that St. Louis start by allowing two hits over seven shutout innings with no walks and a season-high seven strikeouts. Last time out, Darvish allowed a run and four hits in six innings in San Francisco with six strikeouts. He didn’t issue a walk in either of those two starts either. Darvish has dominated the Dodgers in his 15 career starts against them. His 2.27 ERA is his lowest against any team and his .539 OPS against them in the second lowest against any team (only higher than his .486 OPS allowed in six starts against the Cubs). He only made 16 total starts last season but three of them came against the Dodgers. He allowed three earned runs (one unearned) and eight hits in 15 2/3 innings over those three starts, with all three earned coming in one start in April. He saw the Dodgers again a month later and turned in seven shutout innings in LA.
Darvish throws basically every pitch imaginable. Generally speaking in his career, he’s thrown 3-4 pitches more than 10 percent of the time and mixes in like five other pitch types. So far this season (in an obviously very limited sample size), he’s thrown six different pitches over 10 percent of the time. He’s thrown a sinker (22.9 percent), slider (18.4 percent), curve (15.1 percent), four seamer (13.2 percent), splitter (12.8 percent), sweeper (11.6 percent), cutter (3.7 percent), knuckle curve (1.6 percent) and change (.08 percent).
The Dodgers roll out nearly the same lineup as the last two nights. Alex Freeland moves from third to second base, and Buddy Kennedy makes his first appearance after being claimed from Toronto on Friday.
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Some injury updates.
Enrique Hernandez and Hyeseong Kim both took BP today and are set to go on rehab assignments this week. Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates are also expected to start their rehab with OKC and Roki Sasaki is already there, so they’re gonna be eating real good. Tommy Edman has started baseball activities and is still targeting early September for a return, and Max Muncy will do some “rotational work” tomorrow.
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First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.
