The Dodgers (41-23) won the opening game of this brief three game set against the Angels (24-40) last night in a pitchers duel, outlasting Anaheim and securing the 1-0 win via a Freddie Freeman walkoff home run. They are still yet to play an extra-innings game as crazy as that sounds, as all three of their walkoff wins have come in the bottom of the ninth inning, and their lone walkoff loss was also in the ninth inning just the other night in Arizona. Roki Sasaki was fantastic, once again shutting down the Angels in the best outing of his young career. He allowed just two hits over seven scoreless innings, logging a career best ten strikeouts. Reid Detmers was nearly just as good, providing six scoreless innings of his own. The offense will look to have a better performance tonight, as they beat up on Anaheim’s starter Jack Kochanowicz the last time they faced him. Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be on the mound for the Dodgers, looking to secure the series win and continue building off this three start stretch where he has looked more like himself.
7:10 P.M.
Los Angeles
SS
Neto
DH
Ohtani (L)
CF
Trout
CF
Pages
LF
Meckler (L)
1B
Freeman (L)
2B
Peraza
SS
Betts
1B
Schanuel (L)
3B
Muncy (L)
RF
Adell
LF
Ward (L)
DH
Madrigal
RF
Call
3B
Walton (L)
C
Rushing (L)
C
O’Hoppe
2B
Freeland (S)
P
Kochanowicz (R)
P
Yamamoto (R)
A few changes for both sides tonight. The Angels reinstated first baseman Nolan Schanuel from the Injured List after recovering from left ankle inflammation while DH Jorge Soler was transferred to the IL with a left oblique strain. Adam Frazier was the DH last night with Nick Madrigal playing second base, but Madrigal will be the DH tonight while Oswald Peraza goes back to second with the return of Schanuel. Zach Neto, Madrigal, and Jo Adell all had a hit last night, while Frazier and Wade Meckler each walked once, accounting for all five Angels’ baserunners last night.
The Dodgers will give Kyle Tucker the night off while Alex Call starts in his place, and Ryan Ward gets the start in left field against the right-handed Kochanowicz. Dalton Rushing will start behind the plate as Will Smith was a late scratch, and both Max Muncy and Alex Freeland are back in the lineup after sitting against the left-handed Detmers. Muncy sat during last night’s game after a hard collision with Ildemaro Vargas the night before, but it seems like they both came out of it relatively unscathed thankfully. The Dodgers mustered only three hits last night, two coming from Freeman including the walkoff. He reached base three times on his own, while the rest of the team reached only three times total. They’ll look to be better against a pitcher they hit well last time out.
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Here’s how Kochanowicz and Yamamoto match up.
Kochanowicz has always been an interesting pitcher, as he’s 6’7″, throws in the upper-90’s, has a quality four-pitch mix, and yet has never been able to generate whiffs or strikeouts. He’s actually at a career-best rate in that department, with 46 strikeouts in 63.2 innings, 6.5 strikeouts per nine innings and a 16.0% strikeout rate. That’s the eighth lowest strikeout rate among 84 starters with at least 60 innings this season, but the walks that accompany a strikeout rate that low makes his profile nearly impossible to succeed with. His 12.2% walk rate is the third highest among those same 84 starters, and naturally that K-BB% of 3.8% is the worst mark in the league. K-BB% is one of the most consistent stats at predicting future performance, and with the league-average mark around 13.0%, 3.8% is just never going to cut it.
He throws a sinker and a four-seam fastball, both sitting in the upper-90’s, with an upper-80’s changeup that he uses primarily against lefties, and a mid-80’s slider that he frequently goes to against right-handed batters. When he faced the Dodgers a few weeks back he was able to log six innings, but allowed six earned runs in those six innings on seven hits and two walks, including three home runs. He’ll look to avoid replicating that outing tonight.
After some mediocre outings that were out of the ordinary for Yamamoto, he has now allowed just two earned runs over his last three starts, spanning 19.1 innings. He’s logged 21 strikeouts to just five walks and has allowed just one home run, the primary issue giving him trouble this season. He’s struggled to just a 2.86 ERA, the 17th lowest mark in the league, a number that 90% of MLB starting pitchers would love to be at through 11 starts. He’s coming off of a dominant outing against the Phillies, where his pitch count got a little out of hand as he racked up ten strikeouts across 5.1 innings. The whiffs returned, picking up a total of 21, including eleven on the four-seamer which ticked up and sat 96.7 mph. He’s looked much more like himself as of late, and he missed the Angels the last time these two teams matched up, so he’ll look to keep trending in the right direction against a relatively weak offense.
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In other news,
Makes sense.
Nick Frasso was in the Dodgers’ organization since 2022 but was cut late last season, before re-signing with the team via a minor league deal in December. An upward mobility clause was a part of that deal, where on a certain date a player can exercise their upward mobility, forcing the team to either add them to the 40-man roster or allow them to sign with another team. Frasso had a 4.85 ERA in 13.0 Triple-A innings this season, but also recorded 24 strikeouts in those 13 innings.
Once again, pretty standard stuff.
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First pitch is at 7:10 PT on SNLA.
