Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (36-24) dropped the first game of this four game set against the Mets (38-22) last night in a close extra-innings game by a score of 4-3. Chad’s recap essentially detailed that Dustin May was good, Paul Blackburn was slightly better, and the Mets’ bullpen was better than Tanner Scott. After some recent inconsistency and inability to gain any real traction, the Dodgers now have *just* the sixth best record in baseball, trailing the Phillies, Yankees, Cubs, Mets, and Tigers, in that order. Clayton Kershaw will get the ball today, making his fourth start of the season and his second against the Mets. Tylor Megill will start for the Mets, looking to continue his great 2025 season.
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| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| SS | Lindor (S) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| DH | Marte | SS | Betts |
| RF | Soto (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| 1B | Alonso | RF | T. Hernández |
| LF | Nimmo (L) | C | Smith |
| CF | Taylor | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| 3B | Mauricio (S) | CF | Pages |
| C | Alvarez | LF | Conforto (L) |
| 2B | McNeil (L) | 2B | Kim (L) |
| P | Blackburn (R) | P | Kershaw (L) |
After putting up 26 runs across two consecutive victories against the Yankees, the Dodgers have rather predictably put up just three runs on back to back days. They struggled against the soft-tossing Ryan Yarbrough, and then against Blackburn who is mostly 91 MPH or below, but luckily today will face a pitcher with above-average stuff in Megill. Shohei Ohtani added his 23rd home run last night, in addition to a game tying sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth. Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages each had two singles, with their batting averages sitting at .368 and .282 respectively. Hyeseong Kim added two singles, with his batting average now up to .420, in addition to stealing a base. Teoscar Hernández had a single, but has just a .390 OPS in the five games he’s been batting second in the absence of Mookie Betts. He’s slashing .200/.226/.233 over his last seven games with 13 strikeouts to just one walk in 31 plate appearances. He’s streaky, but it’s been a rough stretch while hitting second in the lineup. Thankfully, Betts is back and starting at shortstop.
For the Mets, they’ve now won 27 consecutive games in which Francisco Lindor has hit a home run. It would be a miracle if the Dodgers could reach the bottom of the first without trailing. The Mets have won three of four games against the Dodgers this year, after dropping the first game of the series in New York in extra-innings two weeks ago.
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Here’s how Kershaw and Megill have fared this year.
Kershaw has made just three starts since making his return from knee and toe surgeries this offseason. He’s coming off a decent outing in Cleveland in which he allowed one run on six hits and two walks over five innings with three strikeouts. Prior to that he started against the Mets in New York, although he went just two strong innings before a rain delay ended his outing. He appears to be shaking off some of the rust he showed against the Angels in his season opener, although he admitted there will be some growing pains as he works back into form. The command has been a bit off, something that will need to be sharp with his decreased velocity. He’s 26 strikeouts from 3000.
Megill earned his fourth win of the season his last time out against the White Sox, allowing just two runs on four hits and four walks over 5.2 innings with six strikeouts. He has been very good this year, with his 3.52 ERA, 3.10 FIP, and 30.4% strikeout rate all career bests. His 30.4% strikeout rate is eighth in baseball among 105 starters with 50+ innings pitched, in elite company. The downside is that his 11.4% walk rate is a career worst and the eighth worst rate among the same starters. More or less, effectively wild. He sits in the mid-90’s with his four-seamer and sinker, making up nearly two thirds of his arsenal. His main breaking-ball is a mid-80’s whiff inducing slider, going to a changeup and curveball predominantly against lefties. He owns a 3.18 ERA in three career outings against the Dodgers, and made one appearance against them in the NLCS last year, allowing four runs on five hits and three walks over three innings.
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Ureña has a career 4.78 ERA over nearly 1000 innings, a relatively long career for someone who hasn’t seen much prolonged success over the years.
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Pretty much this. Scott will improve and in all likelihood get back to where he’s been over the past couple of years, but even so, it hasn’t been pretty.
Shohei Ohtani won National League Player of the Month. That’s what 15 home runs and an OPS of 1.180 will do for you.
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Tyler Glasnow not having strange and lingering body soreness is good. Back tightness is understandable and better than “Why is a professional athlete continuously sore and not recovering?”.
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First pitch is at 7:10 PT on SNLA and TBS.
