Ben Casparius (3-0, 2.91) vs. Sandy Alcantara (2-3, 8.31).
Sany Alcantara won the Cy Young Award in 2022 and has been a solid pitcher...until this year, where something is definitely off. The Dodgers knocked him around last week (7 ER, 2.2 IP) to boost his ERA to 8.31. In that April 29 game, Jack Dreyer started for the Dodgers, and Matt Sauer got the victory after pitching five innings of one-run ball. Let's see if Ben Casparius can hold his own as well!
Dustin May vs. Bryce Elder.
Amazingly, the Dodgers are on the verge of sweeping the Atlanta Braves in this series, beating back both a hungry Braves team forecasted to win the NL East in 2025, not to mention Mother Nature, who threw in a brutal rain delay on Friday (stopping the game after eight full frames before allowing the Dodgers to play the ninth and earn the 2-1 victory), followed by a 3+ hour rain delay on Saturday.
The Dodgers' 10-3 romp yesterday, punctuated by a three-run Freddie Freeman HR to center, was awesome. And that sets up today's game, where Dustin "Code Red" May has a chance to have the Dodgers start their 10-day, 10-game road trip with a 3-0 record. Let's go, Dustin!
Sorry these have been so lame. I have had a lot on!
Gonsolin (2025 debut) vs. Quantrill (2-2, 7.83).
The Dodgers have a chance for a fish sweep! Welcome back, Catman!
TBD vs. Sandy Alcantara (2-2, 6.56).
Another bullpen game for the Dodgers, right after an extra-inning effort in which we won 7-6 (Tommy Edman with the game-winning, two-RBI walkoff single), but used five arms to get that victory. So who knows how we'll go with a series of ghost pitchers and overworked arms? Yikes.
Welcome back to first place, Dodgers!
Dustin May (1-1, 3.68) vs. Edward Cabrera (0-1, 6.14).
Welcome back, former Dodger first base coach Clayton McCullough (now the manager of the Miami Marlins). The Marlins are not doing well this year, suffering from sloppy defense... just like the Dodgers! So maybe it's a McCullough thing.
Gotta give some love to Andy Pages, who went 10-for-12 in the series against the Pirates, including a hone run, three doubles, and four RBI. This output alone lifted his batting average from .183 to .277, and his OPS from .650 to .861 (Pages is now sitting at a 146 OPS+, which is higher than Teoscar Hernandez (145), and is absolutely amazing).
And then, we have Max Muncy, who is at a 55 OPS+. Maybe we can trade him to the Marlins for Sandy Alcantara (whom we'll see tomorrow!).
Glasnow vs. Falter.
Last night's comeback victory was a pleasant surprise, right? but if we have to depend upon PH Kiké Hernandez home runs (which is the only thing he hits this year; still, better than Max Muncy), we are in trouble.
It's the Pirates, guys. Win this damn series.
Sasaki vs Keller.
My god, this run of bad games is miserable.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. TBD.
It's fitting to use this image and for this series, because frankly, the Dodgers' performace is absolutely the Pitts. Since going 8-0 to start the season, the Dodgers are actually a pedestrian 8-9, dropping four of their last six series (and barely squeaking past the Rangers, and then sweeping the Rockies).
It's all very disappointing, but the problems persist throughout the lineup. Our starting pitching is ravaged, with Tyler Glasnow befelled by both rain and cramps (I'm not kidding), and $182M signee Blake Snell unable to make it through a rehab period. Our bullpen, already incredibly overused only 1/6 of the way through the season, has given up leads late in games with chilling regularity.
And our bats are also spotty. Shohei Ohtani has returned from paternity leave with a newfound strikeout-prone swing. Mookie Betts, who went 3-for-5 against the Cubs Wednesday, is batting an uncharacteristically low .235.
On the other hand, the characteristic weaknesses in this lineup...are unfortunately playing right to form. Michael Conforto is batting .197. Max Muncy is batting .178 and looks totally lost out there, posting a career-high 36.5% strikeout rate. Andy Pages is batting .183.
And Austin "Free Pass" Barnes, with his career-low 9.1% defensive caught stealing rate, is batting .174. I honestly don't even know why he has a roster spot, even as a backup catcher.
The Dodgers are in third place in the NL West and look incredibly old and weak. We can't take another 137 games of this crap.
TBD vs. Matthew Boyd (1-2. 2.01).
After one of the most crushing losses we've had so far this year, the Dodgers will try to pick our beleaguered relievers off the floor and salvage a series split in today's game. There were soooooooo many mistakes yesterday: Dustin May giving up seven runs and ceding a 3-0 lead in the first inning; Andy Pages and Teoscar Hernandez' misadventures in the field (and Tommy Edman also gave up a RBI triple, to be fair); Alex Vesia giving up a two-run jack to narrow our comeback 10-7 lead; Tanner Scott, needing only one more out, giving up a game-tying HR in the bottom of the ninth. My god, what a disaster.
The Dodgers slipped back into second place in the NL West by a game and honestly don't look that good. Mookie Betts went 0-for-4 and is batting a woeful .231 this year, and Shohei Ohtani had three Ks in 4 AB. But that bottom of the order, anchored by Max Muncy and Kiké Hernandez, is simply putrid. We have to get Muncy out of the lineup. He is an automatic out.
Sigh.
Dustin May (1-1, 1.06) vs. Shota Imanaga (2-1, 2.22).
Start the game, I know a carrot top Who didn't pitch last year, but now he just won't stop And we can watch Shohei, and then see Muncy K And all... that... jazz
Tyler Glasnow (1-0, 4.85) vs. Tyler Mahle (3-0, 0.92)
First off, congratulatons to Shohei Ohtani and Mamiko Tanaka for the birth of their daughter yesterday!
Now, if Kirby Yates hadn't coughed up a game-winning walk-off home run to Adolis Garcia yesterday, we would also be talking about this game making a three-game sweep of the Rangers. Alas, it's only a rubber match now. Let's still get the win.
Roki Sasaki (0-1, 3.29) vs. Nathan Eovaldi (1-2, 2.55).
Fresh off another great performance from fellow countryman Yoshinobu Yamamoto (who outdueled the Rangers' Jacob deGrom (7.0 IP, 7 Ks, 1 ER) by pitching 7.0 IP, 10Ks, 0 ER), young Roki Sasaki takes the mound this afternoon at Globe Life Field.
Sasaki has been shaky and hasn't gone deep into games all year long. Maybe this is the one where he figures it out?
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2-1, 1.23) vs. Jacob deGrom (0-0, 4.30).
Oh, Corey. We loved you when you won the World Series MVP in 2020, but not so much in 2023. And here you are again, now batting .306 on the season with 4 HR,...and we do miss you. Except now we have Mookie Betts at shortstop, and well, he's been pretty good too (batting .266 on the season but also with 4 HR, and four more RBI at 10).
Texas leads the AL West by two games over Seattle. We're in second place, a game and a half behind the Padres in the NL West.
I hope we bring it this series.
Bobby Miller (0-0, -.--) vs. Germán Márquez (0-2, 4.60).
Before we get to the game, I gotta say: I really enjoy hearing Jessica Mendoza calling the game on color commentary. She is interesting, engaging, insightful, analytic, and even a little bit goofy. And she pairs really well with Stephen Nelson, who is much more controlled and not just bellowing hyperbole into the mike when he's sharing the booth with Mendoza.
But back to the series. Last night's win was a good one, and now the Dodgers are on the verge of a series sweep and have moved to second place, tied with the Giants, and 1.5 games behind the Padres despite our mediocre record, only 5-5 in their last 10. So let's get that sweep, Bobby!
Landon Knack (1-0, 10.38) vs. Feltner (0-0, 2.81).
Is one squeaker victory over the lowly Colorado Rockies enough to start feeling more positive about this 2025 Dodgers team?
Not on tax deadline day, that's for sure.
We're still in third place in the division, 2.5 games behind the Padres.
Geez.
(It's Jackie Robinson Day as well, but given the economy, I'm freaking out about this tax bill. Even with the wildfire-related deadline exception.)
Dustin May (0-1, 0.82) vs. Antonio Senzatela (0-2, 5.14).
Is it too early, in mid-April, to call the Dodgers a disappointment? Now having dropped three straight series, including a dispiriting couple of flops to the Cubs over the weekend, the Dodgers look nothing like the juggernaut we thought they might be in 2025.
The Dodgers, once 8-0, have been freefallin' and now start the day 2.5 games behind the Padres and a game behind the Giants. That's how bad it is.
It's a long day, living in Reseda.
Watch us lose this series to the 3-12 Rockies. Then, we'd call it a dumpster fire.
Tyler Glasnow (1-0, 6.43) vs. Colin Rea (0-0, 0.00).
In Tyler Glasnow's last start in Philadelphia, Glasnow was swimming along through two innings before some rain started falling and impaired his throwing and got into his head. Glasnow couldn't even get an out in the third inning, walking a total of five batters and leaving the bases loaded so reliever Alex Vesia could enter the game and give up a dagger grand slam that put the game out of reach (the Dodgers did fight back to lose by one run, but it was still a loss).
It would be nice if Glasnow showed a little bit more backbone this time around. There's no forecast of rain today.
It's all you, Tyler.
Roki Sasaki vs. Ben Brown.
It's another Sasaki turn. Hold on to your hats.
