Game 28, 2017

Injury news:

The Dodgers are getting Pederson ready to return to the club Friday for the series opener against the Padres in San Diego.

“He’s going to DH tonight [at Rancho Cucamonga], go through that progression and hopefully if things go well we’ll see him on Friday,” Robert said. “He’ll take three at-bats tonight, so that’s exciting.”

The other walking wounded that we’ll see soon include:

Outfielder Franklin Gutierrez (hamstring) is scheduled to be activated before Tuesday’s game, Roberts said. Second baseman Logan Forsythe (broken toe) is expected to begin a Minor League rehab assignment with Rancho Cucamonga on Wednesday or Thursday.

Kazmir, Ravin and Segedin will be a while yet.

Ravin made his first rehab appearance with Rancho Cucamonga on Monday, striking out one and allowing one hit in a scoreless inning. He’s essentially starting Spring Training, Roberts said.

Kazmir threw a bullpen session over the weekend and is scheduled to remain in Los Angeles and throw again when the Dodgers leave for San Diego.

[snip]

Segedin is working out in Arizona at the Dodgers’ complex at Camelback Ranch Glendale. Roberts said a date for a rehab assignment for Segedin has not been set yet.

“He’s in Arizona right now doing some baseball activities, but he still says that it’s not right,” Roberts said. “I know, obviously, every day he’s getting better, but I think that with the time he’s missed, it’s still, once he starts, it’s going to be certainly a week of games at least to show that he’s healthy.”

If you’ve forgotten, Segedin injured a big toe and ligament in his very first plate appearance with the Dodgers on April 17.

Giants at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, NBCS-BA

It’s a lefty matchup between the Giants’ Matt Moore (1-3, 4.80 ERA) and the Dodgers’ Alex Wood (1-0, 2.29 ERA). Moore held the Dodgers to one run on two hits over seven innings last Thursday and came up with no decision. He’s made 18 starts in his career with the Giants, and five of them have been against the Dodgers.

Wood pitched six shutout innings and allowed one hit Wednesday in San Francisco, also getting no decision. In his three starts this season he’s got a 3.14 ERA, and he’d no doubt like to have another good outing to persuade the Dodgers to keep hi in the starting rotation.

Lineup when available.

Note that Bellinger is at first base.

45 thoughts on “Game 28, 2017

  1. I remember the Cubs being in the same situation with Kyle Schwarber as the Dodgers are in with Cody Bellinger. They did not want to bring him up from the Iowa Cubs, their triple A team thinking he needed more “seasoning” but the guy just absolutely hit his way onto the team. I am still not convinced either Schwarber or Bellinger are the real deal, but they are playing like they are.

    • Schwarber may or may not hit, but he has no defensive position. He might have an AL future.

  2. Optioning SVS was probably a good and correct move, if a painful one. DR said earlier this year that after recovering from injury that he wasn’t back where he used to be . Maybe playing every day in OKC will get him going. If not….

    Giving AGon a breather is another good move. In the past he has come back strong from brief breaks. If not…

    • I’d like to see SVS make a comeback, but not sure that he will. He needs the playing time so that he, and the Dodgers, will find out what he’s got left.

  3. From the ESPN recap:

    Adrian Gonzalez, who turns 35 on Monday, has been batting [sic] elbow and back soreness and did not start Tuesday. Gonzalez has never been on the disabled list. He has yet to hit a home run. Manager Dave Roberts said he may give Gonzalez Wednesday off, too. With Thursday’s off day, that would give the veteran three consecutive days off.

  4. Avilan’s change very effective against righties. LOOGY no more!

  5. Posey sounding Puig for celebrating? (Actually he just seemed to be pointing to someone in the Dodgers dugout, probably Turner Ward).

  6. Romo pitching must better than in SF . . . can’t blame him for having nerves there.

  7. Checking in from the middle of nowhere Manitoba, where I’m helping to run a camp for the week.
    It looks like I saved myself some grief by missing yesterday’s game. Liking tonight’s game better!
    Dodgers are up and down so far this season – but it’s fun imaging when they will hit their stride.

    • The offense, starters and relievers have all shone this year, but not often at the same time. Just based on run differential, they should be at around 16-11.

    • Dave, don’t know if you heard the Dodgers give up the 4 runs, but that was certainly a “down” moment in this game, especially with Wood’s pitch count. Then the bats woke up and made it “up.” (And I’m not talking the making it up coming from D.C. daily.)

  8. Alex sure turned himself around — it was looking like another bullpen-depleting game.

  9. Cody!
    They can’t send this kid anywhere except the starting lineup each day!

    • Emulating Kershaw is USUALLY a good thing.
      Sloppy defense doesn’t help.
      If the bullpen can shut them down, hopefully bats can chip away at this.

  10. Chad at Dodger Digest is very good at the sort of thing he does here, on Kersh’s slider being a problem so far this year–which if so could be very significant since it’s his No. 1 pitch. He’s not claiming the sky is falling, and he points out that CK very well might fix it on his own. But his data and hitter contact rates with it compared to norms make it seem it does need fixing,

    http://dodgersdigest.com/2017/05/02/clayton-kershaws-slider-is-different-right-now-and-that-might-be-a-problem/

      • Roberts threw in his $.02 on the last start, FWIW:

        “Obviously, we expect perfection out of Clayton every time he takes the
        mound,” said manager Dave Roberts. “It was more for me the late depth,
        the late bite, whatever life to the slider that just wasn’t there.
        Uncharacteristic of Clayton, there were some sliders that were
        elevated.”

    • Did notice in the previous game he was mostly fastball and curve and not using his slider as the out pitch.

    • When Logan gets back, Justin could take over for SVS at first in spelling AGon. Cody might also take over for AGon, if it were decided that he might benefit from the 10 day DL (IIRC he has never been on the DL or at least not in the past five years).

  11. RISP gets a lot of play and focus on why the Dodgers might win or lose a particular game or series of games. I took a look at the underlying numbers to see how they are doing so far this year. First off, the Dodgers get a lot of RISP relative to other teams, ranking 3rd in PA with RISP in the NL. So a lot of opportunities. How do we achieve this? Our BA is not so good, ranked 10th in the NL at .248, but we do come in 4th in OBP. How are we performing? Our BA with RISP is .247, so we do no worse in those situations than we do otherwise. Overall, we still rank 4th in runs scored in RISP situations, so not so bad. Where we are doing poorly in in runs scored overall, where we are 8th in th NL. This seems to be related more to a relatively poor SLG (ranked 10th) and a rather dismal performance in dingers, where we rank 12th.