May 24

Game 43, 2015

Padres at Dodgers, 1:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD

Carlos Frias brings a 3-1 record and a 2.55 ERA to the hill on a Sunday day game. He’ll face James Shields, who hasn’t lost this season and has won five of his nine starts, posting a 3.74 ERA along the way. Because Shields has spent his career in the AL until this year, only two Dodgers have extensive records against him: A-Gon has 28 ABs hitting .357 with 2 HRs and 4 RBI, and Howie Kendrick has 17 ABs hitting a whopping .471 with 1 HR and 2 RBI.

Lineup when available.


We get our first look at Austin Barnes behind the plate. He’s 25 years old, he’s caught 9 of 23 base stealers and he’s had 3 passed balls. He’s got a slash line of .290/.390/.430 with 5 doubles, 3 homers and 13 RBI.

May 19

Game 38, 2015

Dodgers at Giants, 7:15PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN, CSN-BA

Carlos Frias brings his 3-0 record and his 2.89 ERA to the hill at AT&T Park to face veteran Tim Hudson, who’s 1-3 with a 4.57 ERA this season. Frias has faced the Giants twice, both times in relief, and is 1-0 with a 4.15 ERA against them. Hudson is 6-6 with a 4.03 ERA against the Dodgers in his long career.

In other news, the Dodgers finalized the contracts for 30-year-old IF Hector Olivera and 25-year-old RHP Pablo Fernandez. Olivera hopes to be in baseball condition within a month and playing in LA soon after that, while Fernandez says he wants to get into shape and he’ll go wherever the team sends him. Neither of these guys have played since the 2013-2014 season in Cuba.

Club President of Baseball Operations spoke to the press today, primarily about the two players mentioned above. Other topics included Frias, Bolsinger, Urias and Ryu.

Lineup:

May 13

Game 33, 2015

Marlins at Dodgers, 4:50PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Note the 4:50PM start time: “The unusual start time of 4:50 p.m. PT (7:50 p.m. ET) was selected to comply with MLB travel rules, so the Marlins would have a day off Thursday without traveling.”

Carlos Frias goes to the mound for the Dodgers. He’s 3-0 with a 2.13 ERA and will be making his third start of the season. The Marlins will counter with Jarred Cosart, who’s 1-3 with a 3.67 ERA and has had some bad results recently, giving up seven runs in his last nine innings.

Lineup:


Rollins gets a day off, the rotating third base position lands on Turner, and apparently Scott Van Slyke is plumb wore out from his heroics of the last two days.

May 07

Game 28, 2015

Dodgers at Brewers, 10:40AM PT, TV: SPNLA

Carlos Frias brings his 2-0, 0.00 ERA (over 7 2/3 innings) to the hill for the Dodgers to face the Brewers’ Mike Fiers, who’s 1-3 with a 4.74 ERA this season but is coming off a 2 walk, 12-strikeout performance over 6 innings against the Cubs in which he got the win.

The Dodgers plan to sit Jimmy Rollins and Justin Turner in this game and to have Yasmani Grandal do the catching. Juan Uribe will be back at third with his 13-game hitting streak.

Lineup when available.

May 06

Game 27, 2015

Dodgers at Brewers, 5:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

The man whose name spawned a zillion headline puns pitches for the Brewers today: Wily Peralta. He’s got a 30-31 career record with a 3.87 ERA, but he’s had a tough start this season: 0-4, 4.35 ERA. He’ll be (possibly) facing Joe Wieland, who is still a rookie despite spending parts of 2012 and 2014 with the Padres. He’s only got 39 innings of MLB experience, earning a 1-4 record and a 5.31 ERA.

I say possibly because the Dodgers tweeted that it would be Carlos Frias pitching today. We may have to wait until game time (or follow the Twitter account) to see who it’s going to be.

Lineup when available.

May 01

Game 22, 2015

Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

It’s a battle of righthanders as the D-Backs send out old friend Rubby De La Rosa to face off against Carlos Frias of the Dodgers. De La Rosa was sent to the Red Sox by the Dodgers as part of the trade which brought them Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford two years ago. Arizona acquired him in the off-season, and he’s gone 2-1 with a 4.68 ERA this year in 25 innings over 4 starts. Frias is making his first start of the year for the Dodgers after two relief appearances.

Update: Mark Saxon of ESPN has a discussion of the Dodgers’ bullpen and its management. Three different pitchers have been used in save situations at the MLB level, and it’s the same in the minors: “The Dodgers’ four minor-league affiliates have had a total of 14 pitchers record at least one save.”

Hmm. Interesting.

Lineup when available.

No Uribear and a Guerrero sighting.

Apr 17

Game Ten, 2015

Rockies at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw has given up nine hits in 12 1/3 innings and a .320 batting average in two starts this season. Kershaw is 13-5 with a 3.17 ERA in 26 starts against the Rockies.

This would seem to be the place for a song:

The Rockies send Kyle Kendrick out to face Kershaw. Kendrick has had two wildly different outings this year. In the first he went seven innings, scattered seven hits, walked none, struck out six and gave up no runs to get the win. In his second start he went six innings, walked five, gave up eight hits and eight runs to take the loss.

In personnel news, the Dodgers optioned RHP Carlos Frias to Oklahoma City. They also claimed RHP Daniel Corcino from Cincinnati and designated LHP Ryan Dennick for assignment.

Lineup when available.

Sep 17

Game 152, 2014

Dodgers at Rockies, 12:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Carlos Frias makes his second start for the Dodgers after being called up from Albuquerque for a second time this season on September 2. His first start was on September 3, when he pitched six innings of 3-hit ball in a game the Dodgers eventually lost to the Nationals in 14 innings. He’s 0-0 with a 3.91 ERA. His opponent will be Jorge De La Rosa, who’s 13-11 with a 4.28 ERA. Pitching at Coors Field, though, De La Rosa is 44-14 in his career.

Lineup when available.

Update: Well, in light of that eight-run disaster of a first inning, we’d better hope the Diamondbacks beat the Giants this afternoon.

Sep 15

Game 150, 2014

Dodgers at Rockies, 5:40PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Roberto Hernandez will start for the Dodgers, hoping he can get his groove back. In his last four starts he’s 1-3 with a 6.38 ERA. The Rockies counter with Christian Bergman, who’ll make his eighth big league start. He’s 2-3 with a 4.89 ERA, but his last two starts have been quality ones.

It’s looking like Carlos Frias will make the Wednesday start against the Rockies in place of Hyun-Jin Ryu. Ryu’s having an MRI today, and that result may determine when or if he pitches again this season. With that in doubt, Don Mattingly says it’s likely the Dodgers will add a pitcher to the roster.

In good news for Los Angeles Dodgers fans who want to see the team on TV, the last six games of the season will be shown on an independent station. Time Warner

said Monday that it has reached a deal with KDOC, which is carried by every cable, satellite and telco provider in Southern California and can be received over the air with an antenna.

[snip]

Time Warner Cable chief operating officer Dinni Jain says the company will continue to work on long-term agreements with other providers during the offseason to carry SportsNet LA, which televises Dodgers games.

Uh-huh. If you couldn’t get a deal done during the season while the games were being played, why do you think you’ll be able to when there’s no product on your network that fans desperately want to see?

Lineup:

Sep 03

Game 140, 2014

Nationals at Dodgers, 12:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN

A 12:10 p.m. PT start on Wednesday meant that right-hander Dan Haren wouldn’t get a full rest between outings, so Dodgers manager Don Mattingly tabbed 24-year-old rookie Carlos Frias for the series finale against the Nationals.

It seemed like the obvious choice.

“We felt like he was a good guy for this 12 o’clock start,” Mattingly said. “He’s young. He doesn’t need sleep.”

Don hasn’t read or heard the story that youngsters need more sleep than us old people.

You might say “what’s this kid doing starting, when he’s done nothing but pitch out of the bullpen for the Dodgers?” Well, he started all but one of his games at AA Chattanooga and AAA Albuquerque this year. He’ll pitch against Jordan Zimmermann, who’s 10-5 with a 2.93 ERA on the season, 2-1 with a 5.61 ERA against the Dodgers in five career starts.

Mattingly apparently thinks Puig needs time to relax and not think so hard about his performance on the field. He hasn’t said whether he’ll play Pederson or Puig tomorrow.