The Dodgers held on Wednesday in Colorado to complete their first sweep since the end of April. Clayton Kershaw allowed a run and two hits over six strong innings, and perhaps more importantly now sits three strikeouts away from 3,000 for his career, with his next start coming in LA against the White Sox on Wednesday. The Dodgers now find themselves six games up on the Padres and 6.5 up on the Giants, who lost yesterday while LA and SD were off. They’re also in a tie with the Tigers at 51-31 for the top record in baseball, with the Tigers and Twins getting under way just about when this post is scheduled.
They head Kansas City to open up a series with the Royals. They’re 38-43, 12.5 games behind the Tigers and in fourth in the division. They’ve been very streaky of late (mostly in a bad way), as they lost six straight to the Yankees and A’s, then swept the Rangers and took the first game against the Padres before dropping their last five games. They’ve scored four runs over the last five games and were a ninth-inning run in the opener against the Rays away from being shut out for the entire series. The Royals put the ball in play a lot, with the second-lowest strikeout rate in baseball (18.6 percent) but also the lowest walk rate (6.5 percent). They’ve been one of the worst offenses in baseball, with a team OPS of .661 (fourth-lowest) and a team wRC+ of 80 (tied for the third-worst). Their pitching has kept them afloat, with a 3.41 team ERA (fifth-best in baseball).
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| 5:10 PM | Kansas City | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | 2B | India |
| SS | Betts | SS | Witt Jr. |
| RF | T. Hernández | 3B | Garcia |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | DH | Pasquantino (L) |
| C | Smith | 1B | Perez |
| CF | Pages | RF | Caglianone (L) |
| 2B | Edman (S) | LF | Rave (L) |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | C | Fermin |
| LF | K. Hernández | CF | Isbel (L) |
| P | May (R) | P | Cameron (L) |
Dustin May gets the ball for the 15th time this season. He fell victim to the long ball in his last start against the Nationals, allowing three runs (all solo homers) over six innings in a 7-3 loss (the last time the Dodgers lost a game). He’s allowed three runs over six innings in each of his last two games and has struggled in June, with a 5.09 ERA over four starts. He’s been a valuable number five pitcher in a rotation, going five or more innings in each of his 14 starts and generally pitching well enough to keep the Dodgers in the game. Can’t ask for much more than that out of your number five, but it’s rough when he’s one of three non-bullpen-game pitchers on the roster. Unsurprisingly, May has never faced the Royals in his career and has only faced one batter on their roster. He faced Mark Canha eight times and has allowed three singles, but has yet to walk him or strike him out.
Rookie Noah Cameron gets his ninth career start tonight. So far so good for their No. 5 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, with a 2.08 ERA in 47 2/3 innings. Most of the damage off Cameron came when they faced the Yankees on June 10th, where Cameron allowed six runs and seven hits over 5 2/3 innings. In his other seven starts, Cameron’s allowed five runs combined. He completed six or more innings in each of his first five starts, but hasn’t done so in his last three outings. He’s still completed five or more each time out and has allowed two or fewer hits in a game three times. He hasn’t been a huge strikeout pitcher in the Majors (34 in 47 2/3 innings) but struck out more than one per inning in each level in the Minors. Cameron has been getting Yoshinobu Yamamoto‘d, with only 2.13 runs of run support per game and the Royals only scoring more than three in a game he’s started only once.
Pipeline gave Cameron a 60 grade on his changeup, and he’s had success with it in the Majors so far. He’s thrown it 19.6 percent of the time and allowed only a .150 average and .225 slugging off it. It’s roughly 12 miles per hour slower than his four-seamer, which he’s thrown 28 percent of the time and allowed a .229 average and .479 slugging off it. Three of the four homers he’s allowed have come off the fastball, and it’s his only pitch with a sub-25 percent whiff rate (only 9.6 percent). He’s also thrown a cutter, curve and slider each roughly 17 percent of the time.
Max Muncy gets the start at third against a lefty and Enrique Hernandez gets the start in left again.
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Not really any updates out before I schedule this post, so be ready for the IL move like 10 minutes before first pitch.
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First pitch is scheduled for 5:10 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.
