Dodgers Blue Jays Game Two Preview

After another late loss, the Dodgers look to get back in the win column with their ace on the hill.

Yesterday was seemingly one of those games where either team could have won in the eighth inning. As the story has gone this season, the Dodgers lost a winnable game and fell back under .500.

The Blue Jays lineup is a nightmare and Kenta Maeda did a great job keeping them at bay (until Joey Bats obliterated a hanging slider). He fared well, and the job only gets tougher for the Blue Jays as Clayton Kershaw gets the ball today. Kershaw has obviously put up stellar numbers this season and has posted double-digit strikeouts in each of his last three outings.

The Blue Jays are one of four teams Kershaw has never faced in his career (not including the Dodgers, obviously). Two of the other three teams come to Dodger Stadium later this year (Boston and Baltimore), so by the end of the season Kershaw could potentially knock off every team except the Dodgers and the Twins.

Kershaw has started 25 interleague games in his career and has allowed a .197/.253/.294 triple slash in his career against American League opponents. In 170 innings, he’s struck out 182 batters and only allowed 44 earned runs.

Kershaw could have had four consecutive Cy Young awards from 2011-2015, but the Blue Jay’s starter today, R.A. Dickey, took home the award as a member of the Mets in 2012. Dickey threw five more innings than Kershaw that season and struck out one more batter than Kershaw did, but all the other numbers pointed toward Kershaw as the NL’s top pitcher that season. Kershaw’s ERA was .20 lower and his WHIP was .030 lower, but Dickey had fewer walks and won 20 games (“Kershaw” “only” won 14, win-loss records are stupid).

Dickey is a knuckleballer, so pretty much anything can happen this game. If the knuckler is on, Dickey could be dominant. If he struggles to locate it, the Dodgers could put up big numbers. Unfortunately, the DH means Kershaw won’t be able to score the only run on offense while throwing a CGSO, so the Dodgers actually need a lineup.

The initial lineup had Howie Kendrick DHing and Carl Crawford in left, and that was switched. CC even played solidly in the field yesterday, but back to back days on turf for a guy with his health track record probably isn’t the greatest idea.

In other Dodger related news, Mike Bolsinger is making his first rehab start today for OKC. That isn’t to say he’s close to a return, but it’s definitely progress. Hyun-jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy are both expected to start their first rehab games in the coming weeks. With how inconsistent the Dodgers starting pitching has been to start the season, this is obviously great news.

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The Dodgers have also reportedly discussed calling up Julio Urias for the bullpen. Jharel Cotton and Jose De Leon were reportedly discussed for the same role. JDL had a late start to his season so I’d guess he’s third on that priority list, but Urias and/or Cotton could inject some life into a bullpen that’s showed flashes of dominance and flashes of incompetence. At the same time, the Dodgers have gone out of their way to protect Urias’ arm throughout his minor league career. At some point they need to unleash him and let him throw a larger number of innings, so a promotion to the bullpen doesn’t exactly help fast track him to the rotation. Either way, the hype will be real when he does make his major league debut, so fun times ahead. First, maybe win this Kershaw start.

First pitch is scheduled for 10:07 PST and will be shown on Sportsnet LA.