Dodgers Red Sox Game Three Preview

The Dodgers look to win the series against the Red Sox with a win in game three.

Considering how the Dodgers played in the Rockies series and how they played in game one against the Red Sox, it seemed like a forgone conclusion that the Sox were going to light up Ross Stripling and the Dodgers would be looking to avoid the sweep on Sunday.

So, because baseball is illogical and dumb, Stripling, Grant Dayton, Joe Blanton and Kenley Jansen combined for a shutout and combined to only allow seven Sox to reach base. The Dodgers didn’t dominate on offense, but the three runs were more than enough and the Dodgers got a rather unlikely win.

Today was supposed to be Rich Hill’s debut, but he reportedly has another mini-blister. It won’t keep him down too long, but it delays his return just long enough to be annoying. Brandon McCarthy will get the ball instead and the Dodgers will need another starter for Monday against the Phillies.

McCarthy is coming off his worst outing since returning from Tommy John. He needed 85 pitches to get through three innings in Colorado and walked a career-high five batters. He only gave up two earned runs, but his ineffectiveness did the Dodgers in early in that game. McCarthy finished off his 2014 season in the AL East pitching for the Yankees, but hasn’t faced the Red Sox since 2013 as a member of the Diamondbacks.

David Price gets the ball for the Sox in a look at what could have been. Price signed rather quickly in free agency, so it’s unknown how much interest the Dodgers had in him. Price was probably the surest bet of the big three pitchers in free agency, considering Johnny Cueto’s arm issues and Zack Greinke’s age. Price struggled out of the gate and has slowly turned it around, but a 4.30 ERA isn’t what the Sox signed up for. His 3.28 FIP and .338 BABIP suggests a good deal of bad luck, but Price has shown some improvement of late. He’s thrown two scoreless outings this season, both of them coming in July. Despite his struggles, he’s gone at least seven innings in 13 of his 23 starts and at least six in 17.

Lefty lineups are always strange, but Rob Segedin got the call in will hit eighth and start in left field today. Segedin was acquired in January from the Yankees for Ronald Torreyes and made a name for himself with a successful Spring. Segedin has been in AAA all season and has a .319/.392/.598 slash in 424 plate appearances. His 21 homers led the OKC Dodgers.

Segedin wasn’t on the 40-man, so the Dodgers optioned Chris Taylor to Triple-A in order to make room for him.

The Dodgers also added Trayce Thompson to the 60 day DL, but made it retroactive to July 10th in order to free up some room on the 40 man.

In other news, Yasiel Puig is in the lineup for the OKC Dodgers, hopefully putting an end to the “he’s not reporting because he’s mad” narrative.

First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 PST and will be shown on Sportsnet LA and MLB Network (out of market only).