The Dodgers had a happy flight to St. Louis on Thursday, after snagging victory from the jaws of defeat against the New York Mets. Tanner Scott once again came in to preserve the win, with leads one to believe that maybe the changes he and the coaching staff implemented are working.
There is more good news on the horizon for the bullpen, as both Michael Kopech and Kirby Yates are expected to be activated off the injured list this weekend. Both came out of their respective outings on Wednesday feeling good and barring any unforeseen issues will rejoin the team in St. Louis.
The Dodgers are nearing the end of one of the toughest parts of their schedule, that unfortunately coincided with the pitching staff being paper thin. They went 7-6 against the Mets, Guardians, Yankees and Mets, and that’s probably about as good as one can ask for. They still have three in St. Louis and three in San Diego before they have a day off.
The talk before the season concerning the Dodgers and the Cardinals was if the Dodgers should trade for Nolan Arenado. This was reportedly fueled mostly on Arenado’s side, as he wanted to play for L.A. With Muncy having a horrendous start to the season, some fans wondered if that was a missed opportunity. The way the two players are trending at the moment, keeping Muncy was definitely the right call.
Arenado is batting .228 overall with seven home runs, but just .190 in his last 15 games. Muncy in hitting .273 in the same time period, with six homers in those 15 games, with an even better .333 batting average and 1.048 slugging in his last seven games. Arenado has six less errors at third than Muncy, but Muncy’s WAR is 1.5 compared to Arenado’s 0.5.
(Fabian Ardaya has a good article today in The Athletic about how Muncy is turning to Mookie Betts to help with his fielding).
The Cardinals currently sit at 34-28, five games out of first in the NL Central. They will start the series sending Sonny Gray to the mound, who is 6-1 with a 3.65 ERA. (Did you know that Gray’s nickname is Pickles? I didn’t.)
The Dodgers will dip back into the minors for a starter in Justin Wrobleski. The team had been thinking of going with a bullpen game for Friday’s game, but Landon Knack did not last long enough in his outing to make that a viable option.
Wrobleski has two outings in the majors this season, garnering a 1-1 record with an 8.00 ERA. All eight earned runs came in an outing in DC in April. He allowed only one hit in four innings against the Athletics in May.
Friday game info
- Teams: Dodgers at Cardinals
- Stadium: Busch Stadium, St. Louis
- Start time: 5:15 p.m. PT
- TV: SportsNet LA
- Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)