The Los Angeles Dodgers have been steamrolling everyone. Lately, they haven’t lost a game in over a week. The Blue Crew swept San Diego amid all the big names they traded for. The Dodgers have the best record in the majors at 75-33 and are 16 games up on the second-place Padres.
The team is hitting all cylinders with under two months left in the season. They’ve won eight games in a row and are 9-1 in their last ten games.
Since July 1, the Dodgers are 28-5, the best record in the MLB, during that span. They’ll host the Minnesota Twins for two games, then go on a seven-game road trip against the Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers.
So, these are all series the Dodgers should be able to take, but you know baseball is baseball, so there’s no knowing what can happen, as this season has already seen the Dodgers drop series to the underachieving Pirates and Nationals at home.
With the Twins coming to town, interestingly enough, they’re also a division leader. Minnesota is leading the AL Central by one game with a 57-51 record, the weakest record to lead a division this year. The Central hasn’t been very good, so despite three teams struggling, they all have a shot at the division crown.
The two teams have already met this year, with the Dodgers taking both meetings in Minnesota. Dodger fans may remember that was the second series of the year, in which Clayton Kershaw pitched seven perfect innings in his first start of the 2022 season.
Julio Urias gets the start in the series opener this time around, while the team has not announced a starter for the second game. It is Kershaw’s turn in the rotation, but since he’s on the injured list, right-hander Andre Jackson is the leading candidate to replace him.
The Twins will start right-handers, Joe Ryan and Sonny Gray. Ryan has an 8-4 record with a 3.67 ERA, and Gray is 6-3 with a 3.19 ERA.
Urias is 11-6 this year with a 2.57 ERA, one of the few key contributors in a rotation that has been hit by injuries quite a bit throughout the year. In his last start, he went six scoreless innings, allowing seven hits against the Giants.
The first pitch for Tuesday’s opener is scheduled at 7:10 p.m. Pacific.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
I know that Mookie, Trea and Freddie want to start every game but these are the dog days of August and it wouldn’t hurt if they each got a day off once a week. It’s not as though this lineup couldn’t win without one of them. And even if it didn’t, they have a 16 game lead.
It’s more important that all the guys be fresh for the playoffs than having them able to say they started every game.
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Urias has always been one of my favorite players. He has displayed amazing patience and will to fight through his early injuries. Plus he is a wily pitcher with several pitches he throws at different velocity. He has become a true MLB pitcher. I would like to see the Dodgers bring up Jackson, Pepiot and Grove and have them pitch a few games and give the starters a breather. The dog days of August are here. As Jeff writes time to rest up before the push for the playoffs. The Dodgers need to maintain the bye and home field at least in the NL>
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I agree tmax, it’s not like they are 20 year olds. Personally don’t think any of the 3 has a future here but you never know until you give them a chance. Anything g is better than the reject of the week we went through last year, which actually told us that none of them had a future here.
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Pepiot with that devastating change might become a good reliever. There was a great reliever to the South of us that lived by his change. I am not sold on Jackson. Grove has had a ton of injuries much like White> The Dodgers must see potential or they would not used a precious spot on the 40 man roster. The Dodgers have proven their ability to identify and refine pitching talent.
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True. But they are all 25 with control problems.
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I just looked. You are correct about control problems this year. I’m sure the Dodgers analytics dept watches MiL pitchers intently and knows a lot more than the raw stats show. And a problem evaluating MiL pitchers is they often don’t throw enough innings for rates the stabilize. But for a team that values relievers not walking batters, the MiL upper prospect pitchers could show better walk rates.
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Pepiot can only be optioned once more. So the Dodgers will probably keep him here a while. But if May is truly ready in about 10 days, anything can happen. May had 8 K’s last night. Julio was great against the Twins, Bickford is punching his ticket to AAA.
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Nice to see the Dodger coaches have fixed Gallo a little. More improvement can be made, but an oppo homer is a great start.
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