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Bobby Miller continues to provide Dodgers with hope amid rash of pitcher woes
The Dodgers returned from a grueling 10-game trip with their rotation in tatters, the injuries to Dustin May and Julio Urías and the struggles of Noah Syndergaard, Clayton Kershaw and Gavin Stone stressing organizational pitching depth and an overworked bullpen.
In rookie right-hander Bobby Miller, the Dodgers found some relief … and a reason for hope.
The strapping 6-foot-5, 220-pounder with a triple-digit fastball and knee-buckling curve was dominant in his second big league start Monday night, holding the Washington Nationals to one run and four hits in six efficient innings of a 6-1 victory before a Memorial Day crowd of 47,067 at Dodger Stadium.
Dodgers defeat the Nationals 6-1
Ninth inning
Nationals: Shelby Miller now pitching for the Dodgers. Jeimer Candelario singled to center. Joey Meneses popped to second. Dominic Smith grounded to first, Candelario to second. Corey Dickerson walked. Keibert Ruiz flied to deep center.
Final score: Dodgers 6, Nationals 1
We go to the ninth, 6-1 Dodgers
Eighth inning
Nationals: Justin Bruihl now pitching for the Dodgers. CJ Abrams grounded to second. Alex Call popped to short. Lane Thomas singled to left. Luis Garcia grounded to second.
Dodgers: Right-hander Erasmo Ramírez now pitching for the Nationals. J.D. Martinez flied to right. David Peralta grounded to first. Jason Heyward grounded to third.
Score after eight: Dodgers 6, Nationals 1
Dodgers 6, Nationals 1 after seven
Seventh inning
Nationals: Victor González now pitching for the Dodgers. Dominic Smith grounded up the first-base line. González made a nice play to throw him out. Corey Dickerson lined to center. Keibert Ruiz lined to center.
Dodgers: Mookie Betts flied to left. Freddie Freeman fouled to second. Will Smith struck out swinging.
Score after seven: Dodgers 6, Nationals 1
It’s 6-1 Dodgers after six innings
Sixth inning
Nationals: Lane Thomas struck out swinging. Luis Garcia walked. Jeimer Candelario lined to right. Joey Meneses struck out swinging.
Through six innings, Bobby Miller has given up one run and four hits while walking one and striking out four. He has thrown 87 pitches, 54 for strikes. Does he go out for one more inning?
Dodgers: Right-hander Thaddeus Ward now pitching for the Nationals. Miguel Vargas struck out swinging. James Outman popped to third. Chris Taylor grounded to third.
Score after six: Dodgers 6, Nationals 1
J.D. Martinez homers as part of six-run fifth inning
Fifth inning
Nationals: Keibert Ruiz flied to center. CJ Abrams popped to short. Alex Call grounded to third.
Dodgers: Jason Heyward walked. Miguel Vargas grounded to short. Abrams booted it and kicked it into center field. First and third, nobody out. James Outman flied to center, scoring Heyward. Chris Taylor grounded to third, forcing Vargas. Mookie Betts singled to left, Taylor to second. Freddie Freeman doubled to right, scoring Taylor and Betts. Will Smith walked. J.D. Martinez homered to right-center. It’s 6-1 Dodgers. David Peralta singled to right-center. Jason Heyward popped to short.
Score after five: Dodgers 6, Nationals 1
Nothing doing in the fourth, still 1-0 Nationals
Fourth inning
Nationals: Jeimer Candelario flied to right. Joey Meneses grounded to second. Dominic Smith doubled to left. Corey Dickerson grounded to second.
Dodgers: Will Smith grounded to third. J.D. Martinez struck out swinging. David Peralta lined to short.
Score after four: Nationals 1, Dodgers 0
Dodgers strand two, trail 1-0
Third inning
Nationals: Alex Call flied to right. Lane Thomas grounded to third. Luis Garcia flied to left.
Dodgers: Miguel Vargas flied to center. James Outman singled to right. Chris Taylor flied to left. Outman stole second. Mookie Betts walked. Freddie Freeman grounded to second.
Score after three: Nationals 1, Dodgers 0
Nationals lead 1-0 after two
Second inning
Nationals: Joey Meneses singled to right. Dominic Smith struck out looking. Corey Dickerson doubled, Meneses to third. Keibert Ruiz fouled to the catcher. CJ Abrams singled to right, Meneses scoring, Dickerson thrown out at home. Nice throw by Heyward.
Dodgers: J.D. Martinez struck out swinging. David Peralta singled into the hole at short. Jason Heyward grounded into a 3-6-3 double play.
Score after two: Nationals 1, Dodgers 0
No score after one inning
First inning
Nationals: Lane Thomas grounded to short. Luis Garcia grounded to the pitcher. Jeimer Candelario grounded to the pitcher.
Dodgers: Mookie Betts grounded to second. Freddie Freeman grounded to second. Will Smith struck out swinging.
Score after one inning: Dodgers 0, Nationals 0
Michael Grove joins team in anticipation of return to rotation
Michael Grove joined the Dodgers on Monday in anticipation of his expected promotion from triple-A to replace the struggling Gavin Stone in the rotation, but manager Dave Roberts said the team will wait until later this week to make a final decision.
Stone has a 14.40 ERA in three big-league starts this season, and after he gave up seven earned runs and 10 hits in two innings of Sunday’s 11-10 loss to Tampa Bay, Roberts said the Dodgers would be “prudent to just reassess and make sure that whatever we do is best for Gavin and best for us.”
Grove, who is recovering from an April groin injury, gave up five singles, struck out seven and walked none in 5 ⅔ scoreless innings of a rehab start for Oklahoma City on Saturday. The right-hander had an 8.44 ERA in four April starts for the Dodgers.
“Michael is tracking, he’s in a good spot,” Roberts said. “He’s still on rehab [assignment], so it’s a little cloudy what we’re going to do with him. I think he’s gonna throw a bullpen, and then, depending on how these next few days go, we’ll make a decision on him.”
Daniel Hudson says he has ‘turned a corner’ in recovery from knee surgery
Daniel Hudson received a cortisone injection in his surgically repaired left knee two weeks ago and believes he has “turned a corner” in a recovery process that has been slowed by several setbacks in the last three months.
Hudson, who reported to spring training with the hope of being ready for the regular season, is scheduled to throw a bullpen session before the team’s coaches in Dodger Stadium on Tuesday. If that goes well, the right-hander should resume throwing to hitters in Arizona this weekend.
“I thought it was gonna be a lot quicker,” Hudson, who hoped to seize a ninth-inning role this season, said of his recovery from last June’s surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his landing knee. “After spring training, I threw to hitters in three live batting-practice sessions, and the last one, I felt some pretty bad soreness in there.
“That’s when we had to shut it down for a little bit. And then, as I was coming back, I felt it again, so that’s when we decided to get a little bit aggressive with the injection. There was some inflammation, some tendinitis, in the patellar area that was bugging me. I tried to push through it and couldn’t get over the hump.”
Hudson, who went 2-3 with a 2.22 ERA and five saves in 25 games for the Dodgers before tearing his knee ligament last June, couldn’t put a timetable on his return.
“As soon as possible,” he said. “I’m not really going to say I hope to get back by this date or that date. At this point, I’m just trying to get over the hump. … It’s been extremely frustrating, but I’m hoping we’re on the backside of it.”
Tonight’s starting lineups
The starting lineups for tonight’s Dodgers-Nationals game:
Max Muncy expected to return from hamstring injury Tuesday
Max Muncy is not in the lineup for Monday night’s series opener against the Washington Nationals, but the left-hamstring injury he suffered in Tampa Bay on Sunday was diagnosed as a cramp, not a strain, and the third baseman is expected to return to the lineup Tuesday night.
Muncy, who is batting .208 with an .870 on-base-plus-slugging percentage and a team-leading 17 homers and 38 RBIs, was scheduled to undergo an MRI on Monday, but the team canceled it, believing the injury wasn’t severe enough to warrant a scan.
“It feels fine, it feels good,” said Muncy, who was pulled from Sunday’s 11-10 loss to the Rays in the third inning. “I felt fine [Sunday]. I just wanted to be cautious with it and prevent something minor from being major.
“I hate taking days off. I want to be out there every day like Freddie [Freeman] is, but with me playing third now, I need to be able to have a little bit of mobility. So it’s one of those things where if there is something there, I can’t necessarily just take plays off.”
Former Dodgers prospect Josiah Gray finds a ‘good place’ with Nationals
There is nothing the Dodgers could use right now more than a durable and effective starting pitcher.
A guy like, say, Josiah Gray.
This is not a story about how the Dodgers made a bad trade. Yet, as Gray and the Washington Nationals arrive at Dodger Stadium on Monday, these statistics are inescapable: Gray is tied for third in the National League with a 2.77 earned-run average, and tied for the league lead in games started.
He was a Dodger, not too long ago, and not for long.
No Max Muncy in Dodgers’ starting lineup vs. Nationals
Here is the starting lineup for the Dodgers against the Washington Nationals at Dodger Stadium on Monday. Max Muncy, who left Sunday’s game with a hamstring cramp, is not starting. Chris Taylor is set to play at third.
Sunday recap: Gavin Stone struggles in Dodgers’ wild loss to Rays
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Once the ambush started with two outs in the second inning Sunday, Gavin Stone couldn’t make it stop.
In his third career major league start — all against high-octane playoff teams from last year — the Dodgers rookie right-hander got stuck in a spin cycle against the Tampa Bay Rays.
On the verge of escaping an early jam and potentially moving past the rocky start to his outing, the same way he had six days earlier against the Atlanta Braves, Stone instead yielded five straight hits. The Rays exploded for six sudden runs.
By the time the outburst was over, the Dodgers were in a hole they never fully recovered from in an 11-10 loss at Tropicana Field.
Dodgers TV schedule for the 2023 regular season
The Dodgers return home from a 10-game trip to open a six-game homestand Monday night against the Washington Nationals.
Right-hander Bobby Miller (1-0, 1.80 earned-run average) will make his second major-league start against right-hander Trevor Williams (2-2, 4.32 ERA). Miller had an impressive debut against Atlanta last week when he struck out five and gave up one run over five innings.
Although the Dodgers lost two of three to Tampa Bay over the weekend, Freddie Freeman extended his hitting streak to 17 games with two doubles Sunday. The Dodgers first baseman is 30 for 68 with an average of .449 over the last 17 games.
The Nationals, who are in last place in the National League East at 23-30 and 9 ½ games behind first-place Atlanta, won two of three against the Kansas City Royals over the weekend.
The Dodgers hold a 1½-game lead over Arizona in the NL West with a record of 32-22. The club announced infielder Max Muncy will undergo an MRI on Monday after he sustained a hamstring cramp during Sunday’s loss.
Betting odds and lines: Dodgers -225 | Washington +188
Here’s a look at the Dodgers TV schedule for the 2023 regular season. All times and broadcast/streaming options are subject to change.
