There is one thing for certain about Sunday’s game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers. Both managers will make plenty of pitching changes.
Both teams will treat the series finale in Detroit as a bullpen day, with the Tigers naming right-handed reliever Beau Brieske as their opener while the Dodgers have yet to name a starter.
Injuries have played havoc with the Dodgers’ rotation. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow and Walker Buehler are all on the injured list and at various stages of rehab. Also on Saturday, ESPN reported that right-hander Dustin May, who has yet to pitch this season as he recovers from arm surgery, will miss the remainder of this season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn esophagus.
The Tigers have a starter, Casey Mize, on the injured list. Jack Flaherty missed a start earlier this month, while Kenta Maeda has been banished to the bullpen. Maeda has given up a combined 15 runs in 6 1/3 innings in two July starts.
“I think both teams would lobby to play seven innings (Sunday),” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said. “We’re both pretty beat up with a bullpen game coming.”
For his part, Brieske has given up two runs on seven hits in eight innings over three career appearances against Los Angeles, including one start. A former starter (all 15 appearances were starts in his rookie 2022 season), Brieske is 1-0 with a 3.52 ERA in 18 appearances this season.
The teams have split the first two games of the series. Shohei Ohtani’s two-out RBI double in the ninth proved decisive in the Dodgers’ 4-3 series-opening victory on Friday night. Los Angeles seemed headed for another victory when it took a 9-4 lead into the ninth inning on Saturday afternoon.
Detroit then staged an improbable rally, as Colt Keith capped a five-run inning with a two-run homer. Gio Urshela’s two-run homer in the 10th gave the Tigers an 11-9 win.
“There have been some really fun wins but this is going to rank right up there,” Hinch said. “You can never be mad after a win, but you can be a little extra excited after a win like today.”
Keith, a rookie, also had a two-run double among three hits. He has six multi-hit games this month, as well as five of his nine homers.
“We’re a scrappy team,” Keith said. “We’ve had a lot of ninth-inning wins (19 come-from-behind wins) this year. We will come back and at least give ourselves a chance. That’s what we did. We never gave up. Down 9-4, I felt like there was no change in the dugout. No falter.”
The Tigers will enter the All-Star break under the .500 mark but they’re headed in the right direction, with seven wins in the last nine games. The latest one was their best yet.
“I don’t know how to appropriately comment on this game other than it’s an amazing feeling to see the guys happy inside that clubhouse,” Hinch said. “What a comeback.”
It was a much different story in the other clubhouse. The Dodgers were stunned to lose in that fashion — they’re 1-5 in the last six games.
“With a five-run lead, especially the way we’ve been rolling, we have to win that game,” Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes said.
The Dodgers had been 48-0 when leading after eight innings this season.
“We had a five-run lead and there’s just no excuse for us losing that game,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ve just got to be better.”
Ohtani, who scored three runs on Saturday, reached a career milestone with his 200th homer — the first Japanese-born player to reach that plateau.
“He’s having a tremendous, MVP-type season. Two hundred homers with how short he’s been in the big leagues … and take away some of the IL time,” Roberts said. “How he’s done it so quickly is pretty remarkable, and he legged out a triple. Unfortunately, we couldn’t celebrate that 200-homer accomplishment with a win.”
–Field Level Media