The Dodgers had been on a brutal run as of late, dropping the opening two games of this series against the Giants and securing their second four-game losing streak within the last two weeks. Last night Shohei Ohtani helped flip the script, providing seven scoreless innings on the mound and allowing the offense time to put up runs against Robbie Ray. Ohtani’s ERA dropped to a ridiculous 0.82, with just four earned runs allowed in 44.0 innings. He currently leads all qualified starters in ERA, and has nearly a full run between him and Bryce Elder, whose 1.81 ERA is the second best mark in the National League.
The offense struggled against Adrian Houser and rookie Trevor McDonald, but then found a way to put up four runs on Ray, arguably the best arm in the Giants’ rotation right now. Mookie Betts and Santiago Espinal went back-to-back in the third inning, Kyle Tucker had a pair of doubles, and Teoscar Hernández added a pair of singles. The Dodgers will look to Emmet Sheehan to split this four game set against the Giants before a six game Southern California road trip, starting this weekend in Anaheim. The Giants respond with Landen Roupp who has been excellent for them this season, as they look to bounce back from their shutout last night.
 |
 |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 7:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| RF | Lee (L) | DH | Smith |
| 2B | Arraez (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| DH | Schmitt | RF | Tucker (L) |
| 1B | Devers (L) | CF | Pages |
| LF | Ramos | 3B | Muncy (L) |
| SS | Adames | LF | T. Hernández |
| 3B | Chapman | C | Rushing (L) |
| CF | Gilbert (L) | 2B | Kim (L) |
| C | Haase | SS | Rojas |
| P | Roupp (R) | P | Sheehan (R) |
The Dodgers will be without Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani tonight, as they both have scheduled off days. Will Smith will be leading off for just the third time in his career and the first time since 2020 as he will be the designated hitter tonight, while Dalton Rushing gets to start behind the plate. Miguel Rojas will get the start at shortstop while Hyeseong Kim plays second base. Kyle Tucker is slashing .280/.375/.476 since April 18 and that’s up to .316/.438/.553 for a .990 OPS and 179 wRC+ in May, with eight walks to just six strikeouts, as he definitely seems to be turning a corner.
——
Here’s how Sheehan and Roupp compare.
Roupp has been great for San Francisco this season, with the 27 year-old picking up wins in five of his first eight starts, including one against the Dodgers already. He was a steady arm in their rotation last year, logging a 3.80 ERA and a 3.91 FIP through 22 starts and 106.2 innings. He’s seemingly taken a step forward, with the strikeout rate jumping from a league-average 21.4% to a well above-average 28.8% mark thus far, with 51 strikeouts in 43.2 innings. The increased whiff has improved his ability to traverse opposing lineups, and he’s allowed one run or fewer in five of his eight starts. He struggled with pitch count his last time out, but was strong across four innings against the Pirates, allowing just one run while logging eight strikeouts. He held the Dodgers to just one run across five innings the first time he faced them this year despite walking five batters. He sits in the low-to-mid 90’s with his sinker from a low arm slot, using a mid-70’s curveball and a mid-80’s changeup as his secondaries.
Sheehan’s stuff has been better his last few times out, and he’s been generating whiffs and strikeouts like he did in 2025, but still hasn’t quite put together a full outing where he looked sharp beginning to end. He has 25 strikeouts to just two walks over his last three starts and 15.2 innings, both elite marks on their own, but he’s had issues with pitch count and efficiency in back-to-back outings. He most recently allowed just one earned run against the Braves with seven strikeouts to one walk, but required 88 pitches to do so and didn’t make it out of the fifth inning. Before that he allowed four earned runs against the Cardinals across 4.2 innings with eight strikeouts but two homers allowed and 97 pitches. He’s definitely trending in the right direction, but needs to find a way to throw the fastball without it automatically resulting in an extra-base hit. He’s allowed 14 hits on the four-seamer this year, including four doubles and four homers, including a .341 batting average and a .732 slugging percentage. Not ideal!
——
In other news,
Some interesting tidbits on tonight’s batting order in Dave Roberts‘ pregame interview.
======
First pitch is at 7:10 PT on SNLA and MLB Network.