Following a sweep of the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium, the Los Angeles Dodgers hit the road for a brief two-game Interleague series with the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park.
Walker Buehler makes his 17th start of the season and looks for further success in August. The rookie is 2-0 with a minuscule 1.07 ERA and 0.91 WHIP over 25.1 innings pitched this month (four starts).
Buehler is coming off a dominant outing against the St. Louis Cardinals on Aug. 22, to which he earned a tough-luck no-decision after tossing seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts to only two walks.
All-in-all, the 24-year-old enters with a 6-4 record, 2.96 ERA, 3.23 FIP, 1.02 WHIP and a 102-23 strikeouts-to-walks ratio across 94.1 innings pitched this season (17 games, 16 starts).
The Rangers counter with fellow first-year pitcher Ariel Jurado, who makes only the seventh start of his Major League career. He’s 2-3 with a 6.40 ERA, 5.75 FIP and 1.55 WHIP in 32.1 innings pitched this season (six appearances).
Jurado looks to rebound from a rough outing against the Oakland Athletics on Aug. 21, when he was tabbed with his third loss of the year after yielding 10 hits and four runs in 5.2 innings of work.
The right-hander has fared slightly worse at home (6.55 ERA in 11 innings) when compared to the results he’s garnered on the road (6.33 ERA in 21.1 innings) thus far.
Because the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies both lost Monday, the Dodgers enter play two games back of first place in the National League West, and one game from second place.
Joc Pederson returns to the Dodgers lineup after being limited to pinch-hit duty over the weekend because of a knee contusion. Meanwhile, although the plan was activate Ross Stripling off the 10-day disabled list, that’s no longer the case for the series.
Stripling is still feeling the effects of lower back inflammation, and the club is opting to err on the side of caution. He could be on track to return Saturday, when active rosters expand.
Dodgers lineup:
LF: Joc Pederson
3B: Justin Turner
SS: Manny Machado
DH: Max Muncy
2B: Brian Dozier
C: Yasmani Grandal
1B: Cody Bellinger
RF: Kiké Hernandez
CF: Chris Taylor
Rangers lineup:
LF: Shin-Soo Choo
2B: Rougned Odor
SS: Elvis Andrus
RF: Nomar Mazara
DH: Adrian Beltre
3B: Jurickson Profar
CF: Joey Gallo
C: Robinson Chirinos
1B: Ronald Guzman
