The Los Angeles Dodgers missed an opportunity to pull into a first-place tie with the San Francisco Giants and now look to avoid falling further behind in the National League West standings on Tuesday night.
The matchup is also noteworthy in that top Dodgers pitching prospect Josiah Gray is slated to make his MLB debut. Although a starter by trade, the right-hander will appear at some point out of the bullpen.
“He’ll come in and pitch a good bit of the game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
The team previously intended on calling up Gray during the month of May but he suffered what was called a right shoulder impingement at the time and shut down. Gray returned July 4 after a nearly two-month absence and pitched in three games (two starts) for Triple-A Oklahoma City.
His most recent outing was out of the bullpen and saw Gray throw 68 pitches over 4.2 innings five days ago. “Obviously with a player like Josiah, we were very careful as far as ramping him back up,” Roberts said.
“There’s no signs of the previous kind of injury. I think we’ve been very good with the ramp-up and where he’s at, so we feel good. His last outing, I think it was 75 pitches, so he’s built up as a starter.”
The Giants counter with Alex Wood, who faces his former team for a third time this season. Wood began the season 5-0 through his first six starts but suffered losses in consecutive outings against the Dodgers.
He allowed one home run in the May 21 start, then three when pitching at Dodger Stadium six days later. One of those was to Max Muncy, who had a small exchange with Wood over what he believed to be was an attempt to quick pitch him. Though, Muncy laughed off the matter after the Dodgers’ win.
Muncy enters play Tuesday night with eight of his 22 home runs this season coming against the Giants.
Despite an expectation Mookie Betts would be back in the lineup, he again is out because of right hip inflammation. Roberts has indicated the team does not anticipate Betts needing a stint on the injured list.
Darien Núñez was tabbed to be the opener in what’s his first career start.
Dodgers lineup
SS: Chris Taylor
3B: Justin Turner
2B: Max Muncy
1B: Albert Pujols
LF: AJ Pollock
CF: Cody Bellinger
C: Austin Barnes
RF: Zach McKinstry
P: Darien Núñez
Giants lineup
1B: LaMonte Wade Jr.
C: Buster Posey
RF: Mike Yastrzemski
3B: Wilmer Flores
LF: Alex Dickerson
2B: Donovan Solano
CF: Mike Tauchman
SS: Thairo Estrada
P: Alex Wood
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