Kyle Tucker picked a good time for his first home run of July, hitting a two-run home run in the eighth inning which game the Dodgers breathing room for their third straight win on Friday night, beating the Mets to improve to 5-2 on the road trip.
Tucker’s previous home run came on June 27, one day shy of four weeks prior, with Tucker hitting .239/.313/.268 in the 80 plate appearances between long balls.
Roki Sasaki was sharp on Friday, striking out nine Mets while allowing one run in seven innings
for the victory. Since the right-hander appeared to be tipping his pitches in a bad start against the Padres on July 2, Sasaki has a 1.93 ERA with 19 strikeouts against only four walks in 18 2/3 innings over his last three starts. Asked if Sasaki’s noticeably larger glove helped resolve the pitch tipping, he told reporters Friday, per Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times, “Probably my face kind of got smaller … That’s why the glove looked bigger.”
Manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Friday, “He doesn’t seem like he’s searching anyore.”
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Shohei Ohtani threw a bullpen session on Wednesday in Philadelphia, and he’ll throw another bullpen session on Saturday at Citi Field. Though there doesn’t appear to be a set timetable for his return to pitching, according to Roberts, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register:
I still think he is very honest with us about how he’s feeling and we’re aligned with that,” he said. “Every player wants to get back out there and do what they do. But I think he understands that it’s not about July, it’s about October. We’ve already taken a lot of time to get him back to full health so we’re not going to start (him in a game) earlier than we need to.”
With the August 3 trade deadline looming, Kiley McDaniel at ESPN profiled the prospects who might be traded from each major league team. He noted the outfield depth specifically and that Josue De Paula is likely the only truly untouchable prospect in the system, and called Mike Sirota, Eduardo Quintero, (shortstop) Emil Morales) and Zyhir Hope as unlikely to be traded.
Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic dug deeper into the Dodgers outfield prospect depth, profiling nine different outfielders in the Dodgers minors.
