Casparius starts bullpen game as Dodgers look for World Series win - Dodgers Digest

Despite another late-game scare last night, the Dodgers persevered and won Game 3 in New York by a score of 4-2. They beat the Yankees in every phase of the game and are now 3-0 in the World Series. They smell the title of 2024 World Series Champions and are now just one win away from it. With a 3-0 lead in the series, they will continue to push (as much as is possible in bullpen play today), even though they have only managed to recover from a 3-0 deficit in the series once Baseball playoff history. That was the Red Sox game against the Yankees in 2004 Dave Roberts who played an essential role in this comeback, with one of the most memorable bargains any times?

The Yankees will send out Luis Gil With their season on the line, their backs are against the wall in the worst possible way. He's not too different from yesterday's starter Clarke Smith who doesn't spend much time in the strike zone. Schmidt relies on the editor, who let him down yesterday and diminished his entire repertoire. He went 2.2 innings, allowing three earned runs on two hits, four walks and three strikeouts, and one could argue he wasn't pulled soon enough. Gil lives in the zone even less often than Schmidt and is ultimately less persecuted than Schmidt. The Dodgers need to get Gil like they did with Schmidt yesterday as they face a bullpen game first tonight Ben Casparius. If they can get out to an early lead, they can use their bullpen to get the win tonight, or if they're behind, they'll keep moving forward Brent HoneywellAnd Landon Knacksave some weapons for game 5.

Dustin wrote about this particular Dodgers team and what makes it different from previous seasons.

5:08 p.m new York

DH Ohtani (L) 2B Torres

RF Beds RF Soto (L)

1B Freeman (L) CF Judge

LF T. Hernandez 3B Chisholm Jr (L)

3B Muncy (L) DH Stanton

CF K. Hernandez 1B Rizzo (L)

2B Lux (L) SS Volpe

C Blacksmith C Wells (L)

SS Edman (S) LF Verdugo (L)

P Casparius (R) P Gil (R)

When it comes to the lineup, the Dodgers simply swap Kiké from eighth to sixth and Smith from sixth to eighth. Makes sense. The Yankees make a few moves, one being moving Stanton to fifth while moving Chisholm to the mop-up spot. I'm not sure I can handle this, but I'll be happy to support this decision. Volpe falls into the lineup as Anthony Rizzo moves upwards. Austin Wells is back in the lineup Jose Trevino. Obviously Schmidt would have liked to have pitched better yesterday, but 3-0 after the third inning is not game over Jack Flaherty He gave up eight over three innings in the NLCS. The New York bullpen allowed just one earned run over 6.1 innings, and one would think the combination of that Juan Soto, Aaron Richter, Giancarlo Stanton and even Jazz Chisholm Jr. And Gleyber Torres would be capable of causing some sort of threat.

The disparity between the Dodgers and Yankees when it comes to offensive performance isn't all that noticeable in batting average, with the former sitting at .213 and the latter at .186 or on-base percentage, respectively, with the Dodgers having a lead of .296 to .296 have. 284, but the Dodgers hit .457, compared to just .294 for New York. The Dodgers have struck out just 15.6% of the time so far, compared to 26.7% of the time for the Yankees. Neither delivers a world-class performance, but the Dodgers beat New York, especially when it comes to extra-base hits. The problem for New York is that the Dodgers beat them in every way except pure bat-to-ball.

Mookie Betts made a jumping play with a knuckling ball to right field, Tommy Edman made great plays late in the game at shortstop and Max Muncy made a nice play at third base while Chisholm made an error. These things alone don't necessarily determine whether a game will be won or lost, but they add up and the Dodgers were sharper in those moments. Stanton was thrown to the plate Teoscar Hernandeztried to score from second base Anthony Volpeis the first hit of the World Series. For all of Teoscar's flaws in left field, his arm is still strong enough to be a threat in these situations.

Meanwhile, Edman scored on a jam-shot single from Betts to shallow right field, getting an incredible chance to run on a ball that would have left many runners at second in anticipation of a potential catch. Kike Hernandez added an RBI single in the sixth inning, made possible by a Gavin Lux stolen base after a walk. Lux also walked in the fourth inning, going from first to third with another Kiké single against Soto, showing they don't respect any part of Soto's defensive game in the outfield. Lux didn't score due to a questionable bunt decision, but the chance was only possible through baserunning.

Freddie Freeman has an OPS of 1.635 in three World Series games after hitting a home run for the third straight game. That's what connects him with George Springer for most consecutive WS games with a home run at five, although… Springer had four of them in Games 4-7 of the 2017 World Series. I won't go into detail, but Freeman should be alone at five. After a terrible start to the postseason due to his ankle injury, Freeman has now turned things around with a .250/.283/.500 slash line. Over the course of his Hall of Fame career, he posted a career slash line of .300/.387/.512 in the regular season compared to .278/.375/.516 in the postseason. Just an incredibly consistent player who has now featured in the Dodgers' biggest moments. I still can't imagine the Braves letting a player like Freeman go.
Edman is as hot on his heels as possible with a 1.235 OPS in the World Series and is desperate to win MVP in back-to-back series. Soto still hasn't finished this series and has an OPS of 1.062. The Yankees are getting a terrible performance from Judge, who had one hit and seven strikeouts in 13 plate appearances. Volpe performed identically throughout, achieving excellent ALCS and ALDS results. If Will Smith (.291 OPS) or Muncy (.182 OPS) could do anything at the plate, this series would still have the Dodgers up 3-0, just more convincingly.

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Gil is a talented right-handed hitter who dominated opposing teams in the first half of the season, making fantastic starts every time he took the mound in his absence Gerrit Cole. During this first half of the season, he appeared to be the favorite to win AL Rookie of the Year. In his first 14 starts, he had a 2.03 ERA, 3.08 FIP and 0.98 WHIP with a 30.4% strikeout rate. This came through a .141 batting average allowed and a .194 BABIP, which suggested at least some regression. The decline occurred over his next 15 starts and 71.2 innings, with an ERA of 5.15, FIP of 5.32, WHIP of 1.44 and a strikeout rate of 23.4%.

He lost command and control and started having less luck with the balls in the game. He has what it takes to play in the front line, but he struggled to capitalize on that in the second half.

He has a profile that is somewhat worrying against patient and disciplined teams, very similar to that of Carlos Rodonanother fastball-slider power pitcher.

Here is the most important part of Rodon's Statcast page.

Here is the same section for Gil.

Among the 126 starting pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched in 2024, Gil's first-pitch strike rate is the lowest in the sport at just 54.8%. For example, Cy Young Favorites Tarik Skubal And Chris Sale are among the top ten in terms of first strike rate at around 70%. Against a team like the Dodgers, he presents a risky profile, although he has what it takes to slow down any team and have a dominant performance. The Yankees need a good one today.

His final regular season start was against the Pirates, in which he gave up six earned runs, including four home runs. Due to the Yankees' success in the playoffs so far, he has only pitched once since September 28. His first and only playoff start came in the ALCS against the Cleveland Guardians, where he pitched four innings and allowed two earned runs on three hits, three walks, and three strikeouts.

Half the time he throws his four-seam fastball at just under 97 MPH, with an upper 80s slider and a low 90s changeup. Against righties, he throws a heavy fastball slider and only throws his changeup about 15% of the time, while against lefties he throws both the slider and changeup almost a quarter of the time. He struggled a bit against left-handed hitters overall, with a .584 OPS allowed against right-handed hitters compared to .707 against lefties. Against lefties, the strikeout rate goes down while the walk rate goes up. His 12.1% walk rate led all of baseball, as did his 77 walks, despite ranking just 64th in innings pitched.

Casparius has thrown 4.1 innings this postseason, allowing just four baserunners and four strikeouts. Honeywell allowed four earned runs in 7.2 innings with two strikeouts compared to six walks total, but may have the best chance of providing bulk innings for the team when needed. Landon Knack had the best results in the regular season, but looked shaky in his start in Game 2 against the Mets and hasn't had any chances since. It's possible that all three get into the game today and the Dodgers' offense will try to keep the Yankees' bullpen in check with another game tomorrow if necessary. If it's close enough, Roberts will use his middle and possibly even high-leverage arms to secure the World Series.

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Ben Casparius was called up for the first time on August 18th. He did not make his major league debut on August 31.

He will be a starter for the Dodgers in a potential game-winning World Series victory and will officially have played in more postseason games (4) than regular season games (3) in his career.

— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) October 29, 2024

Game 4 of the World Series and Casparius gets the ball…his first start in the majors. He is expected to be used in a longer role than in the playoffs. He maxed out at 31 pitches and two innings in the playoffs, but he struck out 4 1/3 in 85 pitches against the Rockies in September and has hit 90 pitches three times in the minors this season.

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First pitch is at 5:08 p.m. PT on Fox.