Dodgers Big Bats Could Haunt A's This Series

The Dodgers have what feels like a second team of All Star players on the IL at the moment, with Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernández, Blake Treinen, and so many others all currently on the shelf.

The A's will still be facing Landon Knack, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki as the three probable Dodger starters. The Athletics have yet to name their rotation for this series, but Jeffrey Springs, Gunnar Hoglund, and Osvaldo Bido are the three starters in line for this series. With Monday's off-day, perhaps they plan to switch some guys around.

Knack has made three starts for the Dodgers, holding a 4.61 ERA across 13.2 total innings pitched, and much like Friday's starter for the New York Yankees, Will Warren, Knack doesn't typically pitch past the fifth. There could be an opportunity here for the A's to score some runs.

The same may not be true against Yamamoto, who is 4-3 with a 1.80 ERA in eight starts this season. His last start was easily his worst of the season, on the road against the Diamondbacks. He went five frames and gave up five runs on six hits and a walk. He entered that game with a 0.90 ERA, so he's been on fire to begin the year.

The series will wrap up on Thursday, with the highly touted Sasaki on the bump for L.A. He has allowed at least one run in each of his eight starts this season, leading to a 4.72 ERA. He's been slightly better at home, but again, he typically doesn't go too deep into games.

The key for the A's this series may be to get to the bullpen on Tuesday, and make the Dodgers adjust their routine for the rest of the series.

Battle of the bats

While getting into the bullpen may be one way to set the A's up for success later in the series, the Dodgers have the bats and firepower to determine that if the game is still close that they can roll with a starter for a few more outs to preserve their relief arms, if needed.

On the season, the Dodgers have the second-best offense in baseball behind the Yankees, who just took two of three from the Athletics over the weekend--a weekend that included a couple of blowout losses for the A's.

While the Dodgers hold a 125 wRC+, the A's have been holding their own with a 110, good enough to rank them No. 8 in baseball. While this may seem simple, the key for the A's will be to get just enough from their pitchers to give their bats a chance to slug their way to some wins. That's the case in any series, but it holds especially true here.

The Dodgers have the better offense and the better pitching staff, holding a cumulative 3.83 staff ERA, which ranks them No. 14. The A's are a full run back at 4.82, ranked No. 25. That's partially due to being on the wrong end of some blowouts, which is reflected in their -38 run differential, despite being a game above .500.

The A's will either need to out-slug the Dodgers outright, or get some combination of offense and pitching to keep things close and give themselves a shot.

No surprise here, watch out for the big three

It should come as no surprise that the Dodgers' big three of Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and Mookie Betts are the bats to be careful around, but since the calendar flipped to May they have been especially dangerous.

Freeman is leading the way with a 271 wRC+, slugging four home runs and driving in 16 RBI in ten games, while Ohtani is right behind him with a 256 wRC+, five home runs, and 11 RBI. Both players also have on-base percentages over .450 in May.

By comparison, Betts' 152 wRC+ almost makes it seem like you can get him out, despite still being over 50% better than league average. He's scored 13 runs and holds a .386 OBP this month. Beyond them, Will Smith (133), Miguel Rojas (126), and Enrique Hernández (122) have also been swinging the bat well, albeit it in smaller samples.

While the A's don't have anyone in the lineup quite as scorching hot as Freeman or Ohtani, they do have a plethora of bats that are hitting better than league average this month, with nine in all. Seth Brown and Gio Urshela are two of those bats, but they have been seeing less playing time in recent days.

It will be interesting to see if the A's continue to roll with Miguel Andujar at third base to keep his bat in the lineup, or if they go with Urshela more in this series, given that his defense at the hot corner is superior. On the one hand, you could insert Andujar's bat into the lineup in a big spot, but at the same time, they'd be giving up better defense in the latter innings for that shot.

It feels as though this series could be a coming out party for one of the A's bats on a big stage. That could be Jacob Wilson, who's already hitting .415 this month, or Tyler Soderstrom, who's been stuck on nine home runs for a couple of weeks.

But we'll go with the brand new rookie, Nick Kurtz, who has been having better plate appearances of late and has been hitting the ball hard without a home run to show for it. When the A's played in the ALDS back in 2020 at Dodger Stadium, the ball was flying. Look for Kurtz to hit his first home run this series.