TLDR: Nobody in the sport has a better record than Milwaukee right now, but Los Angeles is playing its best baseball of the summer at exactly the wrong time for them — a series opener at Dodger Stadium with real playoff-seeding stakes attached.
−Both starting catchers currently on the injured list
−Freeman's availability tonight still unresolved
First pitch at Dodger Stadium is set for 7:10 PM PT, with Shane Drohan taking the ball for Milwaukee and Roki Sasaki starting for Los Angeles. Drohan's been a steady mid-rotation piece for a Brewers staff that's absorbed a brutal run of injuries, while Sasaki is finally starting to look like the pitcher the Dodgers thought they were signing when he came over from Japan.
Shane Drohan
(6-5)·3.84 ERA
Aug 7 vs Twins
ND
5.0IP
6ER
4K
4BB
94P
08/13 Lineup
Roki Sasaki
(5-5)·4.60 ERA
Aug 7 @ Diamondbacks
ND
6.0IP
2ER
5K
1BB
86P
08/13 Lineup
The lineup card matters as much as the arms tonight. Freddie Freeman said he's just sore after tumbling into the Kansas City dugout and is hoping to be in there, but his availability wasn't locked in as of Thursday morning — a real swing factor for a Dodgers offense that's already without both catchers who opened the season as their top options. Milwaukee, meanwhile, is still waiting on bullpen help: JoJo Romero and Joel Kuhnel are both working back from injury but neither has rejoined the active staff yet, leaving the Brewers pen thinner than their record suggests.
Zoom out and this is a first-place-versus-first-place series. Milwaukee owns the best record in baseball at 74-47 and a comfortable grip on the NL Central; Los Angeles sits atop the NL West at 73-48. Neither club needs this game in August, but neither wants to hand the other a signature series win, either.
The form lines tell two different stories. The Brewers took the first two from Minnesota before getting steamrolled by San Diego, including a 2-11 blowout, and they're on a 3-game skid as of Thursday. The Dodgers have gone the other way, winning the first three of their set against Kansas City and going 4-1 over their last five — exactly the kind of hot streak that makes a series opener feel bigger than it is.
Both rotations are running on fumes behind their starters tonight. Milwaukee already lost Brandon Woodruff for the season to shoulder surgery and has three more arms on the 60-day list, while the Dodgers' pitching depth chart reads like a hospital wing — Tyler Glasnow, Blake Treinen, Kris Bubic, Gavin Stone and Bobby Miller are all working back from significant injuries. Whichever bullpen holds up better late is probably the difference in a series with real standings weight behind it.
Brewers 5, Dodgers 4: Final Score & Odds Recap — Baseball's Best Record Meets a Streaking Dodgers Club
