Having clinched a winning road trip with a victory on Friday in New York, the Los Angeles Dodgers can win yet another series when they face the Mets on Saturday.
The two-time defending World Series champions own the best record in Major League Baseball at 66-38. The Dodgers, who lost five of seven heading into the All-Star break, have taken five of seven since play resumed after defeating the Mets 4-2 in the series opener.
As for the Mets, they may have more bad news from the Friday game than just their third loss in four games.
All-Star Juan Soto, who leads the National League in on-base percentage (.408) and on-base-plus slugging percentage (.947), could miss some time after leaving the game early due to left calf soreness. New York kept him out of the game on Wednesday in hopes that having two days off would alleviate that issue.
Soto was scheduled for an MRI and likely will be out of the lineup on Saturday in a contest that will pit Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto (10-6, 2.78 ERA) against Mets rookie Nolan McLean (7-6, 3.34). It will be an encore of the teams’ April 14 game in Los Angeles, when the pitchers squared off.
Both right-handers dominated, but neither earned a decision as the Dodgers won 2-1 following an eighth-inning single by Kyle Tucker off reliever Brooks Raley.
That’s been one of the fewer-than-expected bright spots this season for Tucker, signed by the Dodgers to a four-year, $240 million deal in the offseason. He is batting .240, which would be the lowest full-season average of his big-league career.
Tucker had another big moment on Friday as he hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning to give the Dodgers a couple of insurance runs. He finished 2-for-3 with a walk in the win, giving him eight homers and 50 RBIs in 97 games. He hit 22 home runs and drove in 73 last season in 136 games for the Chicago Cubs.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Tucker’s performance on Friday could signal a breakthrough.
“It’s coming,” he said. “It hasn’t been as consistent or as fast as we’d like, but he’s still going through it. He’s still working hard and to see some success tonight was a good thing for him.”
Yamamoto will be looking for his first win against the Mets. In two starts, he’s allowed five runs (four earned) on 11 hits and two walks in 13 2/3 innings. He struck out 16.
In the April clash against McLean, Yamamoto allowed just four hits and a walk in 7 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts and Yamamoto’s only blemish was a solo home run to Francisco Lindor.
McLean has four wins in his past six starts. In his April start against Los Angeles, he struck out eight in seven innings three months ago, allowing a run on two hits and two walks.
As for Soto, interim manager Andy Green said he needed to see the MRI results to determine whether he needs to make a short- or long-term decision about his lineuop.
“We’ll wait [until Saturday] and figure out what we’re dealing with,” Green told reporters after the game.
Should Soto miss multiple games, it could open up an opportunity for Luis Robert Jr. to become a bigger part of the offense. The center fielder returned to the team earlier this week after a herniated disc kept him off the field for nearly three months.
On Friday, Robert, who hit a career-high 38 home runs for the Chicago White Sox in 2023, hit his fourth home run of the season and second in three games.
–Field Level Media
