The Los Angeles Dodgers will look to build on a four-game winning streak when they face the Texas Rangers on Saturday afternoon in the middle game of a three-game interleague series in Arlington, Texas.
Roki Sasaki (0-1, 3.29 ERA) will start for Los Angeles and will oppose fellow right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (1-2, 2.55).
The Dodgers took the first game of the series 3-0 on Friday as Tommy Edman led off with a home run, and Teoscar Hernandez and Will Smith drove in runs in the ninth to back seven strong innings from starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who gave up five hits, struck out 10 and walked none.
Edman finished with three of Los Angeles’ five hits and scored twice.
The Dodgers were without reigning National League MVP Shohei Ohtani, who did not make the trip to Texas after being placed on the paternity list. Ohtani’s wife, Mamiko Tanaka, is due to give birth to the couple’s first child in the coming days.
Ohtani likely will miss the entire series with the Rangers, as he can stay on the paternity list for a maximum of three days.
“I don’t know when he’s going to come back,’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Friday afternoon. “I don’t know when they’re going to have the baby. But obviously, they are together in anticipation.”
The Rangers did little offensively on Friday, but two of their seven hits came from Dustin Harris, a rookie. Harris, recalled from Triple A Round Rock on April 9 after Wyatt Langford went on the injured list, has been solid in his cameo role and has recorded at least one hit in four of the six games in which he’s played.
“I think it’s just a sense of knowing you belong,” Harris said. “When you’re (in the minor leagues), it can be like you’re trying to show what you can do, and that gets tough at times. You’ve just got to play your game and everything will fall into place. (I will) just try to be who I am and not try to do too much.”
Sasaki, in his rookie year in MLB after signing with the Dodgers in January, has never faced Texas. In his most recent outing, Sasaki took the loss when he allowed one run on four hits in five innings while striking out three and walking a pair as the Dodgers fell at home 16-0 to the Chicago Cubs on April 12.
The five-inning stint was the longest in Sasaki’s young career. Roberts called Sasaki’s performance “a silver lining” in an otherwise forgettable game for the Dodgers.
“Probably the most important piece of the game was for Roki to get better, go deeper in the game, throw strikes, get strikeouts, soft contact,” Roberts said. “He looked really sharp.”
Eovaldi returns to the mound after surrendering three runs (two earned) on five hits in five innings in a 3-1 loss in Seattle on Sunday. He struck out three and didn’t walk a batter in the setback, his second straight after a complete-game eight-strikeout shutout at Cincinnati on April 1.
Eovaldi is 0-2 with a 7.20 ERA in two career appearances against the Dodgers. He’s allowed 13 hits and issued four walks in 10 innings while striking out eight.
