Last night’s game seemed all too familiar to me. Walker Buehler gave up two runs in the third and the Dodgers could not solve that Charlie Morton through the first four innings. Their breakthrough came with a run in the fifth and a run in the seventh, and Buehler miraculously made it through six innings on 97 pitches after needing 70 pitches for the first three. Michael Kopech kept getting into trouble in the eighth inning to keep the game tied at 2-2, and the Dodgers scored seven runs with two outs in the ninth to win comfortably, 9-2. This performance was much needed in many ways. They needed a pitcher who actually looked like a playoff-ready starter, they needed an offense that was firing on all cylinders, and they needed a win, as the Padres and Diamondbacks won once again. Today they finish their four-game weekend series in Atlanta, looking to tie and maintain control of the division.

	16:20		Atlanta
DH	Ohtani (L)	CF	Harris II (L)
RF	Betting	RF	Soler
LF	T. Hernández	DH	Ozuna
1B	Guest of Honour (L)	1B	Olson (left)
C	Blacksmith	LF	Laureano
CF	Edman (S)	C	Murphy
SS	Red	SS	Arcadia
3B	Muncy (L)	3B	Ursula
2B	K. Hernández	2B	Merrifield
P	Yamamoto (right)	P	Fried (L)

Yoshinobu Yamamoto makes his second start after the IL and 16th of the season for the Dodgers. Yamamoto’s return last week couldn’t have gone much better. He allowed one unearned run and three hits in four innings, and eight of his 12 outs came by strikeout. He struck out the Cubs’ first series in both the first and third innings and managed 11 whiffs on just 59 pitches. Since his injury, Yamamoto has not allowed an earned run in his last 17 innings and has 23 strikeouts with three walks in his last four outs.

Graduate of Harvard Westlake University Max Fried makes his 27th start for Atlanta tonight. Fried’s fantastic 2023 was interrupted by a forearm issue that cost him nearly three months, but he’s recouped some money with a solid 2024 season so far. He missed a month this season with another minor forearm issue, but was an All-Star and has posted a 3.46/3.51 ERA/FIP in 153 2/3 innings this season. He’s struggled a bit since returning from the IL in early August, with a 4.34 ERA in eight starts. Last time out, he set a season high by allowing 11 hits in a four-run, six-inning start in Washington. He pitched pretty well when he played against the Dodgers in May. He started the game with a walk Mookie Betts and served a home run for Shohei Ohtanikept the Dodgers in check until an Ohtani single and Teoscar Hernandez homer in the sixth inning gave the Dodgers a 4-0 lead. It was the first of only three starts this season in which Fried allowed more than one home run. He was generally very good against LA, allowing a .610 OPS and a 3.02 ERA in nine career starts against the Dodgers.

Fried has the second-highest groundball rate among qualified pitchers at 58.8 percent, although he’s not actually a sinkerballer. He’s throwing a sinker 15.8 percent of the time this season, which is his highest usage of his career, but it’s still his third-most common pitch. He’s throwing a four-seamer 32.9 percent, curve 21.2 percent, changeup 13.7 percent, and a slider/cutter/sweeper less than eight percent of the time each. He’s tied for the fifth-lowest average exit velocity (86.3 MPH) among pitchers with over 350 batted balls against him. Fried actually has reversed splits this season, with right-handers hitting an OPS of .562 and left-handers hitting an OPS of .870 against him.

Enrique Hernández starts in the second over Gavin Lux against a left-hander. Max Muncy starts third, and Teoscar Hernandez suggests Freddie Freeman again after doing so on Friday against Chris Sales.

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As expected, Austin Barnes was placed on the IL and Hunter Feduccia is back.

Austin Barnes is officially placed back on the injured list. He has a new fracture in his toe. Dave Roberts still left open the possibility that Barnes could be back for the postseason.

— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) 16 September 2024

Barnes has a fracture in his big toe that appears to be in a different location than the fracture he suffered last month. They hope he can be back in October to hit the game-winning single and force a dominant starter out of the game.

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More injury news: Joe Kelly is in Atlanta and Anthony Banda could be back before the end of the season.

Some Dodgers updates from Dave Roberts:

— Austin Barnes is placed on the injured list with a broken toe. Hunter Feduccia is currently out and is expected to be back in time for the game.

— Joe Kelly rejoined the team today and will likely be activated this week in Miami

— Anthony Banda…

— Michael B. (@ByJackHarris) 16 September 2024

Kelly has returned to the team and will likely be activated in Miami. Banda is playing catch in Arizona and they hope he can be back soon.

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First pitch is scheduled for 4:20 p.m. PT and will be broadcast on SportsNet LA.