Roberts Hints At The Order Of The Rotation After Opening Day Plus More Notes From Monday

The Dodgers will wrap up their Summer Camp tonight against the Angels with voluntary workouts on Wednesday. Here are the Dodger headlines from Monday.

The Dodgers thwarted the Arizona Diamondbacks for a second straight night. The Dbacks took the lead early in the game once again, this time with a solo home run by Ildemaro Vargas in the top of the second inning. In the bottom half of the inning, the Dodgers responded with multi-run jacks from Joc Pederson and Mookie Betts, plating five. Much like the night before, the Dodgers took the lead and didn’t look back, winning the game 12-1.

Catcher Austin Barnes still feels a bit of soreness in his left hand, but felt good enough to catch Clayton Kershaw‘s bullpen session on Monday. A pitch hit Barnes on the top of his left hand during an at-bat on Sunday. He was taken out of the game to get X-rays, which came out negative. After Sunday’s game, Roberts said that Barnes would be ready to play in tonight’s game against the Angels.

During a Zoom press conference before Monday’s exhibition game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts seemed reluctant to reveal the order of the rotation after Kershaw starts Opening Day on Thursday. “I can see Stripling in there. I can see Alex Wood in there. How about that?” Roberts did mention there will be 15 to 17 pitchers on the active roster to start the season.

Throughout his professional career, Clayton Kershaw has toyed with adding a changeup to his repertoire. Before nearly every season, reports would surface that Kershaw was trying to develop the pitch, but it always ended up being shelved. It seems he took another crack at gaining confidence in it again this year. When asked how he feels about his changeup, he replied, “I feel good with it. Good might not be the right word. I feel average with it.”

When asked about who would get the second base job, since Gavin Lux wasn’t in the starting lineups of the last two exhibition games, Roberts replied, “I think it’s open. I think that it’s going to be shared time.” Lux was late to training camp and has shown a lack of production at the plate. Roberts mentioned that the team is working on giving Lux multiple reps during camp to help build him up for the season.

Relief pitchers Pedro Baez, Joe Kelly, and Scott Alexander threw to hitters on Monday. Baez and Kelly are set to make the Opening Day roster, though it’s unclear whether Alexander will. Both Baez and Alexander reported late to Summer Camp for undisclosed reasons.

Dodgers pitching prospect Mitchell White won’t be on the Opening Day roster. Roberts says he’ll stay “built up” in case the Dodgers need to call on him. He also mentioned it “wouldn’t be a surprise” to see him pitch this season.

Fans will have the option to cheer their team on during any game of the season through an MLB app called “Cheer At The Ballpark.” The app will give fans three options to choose from: cheer, boo, or clap. The app will relay the information to the stadium staff, who can use it to impact the artificial crowd noise as they see fit.

Oskar is a writer for Dodgers-Lowdown. Follow him on Twitter @2Rawsko94. Graphic credit: Alberto Amezola, Jr.

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