00:00The Dodgers not playing their best brand of baseball in the last two weeks.
00:07They've lost seven of their last 11, including the midweek set against Philadelphia at home.
00:12The Dodgers remain at the Ravine and Jack Flaherty, the native Angeleno, makes his second
00:17consecutive start for L.A.
00:20Darn good in his Dodgers debut, six innings of work against Oakland, shut out baseball,
00:27seven strikeouts.
00:28Flaherty and the Dodgers, greater than a $2.00 favorite tonight in Los Angeles.
00:33Is the price justified?
00:34Yeah, the price is justified, because the better pitcher on the mound certainly is going
00:38to be from a Dodgers perspective tonight, and Flaherty will get that in just a second.
00:41The Dodgers are home, and also, just some heartbreaking losses as of late for Pittsburgh,
00:45and they're starting to reel a little bit.
00:47And it's not a great situation to say, well, let's fly from Pittsburgh and go out to Los
00:50Angeles, then stay on the West Coast and play some pretty quality opponents.
00:54And certainly, you're trying to hang around that wild card streak, you're four and a half
00:57games back.
00:58This could slip to five, six, and seven and a half games back, with three or four teams
01:02above you trying to climb into that wild card spot.
01:04So this is a danger zone for Pittsburgh.
01:06But if we are looking at the game itself, Jack Flaherty, last 91 batters he's faced,
01:10man, stellar.
01:11071 iso against a 199 weighted on base percentage.
01:15If you just look at his season in totality, 440 batters he's faced, a 151 iso on a weighted
01:20on base percentage of 271.
01:22This was the key acquisition for the Dodgers that's supposed to propel them and help them
01:25in the playoffs once they get there.
01:28So for my money in this game today, I look at that total because it's not a terrible
01:31pitcher that you have in Mitch Keller.
01:33He's a veteran guy.
01:34It's not a guy that's going to have a spot start.
01:35He does have a decent ERA over the past 60 days, slightly elevated exfit minus number.
01:40I do like the Dodgers, but I just don't know if I want to pay a two to one price in this
01:44environment.
01:45But I would be surprised if Pittsburgh comes away with the victory in this game.
