The Dodger (29-15) offense put on a show last night in the rubber match against the Athletics (22-22), scoring a season high 19 runs while Matt Sauer, Anthony Banda, and Justin Wrobleski combined to allow just two. The team will look to keep things rolling this weekend against a struggling Angels (17-25) team. They’ve lost five of their last seven games, and after going 63-99 last year they definitely aren’t trending the right direction. I’ve no issue with the Angels in any capacity, but it’s not difficult to understand why Shohei Ohtani left. If you leave a team and they proceed to lose nearly 100 games, they weren’t going anywhere to begin with. Dustin May will get the ball for the Dodgers while the Angels counter with the right-handed Jack Kochanowicz.

7:10 P.M. Los Angeles SS Neto DH Ohtani (L) 1B Schanuel (L) SS Betts 3B Moncada (S) 1B Freeman (L) LF Ward C Smith RF Soler 3B Muncy (L) C O’Hoppe RF Pages DH Rengifo (S) LF Conforto (L) CF Lugo CF Outman (L) 2B Anderson 2B Kim (L) P Kochanowicz (R) P May (R) Dalton Rushing‘s debut featured the most overpowering showing from the offense this season, while he additionally had two hits, a walk, and three runs scored. After two home runs last night, Ohtani is now tied for the major lead league with 15 homers, featuring eight of them in his last 12 games. Max Muncy went yard for the second consecutive night, a huge development if he starts figuring things out. He added two singles and a walk after that, hopefully the beginning of a hot streak. Andy Pages and James Outman also hit home runs of their own last night, with the former continuing his fantastic sophomore season. Pages is up to 1.8 fWAR, with a 139 wRC+, and .851 OPS.

Here’s how the two offenses compare as a whole.

With Mike Trout out with a knee injury, the Angels are just unfortunately a putrid offense. They don’t walk, they strikeout, they don’t hit for average, and they’re lucky to only be eight games below .500. The one thing they’ve been decent at is hitting for power, with the 14th ranked slugging percentage in baseball, but the Dodgers are nearly a full 100 points higher and lead the league at .481. Their shortstop Zach Neto has a 131 wRC+ on the year, with six home runs and seven stolen bases in just 24 games. He missed the first few weeks with injury but has been stellar since he’s returned, looking like one of the better shortstops in the American League. The Angels should be looking to extend him before they lose the opportunity. Logan O’Hoppe (114 wRC+), Nolan Schanuel (100 wRC+), and Jorge Soler (100 wRC+), have all been fine, but the Angels have gotten terrible production out of nearly everyone else.

Not much to say about the Dodgers’ offense at this juncture. They’re clicking pretty well right now and should be able to put up runs against Kochanowicz. They’re currently sixth in walk rate at 9.7%, and while they’ll almost assuredly work their way back into the top five, this would be their first full season outside the top five in walk rate since 2016. Pretty clear focus and strength of this offense over the years.

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Here’s how tonights starters compare among 106 starting pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched. I gave May one extra out to meet the 40 inning parameter for these rankings.

May has been solid as a back of the rotation type, coming off one of his better starts of his season last time out after scuffling for a couple weeks. He had a 7.88 ERA over his previous three outings, but allowed just two earned runs over 6.2 innings with five strikeouts in Arizona. He was handed the loss as he was pitching against Corbin Burnes, but it was a much needed quality start. This is an incredibly favorable matchup for him, so it’d be nice if he could repeat that performance and pitch deep into the game.

Kochanowicz allowed just one run on four hits over 5.2 innings his last time out, albeit with four walks and some decent luck involved. It was his best start of the season, which has been off to a very rocky start. He was solid last year over 65.1 innings with a 3.99 ERA, but featured an incredible 9.4% strikeout rate, with just 25 strikeouts in those 65.1 innings, averaging 3.44 per nine innings. He’s upped his game a bit this year, but the walks and increased batting average allowed have really hurt his game.

To make matters worse for the Angels, they have the worst bullpen in baseball, with a staggering 6.97 ERA, 5.37 FIP, and a 1.75 WHIP. Kenley Jansen had been sharp with seven saves in seven opportunities, but recently had an outing in which he gave up six hits and three home runs, shooting his ERA up to 6.55. They have four qualified relievers with worse ERA’s than that.

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In other news,

Per #Dodgers Dave Roberts — Tommy Edman could be activated Sunday. Teoscar Hernandez will go on rehab assignment with @RCQuakes this weekend. Could be activated Monday .

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) May 16, 2025

It’s great to see that both Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernández are close to returning. The team will likely have a difficult decision to make in regard to Hyeseong Kim once those two return.

#Dodgers have added RHP Ryan Loutos and sent LHP Justin Wrobleski back to OKC. Loutos was acquired for cash considerations from Cardinals earlier this month

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) May 16, 2025

Ryan Loutos is a 26 year-old right-handed reliever with two option years remaining, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Dodgers actually keep him around for a while.

Dave Roberts told @VeniceMase and @LAIreland on @ESPNLosAngeles there “might be opportunities” for Dalton Rushing to play first base if the Dodgers are in position to take Freddie Freeman out of a game early for rest.

— Matthew Moreno (@Matthew__Moreno) May 16, 2025

Rushing getting more plate appearances by giving Freddie Freeman a game off here and there makes perfect sense.

Clayton Kershaw is back tomorrow.

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First pitch is at 7:10 PT on SNLA and MLB Network.