(Photo: Stacie Wheeler)

The Dodgers (65-47) survived one of the hottest road trips in recent memory, dropping two of three in Boston before taking two of three in Cincinnati and Tampa Bay. All three games in Tampa featured a shutout, with the Rays getting blanked in the first and last games while the Dodgers got shutout in the middle game. Allan wants me to mention that 40 percent of the Dodgers’ shutouts in 2025 came over the weekend. It was a weirdly consistent road trip, as other than the shutouts every game featured both teams scoring between two and five runs. The lead in the division is still down to three, but the Dodgers are still only 2.5 games back of the best record in baseball despite how everything has felt for the last month+. They return home today and welcome the Cardinals to LA. St. Louis spent the weekend in San Diego, where they dropped two of three to continue a rough stretch of their own. They went 8-16 in July and went from being three back in the Central to being 10 back at the end of the month (and 12 back now). The struggles put them into sell mode at the deadline, where they traded Ryan Helsley, Phil Maton and Steven Matz out of their bullpen. The Dodgers lost two of three in St. Louis nearly two months ago, as they were shut out in the first game and got walked off in the second game. Clayton Kershaw started the finale and got his first win of the season to prevent the sweep.

7:10 P.M. Los Angeles 2B Donovan (L) DH Ohtani (L) DH Herrera SS Betts LF Burleson (L) 1B Freeman (L) 1B Contreras C Smith RF Nootbaar (L) 3B Muncy (L) SS Winn RF T. Hernández 3B Saggese LF Conforto (L) C Pagés CF Pages CF Scott II (L) 2B Rojas P Gray (R) P Glasnow (R) Tyler Glasnow gets the ball looking to bounce back from his roughest start since returning from injury. Glasnow had given up two earned runs in his first three games post-injury, but gave up four runs, four hits and five walks in only four innings in Cincinnati last Tuesday. He cruised through the first three innings, allowing two walks and a single but getting two double plays to prevent any damage. Things fell off in the fourth, where he allowed a one-out walk, two-run homer and a two-out solo homer for a three-run inning. He came back out for the fifth, but allowed a double and two walks before being pulled without recording an out. Jack Dreyer came in and allowed a run on a groundout, but held the Reds to that lone run. The offense got Glasnow off the hook with a two-run seventh and a game-winning Will Smith double in the top of the ninth. Glasnow’s had success against the Cardinals in his career with a 2.22 ERA in 24 1/3 innings. Most of that came when he was a Pirate before his career really took off, but his second start as a Dodger came against the Cards last season. He allowed two hits and a walk over six innings, with the lone run coming on a Paul Goldschmidt homer to solidify himself as a true Dodger.

Sonny Gray gets the ball looking to break a rough patch of his own. Gray started the opener against the Dodgers back in June and tossed six 1/3 scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 3.35. In nine starts since then, Gray’s allowed 31 earned runs in 46 innings (a 6.07 ERA) and has allowed more than six runs in a game three times. Two of those times came directly after the All-Star Break, where Gray allowed eight runs on 11 hits in only three innings in Arizona and six runs and 11 hits in five innings against the Padres. Despite his ERA jumping up over a run over the last nine games, he’s lowered his FIP in that time from 3.15 after that Dodger start to 3.09 currently. He’s struck out 52 batters in those 46 innings and only issued six walks. There’s nothing super notable about changes in his hard hit/exit velocities in that time, so maybe just chalk it up to unfortunate sequencing.

Gray’s only walked 20 batters in 121 1/3 innings this season and has the third-lowest walk rate (4 percent) among qualified starters and his 22.5 percent K-BB% is the sixth-best. He’s thrown seven different pitch types this season, five of which he’s thrown between 11 and 22 percent of the time. His fastballs (four seamer, cutter and sinker) have gotten hammered this season with a .338 average (.321 xBA) and .519 slugging (.493 xSLG) against them. His breaking stuff (sweeper, curve, slider) has been much better with a .181 average (.197 xBA) and .292 slugging (.337 xSLG) against it. 92 of his 133 strikeouts this season have come off the breaking stuff and those pitches have a 36.1 percent whiff rate.

Max Muncy returns to the lineup, hitting fifth and starting at third. Muncy was activated from the IL and Tommy Edman was placed back on the IL with an ankle sprain. Miguel Rojas draws the start at second today, and Alex Freeland is expected to start there tomorrow. Both teams have a Pages hitting eighth, with Andy Pages hitting eighth for the Dodgers and Pedro Pages hitting eighth behind the plate for the Cards.

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The Dodgers made another 40-man roster move along with the Muncy move.

The Dodgers added Luken Baker to the 40-man roster for some position player depth. Baker was a second round pick by the Cardinals in 2018 and showed off his power in the Minors with an .826 OPS and 136 homers in 639 games across seven years. He’s played 73 games across three seasons with the big league club, but has struggled with a .655 OPS and only four homers. He has posted a .747 OPS against lefties in the Majors despite the sporadic playing time, so maybe there’s something there. At 6’4 285 Baker is pretty solidly a first base/DH type, so it’ll be interesting to see if he gets any looks in the bigs for the Dodgers. Jack Little was DFA’d to make room. He pitched twice for the Dodgers in June and allowed two runs and four hits in three innings. He also struggled in AAA this season, allowing 22 runs in 42 2/3 innings.

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Roki Sasaki could start a rehab assignment in the near future.

Roki Sasaki is targeted for three innings in a Live BP on Friday. If all goes well then a rehab assignment will follow.

— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) August 4, 2025

He’s throwing another BP on Friday and if that goes well, he could begin a rehab assignment after. It’s getting hard to see him having enough time to build all the way back up, but some minor league rehab starts could be beneficial for him to develop without the Dodgers actually having to demote him.

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Despite his struggles, Mookie Betts will continue hitting near the top of the order.

Dave Roberts said he’s not going to move Mookie Betts down in the order beyond the No. 2 spot, despite his extended struggles.

“I’m going to continue to believe in him and trust that he’s the best option.”

— Rowan Kavner (@RowanKavner) August 4, 2025

He’ll either be hitting first or second in the order. He has had some more promising ABs of late, but the results haven’t followed yet.

First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.