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Heading into the second game of the series in Cincinnati, the Dodgers bullpen figures to be stronger starting tonight. Ronald Belisario, who showed up to spring training 35 days late, is expected to be activated from the restricted list before tonight's game against the Reds.
Belisario, who put up a 2.04 ERA and 3.51 FIP in 70 2/3 innings as a rookie last season, has spent most of the last four weeks in extended spring training in Arizona. He spent the first 17 days of the regular season not getting paid while on the restricted list. Major league players are paid by the day over the course of a 183-day regular season, so with Belisario's major league salary at $412,500, his time on the restricted list cost him roughly $38,320.
Hiroki Kuroda will make his third start of the season still in search of his first unintentional walk of the year. Well, maybe he's not in search of that walk, but the point is he hasn't walked anybody while Russell Martin has been in a crouch. This shouldn't come as a surprise, of course, as he has one or fewer unintentional walk in 34 of 53 career starts, including no intentional walks in 20 starts.
If Kuroda can pitch deep into this game -- after pitching 15 innings in the first two games -- perhaps he can help improve on the Dodgers' ERA by inning (per Baseball-Reference.com):
| Dodgers Pitchers By Inning | |||||
| Split | IP | ERA | BB/9 | K/9 | Opp BA/OBP/SLG |
| Innings 1-3 | 39.0 | 3.46 | 3.23 | 11.08 | .264/.331/.399 |
| Innings 4-6 | 39.0 | 6.46 | 5.31 | 6.23 | .284/.378/.452 |
| Innings 7-9 | 35.1 | 6.88 | 6.11 | 7.64 | .237/.358/.443 |
Here are the lineups (thanks to Jamie Ramsey for the Reds' lineup):
| Dodgers | Reds | |||
| SS | Furcal | CF | Stubbs | |
| CF | Kemp |
SS | Cabrera | |
| RF | Ethier | 1B | Votto |
|
| LF | Ramirez | 2B | Phillips | |
| 1B | Loney | 3B | Rolen | |
| 3B | Blake | RF | Bruce | |
| 2B | DeWitt | LF | Gomes | |
| C | Martin | C | Hernandez | |
| P | Kuroda |
P | Harang | |
Other Notes
- You will be hard pressed to find a better breakdown of Chad Billingsley than that by Chad Moriyama of Memories of Kevin Malone.
- Ronnie Belliard has hit .409/.458/.591 with a double and a home run in 24 plate appearances against tonight's Reds' starter Aaron Harang.
- From Jamie Ramsey, the assistant director of media relations for the Reds, the 2010 Reds are the second team since 1900 to post each of its first six wins in their final turn at-bat, joining the 1970 Giants.
- From the Dodger game notes: "On this day in 1890, the Dodgers, also known as the "Bridegrooms," won their first National League game with a 7-6 decision over the Boston Braves."
- Hall-of-Famer Joe Morgan has been hired by the Reds as a special advisor to baseball operations.
Xeifrank's simulation of today's game is here.
Game Time: 4:10pm
TV: Prime Ticket