clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Yasiel Puig, Dee Gordon sit with hip injuries in finale vs. Rockies

First major league starts for Jamie Romak in right field and Miguel Rojas at third base for the Dodgers.

Christian Petersen

DENVER -- The walking wounded for the Dodgers will get another day off on Sunday, as both Dee Gordon and Yasiel Puig will sit out the series finale against the Rockies, both nursing hip injuries.

Gordon left Saturday's game after three defensive innings with left hip discomfort, and Puig left one inning later with a left hip flexor strain. Both players are said to be day-to-day.

Manager Don Mattingly said both Puig and Gordon might be available later in the game off the bench if needed, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com.

Chone Figgins starts at second base for the Dodgers and bats leadoff, while 12-year minor league veteran Jamie Romak makes his first major league start in right field, in place of Puig. Romak so far is 0-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout in six games.

But those aren't the only lineup changes on Sunday. Justin Turner, who has started 13 of 17 games at third base since Juan Uribe was placed on the disabled list, gets a day off, with Miguel Rojas making his first major league start as well. Rojas made his major league debut on Friday night, playing the final two innings defensively at shortstop but did not bat.

With the left-handed Jorge De La Rosa on the mound, Andre Ethier sits and Scott Van Slyke gets the call in center field. Van Slyke is hitting .282/.462/.718 against left-handers this season and leads the team against southpaws in doubles (five), home runs (four) and walks (11).

Hip injury or no, it's a good idea to sit Gordon against lefties anyway, hitting just .208/.236/.264 against them this year and .218/.261/.239 in his career.

A side effect of the lineup changes is Matt Kemp batting cleanup for the third time this season. In each of his other two starts batting fourth - April 23 against the Phillies and May 6 in Washington - Kemp was 2-for-4, including a pair of doubles against Philadelphia. Kemp is 3-for-7 with a triple and a pair of walks in the first two games of the series, directly after a 17-game string with no walks.

Clayton Kershaw has struck out exactly nine batters in three straight starts and in five of his last six outings, and on the season he has 55 strikeouts against just seven walks. The Dodgers have won each of Kershaw's last three starts in Denver, including last July 2, one of only 21 complete-game shutouts in the history of Coors Field.