Dodgers: Recently Acquired Two-Time All-Star Outfielder Set for LA Debut Today

Joey Gallo will be making his first start for the Dodgers since being acquired at the MLB trade deadline.

The Dodgers are set to close out their four-game series with the Giants this afternoon at Oracle Park. An LA win spells the second four-game sweep of San Francisco in the last three weeks. It's probably been a while since that happened and newly acquired outfielder Joey Gallo could be a big part of the story.

Gallo will get the start against Giants righty Jakob Junis and is batting sixth in the lineup.

Full lineup: pic.twitter.com/TNKTKvJ35M

— Jack Harris (@ByJackHarris) August 4, 2022

The Dodgers traded for the struggling Gallo for games like these - the end of a long road trip and a right-handed starter on the mound. Gallo owns an abysmal .621 OPS this season, but the two-time All-Star has been slightly better against righties (.699).

Across six seasons and 117 games, Junis has yielded a .813 OPS to left-handed batters and a .287 batting average. 

Suffice to say, the Dodgers are definitely aware of all of the platoon splits rattled off above.

Gallo joined the team yesterday and admitted his struggles in his time with the Yankees (quotes via OCR's Bill Plunkett)

“Baseball is a tough game. Sometimes things just don’t go your way,” Gallo said. “You try to start doing different things. And once you struggle, especially in a place like that, you start to feel it a little more. You try to do too much. And sometimes that can get in your way. I feel like sometimes I tried to do too much, I tried to play too well. I just didn’t play my game."

The Dodgers and Gallo are both hoping that the slugger becomes LA's latest successful reclamation project.