Brandon Lowe, Blake Snell, and Rays Bullpen Even Series
In 2017, George Springer was 0-6 with a walk and 4 strikeouts before getting a one out double off KJ in the 9th inning in Game 2. A sleeping giant had awoken. In 2020 postseason, the Rays best hitter, Brandon Lowe was in a miserable slump, but that ended when he took Tony Gonsolin deep in the first inning. And he wasn’t done. Gonsolin gives up a walk to Margot
In 2017, George Springer was 0-6 with a walk and 4 strikeouts before getting a one out double off KJ in the 9th inning in Game 2. A sleeping giant had awoken. In 2020 postseason, the Rays best hitter, Brandon Lowe was in a miserable slump, but that ended when he took Tony Gonsolin deep in the first inning. And he wasn’t done.
Gonsolin gives up a walk to Margot who steals 2nd and hustles to 3rd on a Joey Wendel fly to CF, that Belli just missed throwing out. But that was it for Gonsolin. Floro was up early. What a night a difference makes for both Dylan Floro and Victor Gonzalez. I am not about to speculate what that difference was, but both were sufficiently warm and pitched far better in Game 2, especially Floro. Floro gets Willy Adames to hit a ground ball to Corey Seager who fires a strike to Smith to get Margot, who was running on contact, at the plate. Smith then throws out Adames trying to steal 2B on a bang bang play who was originally ruled safe and then overturned.
Floro gets the first two in the 3rd and then turns it over to VGon who gets Austin Meadows to pop up on the first pitch.
At this point, Blake Snell is dealing. He is hitting all of his spots and is unhittable.
In the 4th VGon issues a one out walk to Arozarena, and induces a Ji-Man Choi ground ball to get the DP but it was not gloved cleanly by Kike’ and the Dodgers could not turn it. I am assuming that Doc wanted the RHP Dustin May to pitch to RHH Manuel Margot, and he is called in to relieve Gonzalez. Manuel Margot gets a single that was followed by a 2-run double by Joey Wendle, turning a manageable 1-0 game a much more difficult 3-0 game facing a tough Blake Snell.
In the 5th, May gets Kiermaier on a strikeout and Mike Zunino on a ground out. Austin Meadows follows to get his first WS hit, and then on an 0-2 curveball that did not break much at all, Brandon Lowe, hit a 2 run HR and pushing the lead to 5-0. No kind way to say it, once again neither May nor Gonsolin were effective.
Blake Snell is still pitching a no-hitter into the bottom of the 5th, and after striking out Belli and AJ Pollock, his 8th and 9th Ks, he walks Kike’. Then on a 2-1 pitch, Snell lost the no-hitter and shutout on a CT3 two-run HR. Mookie follows with a walk, and Corey Seager follows with his first hit of the 2020 WS. Kevin Cash then pulls Snell after 4.2 IP and not in a position to get a decision in the game, and brings in hard throwing RHRP Nick Anderson. Anderson gets JT on a strikeout to end the threat.
Joe Kelly took the bump in the 6th and surrenders back to back singles to Choi and Margot. Choi easily made 3rd on the Margot single. Joey Wendle followed with a sac fly and a 6-2 lead. In the bottom of the 6th, Fresh Prince crushes a 1-1 curveball into the left field stands cutting the lead to 6-3.
Much to the chagrin of many on this site, Alex Wood was summoned, and he proceeded to pitch 2 shutout innings. Some preferred Doc to Alex. I wonder if those same comments are going to be discussed about Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin after their last two performances. For me, I have never given up on Alex Wood, and I believe that both May and Gonsolin will come back to pitch very well in this series.
RHRP Pete Fairbanks entered to pitch the 6th for the Rays and retires Joc (PH for Kike’), CT3, and Mookie with 6 pitches. After 7 innings, LAD is behind 6-3, and the Rays just do not lose while winning after 7 IP. Fairbanks returns for the 8th. After just missing on an 87.7 MPH slider, Fairbanks tried again, and this time, Corey did not miss it. The score is now 6-4, and the Dodgers have JT, Max, Smith, and Belli coming up. JT gets a bloop double, and the Dodgers are in business. Muncy could not get JT over to third. Will Smith absolutely hits a seed but right at 3B Joey Wendle for out #2. Time to bring in LHRP Aaron Loup to face Belli. Belli goes down looking and that is the last look the Dodgers get as Loup and Diego Castillo shut down LAD in the 9th. LH hitters look to have their hands full against Aaron Loup. Belli and Rios looked lost against Loup.
Kevin Cash is a protégé of Tito Francona, and learned at his side to not be so predictable when it comes to relief pitchers. Francona showed everyone that Andrew Miller could be effective in any high leverage situation, not just the 9th inning. Cash uses Nick Anderson and Diego Castillo in any situation where critical outs are required. The Rays are masters in their usage of the pen. Dodger pitching has been solid against Randy Arozarena, but have now let Brandon Lowe get some confidence. Both Lowe and Wendle had 3 RBI’s. Margot is 3-7.
The 2020 Series is now tied at 1 apiece. The Rays will be the home team for games 3-5. Cash will send Charlie Morton to the mound, and Doc will counter with Walker Buehler. Doc has already named Julio Urias as the Game 4 starter, the Rays have not yet named one, but it certainly figures to be an opener. Clayton Kershaw will start Game 4
Nobody said this was going to be easy. Nobody predicted a sweep. The Rays have zero pressure on them, they are well disciplined, and now they have some confidence. They have now hit 28 post season HRs breaking the previous postseason record of 27 by the 2002 SF Giants, and 2017 Assterisks.
Dodgers Pitcher of the Game – Dylan Floro 1.1 innings while not allowing an inherited runner on third with one out to not score. Alex Wood also pitched well, just not as good as Floro.
Dodgers Offensive Player of the Game – Corey Seager; 2-4 with a HR, his 7th of the postseason. The 7th HR broke the record for postseason HRs by a SS previously held by himself and Carlos Correa (2020). His 7th HR ties him with Randy Arozarena for most in the 2020 postseason. If Corey hits another, he will join Nelson Cruz (2011), Carlos Beltran (2004) and Barry Bonds (2002) with 8. Corey’s 7th HR this year, now gives him 10 as a Dodger, tying him with JT and Steve Garvey in 2nd place, only 1 behind Duke Snider’s 11. Corey is having a fantastic postseason.
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Discussion (76)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Morton can also bring mid 90’s heat. If he’s on it’s gonna be a tough one and Buehler will need to be his post season self! Also we did hit 2 hr’s off the back of their bullpen so that’s a good sign moving forward. That was a winnable game if Kike makes the double play and May throws his 99 stuff up instead of spinning mid-mid sliders to an off speed hitting team. That was the biggest dah for me last night
To William and others who are complaining that we didn’t go out and get another proven starter before the deadline, the primary candidate for that would have been someone like Lance Lynn who would have cost us some pretty good prospects. How did Lynn pitch after the trade deadline? 20 runs in 32.2 innings (approx 5.60 ERA). In the meanwhile both Gonsolin and May were pitching very well. There was no way to know that once the playoffs started they would become ineffective. I agree with those who say that the way they’ve been used in the post season certainly hasn’t helped their confidence levels.
Doc is already talking up Wood. I would expect to see him start rather than either May or Gonsolin when that game comes up.
Then he better be talking up the 6-7 runs we’ll need!
Look out Mike Trout — Mookie Betts is now the best player in baseball
Says The Athletic:
Open on theathletic.comhttps://theathletic.com/2154645/2020/10/22/posnanski-look-out-mike-trout-mookie-betts-is-now-the-best-player-in-baseball/Hannah Keyser of Yahoo Sports on Roberts’ use of May and Gonsolin in the post-season:
” Rookie Tony Gonsolin, throwing on two days rest, gave up a first-inning home run to Brandon Lowe. Going only 1 1/3 innings brought his postseason ERA up to 9.39. In nine regular season games, eight of them starts and all on four or five days rest, he posted a 2.31 ERA.
His fellow rookie Dustin May, also on two days rest, gave up four runs in 1 1/3 innings. He has yet to throw more than two innings, either starting or in relief, across six appearances this postseason, twice pitching on one day of rest and twice more on three days rest. He has a 5.00 ERA in October after a regular season in which he posted a 2.57 ERA across 12 games, 10 starts, all on four or five days rest.
Asked if he was putting his young pitchers in a position to succeed, manager Dave Roberts credited their accountability, acknowledged that it was uncharted territory, and ultimately said, “That’s a question for them.””
This has not been a successful strategy thus far.
Dodgers postseason team stats:
Team OPS .815 2nd best out of 16 teams.
Team starting pitching ERA 3.22 4th best out of 16 teams.
Team relief pitching ERA 3.80 9th best out of 16 teams.
Looks to me that we are hitting fine 2nd best, our starting pitching is towards the top 4th best, but our relief pitching is below the average.
There’s only 1 way to point the finger and that’s at the bullpen.
1. I would not have guessed that Wood might start a WS game this year. Nor would I have guessed that he might be a good choice to start and succeed in a WS game this year.
2. If we are happy that Betts is a Dodger not only for his skill but for the fun and entertainment he brings then it stands to reason we would also love Lindor who brings the same enthusiasm and fun that Betts brings. Betts, Seager, and Lindor and hopefully Bellinger would be a total delight to have on the Dodgers.
3. Given that Snell is the Rays Ace and considering he is also a lefty, then the fact that he was on his game and still couldn’t complete 5 innings against the Dodgers seems to shout that the Dodgers are pretty awesome.
pretty compelling case by Ms. Keyser. Hard to argue that the strategy didn’t work very well last night. DR has pretty well shot Gonsolin and May for 3-4 days now. Like I said, why we don’t have 3-4 starters set up and ready to go is frustrating. Pick a guy–Gonsolin, May, Wood, Stripling (Ooops!), etc. and let him go. That’s what starters and relievers are for.
Betts and Bellinger announced as candidates for a Gold Glove at their position. I think Betts will easily take the honor. Belli has some stiffer competition. All the crying about the starting pitching and the bullpen is basically useless. There is far more pressure to succeed in the post season. All the stats from the season are usually useless. They just give you a starting point. At the beginning of the year, the Dodgers were felt to have the best rotation in baseball, or close to it. Then Price opted out, they traded some depth in Stripling, and the kids stepped in. Fact is 26 of their 43 wins came from the bullpen. Which has been much maligned ever since the playoffs began. I get it, i really do. But, Gonsolin does not pitch for 17 days, comes in, has 3 good innings before he runs out of gas and the game gets away. To me, that is on the manager for not letting him pitch for that long a period. When he got normal rest, he was extremely effective. Pitched a couple of the better games we have seen this season. May was the same way. When he was on a regular schedule, he was much more effective, and his stuff was crisper than the crap he was throwing last night. The wins by the bullpen also show that they usually rallied late to win games. Yesterday was no different. They left a runner stranded on second who was there with no outs. Not only did the first hitter up, Muncy, not move him over, but the next two struck out with the bat sitting on their shoulder. You are not going to score a lot of runs that way. I love Rios power, but the guy really needs some schooling on the strike zone. He consistently swings at pitches low in the zone that he could not hit even if he was a gopher.
As Mark alluded to above, last night felt very much like a Sun Tzu strategy. In fact, I would be willing to bet a lot of money that there is something like The Art of War baseball handbook that analytics nerds live and die by.
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If you are down by 2 runs or less after the 4th inning of game 2, you engage the enemy in battle. However, if you are down by 3 runs or more after the 4th inning then you retreat and save your best weapons for the next game… or something like that.
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It’s definitely a strategy I can understand, not one that I necessarily agree with, since I hate the idea of giving up on games in the World Series (especially when we had an off day between games 2 and 3) But I can definitely see what they’re trying to do. You just have to hope they know what they’re doing and that this strategy ends up working.
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I really like their chances in games 3, 4, and 5. However… if I’m being honest, a potential game 6 “bullpen game” does scare the crap out of me… if this series isn’t wrapped up before then.
Gonsolin hasn’t looked good but I am still bullish on him.
I don’t want to see May again this year. Send him to find a decent secondary pitch or pitches. He fools almost nobody.
Betts has been a joy to watch as a fan of baseball. Doesn’t everything well, smooth and with purpose. Saying that, he has to start hitting and getting on base. Causing havoc for pitchers and being the “duck on the pond” for the big guys.
Muncy hasn’t looked good all year and, outside of a few moments, has carried over. Walks are nice and sometimes very good but as the 4 hitter. He needs to be a hitter.
I am not sure that many thought LA had a great chance to beat Snell if he was on his game. To me, that would have been an icing on the cake win and would have almost assured a title. I do think that Doc is right that they are in a great spot.
I am also curious to see the residual effect of Glasnow and the pitch count he had in his next start.
I feel pretty good right now. Another poor showing Friday night will change that though!! 🙂