Dodger Killers

With the passing in the last week or so of Bob Gibson, Whitey Ford, and now Joe Morgan, I got to thinking about players who always seem to be at their best against the Dodgers.

It has always seemed to me like some players just have another team’s number. Take for example, Willie McCovey. His BA against the Dodgers in 297 games was .241. He hit 45 HR’s and had 162 RBI’s. He struck out 212 times. But against a Dodger great, Don Drysdale, he hit .336 with 12 homers over their careers. McCovey was not exactly a Dodger killer, but he inflicted a lot of wounds and owned Drysdale.

Stan Musial comes to mind. Over 432 games ” The Man ” hit .341 with a .596 slugging pct, and 74 HR’s and 241 RBI’s He drew 249 walks and struck out only 90 times. Yep, “The Man” owned the Dodgers. He treated Ebbets Field like a second home hitting a whopping .359 there with a .660 Slugging pct, and an OPS of 1.108. The highest of any park he played in including Sportsman’s Park, his home field. He also OPS’d over 1.000 at the Polo Grounds.

Musial once hit 5 homers in a double header at Ebbets Field. Too bad that after the 40’s ended, Stan never got another shot at playing in the World Series.

Although they did have some success against him, Willie Mays was another player who did very well against the Dodgers. 98 HR’s, 251 RBI’s, and a .309 BA with a .595 slugging average. And Mays could kill them with his glove and his legs. He was 33 of 51 stealing. But it was when he was on the basepath’s stretching hits that he was most dangerous.

Sometimes one of your own comes back to bite you. Roberto Clemente played 291 games against the Dodgers. He was not the power threat that Mays, Musial or McCovey were, but he did damage nonetheless. He had 395 career hits against the Dodgers. More than against any other team. Although only 80 were for extra bases, he managed to drive in 129 runs. For most of his career the Pirates were a lousy team. They had some good players, and won in 1960, but fell off of the grid until the 70;s with the team that beat Baltimore in 1970. He was killed on a mercy flight on New Year’s Eve 1972.

Hank Aaron had very good career stats against the Dodgers. A .302 BA, 95 HR’s and 247 RBI’s. Although not considered a big stolen base threat, Hank was 21 of 24 against the Dodgers. And he was a great defender.

One some forget is Orlando Cepeda. He also was very good against the Dodgers. A .280 BA, 40 HR’s and 164 RBI’s. Cepeda was traded because the Giants had McCovey. Will Clark hit .311 against the Dodgers. His power numbers are not all that high, but he was traded to the AL.

Jack Clark may not have been the most prolific, but he had some moments that are locked in the fans memory’s. Tony Gwynn, although not a slugger, hit .330 against the Dodgers. 67 of his 271 hits were for extra bases. He caused a lot of anxiety for Dodger pitchers.

Albert Pujols, although his skills have declined since he became an Angel, still has managed to keep his average just below .300 at .297. 49 of his 119 hits against LA have been for extra bases.

One of our foes in the NLCS, Freddie Freeman has not fared well against Dodger pitching in the past. He has a .266 BA, but only 6 HR’s and 20 RBI’s in 55 games. Here is a shocker for you, Ronald Acuna Jr. has played only 10 games against LA. He is hitting a paltry .114 against Dodger pitching. He has 2 HR’s and 5 ribbies. 4 of those coming on the Grand Slam he hit off of Buehler in 2018. Ozuna, has a career .231 BA against the Dodgers. 7 homers and 17 RBI’s.

Joe Morgan had a career .256. BA and hit 29 homer’s and 106 RBI’s. He did most of his damage when he was a Red.

Although he had a losing record against them Warren Spahn had 36 complete games in 66 outings against the Dodgers and he only allowed 34 homers. Whitey Ford finished 3-4 against the Dodgers in post season play. Mainly because he lost 2 games in the 63 sweep.

Despised by most LA fans, Juan Marichal rang up a 37-18 career record against LA. He had a paltry 2.36 ERA and only allowed 37 HR’s, He struck out 305 and walked 104. I find it odd that Bob Gibson had a losing record against the Dodgers at 17-23. His ERA was 3.58. I think a lot of that can be attributed to how bad some of those Cardinal teams were.

But for pure dominance in a single season, few can compare to what Larry Jaster did in 1966. Even though they went on to the World Series, Jaster who posted a 11-5 regular season record was 5-0 against the Dodgers. And ALL 5 games were complete game shutouts. Jaster was barely over .500 in his career, but 9 of his 35 wins came at the Dodgers expense.

Joe Morgan was a class act, and one of the best clutch players I ever saw. Mays was the best player I ever saw. But Mantle was close. Some asked me about Bonds. Barry was a .263 hitter against the Dodgers. He walked an awful lot, and hit 64 HR’s in 274 games. His dad, Bobby, hit .254 with 20 homers against LA. I remember one that really hurt. The Dodgers had led 9-0. And Bonds led a furious comeback that climaxed with a grand slam by Bonds to win the game. Bad memory.

I probably left out more than a few. I remember Eddie Mathews as always being a good hitter against the Dodgers, and Joe Adcock also. Big Klu, Bill Virdon. Mantle, Berra and Skowron always played well against the Dodgers in the series until 63. Koufax owned those guys even though the Mick hit a dinger in game 4. Maris did no damage at all, and Skowron was a Dodger.