Going Back to Houston
Some of you oldtimers will remember this: They don t make em like that anymore, but I digress. The Dodgers are in Houston hopefully for a sweep, but I ll take 2 out of 3 and close it in LA. Really, this has the look of a seven game series. Tonight is a very critical game. The winning team will have momentum and that is important. Tonight, Yu Darvish faces the
Some of you oldtimers will remember this:
They don’t make ’em like that anymore, but I digress. The Dodgers are in Houston – hopefully for a sweep, but I’ll take 2 out of 3 and close it in LA. Really, this has the look of a seven game series. Tonight is a very critical game. The winning team will have momentum and that is important.
Tonight, Yu Darvish faces the Astros in Minute Maid Park. He is 4-1 with a 2.16 ERA in six starts at that ballpark. In five of those six outings, Darvish pitched at least seven innings, however he has “streamlined” his delivery and has somewhat of a different look. He is the perfect starter for the Dodgers in a series that is tied at 1-1.
Lance McCullers Jr. is the starting pitcher for the Astros and he has some incredible stuff… when he is on the field. He has a lot of injury issues but appears to be healthy for this one. His fastball tops out at 96 and he has a great curve and a hard changeup to go with it. He throws his curveball nearly 48% of the time. He will present a unique challenge to a team that loves low fastballs and don’t hit curveballs very well.
I am assuming that Joc Pederson will start in LF against the RHP and Utley will start at 2B, although I prefer Forsythe and either Grandal or Ethier will DH. I have no preference. If McCullers and Darvish are on, this could be a very, very low scoring game. Forsythe has more range at 2B and that could be important in a tight game. Joc is a very good LF’er so Andre Ethier may get the call as a DH. We shall see…
Dodger News
- Ned Colletti, former Dodger’s GM was quoted by MLB’s Ken Gurnick as saying:
“No, nothing bittersweet about it,” said the Dodgers’ former general manager. “I applaud [president of baseball operations] Andrew Friedman, [general manager] Farhan Zaidi and [CEO] Stan Kasten. They took this team where I couldn’t get it.”
- Ned is the Old Guard, this is the New Era of Baseball and it’s just done differently. I enjoy Ned’s comments and hopefully he will stay with team team for a time.
- So far, the Dodgers have lost Jeremy Zoll who is Minnesota’s Director of Minor League Operations and Matt Herges to the Giants as their bullpen coach. It’s too bad they lost Zoll because he could have slipped into that same position with the Dodgers if Gabe Kapler takes a manager job… and he is in on a couple.
AFL News
- Yusniel Diaz continues to hit – .367 BA/.429 OB%/.9o29 OPS
- Will Smith is hitting .333/.378 OB%/.833 OPS
- DJ Peters is at .190
- Matt Beaty is floundering at .148
- Issac Anderson 0.00 ERA/ 2.00 WHIP – 3 IP
- Michael Boyle – 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA and 0.69 WHIP – 4.1 IP
- Andrew Sopko 3.48 ERA and 1.45 WHIP – 10.1 IP
- Shea Spitzbarth – 7.20 ERA – 5.0 IP
Takeaways: Diaz, Smith and Boyle are progressing well. Hopefully, the others are learning – the stats don’t always tell the tale. This is a league for continual learning and improvement.
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Discussion (84)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Unreal. The bottom of the order walks the bases loaded and the Seager and JT are hacking away at borderline pitches early in the count.
Seager helped the Astros pitcher
I would have liked to see Seager, as he often does, going to the opposite field instead of swinging for the fences like Joc Pederson. As good as he is, Cory is still only 23.
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But as I said in a previous post, the Dodgers are going to have to start hitting with RISP.
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It’s only the 4th inning. Plenty of time to come back. A big crooked number would be nice, but so would a run here and a run there throughout the rest of the game.
I think Puig was safe at 2B. They should have reviewed it.
Seager says give me a bat I will stop this rally! He refused to let McCullers walk him or at least get a pitch up. Terrible at bat for a guy who is supposed to be an mvp candidate. Bellinger is even worse but at least he strikes out for 1 out at a time. I’m sorry but we look like a little league team. No pitching, no hitting, bad base running we have to get better can’t play much worse.
Same thing occurred to me. I wasn’t sure, but it could have been worth a challenge, especially since I think the teams get an extra challenge in the playoffs. But maybe the Dodgers video people had an angle that showed him to be out.
This is going to burn Maeda for a while.
If the Dodgers are going to come back in this game, one way to do it is to chip away at the lead one or two runs at a time. Pederson on 2nd with one out, and the Dodgers can’t hit with a runner in scoring position and get him home. Can’t just do it with the long ball.
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Don’t know if anyone has noticed, but Austin Barnes is not hitting. Hasn’t done so in a while. Is it time to begin thinking about Yasmani?
Cody is completly lost
The game is close now we need play good again
Well, that’s a way to get a run.
Just hoping that Cody can calm down, and stop trying to pull everything out of the park.
Stripling pushed it to the limit!
Well, I’m glad Stripling can laugh about his horrible pitching.
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To paraphrase Vinny, Roberts managerial skills these past two games have gone from the penthouse to the basement.
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Our clean-up hitter is not cleaning up.
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I’m not sure we could play any worse than we have tonight…and we’re only down by 2 runs.
Where is Gonzalez now? Bellinger is way over his head. Blowing game 2 was a team effort from Roberts stupid moves, utley can’t field a ground ball, pederson striking out with a guy on third less than 2 outs, etc then you put guys like Stripling and McCarthy in it’s a disaster. I don’t know how the dodgers are within 2 runs as bad as they have played. Our vaunted bullpen has been mishandled while Houston supposedly weak bullpen just blows seager and bellinger away with fastballs down the middle. Oh well tomorrow’s a new day but Alex Wood pitching I don’t think we get back to la.
I expected Darvish to through a gem…that didn’t work out so good.
Dang auto-correct…”throw a gem”…same result, bad.
Just a hunch but I think Kershaw goes tomorrow on short rest, followed by Hill and Darvish and then Kershaw again. All 3 had low pitch counts and Wood can then help out in the pen. They have to turn it around in Game 4 and need a lift. The Dodgers big hitters have to strap it on too, they have all gone quiet. Darvish hadn’t pitched in 10 days and it showed up big time.
Did you guys see the racist thing the Astros first baseman did?
He put his fingers to his eyes, and pulled his eyes to look Japanese, and it was about Darvish.
You will see it tomorrow, because a media guy just asked Dave about it.
You can’t expect to win many games if you have only 4 hits. Roberts is messing up the bullpen, we won’t have anyone to pitch tomorrow if Wood doesn’t go deep.
Alex Wood pitching tomorrow doesn’t mean the Dodgers won’t get back to LA, since Kershaw is pitching game 5,. And even if he wasn’t, there is no reason the Dodgers can’t win game 5. Justin Verlsnder is not Superman. And of course I’m not conceding tomottow’s game. And even though what happened last year is not necessarily a harbinger of things to come, it is true that the Cubs came back from a 1-3 deficit. And since the AL under the old rules had home field last year, that means that the Cubs won games 6 and 7 on the road. Somebody has to be behind 1-2 after 3 games. Fat lady doesn’t sing until after one team wins 4 games. Then and only then will I give up.
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No doubt that Bellinger is struggling, and there’s no guarantee that he will come out of it. Yet for but a fraction of an inch off his bat, he came within a whisker of walking off game 2.
Maybe I missed something, but how has Roberts’ managerial skills descended to the basement in this game? Must be that he gets the blame for Darvish getting bombed.
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The Dodgers lost this game for the same reason they lost game 2, which is the total inability to his with RISP. They couldn’t push a tack on run across the plate in game 2, and they couldn’t get hits when it counted in this game, especially when they loaded the bases with no outs.
I think Roberts only pitches Kershaw tomorrow if he wants him to pitch a possible game 7, or if he wants him as a stronger option out of the pen later in the series.
I don’t think Doc mismanaged the game at all, but it’s reasonable to question some of his moves. I realize managing is instinct sometimes but why would you start Barnes against a RHP only to PH for him with Grandal against a RHP down by 2 runs? If you liked Barnes to grind out AB’s as a starter why wouldn’t you leave him in to get on base to set up a 2-run HR? He also started Fosythe but uses Utley to PH against a RHP.
I think Doc is great but maybe over managing a bit.
Three factoids that bear mentioning:
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1. The combo of Taylor, Seager, Turner and Bellinger went 1-for-13 tonight. The lineup has always been top-heavy. That’s the downside.
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2. Cody Bellinger, 22, is the 2nd youngest player to whiff 4 times in a WS game. Mickey Mantle is the youngest at 21.
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3. Ross Stripling notched one fewer out in game 3 than Yu Darvish.
Very hard watch.
Terrible game in lots of ways, with very few positives to take from it.
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I’m afraid the game 2 meltdown has let the air out of the balloon.
Not a good game and it didn’t have a feel of a good effort from our boys in blue. All of em swinging to knock it out of the pavilion. I expected more even though I have no right to I still do. Dire straits these next games and Tommy need to pepper rally these guys into believing that it’s theirs to lose and take to their graves for only coming close after all they’d accomplished. This is supposed to be different! Put a worthy plan together and execute it to the letter. Lets see singles and walks ahead of those home runs instead of popup flies. It’s time for Dodger baseball. I want Kershaw of the mound tomorrow to tie this series up and put the bullets back where they belong. GO DODGERS!!!!!!!!!