Good Night at Coors
Boy, I need to say that Corey Seager has gone into a slump more often. HR (13), double (13), single, 2 RBIs, a couple of good plays at SS. But he sure did choke with that weak ground ball to first when he needed a triple. This is a different Corey Seager from last year. He is now tied for the team lead in RBIs with 36 with Mookie. It
Boy, I need to say that Corey Seager has gone into a slump more often. HR (13), double (13), single, 2 RBIs, a couple of good plays at SS. But he sure did choke with that weak ground ball to first when he needed a triple.☺ This is a different Corey Seager from last year. He is now tied for the team lead in RBIs with 36 with Mookie. It is the leadoff hitter and #2 hitter that lead the team in RBIs by a fairly substantial margin. Not 3-4-5-6. Corey is two behind Mookie in HRs and leads the team in doubles. Mookie has an OPS of .963 while Corey has an OPS of .959. Corey is getting back to the 2016 and 2017 version of Corey Seager. I know there are those who prefer Francisco Lindor, but I am hoping that Corey wants to stay a Dodger forever and can coax an extension out of AF. I love it when Corey gives me a reason to include his picture in the article.
My first favorite non-Dodger was Baltimore’s Brooks Robinson. Mid 60’s favorite Dodger was Jim Lefebvre, followed by Ken McMullen. I was a big fan of Nomar because of how he treated my son when they were Boston teammates. And Corey Seager has been a favorite since he was drafted. What do they all have in common? Uni #5. I cannot say it is because of the uniform number, because I was never a big fan of Mike Marshall who wore number 5 for 9 years.
Now back to the game. This was a game that Doc haters can find fault with, and Doc fans can find positives. After a tough first inning, Julio Urias settled down and pitched brilliantly for the next 4.2 innings. After the Pillar single in the first, Julio retires the next 12 in a row before the Edwin Rios error to open the 6th. He gets the next two and then Doc comes to get him after 77 pitches and a bullpen game the next day? That was a head scratcher for me. What is going to happen when the team needs for Urias to go 90+ pitches? I know the game was tied at 2, with RH Nolan Arenado coming up, but at some point, you have to let the kid pitch out of a jam. Dylan Floro got the weak foul pop out from Arenado, so it worked. But if you are going to let KJ and Baez struggle in similar (or worse) situations to build their confidence, why not Urias? It was unfortunate that Julio did not get the win, but the team won, so I am sure Urias can be satisfied with a Dodgers win…right? Arbitration hearings do not care if you held the Rockies to two runs in 5.2 IP. At some point the W-L discussion is going to come up.
Josh Bard, Mark Prior, and Connor McGuiness need to figure out how to get Urias properly warmed to pitch the first inning. For the season, Urias has allowed 10 runs in the first inning this season, but only 9 runs in the 39 innings following the first.
Corey had a couple of important hits, and Edwin Rios crushed his 5th HR of the season, but for me, the key hit in the game was two out double by Will Smith. That broke the game open. A four run lead at Coors is not enough when the tying run can come to the plate. The one out double off the wall by Kike’ in the 7th got the inning rolling. Don’t look now all you Kike’ doubters, but for the month of September (11 games, 30 AB), Kike’ is slashing .300/.353/.567/.920 with 2 doubles, 2 HRs, 8 RBIs and only 4 Ks. He is heating at the right time. Combined, Max and Cody have 2 extra base hits and 4 RBIs. Max has 21 Ks in September, while Cody has 10. As I said in the beginning of the year, Kike’ has never been the problem. While his bat is rarely a game changer, his glove often is. Cody and Max are supposed to be the game changing bats, and they haven’t been.
Floro should have pitched the 7th unscathed, but Max still has a problem throwing to 2B. With a 6 run lead, why not just get the out at 1st? But the error did allow for Joe Kelly to come in in a non-high leverage situation. After seven consecutive knuckle curves, he seduces a Ryan McMahon 6-3 ground out on a fastball to end the inning. I just am not sure that Kelly trusts his command of his fastball. By the way, Dylan Floro is quietly having a very good season. His ball has always moved, but now he has command of that movement.
Kolarek gave up his first HR of the season. Trevor Story is going to hit a lot of HRs off a lot of pitchers. But it was a bomb.
It was nice to see Josh Sborz come in and finish off the game to save the bullpen for Friday’s game. I would still prefer to see Mitch White start, but I understand why he isn’t. He is not going to be an option for the post season, but the bullpen game could be. Josiah Gray is not going to pitch at the MLB level this year. He is not on the 40 man, and there is no reason to start his clock.
The Dodgers are now up 4.0 games on the Padres, and their magic number for their 8th consecutive NL West title (and best record in NL) is at 5. Philadelphia is now the #8 seed in the NL, with SFG #7. St. Louis (-.5), Milwaukee (-1.0), NYM (-1.5), and Colorado (-2.0) are all still trying to get in.
Don’t look now, but NYY is getting hot at the right time.
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Discussion (97)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Alexander is now a bit closer to the post season roster thanks to Mr. Wood.
I’d like to see White get some innings. We could use another long man and he’s ideally set up to be that guy if he can show he’s up to it.
Lux is complicating things.
Wood shows why he should only pitch one inning.
Alex Wood is a #5 starter on a bad pitching staff. And he’s even worse out of the pen. There’s just no place for him on this Dodger team. Sorry Alex, sad to see you go!
Muncy and Bellinger are looking better tonight, although it’s at Coors against a bad Rox pitching staff, so maybe we shouldn’t be jumping up and down just yet.
Well well well this is what it’s like when Muncy and Bellinger produce. It is the thin air in Colorado though. But still.
Rich Hill – 7 innings, 1 run against the Cubs tonight
Maeda and Ryu are each in the top 10 of AL pitcher’s WAR
For that matter two of the others are Greinke and Heaney, both ex-Dodgers, although Heaney doesn’t really count.
WOW. What a game. It was a total team effort everyone contributed. Everyone had a hit. 8 different players scored a run and 8 different players had at least one RBI. Best of all is Bellinger had 3 hits
The offense really clicked tonight. They made it interesting to watch.
Perhaps someone can explain how Mitch White comes away with the win? He pitched the last two innings, but the Dodgers were winning long before he made his appearance.