Pathetic is All You Need to Know

Feast or famine? What will it be for game 5? At least they got a good look at Logan Webb recently. They should be able to make adjustments. And I have every reason to feel confident sbout Julio Urias. He is a big-game pitcher. The big question is whether the bats will show up.

Bazooka has looked very good in the post season. Pounding the strike zone with terrific movement.

After Seager 3rd out on the bottom of the 5th, what would have happen if the umprie would have found something iligal on the pitchers glove?

This kind of feels like a typical Giant “pull a rabbit out of the hat” type game.

Dodgers have to slam the door right now and score some runs. Let’s go!

Not a fan of pulling Buehler. Let’s hope it works out.

What’s up with kapler’s shoes? They look like orange slippers!

Brandon Crawford looks like he’s been hanging out with Barry Bonds, just saying.

Damm !!! What an important catch

I didn’t think the Dodgers would trust Gonsolin…..

Astros pounded the White Sox and advanced to their 5th straight ALCS. Boston-Houston. The Cheaters series.

Here’s some facts about the offense last night from Eric Stephan and Blake Harris at TBLA…

On Monday, the Dodgers hit into outs on balls that had expected batting averages of .920, .890, .870, .550, and .500 (twice).

Chris Taylor looked as if he hit a home run in the sixth inning, hitting one 107 mph off the bat with an expected batting average of .920…. but it died at the warning track. That one would have given the Dodgers a 2-1 lead had it gone out.

Just a few batters earlier, Trea Turner sent one 370 feet that was nearly 100 mph off the bat, but the wind buried that one as well.

Gavin Lux hit the final pitch of the game 106.9 mph and at a 22-degree launch angle. Batters this season, on balls hit 106-107 mph and at 22-degree launch, were 55 for 62 (.887) with 38 home runs. The Dodgers had four such hits this year. All were homers.

What can be frustrating is that, sandwiched in between the two zeroes in the NLDS, the Dodgers scored nine runs in Game 2. Such feast or famine feels like it’s too common for a team that led the National League in runs scored. But is it actually true?

During the regular season, the Dodgers were shut out five times. That’s tied for the second-fewest games in MLB, behind only the Blue Jays (three times).

Held to one or fewer runs? 19 times, second-fewest in MLB, behind only the Astros (18).

Two or fewer runs scored? 41 times, tied for fifth-fewest, with among others, the Giants.

Scoring no more than three? 61 times, fifth-fewest.

Four or fewer runs scored? 76 times, third-fewest.

The point is the Dodgers offense doesn’t really get held down as often as we might think it does.

The all in lineup is posted. Doc’s playing the splits by having Gavin over Pollock, starting in CF with CT3 in LF. Interesting choice after CT3 made some big grabs in CF last night.

Mookie RF

Seags SS

TT 2B

The Fresh Prince C

JT 3B

G-Lux CF

Belli 1B

CT3 LF

Walker “No Day Off” Bueller P

Be great today Walker Buehler.

According to MLBTR< the QO has been set at 18.4 mil. Question for you guys. Who gets the QO? I am pretty sure Seager will.

I had trouble falling asleep last night simply because I just could not get the game out of my head. I was not upset they lost, I was upset the WAY they lost. I would rather lose 16-0 than a 1-0 shutout.

Walker Buehler to start tonight, just as I expected.

5 Dodgers known for post season heroics:

Joc

Kike

Alex Wood

JT

Urias

Too bad three of them are playing for other teams this year and one of the remaining two hasn’t helped much.

We’re still in it until we aren’t. As others have pointed out, we needed to beat the Braves 3 straight last year and did it. Now we only need 2.

What lack of hitting are we talking about? The Giants had 3 hits and 14 K’s. The Dodgers had 5 hits and just 6 K’s. They hit the ball very hard that should have been hits on at least 3 more occasions I can think of off the top of my head. JT’s liner to right field, just foul. Mookie’s seed to Crawford and Lux’s wind robbed homer. They were a couple of more deep drives as well. Sometimes luck comes into play. That’s why you play 162 and why each series is at least 5 games. To combat some of that luck.

The best player for the Giants last night was the wind.

I’ve tried to keep out of all the discussions about the Dodgers and their lack of hitting when it matters all year. Last night was a perfect example of how these guys just can’t hit when we need it. As Mark pointed out, we have outscored the Giants 9 to 7 but, per usual, we scored all of those runs in one game. That is why all of the stats have been skewed during the season. This team is and has been a feast or famine team for years. It allows us to win 100+ games but kills us in the post-season after 162 games. This needs to stop. The Dodgers need to be a base hitting team and not just a home run hitting team (those will come). Like the great Ken Griffey Jr. said: “I try to hit the ball, home runs just happen”. All the Dodgers seem to do is swing for the fences. Heck, this mindset even seems to have affected Mookie. He was a 300+ hitter (overall) before he became a Dodger. ☺

This may seem overwrought, but I will say it: There is something missing in the Dodgers organization. Yes, I know that we won a whole bunch of games, we usually do. But since 1988, we have won one title, and that was in a vastly shortened season; not that we would not likely have won it anyway, but another hundred games might have led to the kind of injuries we suffered this year, or worn out our pitching staff. Who knows, but we are justifiably proud of the great title win. However, that is all we have.

Those who remember the specific playoff games better than I do, might take issue with some of this, but what I mostly remember are bitter losses, mostly where our team could not manufacture runs late in the game. I remember a series against St. Louis where we blew a 7-1 lead at home in the first game, and then could not rally. Then we went into St. Louis and lost two games on late Cardinal home runs, one by Carpenter, and then another player. We could not do anything offensively late in the games.

Then another series with St. Louis, where Kelly hit Ramirez in the ribs in the first game. We had a lead, maybe 2-0, but the Cards caught us, and then we could not score for about ten innings more, as we finally lost 3-2. Then we lost the next game by one run, maybe 2-1. Then the series against Boston, where we had a 4-1 lead or so in game four, lost the lead, and then did not score again. Then the last game against Washington. We lost the 3-1 lead, but a run in the 8th or 9th would have won it, but we could not muster anything.

Then this series against SF. Zero runs in the first game, zero runs in the third. We have outscored them 9-7, but we seem to either score lots of runs we don’t need, or score very few. Yes, I realize that other teams have good pitchers, but for all the talent we have on hand, we do not maximize it. We looked mostly helpless last night. We had a couple of chances; Crawford made a great play, the wind cut a couple of balls down, and that’s all we did. No rallies, no ground ball singles, just swinging for the home run. No sense of opportunism, we will score somehow. And for me, that is how we have somehow managed to win only the one title.

We are the franchise which resembles a very shiny car with sparkling parts, but somehow it does not drive as well as it should. I know we have had some bad injuries this year, and I know that this will be the general wrap-up to the season. “We were really good, but the Giants were better, we must tip our caps to them. And the injuries, and the Bauer situation are what cost us the title.”

What cost us the title in 2019? We didn’t win our one playoff series that year, just like we are very unlikely to win our one playoff series this year. Just bad luck? More tipping our caps to other teams? Or are we missing something? I think we are. What it is, is not so easy to discern. But even though we are always harder on our own team than others, and even though everyone loses games, and has disappointments, we are essentially the franchise which does not win big games. We almost lost last year, but Betts and Bellinger made extraordinary defensive plays, and they and Smith got key home runs. Maybe that was OUR lucky year, because now we are back to underachieving in the big games.

All we needed last night was two runs, and we got none. In the three playoff games besides the one cakewalk nine-run outburst, we have scored a total of three runs, all on homeruns. We strike out, pop up, hit ground balls right at the shifted players. We don’t seem to adjust, or adapt or strategize, we just follow our usual approach.

I think we are missing something, and unless we find it or change it, we are not going to win more titles any time soon. How can you have so many seasons where you underachieve in the playoffs, and where the other teams seem to be full of scrappy and resourceful players who find a way to win, while we do not? Do I think that this is due to Roberts? Likely not, but I do think Kapler is better, he seems to always put the right pitcher in, it has happened all season. The mark of a truly great franchise in any sport is their ability to come up big in the big games, find ways to win. The Dodgers teams from 1959-1966 mostly did that. Of course, we had Sandy Koufax. But we scrapped and executed, and “The Dodgers way to play basebal”l was a real thing. Eras change, but we are looking at six seasons of amazing regular season achievements, and very little to show for it in the playoffs.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’ll watch the game tonight, like everyone here. If we do lose the series, I will follow some next season, but I am not going to spend an entire six months watching an extended lead-up to another bitterly disappointing ending to the season. I just don’t think they are flukes, or bad luck, or injuries, though of course all of that is there. You really can win a baseball game and score two runs, even if the wind is blowing hard from left to right field.

I realize I’m much less interested in baseball than I am in Dodgers winning. I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to be. It’s kinda funny that a city assembles a bunch of players from all over the world and I devote as much energy and time for those players to win and for what purpose? I can’t quite explain. How can I own these emotions of victory or failure? Got to laugh at myself for biting into something that doesn’t taste good and I had nothing to do with it’s flavor. We humans are crazy animals.

Give credit to some computer for positioning.

As to why the Dodgers didn’t hit, there is a bad fuse somewhere and the line-up shorts out. Been happening all year, feast or famine. Probably one of the reasons they lost all those extra inning games early in the season. Some writer, not a computer, did an analysis and said that if you just ended tie games with a half win for both teams, the Dodgers would have finished six games ahead in the standings.

That wasn’t wind last night at Dodger Stadium, that was a blow with 45 mph gusts. Hey baseball is a game of inches, think back to Trea Turner’s liner headed for the right field corner, a triple with his speed. Sometimes it’s just the way the ball bounces.

Something interesting came out of a Farhan Zaidi interview (Bill Shaikin, LA Times) about how the Giants arrived here so early and he said never focus on the signing of one specific player to make a difference. Lot of ways to get to a championship, he pointed out. The Giants have only $50 million on the books for 2022, the Dodgers $139 million and the Padres $151 million. That of course could change for the Dodgers, depending on what happens with Trevor Bauer’s contract.

Makes me wonder if that will be Andrew Friedman’s thinking when it comes to Corey Seager. Lot of pundits now think he won’t be back with Turner able to slide to short. Scott Boras seeking every nickel. Not a player in the game today worth $300 million.

I like the Dodgers chances tonight. If they win, it’s a rematch between Walker Buehler and Logan Webb by the bay. One game at a time, but if that happens, I like the Dodgers chances. That is, of course, if the hitters show up.

A LOT of parallels with the 2019 NATS.

They won the WC game, played the team with the best record, needed to win game 4 in their home park and game 5 on the road to knock out the team with the best record, and they did just that.

A higher power gave that game to SF last night, but I think we win this thing in 5….

Think Positive.

Dodgers gotta bring the bats tonite. Score 4- 5 runs and I like our chances. Then in game 5 they have to be ready to take a lot of pitches. Those sinkers and change ups from Doughboy Webb are rarely strikes. Dodgers have to have the courage to take more pitches against him.