Quick Hits

Cartaya hit his seventh homer tonight. Might be turning his season around.

Dodgers and D-Backs now tied atop the NL West. We get the Yankees while they play the Braves. They travel to DC next week while LA is playing the Reds in the Queen City. Dodgers then go to Philly while Az visits Detroit. They come home to play the Phils and Guardians while the Dodgers host the Sox and the Giants. Tomorrow is Lou Gehrig day. All teams will fete celebrations for the Yankee great and host ALS benefits.

Another article in The Athletic about the Sisters and Houston Mitchell’s Newsletter today was also about the sisters. He stated what I also suggested: This issue could be enough to drive Clayton to finish his career in Texas! The simple solution is to just drop all the “group nights” that aren’t related to baseball. Duhhhh! or maybe we just create new ones, like

1. Dodger Stadium Elephant Night

2. Bring a Crocodile to the Game Night

3. Bring a Convicted Felon to the Game Night

4. Dodger Stadium Lice Night

5. Dodger Stadium Anti-Vaxxers Night

6. Skydive into the Stadium Night

… I am sure I am offending someone by leaving them out. They could do all kinds of stupid shit… or maybe just play baseball.

My father is almost 90 years old, and every night or evening, he watches the Dodgers, his most beloved event of the day. I don’t want him to watch the game on the night of the sisters, because I know that this is going to bother him a lot. What a pity that something like this can damage the spirit of an great old fan like my father. Pity.

For sure this is Kersh’s last year in LA. We can watch him in Texas next year.

On the Baseball America podcast, a favorite of mine Eno Sarris speculated (i.e. wasn’t reporting) on the Guardians this off-season.

He could envision that team both buying and selling, and selling to the Dodgers.

Bieber and Rosario (Rosario a pure rental, I believe) for…

Well, he doesn’t think the Dodgers would offer Vargas (nor do I), and Cartaya may be too much. But maybe Busch plus?

Rosario is just a Rojas clone. Why bother? You’re trading only for Bieber, and those 3 are a total overpay. When healthy I think Pepiot can develop into Gonsolin light.

A really good bullpen piece has just come on to the market.

White Sox have dfa’d Hanser Alberto.

Here come those Damn Yankees.

Yankees getting Stanton, Kahnle and Donaldson back off the IL just in time for this series.

Dodgers vs Yankees my favorite time of the year.

Pathetic piece by Houston Mitchell. Yeah he should stay away from politics and religion especially if he knows nothing about them. He claims to know what Christianity is about, implying tolerance as the main thing. Jesus was not so tolerant as Houston would like to think. He did not sweep sin under the rug, he called people to repentance.

According to Houston raising money for certain causes justified mocking and degrading others. And I’d like to know how he knows what others have given.

He doesn’t, he can only speak for himself on his giving and his affections. And he has.

I actually liked Houston Mitchell’s article. Look, I’m no fan of “The Sisters” and their irreverent behavior but, according to Mitchell, they have done some good things in their community. Should they be feted at a Dodger baseball game? I wouldn’t vote for it but what do I know? Will they lose some fans? Yeah, maybe but not me. As Houston says, this is the same team that brought the first black player into the major leagues. Talk about controversy! How many fans do you think the Dodgers lost by that move? Now, 75 years later most Dodger fans (myself included) look at that as one of the bravest and most enduring actions taken by any professional team in history and it is celebrated by all of Major League baseball every year. It puts our Dodgers in a class by themselves and gives all of us yet another reason to love our team and “Bleed Dodger Blue”.

Sure, these two actions are not totally comparable. I get that. And I don’t think Major League Baseball will be celebrating this “milestone” every year, at least not in our lifetime. But it shows the Dodgers commitment to the entire community and our nation just as their action 75 years ago.

Chill out. Relax. It’s a wonderful organization that puts it on the line to treat every player and fan with respect and fairness.

1. Dodger’s options to replace Syndergaard from within are slim. I think he will get two more starts or until Urias is ready. Can’t imagine Miller and Grove won’t be better options as starters. Could see an IL stint with some soreness or tightness as a reason for a mental reset. From his comments, he seems lost. Feel badly for him as a competitor. But other guys have figured out how to pitch with reduced velocity. Hope he can get there but his opportunities are going to dry up soon.

2. Vargas is definitely struggling to make hard contact. He seems to take some good pitches early in the count and gets stuck swinging at a pitcher’s pitch down in the count.

3. The top 5 hitters in that line up have been very good but the depth of the line up is in question. They are 5th in MLB in strikeouts and the bottom of that line up with Outman and Taylor have contributed more than their share. Reminiscent of last year when contact was an issue with the bottom of their line up.

4. Diamondbacks have played a pretty easy part of their schedule already, especially in May. They have some nice young players and have a legit chance to be a wild card team this year.

5. DeLuca has performed really well at AAA. Not out of the question that he could help the Dodgers within a month or two.

6. The Quakes have two 19 year olds (Doncon and Liranzo) and an 18 year old (DePaula) in their line up now at Low A. Dodger system has incredible depth.

10:10 PM ET

Yankees (34-24) 3rd place AL East 6GB

Dodgers (34-23) 1st place tie NL West with Arizona

SP Luis Severino R

0-0 1.59 ERA 11.1IP 10K

SP Clayton Kershaw L

6-4 3.32 ERA 62.1IP 75K

Confirmed Lineup

RF Mookie Betts R

1B F. Freeman L

C Will Smith R

3B Max Muncy L

DH J. Martinez R

LF J. Heyward L

2B M. Vargas R

CF James Outman L

SS Miguel Rojas R

Partly-cloudy-day

0%

66° Wind 9 mph Out

Freddie Freeman named NL player of the month for May

Thursday scores

Oklahoma City 7, Reno 5

Tulsa 5, Wichita 4

Inland Empire 8, Rancho Cucamonga 6

Friday schedule

2:05 p.m. PT: Great Lakes (Justin Wrobleski and TBD) at Beloit (Cade Gibson and TBD)

4:45 p.m.: Tulsa (Nick Frasso) at Wichita (Travis Adams)

5:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Andre Jackson, after an opener) vs. Reno (Blake Walston)

6:30 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (TBD) vs. Inland Empire (Jake Madden)

There have 47 individual months in which a Dodger player with over 100 AB hit .400 or better. (Freddie is the latest.)

Cherry picking some of the stats, 5 of the months were Babe Herman in 1929-1930, including July 1929, when he hit .449/.504./.780 (the highest BA for a single month), 4 belonged to Zach Wheat between 1918-1925. The highest OPS for a month belongs to Cody Bellinger who hit .431/.508/.890 (OPS 1.398!) in April 2019. He also had 14 HR.

Lefty O’Doul did it 3 times, Jackie, Campy and Furillo did it twice from the Boys of Summer. Guerrero did it twice and Piazza did it 3 times in the LA era. Oh, and Brett Butler did it and stole 18 bases in 1992.

Alden Gonzalez answers what the negative Nancies our midst (joke) have been asking ($$$$)

How is L.A. still doing this? 5 reasons Dodgers keep winning

This, essentially, was supposed to be the Dodgers’ gap year. A year when they’d bring their payroll back down to a relatively reasonable level. A year when they’d give some of their promising young prospects a real opportunity. A year when they’d contend but not necessarily dominate…. One reason: Their best players have been their best players

DeLuca is hitting .324 at OKC. He could be the next big thing, or he could be a flash in the pan. Only time will tell.

Dodgers win it in the first inning.

Cmon Freddie, get a hit. !! JD is da man and ol Mook is waking up

Yankees gonna roll up on Grove tomm.

We just need 3 innings. Big ask? Well, he wants the Big Stage? Here it comes.

Severino was gettin pimped on a couple shows all week. Jinxed?

Good team.

Great organization

At heart the Yanks feel the best to defeat above any other team. CK is a stud and don’t you forger it!

With the surges by Mookie and JDM, the Dodgers now have four front-line starters with an OPS over .900.

Nice!

The others are Freddie and Will. Max, who leads the team with 18 HRs and 42 RBIs, is at .866. Not shabby. And Heyward is filling a platoon role nicely, with .838 OPS and strong defense.

So the veterans with the best track records are really delivering the goods. We didn’t expect much offense from Rojas, but his defense has been excellent. This creates room for the rookies to have their growing pains.