I don’t have much time today, so this format seemed appropriate.
- If you are so inclined, read what Dan McLaughlin writes in the National Review with regard to the Trever Bauer Debacle. It is at least very thought provoking.
- One has to wonder how long Max Scherzer’s arm will hold up. Justin Verlander’s evebtually broke down. Let’s hope it stays intact at least they season.
- In an interview yesterday, AJ Ellis said that Clayton Kershaw is a “One-Uniform Guy” and that he will go into Cooperstown as a Dodger. We may have seen the last of Clayton. A pitcher doesn’t miss two months because of a little strain in his forearm. In an interview this week, Clayton referred to his sore elbow. Of course, nothing is ever disclosed like that by the Dodgers, but I think he needs TJ and is just trying to finish the season and retire. He’s not going to go through that. I predicted early in the season that he would retire after this season. I stll stand by that, although I hope he can pitch before the season ends.
- Danny Duffy could be a big weapon in the playoffs, if healthy. We don’t have much information on him either.
- Don’t count on Lux and Beaty being on the post-season roster. With Turner, Turner, Seager, Taylor and Muncy able to play all around the infield and with Albert the RH pinch hitter, McKinney is a better candidate due to his defense and experience.
- The Dodgers team ERA sits at 3.00. SF is next with a 3.24 ERA. The Dodgers have been 1st or 2nd in Team ERA since 2017. That is impressive.
- Ryan Pepiot has pitched 83 innings and I suspect he is running on fumes.
- Jorbit Vivas finally moved to Great Lakes.
- Diego Catraya is shut down for the year and Bobby Miller is being used sparingly and is currently on the IL. The Dodgers are being very careful with both of these potential Superstar talents.
- We haven’t heard much from Eric about Bullpen Building lately, as Sean Dolittle was let loose by the Reds this week. I think Bullpen building is a lot harder and vastly different than many fans think.
- Brent Suter (2.73 ERA) has blown 8 saves for Milwaukee
- Brad Hand has blown 6 (remember when he was the flavor of the week?) saves
- Liam Hendriks has blown 6 saves
- Daniel Bard of Colorado has blown 8 saves
- Mark Melancon has blown 5 save
- Jake McGee has blown 4 saves, as has Will Smith
- Tyler Rogers (1.93 ERA) has blown 5 for SF
- Craig Kimbrel has blown 3, but his ERA has went from 0.57 with the Cubs to 1.53 with the Sox
Discussion (44)
Disagree, not disagreeable
The team was flat. And it showed. They expended a lot of energy the last 3 days, came home to face an opponent they have dominated and fell flat. What they call a trap game. Rockies pitchers are not that good. They were chasing pitches all night and squared up very few. Smith had 3 hits, no one else except Turner with his homer did anything. So do not blame Bellinger for one bad AB off of the bench late in the game. JT 0-4 TT 1-4 Betts, 1-4, and his hit did not come until the 9th. Pujols 0-3 Seager 1-4 Pollock 0-4, Taylor 0-3. Smith 3-3. You score 2 runs, you are going to lose. They struck out 12 times against 4 pitchers and none of those guys has an ERA below 4. The last 3 hitters, Muncy, Seager and Pollock all struck out with a man on. Against a pitcher they have owned in the past. It is over, you can’t take it back, and once again they blow a golden opportunity to get within 1.5 of the Giants.
I agree. I hate those long fly outs when walks and singles would do nicely. Everybody thinks he can hit it over the fence, but how often does that turn into an out? Yet the guy goes back to the dugout thinking “hey I was almost a hero.” An out is an out unless it’s a sacrifice fly. The best Dodger hitters only homer twenty times a year. Seems like a low percentage gamble to me. I’d rather they bunt against the shift.
Frustrating game. The use of the opener backfires. Seager swinging 3-0 at what might have been ball four. I don’t get that at all. The incredibly bad call on Seager for strike three. Muncy may have swung at ball 4 but with Wolf’s strike zone who knows.
Enough already! Sit Bellinger down. He’s just AWEFUL! He’s probably the worst hitter in all of baseball. We’re trying to avoid a one game playoff and can’t afford any wasted ab’s. Put TT in center and Taylor and Lux at second. What a wasted opportunity tonight by an offense that is too talented to look this bad! And against one of the worst bullpens in baseball.
Bellinger over Muncy?
Chance to gain a game in the standings in a regular season that is coming to a close rapidly.
Having two BP
Games with rookie pitchers playing integral parts is not optimal but the offense has been rather anemic tonight.
Got to get this win!
Another nice performance by Jackson. But I don’t know if he has enough velocity and command with his fastball to be a long term part of the rotation. That was some bomb by Cron! Reminded me of the one Stanton hit years ago.
There’s a lot of firepower in this healthy lineup. Will Smith is the best #8 in all of baseball. I predict a big long ball final 35 games. Buckle up Giants! Finally the Giants lose a close game but just barely. Thx Joc!
Back to back bomb Turner
Smith is the man. 21st HR of the year. Sorry, he plays everyday. But I know he will not. Now Turner takes him deep. 2-2. Yea Trea!
Braves win 6-5.
Thanks Joc for the incredible catch.
Jackson looking good so far, knock on wood
Graterol has stats that suggest he is a ROOGY and he gives up a homer to a left handed batter Blackmon.
Did I happen to much how much I hate openers?
Guess who has the lowest OPS against on the Dodgers pitching staff with a large enough sample size?
Nope not Blake Treinen or Kenley Jansen or Max Scherzer or Walker Buehler. It’s Alex Vesia.
I have a question, maybe baseball connoisseurs can answer, how many times has a team won 2 games on the same day, without being a double header? I mean the game on Wednesday practically ended on Thursday and then again at night another win
With Pujols batting 4th and a .515 OPS against righthanders I can see Muncy entering the game today after the lefthander (Freeland) is done.
Giants already up 2-0 in the first on a Posey homer.
OK, I give up. The Giants are an excellent team. There, I said it.
(hopefully that will be enough to push them into a major slump)
Tonight’s lineup:
HITTERS H-AB RBI HR SB AVG
T. Turner2B 147-460 55 19 25 .320
J. Turner3B 118-416 70 21 1 .284
M. BettsRF 93-339 44 17 7 .274
A. Pujols1B 59-245 45 15 2 .241
C. SeagerSS 64-235 33 6 1 .272
A. PollockLF 102-334 55 16 8 .305
C. TaylorCF 121-435 66 18 13 .278
W. SmithC 86-332 61 20 3 .259
B. GraterolP 0-2 0 0 0 .00
No Max or Cody
7 of the 8 are Right hand hitters
Max Fried, who looked like a young Kersh against us last October, faces the Giants tonight.
Dodgers have 7 HR’s off of Freeland. Taylor and Pollock have 2. Bellinger, McKinney, Pollock, Seager and Turner all hitting well over .300 against him.
Andre Jackson recalled for tonight’s bullpen game. No word if he will start or come in as a reliever as he did his first game. Darien Nunez was optioned to OKC.
Well I am not going to worry about Bauer. His problems are his own. He has not been part of this team for almost 2 months and I for one have not missed him. Padres are toast. They just have not admitted it yet. 2 back of the Reds in the wild card race now. Reds claimed Asdrubal Cabrera from the D-Backs. Doolittle, who was claimed by the Mariners is not nearly the pitcher he was a couple years ago. That is why he was put on waivers. Playing in Cincinnati did not help. Balls fly there and he is a flyball pitcher. He will probably be a little better in Seattle with that big ball park. I am not worried about Scherzer’s arm falling off. He has a pretty fluid motion, not really violent like some others. I checked into the VPN thing. Most of them want the whole year up front, so they are not that cheap. I will just listen to Monday and Charlie on the radio feed, which is in real time. Rockies here are on AT&T Sportsnet. And that service costs upwards of 60 dollars a month. I get Spectrum for 19. I think if the Dodgers were to win the series again, then Kersh would retire. I do not think Eric understood what the 3 hitter rule meant more than anyone on here. We all knew exactly what it meant. It was put in by MLB to keep the game moving because of all the pitching changes managers would make in the late innings. Sometimes letting a pitcher face only one hitter. It still happens at the end of innings, but the way the rule is written, they do not have to face 3 unless they go back out.
Being reported that the Pasadena Police Dept has turned over their Bauer investigation files to the DA, who will now decide if they will press charges.
I think this is the last extension of Bauer’s hiatus that we will see. MLB will have to make a decision once the PDA decides if they intend to file charges and I would assume that shouldn’t take much longer than a week.
A person with a .300 BA basically is an out 70% of the time. Should he be an optimist, pessimist, or realist?
—-“Pressure’ is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it’s because you’ve started to think of failure”.
TOMMY LASORDA
Would it be safe for The Wild Horse to take horse dewormer?
Phil – I watched the whole series with the Pads commentary. Had no idea who they were, but I agree, they were very fair.
Eric – don’t let them drag you down.
From what I can see you understood the ramifications of the 3 Batter
Rule before anyone else on here,
I find your posts to be some of the best thought out on here.
What a series that was. In fsct having such a strong division has made gir s really enjoyable session.
The MLB and the players’ union have decided to extend Bauer’s paid administrative leave from the Los Angeles Dodgers for a seventh time. Another decision will have to be made soon since his administrative leave expires on Sept. 3 – for now.
Doc said in the pregame interview yesterday that it was a roster crunch on why Beaty got sent down and Doc had high praise for Beaty. I expect Beaty to be on the playoff roster but Lux is a different story.
Kershaw doesn’t look like a guy that may not pitch again this season nor a guy planning on retiring after this season.
The reason why I haven’t talked bad about the bullpen lately is because we basically added 2 solid guys to the bullpen in Bickford and Vesia.
So Doolittle got released by the Reds. Maybe the Dodgers know how to fix Doolittle? If so he would be a great addition. If he is fixable.
I’m not sure how many times Kershaw has to say he has no plans on retiring.
* Scherzer is such a craftsman. He just lives on the fringes of the zone. He had 18 strikes looking last night. Scherzer can tunnel so well. Hitters just can’t figure out what the pitch is and he hides the ball so well. Picking up his spin must be difficult. Everything comes out of the same window, looks like a strike and then isn’t. An at bat by Machado was a classic example. 86 mph Slider starts on the plate and breaks well away – swinging strike one. 86 mph Change from the same release pt, down and in, strike 2.
4 seamer middle down at 96 taken for strike 3. 3 different perfectly located pitches out-in-middle down, from the same window, all to different locations but only one actual strike. He just surgically carves up hitters. He’s a treat to watch.
* I’ve tried to figure out the reason Doc pulled the plug on Scherzer when he did, with 1 out left in the 8th? He was at 104 pitches and few more would be no big deal. So, I don’t understand getting Greene in there for 6 pitches. I don’t suspect a match up issue with Hosmer with a 4 run lead. It’s no big deal. I just like to understand things and I don’t understand that one.
* I had absolutely no idea that Billy McKinney played 1st base. He actually has played 20 MLB games there in 3 seasons, last night being the first as a Dodger. I was pleasantly surprise right off the bat. I like his actions there a lot . He Looks the part there and is very at home. He’s obviously played there as a kid and appears to know what he’s going. I had no clue.
* In the 16 inning game, Wednesday, it was reported they used 18 dozen baseballs. That’s a 216 baseballs. I think they wholesale to MLB (who owns the company) is $7.00 or so. That’s $1500 bucks. That’s 3/4 of an “A” MiLB players monthly salary. MLB has no trouble tossing out a ball if it touched the dirt but they can’t pay minor league players a decent salary? Just sayin
* Another shutout by the staff and boy, do I like this line up.
I too watched the game with the sound off. Hopefully they will not do that again. It was dreadful. I was a big fan of Pedro, and still think he was a superstar pitcher. But he never stops talking.
LA looks like a very formidible team that continues to gel. We will catch the Giants and win the division.
I’ve decided to be a realistic optimist.
Hey, Trea Turner made a great pivot to help complete a double play to end Max Scherzer’s only challenging inning. I think he can flat out play second or short.
Who knew Farhan Zaidi would put together a good enough roster to lead the NL West? There is some speculation that he signed pitchers, hoping they would be good enough to trade at the deadline for prospects, of course. Hey the best laid plans and all.
What are the odds of the Dodgers signing Max to a two year extension? Pretty good, I think.
What are the odds of Trevor Bauer not being part of the Dodgers next year? Unclear. But I’m guessing the Dodgers are anxious to put Bauer in the rear view mirror.
Now that Rob Manfred has shafted long time partner TOPPs, not to mention the minor league fiasco, he has become the face of greed, not a good look for baseball. Moving forward I would like to believe that MLB and the player’s association would reach an agreement. It would be stupid to do otherwise. But when I look around, stupid seems to be in vogue.
This is a Dodger team, if healthy, that would be he odds on favorites to win the World Series. They definitely make the playoffs, but the scary thing is a one game playoff to get into the main event. Luck, fluke plays or just a bad inning could sink their aspirations. Obviously they need to keep winning, hope the Giants falter and again win the NL West. But games are dwindling, another San Fran pinch hitter comes through.
Dave Roberts says the Dodgers are very high in Gavin Lux, the talent is there. But going into 2022, will they count on him? Probably not.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I had to watch the game on MLB with mostly the sound off. Who needs guys sitting around and laughing and talking abouit how good they were when they played. Oh and by the way there was a baseball game going on.
You can have your opinion about who should be the main man in a key game Scherzer or Bueler, but you don’t have to listen to Pedro. His answer is always the same–Go with the veteren. Because of experience, (even if he is not the best pitcher)
Si, B and P esperaba como tu, al igual que el propietario Cohen que su inversión millonaria despertara vs. los Giants pero que decepción, siguen dormidos. Espero que Atlanta continué en pie de lucha y por lo menos que leas quite 2 de 3 y nosotros hacer en casa nuestra parte, ojalá que Max, CT3 y en menor grado Seager salgan de su depresión ofensiva, no menospreciar a Colorado que últimamente está ganando con más frecuencia y nosotros usaremos pitcheo de grandes prospectos y bullpen, seguro continuaremos en nuestra racha ganadora.
I think I read it somewhere, when the roster expands to 28, is there a minimum of pitchers? Dodgers could go with 15 pitchers and 13 infielders / outfielders, that would be very important to rest some important arms.
Well, it sure looks like things are finally coming together. We have about a month and week remaining in the season and the Giants are really making this stretch run exciting. As TM pointed out the rotation is set for our big 3 to showdown with the Braves, but it leaves a little less than can be desired for our head to head against the Giants. Will the Dodgers pivot in order to get a better matchup against the Giants?
Mad Max was huge last night throwing zeros for 7.2 innings of 2 hit shutout Padres beating magic showing just how important that deadline deal was. It already looks like that deal was a make it or break it move and AF delivered.
Sweeping the Padres at this point in the season in their own yard was beyond huge. Maybe we caught them at the right time as they’re choking like a night in Bauer’s bedroom. But, they’re technically full strength with their position players and still can’t seem to do anything to mount an offense. With 6 more games against our rivals to the South, all at home, they are no doubt seeing their season slip away. Let’s see how they perform under the pressure of September baseball with a schedule full of first place teams.
The Giants, on the other hand, just won’t go away. Somehow, someway they manage to keep winning, most recently by killing off any hope for a Mets postseason appearance. Back to the drawing board for the Metropolitans. Their season is officially over.
Mookie is back, but I hardly even noticed. He was pretty much an invisible man last night, but it won’t be long before he gets going again.
Darvish was pretty good last night if it weren’t for that cutter right down the pipe to Austin Barnes. He’s not quite the same since they took the sticky away. He’s back to being a good, not great pitcher.
Today is judgement day for Trevor Bauer as his current administrative leave is hanging in the balance and set to expire later today. One more week long vacation would pretty much signify an end to his season with only 5 weeks and two days remaining on the schedule. Like a hot potato, no one wants to make a definitive decision on this due to the political ramifications involved with a decision.
Kershaw, Duffy and Gonsolin are all expected back at some point and will provide just enough pitching to get through the remainder of the season with White and Jackson contributing to hold the rotation together with duct tape and bubble gum. We’ll move from “bullpen games” to “piggy back” starts once rosters expand in September.
I believe Jackson starts tonight, Price tomorrow and White on Sunday. They’ll save Urias, Buehler and Scherzer for Atlanta. That will give the big three an extra day of rest.
I too am concerned about Scherzer’s arm strength wearing down. I mean he is 37. Could he sustain this for two more months? I don’t know. I’m even concerned about Buehler’s stamina wearing down as well.
Hopefully Duffy and Kershaw can return and ease their workload a bit. I doubt it because it looks like we may have to play hard for all our remaining games. And yes, I will continue to say this- I hope Bauer can reunite with the team down the stretch.
Lastly, too bad our two youngest arms are broken down….May and Gonsolin. It would have been nice to have them around now as well.
Oh well….we shall overcome!
TM
Interesting site about pending Dodgers free agents.
https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents/los-angeles-dodgers/
With Clayton, Scherzer, Bauer,KJ, Sierra (did not even know he still on the salary list), Kelly, SEager and some others there are tons of money that probably could come off the salary list. Over 175 million dollars roughly.
But losing all of CK, Scherzer and TB would leave a gigantic hole in the rotation. Huge decisions looming for the Dodgers in the offseason. would be extra nice if this roster could repeat. Would put them close to a dynasty.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a strange year. In so many ways.
Nice win last night. Scherzer was magnifico. Barnes made the best of an infrequent start. Cody drove in a run with a sac fly, and Seager drove in Turner with a bullet double. The once again did nothing in the late innings, as Darvish finally figured it out, but it was too late. Max handled Machado and Tatis easily. 35 games left. Colorado in for the weekend, and then the Braves before they head to SF for their last showdown with the Giants. Belt on the bereavement list. Posey nursing a sore back. I am not so sure Lux will be back when they expand the roster. They need a spot for Kersh who said the last session went well. And they will probably use a spot for Beaty, who at this point is more valuable to the team than Lux.
Beaty will be on the postseason roster.