The Gig is Up!
After 11 wins in a row, the Dodgers were beaten like rented mules! Sadly, ‘er, I mean happily, I missed it all. Yesterday morning, I had my second eye surgery – this time on my right eye. The left one was two weeks ago. I not only had the cataracts removed (wow! The colors are…
After 11 wins in a row, the Dodgers were beaten like rented mules! Sadly, ‘er, I mean happily, I missed it all. Yesterday morning, I had my second eye surgery – this time on my right eye. The left one was two weeks ago. I not only had the cataracts removed (wow! The colors are so vivid!), but I also had both eyes implanted with what are called “Intraocular Toric Lens Implants.” While I do see better (I am told I don’t look any better) than I did without my glasses, I do not see as well as I did with my glasses. The big selling point with the Intraocular Toric Lens Implants was that I would most likely not need glasses… except maybe for reading. At this point, that looks like hyperbole, but I have to wait 30 days for all the healing to take place before I get another eye test and likely fitted for glasses. At this juncture, it does not seem that I got a good value by paying an extra $6,000.00… but they told me to be patient and that my eyes would improve. So, for the first time, I am typing this with no glasses because none work!
At any rate, we went to dinner with my stepdaughter and her family at Ricks Boatyard, which is one of my favorite hangouts. Then, after dinner, I got home about an hour and a half before the game started and decided since it had been a big day, I would take a nap. Well, I woke up at 2 AM, so I was saved the misery. I did speed-watch the game this AM. Blahhhhhhh!
At any rate, after an 11-game winning streak, the Dodgers were bound to lose… sooner or later! Of greater concern than the loss was Tony Gonsolin. He was immediately arrested after the game for “impersonating a pitcher!” If he is not hurt, and he evidently is not (or the Dodgers would not keep rolling him out there), I would allow him two more starts in August, and if he cannot right that ship by September 1st, then he goes to the bullpen to see if he can pitch an inning or two. If not he is left off the playoff roster. Maybe he is concealing some arm discomfort, and if so, he needs to “fess up and come clean.”
It is hard to believe that Tony has a 4.98 ERA while the “great Sandy Alcantra has a 4.11 ERA. Baseball is a crazy game. Gus Varland pitched well, even though he gave up a run. CT3 played that into a triple. Kike might have caught it! Gus misses bats!
Dodger Thoughts – Sue me, Jon 😉
- Did you know that Max Muncy is #4 on the Dodgers in strikeout percentage? #1 is CT3 at 32.4%, #2 is James Outman at 31.7%, #3 in JDM at 30.7%, while Max is #4 at 26.9% (#75 in all of MLB). Max Muncy is #1 on the Dodgers in walk % at 16% (#7 in all MLB), and Juan Soto is #1 in all of MLB at 19.1%.
- JDM has chronic back problems, and we see him break down often. I believe that it is possible he will be back next year and share the DH spot with Max (who will also likely be back), but at a slightly reduced salary (maybe $8 million). These are things that need to be decided over the winter… and it should be interesting.
- We might see Michael Busch if bJDM goes on the IL.. Busch was 2-3 with 3 RBI last night and hit his 24th HR.
- Landon Knack went seven innings, allowing 3 hits and 1 R. He is quietly having an excellent year at AAA.
- The Dodger bullpen continues to be #1 in all of MLB since June 20th, and the Dodger bullpen is now up to number 12 in all of MLB after a bad April, May, and part of June. I predicted the bullpen would be Top 10 at the end of the year – they will likely be better than that!
- River Ryan went 5 innings and allowed six hits but no ER. His ERA sits at 2.89.
- Standings Watch:
Proud of My Kid
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Discussion (109)
Disagree, not disagreeable
DeJong DFA’d, Carson Kelly signs a MLB deal with the Tigers.
Ok. After a game and a half we can start panicking again. Facing playoff type pitchers and this is the result. Pitcher who throw strikes, especially with secondary pitches give us (and everyone else) fits
This year I feel we WILL figure it out.
After the pummeling yesterday, and the way this game went for seven innings, we’re playing with house money now
Nice win !!!
How about that Barnes?
How about that Roberts keeping the bunt on after strike one.?
Who kept saying?? Why doesn’t Barnes just bunt more since he can’t hit?
Barnes made another play that wasn’t talked about at least in the broadcast I was listening to. When Mookie make an incredible on a ground ball to his left but threw the ball away, the runner didn’t advance. I didn’t see Freeman going after it so it had to be Barnes backing up the play. The ball was thrown on the outfield side of first base so Barnes wasn’t just going through the motions. It’s hard not to like Barnes as a player but this month he’s done everything well but stopping the running game. I’m still not convinced that the backup catcher needs an upgrade next season.
Ok. Any plenty of fresh arms for game tonite
With this performance, Pepiot might have just cemented his place as the 5th starter for the rest of this season.
I have never understood why a starter should be left in to give up 10 runs. 4 wasn’t enough. 7 wasn’t enough. It’s conceding the game. The Dodgers can score a lot of runs. They always have a chance. As for the pitcher getting shellacked, it reinforces the bad habits that got him shellacked.
Conversely, I have never understood pulling the starter having a good game. For example, pulling a guy throwing a no hitter on 68 pitches. Saving him for October, when he probably won’t be on the roster.
Saving the bullpen to sweep them today
9:10 PM ET 2nd Game
Marlins (64-60)
Dodgers (75-47)
SP Braxton Garrett L
7-3 3.91 ERA
SP Julio Urias L
10-6 4.35 ERA
Confirmed Lineup
RF Mookie Betts R
1B F. Freeman L
C Will Smith R
DH J. Martinez R
2B Amed Rosario R
LF Chris Taylor R
CF James Outman L
3B E. Hernandez R
SS Miguel Rojas R
77° Wind 8 mph Out
Martinez in, Heyward injured
What a great game. I love pitching duels.
Barnes a hero again. I said earlier in the season that to help his team, Barnes needed to work on being the best bunter in the league to help his club. The safety squeeze today was a perfect example. Good for Doc calling it in the first place and doubly for leaving it on after an unsuccessful attempt. The play is indefensible with any half decent bunt.
And Barnes’ tag at home early on Peralta’s throw from right was huge. He made that pick on a tweeter hop and tag look easy. It wasn’t. And try it wearing all the gear. Great play. Nice to see Barnes contributing in a big way.
The Perez kid for them was great. Some nasty stuff. I’m glad they pull pitchers now days as we were eating out of his hand all day.
Pepiot looked the best I’ve seen him. Nice tight stuff. I hope this is his entry into the rotation. I was dreading him taking a loss after pitching so well. Especially on a slow roller that a more speedy, athletic third baseman could have turned into an out at first.
The new guys came through again.
Now let’s get Julio on track and sweep the doubleheader.
* Stolen bases are at their highest per-game rate since 1992, when five players stole 50 or more bases. At this rate we will see 1,087 more stolen bases this year than last year, an increase of 44%. The stolen base success rate has jumped from 75% to 83%
* Joe Posnanski presented an article where he reported some amazing stats from the past.
He was talking about Roy Campanella and Yogi. He said Campy was the better defensive catcher — you couldn’t run on him, for one thing, He threw out 60% of attempted base stealers over those eight seasons, ranking among the leaders every year. Yogi was no slouch throwing out baserunners himself; he threw out about 50% over those years and led the league three times in caught-stealing percentage.
But Campy was all-world.
* Think about that compared to today’s success rate.
I know, bigger, stronger, faster but Campy and Yogi must have had some pop times. And pitchers may have actually held runners.
I keep reading that last night’s loss was Roberts’ fault for not taking Gonsolin out of the game before 10 runs? Wow…
Marlins making this one interesting in the ninth. Mookie hit two more bombs. Now only one shy of his career high.
In the end I am ok with how the Gonsolin situation was handled. Obviously the loss of the one game doesn’t mean anything. And OK we don’t know what actually the real situation is and how it was addressed. So perhaps he felt he could pitch thru the injury. So Roberts said ok let the guy pitch until he is convinced he really is injured. So thats what happened. He let him stay out there and get punished to prove to himself that he is really done for the season and its time to give up.
Next up there has to be a similar resolution to JDM. It doesn’t seem to make sense -one game in, one game out. He should also go on IL and maybe be ready for playoffs.
Wow, what an exciting day of baseball. Amazing pitching ,defense, and clutch hitting.
How lucky are we to be dodger fans?
In the nightcap, the Dodgers played superb defense, ..but so did the Marlins.
This game was primarily determined by Julio’s pitching and Mookie’s bat.
…proving once again the singular importance of STAR players giving star PERFORMANCES.
Well, it looks like the gig is up for the Puds and Angels…
Watching today’s two games brought to mind a baseball maxim I have heard since I started playing the game – “good piotching will always beat good hitting.” The Marlins showed off some excellent young pitching in this series that kept the Dodger hitters – except Mookie – in check. Fortunately, our superstar performed and we got two wins.
Today looked like playoff baseball to me where strong pitching dominates. This is why I hope we see the Dodgers continue to play more “small/smart ball” to get ready for the playoffs. It was also encouraging to see the solid defense in both games – that will be needed in the playoffs too.