When Your Best Is Not Good Enough

Amen on the umpiring. And it wasn’t just last night. But i’ll Leave that alone for now, although I hope that Dodgers are making an issue of it with MLB quietly behind the scenes. May not do any good now, but I firmly believe that the umpires are creating an airtight argument for an electronic strike zone.

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I don’t think it’s so much that hitters can look look for Kershaw to get ahead, as it is that they can look for him to get ahead with the fastball. Kershaw does not have an electric arm. His fastball sits in the low to mid-90’s (mostly low 90’s), NOT the mid to upper 90’s. Last night it seemed that for the most part he had abandoned his curve, and was unable to throw an effective slider. Think back to that infamous 7th inning against the Cardinals. It wasn’t only that the Dodgers didn’t have a bridge to Kenley. Instead it was that Kershaw was throwing one predictable fastball after another. And I also think it is time for Kershaw to make the development of an effective changeup a priority. Cliff Lee threw strikes, but also had a devastating change to complement his other stuff.

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The Dodgers offense needs to rise to the occasion tomorrow night, and give Hill as cushion with which to work late into the game. If the Dodgers bullpen gets called on early tomorrow, that could be fatal.

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It’s probably not the time to begin thinking about this, but I wouldn’t be against the Dodgers exploring a trade of Kershaw this winter, if the result is a substantial package of young players. I have a feeling that the Dodgers wouldn’t mind getting out of the $30+ million pitching business.

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And finally, if these are truly Destiny’s Dodgers, then what reason is there to believe that this will be easy? The Cubs broke their curse last year by overcoming a 1-3 hole. Time for the Dodgers to fulfill their Destiny by overcoming a 2-3 hole following a devastating loss.

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Mark is justified for not being confident, but he is certainly not conceding this game. It’s time for the Dodgers to move a mountain.

If this does not motivate MLB to adopt the electronic strike zone I don’t know what will.

Mark, I remembered that you have always stated about CK’s lack of adjusting. Also, why didn’t Honeycutt walk over just to give CK a little break a la Astro’s pitching coach. This series should have been over and a parade being organized in LA, but like it is said, “That is why they play the game.”

I know this comment sounds like a sophomore, but the HP umpire was really horrible last night and I hope the MLB reviews his performance critically. It was not that that he called so many “out of the zone” strikes (although I couldn’t believe what I was watching) but he was terribly inconsistent…one time it’s a strike the next time it’s not.

It seemed he would call the inside strike off the plate but then also give Kuechel the pitch on the black outside as well. I’ve seen umpires give a pitcher the inside pitch or the outside pitch, but seldom do you see an umpire give both sides thereby extending the strike zone by 6 inches or more in total.

I couldn’t stand to watch any post game comments so I wonder if any pundits commented about this. I did read during the game a Joel Sherman (NY Times and MLB Network) tweet where he said Miller is the top MLB umpire for calling “out of the zone” pitches for strikes in the entire MLB, and sarcastically commented and that’s the guy who draws a WS opportunity.

Not sure how MLB selects umpires for the WS but Manfred and Torre had to witness one of the worst MLB umpire performances of all time with the exception of Don Denkinger who called Jorge Orta safe at 1B in the 1985 WS.

Dodgers lost the game because their pitching was terrible and gassed but it seems they were assisted by some awful umpiring as well.

So close last night and yet we are further away. An amazing game. But I don’t hear the fat lady singing yet.