Three no hit innings

Phil Gurnee ♦ October 20, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

was all we got last night when it came to highlights. Thanks to Dave Young I was able to join the sold-out crowd that came to Dodger Stadium to see the youngest starting postseason pitcher in history and for three innings he gave them what they came for.

The fourth spot in the Dodger postseason rotation was always going to be problematic . The best choices for the role such as Brandon McCarthy, Brett Anderson, or Scott Kazmir simply weren’t ready by the time the season ended. That left the Dodgers going with Julio Urias who they had not stretched out in Sept because of inning limits.  Given they had no other viable choices you can’t complain, they would just have to work with what they had. If Urias could give the team four or five innings that would have been exactly what the Doctor ordered. The plan seemed to be falling nicely into place. Urias wasn’t blazing through the Cub lineup but once you looked up at the scoreboard after three innings you saw zero runs and zero hits.

Unfortunately, a baseball game is more than three innings, and by the time Julio Urias had exited the game in the fourth he was trailing 4 -0.  The defense offered no help to Julio and it would only get worse as the game progressed.

This game only had lowlights after the 3rd inning:

Chase Utley decided to try for two outs instead of one on a diving stop by Seager who managed an underhand throw to Chase. Chase tried to barehand so he could throw to second but dropped the ball. You’d think a veteran like Chase would have understood the old baseball maxim get the sure out. Urias was able to work out of the jam because Jason Heyward is in the lineup. Chase should have known that Jason was due up and getting one out is all they needed since Jason would be the 3rd out. Instead, Urias had to work a little harder to get both Heyward and Addison Russell. He did it, but he shouldn’t have had too.

Andrew Toles who up to this point had been impeccable in left field uncorked a throw to home that was so bad, that the left field ghosts of Juan Pierre and Carl Crawford were laughing at those who made fun of their arms.  Toles had a chance to nail Ben Zobrist at the plate but instead his throw sailed into the sunset. In a best case scenario, Zobrist is out at home, in this scenario Zobrist was safe, and runners ended up at 2nd/3rd with no outs.

At this point, no one had hit the ball hard off of Urias. Zobrist got on via  bunt single,  Baez blooped a single over short, and Contreras looped a single into left field. Heyward continued that trend with a ground out to 2nd scoring Baez.  Runner on 3rd, two outs, the eight hitter coming up. Do you walk him to get to Lackey? Do you pull Urias and bring in a right-hander to face Russell? Russell hadn’t had a hit in 17 straight at-bats.  Doc left in Urias and Russell slammed a home run to RCF that opened the floodgates for the Cub offense.

The Dodger defense was not done throwing around the baseball, in one of their worst defensive games they would commit four errors. Hernandez tried to make a play at first that didn’t exist and threw the ball away. Even when they would make a good play they would look silly after the play. Joc made an outstanding catch with the bases loaded but instead of simply doubling up anyone of two runners, his throw home bounced away and then the Dodgers just started throwing the ball around. Eventually, two runs had scored on a sacrifice fly.

Even Dave Roberts didn’t have his A-Game. When the score was still relatively close, he didn’t plan ahead for having a left-hander ready to face Rizzo in the 6th when the game really got away. Dave Young expressed the frustration of many:

How is there not a lefty already ready for Rizzo here?????? NO ONE WAS THROWING IN THE OEN?

— D Young Frankenstein (@DavidYoungTBLA) October 20, 2016

Not having one of Avilan/Wood ready for Rizzo there is pretty egregious managing. Ugh.

— D Young Frankenstein (@DavidYoungTBLA) October 20, 2016

For a game that started so promising for Dodger fans, it ended with the many Cub fans giving their team a standing ovation at the end.