Forsythe has a triumphant return

Phil Gurnee ♦ May 24, 2017 ♦ 2 Comments

For the first nine innings of last nights ballgame it looked like the Dodgers might have activated Logan Forsythe before he was ready.  Logan struck out four times in his first four at-bats out of the lead off spot, but when it really counted he struck for gold connecting on a double to drive in the winning run in the bottom of the 13th inning.

I was already set to add Logan to pantheon of LAD who had struck out five times in a game but alas he escaped the group with a walk and walk off double. But since I had it in the box here it is:

Player                    Date PA SO
Andruw Jones        2008-07-12  5  5
Marquis Grissom     2002-08-26  6  5
Darryl Strawberry   1991-05-01  5  5
Bill Russell        1971-06-09  5  5

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/23/2017.

I can kind of guess Jones/Strawberry/Grissom as they were all free swingers during their time with the Dodgers, but Bill Russell?  Russell was the epitomy of a contact hitter so to find him on this list was shocking. In looking at his career at Fangraphs he constantly had a K rate < 10% and a career rate K rate of 8.3%. But in 1971 just as his career was starting his K rate was 17.5% more than double his career rate, and that game came in 1971.

This game will go into the categories as one of the top games of 2017 because:

• Clayton Kershaw was brilliant putting up a game score of 87 with double digit strikeouts
• Big NL managerial decision by Roberts to let Kershaw hit with a 1 – 0 lead in the bottom of the 8th with a runner on base.
• The bullpen was once again brilliant
• Several brilliant plays in the outfield involving Bellinger and Puig catching the ball while knocking Joc around like a bobblehead
• The crazy score from 2nd on a wild pitch even if for the opposing Cardinals.
• The Dodgers inability to make contact but still win the game
• From the start with Champ’s big smile to the end and Logan’s big smile

Here are some video’s of the game:

• Puig catch and Joc getting bobbledheaded
•  Logan’s walk off double

Another note. In the TBLA comments section Jon Weisman made an interesting point.

This is a little esoteric, even for Twitter, so I’m posting it here.
The Cardinals threw 209 pitches last night — 86 for balls, leaving 123 recorded as strikes. Of those 123, the Dodgers got three hits. Now, Baseball-Reference doesn’t have complete strike data, but for the games they do have, that 3/123 (2.4%) ratio is the worst for a game in Dodger history.

http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/bz1OS

Posted by JonWeisman on May 24, 2017 | 7:05 AM

And one other note. While watching the Puig catch over and over in slow motion I was struck by how much ground he covered to catch the ball that was going to elude Joc.
Silverwidow over at TBLA comments showed me a link proving my thought process correct.

Roberts said nobody was to blame for the play, although Statcast™ showed that Pederson had a shorter patch to the ball than Puig, who was credited with his first five-star catch of the season. Puig had an 18 percent catch probability on the play, as he needed to go 93 feet in 5.0 seconds, according to Statcast™. Pederson had a 69 percent catch probability and was 87 feet away.