Back to Chicago
where the Dodgers will pin their hopes that Kershaw and Hill can deliver two wins to the shell shocked team.
Nothing has gone right over the last two nights, starting pitching, relief pitching, defense, and offense all failed resulting in two blowouts by the Cubs.
No need for a recap, it was all ugly.
Roberts picked a bizarre strategy against Jon Lester, so the only highlight for the Dodgers was Kiké Hernandez dancing off first base like a loose gorilla.
Kenta not Kershaw
will start for the Dodgers in Game 5. A fairly controversial decision given how poorly Kenta Maeda has pitched in his last four starts. He has yet to have a decent postseason game, and Kershaw just won his last game 1 – 0.
You can see the reasons for either choice:
Kenta – Pros
He’s much better at home. Wait, is he? The splits don’t show he’s much better. Kenta home cooking looks overrated to me.
Even though Kershaw had pitched on regular rest in his last start it was with a two-out save on his bullpen day, and that came after pitching on three days rest. This will get Kershaw plenty of rest for game six.
Kenta – Cons
He hasn’t been good, and while I think he showed some improvement in his last start not many agree with me.
Starting Kenta in this game means that if the Dodgers win the NLCS Kershaw can’t pitch game one of the World Series
Kershaw – Pros
He’s Clayton Kershaw
Wouldn’t you rather be up 3 – 2 headed back to Chicago than down 2 – 3?
If Kershaw pitched today, you could probably use Kershaw in some capacity in a game seven if you needed too.
If the Dodgers can win the NLCS, Kershaw would be lined up to pitch game 1
Kershaw – Cons
You run the risk of burning out your ace if you keep using him on short rest.
At some point you need to win a game from Kenta, might as well try it tonight.
My own choice would be Clayton Kershaw simply because if you have a Clayton Kershaw you use him as much as possible. The Cub offense showed some life last night, using Kershaw could squash all the confidence they gained, while Kenta, might simply add wood to the fire.
This isn’t a must win, not with Kershaw and Hill going in games six and seven but it behooves the Dodgers to win two of three at home if they expect to play the Indians in October.
Three no hit innings
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.
2002 WS Rookie hero versus 2016 Rookie wonderkid
Game four of the NLCS has a tasty pitching matchup coming up tonight. The 37-year-old John Lackey has now thrown 131 postseason innings but once upon a time he was what Julio Urias is now, but just a little older.
Lackey was a rookie in 2002 and only threw 108 innings during the regular season for the Angels. He didn’t come up to the Angels until June 24th, but from that point on he was a regular in the rotation. Much like Urias, Lackey rarely went beyond five innings in Sept.
Even more eerily, Lackey’s first postseason appearance was as a relief pitcher in the ALDS just as Urias pitched in relief in the NLDS. Urias threw two shutout innings in relief, John Lackey pitched three shutout innings in relief.
Urias is going to start game four of the NLCS for his first postseason start. John Lackey started game four of the ALCS for his first postseason start. Lackey threw seven shutout innings in that game. For perspective on that, Lackey only did that one time in 18 starts in the regular season.
That is all we can compare for now because John Lackey went onto to become the Angels pitching hero in the 2002 World Series. He pitched in three games, started two, and was the winning pitcher in the World Championship game seven. At the time Lackey was only the second rookie to pitch and win a World Series game seven. The last to do it was Babe Adams in 1909.
Six other rookie pitchers over the past 93 years — including one Game 8 starter — had tried and failed to double the size of Adams’ exclusive club. But then along came Lackey, a tall Texan with a cowboy’s drawl, a Gomer Pyle smile and a bull rider’s heart.
Fast forward fourteen years, and John Lackey is still going strong. He has been a workhorse most of his career, compiling over 198 innings, eight times in his career. Over his career, he has thrown 2669 innings. How does that compare to his peers?
Most innings pitched from 2000 – 20016 per baseball reference:
| Player | | | IP | | | OPS+ |
| Mark Buehrle | | | 3283.1 | | | 93 |
| CC Sabathia | | | 3168.1 | | | 85 |
| Tim Hudson | | | 2990.1 | | | 84 |
| A.J. Burnett | | | 2690 | | | 92 |
| John Lackey | | | 2669.2 | | | 93 |
| Bartolo Colon | | | 2669.1 | | | 95 |
| Livan Hernandez | | | 2655.2 | | | 108 |
| Roy Halladay | | | 2586 | | | 75 |
| Barry Zito | | | 2576.2 | | | 92 |
| Kyle Lohse | | | 2531.2 | | | 104 |
| Javier Vazquez | | | 2513 | | | 88 |
We have the pitcher with the 6th most innings in the 21st century going against the kid making the youngest start in postseason history and quite possibly John Lackey is the person who knows the most about what it going through young Julio Urias’s mind.
Redemption game
Rich Hill showed why the Dodger front office traded for him, Cory Seager showed why he’s the best rookie in baseball, Yazmani Grandal showed why fans shouldn’t worry about a slump in the postseason, Joe Blanton showed why one pitch won’t define his 2016 season, Yasiel Puig showed why you shouldn’t count him out, and even Josh Reddick managed to accomplish something productive tonight.
Rich Hill was asked to pitch effectively tonight, instead, he threw six shutout innings and far surpassed my expectations. In a game that was expected to be close, he made sure that one run would be all that the Dodgers would need. Inexplicably the Dodgers have shutout out a team in back to back games that had only been shutout six times in 167 games prior.
In so doing, Kershaw/Jansen and Hill/Blanton/Grant/Jansen pitched the first back to back shutouts in LAD postseason history. It is a lot better being on the right side of back to back shutouts compared to how the 1966 World Series ended when the Dodgers were blanked 1-0 in games 3 and 4.
For the first three innings, it looked eerily like the first game Rich Hill pitched against the Nationals. The first went smoothly, the second less so, and Hill needed to get the number eight hitter out with people on base, and looking a bit out of sorts. He ended the 2nd with 40 pitches and didn’t look like someone who was going to go five or six innings. The 3rd went smoothly just like the first game so I was a bit worried how the 4th was going to go. But this was a different night and a different script. Hill breezed through the 4th, 5th, and 6th and by the time he handed the reins over to Joe Blanton he had done his job.
Cory Seager got the scoring going by driving in Mr. Toles with his first 2016 postseason hit after the 1st innings. In what should have been a close play for many, Toles blew by home plate after Seager he hit a line drive single to RF.
A 1 – 0 lead looked precarious so Josh Reddick took manners into his own hand. Josh slammed a bouncer off of Jake’s glove for an infield single. He then stole 2nd and 3rd. Yaz Grandal was up with two outs and worked the count full. At best fans were probably expecting a walk as it had been a long time since Yaz had connected solidly but Arrieta got the ball in his sweet spot and Yaz drove it out for a two-run home run. Grandal hadn’t had an extra-base hit since Sept 22nd and was two for twenty-five before his blast.
With the score 3 – 0, Justin Turner led off the bottom of the 6th with a solo home run to make it 4 – 0 and drive Arrieta from the game just as he drove Max Scherzer out in game one of the NLDS.
Joe Blanton took over for Hill in the 7th and retired the Cubs in order looking like the Blanton who was the glue of the bullpen all year long.
In the bottom of the 8th, Puig got his 2nd hit of the game. His first hit came on an infield hit and was his first hit 17 postseason plate appearances.
Yasiel Puig went 10 games and 17 plate appearances between postseason hits. His last? A triple against John Lackey on Oct. 6, 2014.
— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) October 19, 2016
With Puig on 1st, Joc Pederson was facing a lefty and usually, that results in Joc walking back to the dugout. Not tonight, on a 2 – 2 pitch with Puig on the run, Joc drove a shot into the corner scoring the Wild Horse all the way from 1st base. Joc stole 3rd base and scored on a ground ball by Grandal making the score 6 – 0 and giving Grandal three runs batted in for the night.
And Kenley Jansen got a four-out save.
Once again, this was a full team effort, and once again these Dodgers are defying the odds.
One last note, with that home run by Justin Turner he has now reached base in thirteen straight postseason games. That is the longest LAD streak tying him with Steve Garvey from 1974 – 1977.
Carl Furillo holds the all-time Dodger mark at fourteen games (1953-1956), and Pee Wee Reese had a thirteen game streak (1953-1955).
The Dodgers have also homered in every single postseason game this year.
LAD Postseason home run trivia
The grand slam is the holy grail but the three-run home run almost does the same amount of damage and is just as close to my heart. Vin Scully loved cheers, and nothing brings out the roar of the crowd like a three run or grand slam home run.
Here are some LAD postseason trivia on those types of home runs:
- Thirteen LAD have hit at least a three-run home run.
- Ron Cey is the only LAD to hit two three-run home runs in the postseason
- The LAD are 11 – 3 when they hit a three-run home run in the postseason
- Three Dodgers have hit grand slams – Cey on 10/4/77, Baker on 10/5/77, Loney 10/1/08. Did you notice the back to back grand slams on 10/4 and 10/5 in 1977.
- The Dodgers are surprisingly only 2 – 1 when they hit a grand slam in the postseason. They lost 7 – 5 to the Phillies on 10/4/77. So that back to back grand slams on 10/4 and 10/5 only netted one victory.
- No LAD has hit a grand slam later than 10/5.
- The single game three-run home run players are: Crawford, Lopes, Baker, Kendrick, Roseboro, Gibby, Manny, Marshall, Pedro, Smith, Garvey, Yeager
Other notable home run performances would be those who have hit multiple home runs in a postseason game.
- Steve Garvey is the only LAD to hit two home runs in one game more than once
- Duke Snider as a Brooklyn Dodger hit two home runs in one game twice.
- Charlie Neal did it in the first World Series for the LAD in 1959. Neal hit a solo and two-run shot to give the Dodgers the victory 4 – 3 in the 2nd game. It was the first LAD World Series victory.
- Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Shawn Green, Eric Karros, Davey Lopes Steve Garvey, Charlie Neal, and Duke Snider all hit two home runs in one game.
LAD Postseason Home Runs by Series
Overall LAD Postseason home run leaders
World Series LAD Home run leaders
LAD World Series Home Run Leaders
In the previous column we looked at LAD NLCS home run leaders, this time, we take a look at:
LAD World Series Home Run Leaders:
| Name | | | Home Run |
| Davey Lopes | | | 4 |
| Reggie Smith | | | 4 |
| Steve Yeager | | | 4 |
| Ron Cey | | | 3 |
| Charlie Neal | | | 2 |
| Chuck Essegian | | | 2 |
| Dusty Baker | | | 2 |
| Lou Johnson | | | 2 |
| Mickey Hatcher | | | 2 |
| Pedro Guerrero | | | 2 |
| Ron Fairly | | | 2 |
| Bill Buckner | | | 1 |
| Bill Skowron | | | 1 |
| Duke Snider | | | 1 |
| Frank Howard | | | 1 |
| Gil Hodges | | | 1 |
| Jay Johnstone | | | 1 |
| Jim Lefebvre | | | 1 |
| Jim Wynn | | | 1 |
| Joe Ferguson | | | 1 |
| John Roseboro | | | 1 |
| Kirk Gibson | | | 1 |
| Mike Davis | | | 1 |
| Mike Marshall | | | 1 |
| Steve Garvey | | | 1 |
| Wally Moon | | | 1 |
| Wes Parker | | | 1 |
| Willie Crawford | | | 1 |
LAD NLCS Home Run Leaders
In the previous column we looked at LAD NLDS home run leaders, this time, we take a look at:
| Player Name | | | HR |
| Steve Garvey | | | 7 |
| Adrian Gonzalez | | | 3 |
| Bill Madlock | | | 3 |
| Dusty Baker | | | 3 |
| Manny Ramirez | | | 3 |
| Ron Cey | | | 3 |
| Andre Ethier | | | 2 |
| Davey Lopes | | | 2 |
| James Loney | | | 2 |
| Kirk Gibson | | | 2 |
| Mike Marshall | | | 2 |
| Mike Scioscia | | | 2 |
| A.J. Ellis | | | 1 |
| Carl Crawford | | | 1 |
| Casey Blake | | | 1 |
| Greg Brock | | | 1 |
| Matt Kemp | | | 1 |
| Orlando Hudson | | | 1 |
| Pedro Guerrero | | | 1 |
| Rafael Furcal | | | 1 |
| Rick Monday | | | 1 |
| Steve Yeager | | | 1 |
| Justin Turner | | | 1 |
| Yazmani Grandal | | | 1 |
Some famous home runs here. Rick Monday to put the Dodgers into the World Series in 1981. Kirk Gibson blast against the Mets. We will get to the famous home runs in another article.
LAD NLDS home run leaders
In the last article, we looked at all LAD postseason home runs. This time, we will break it down by series. This column looks at the NLDS leaders.
LAD NLDS Postseason Home runs:
| Player Name | | | HR |
| Adrian Gonzalez | | | 4 |
| Carl Crawford | | | 3 |
| Shawn Green | | | 3 |
| Andre Ethier | | | 2 |
| Corey Seager | | | 2 |
| Eric Karros | | | 2 |
| Jayson Werth | | | 2 |
| Juan Uribe | | | 2 |
| Manny Ramirez | | | 2 |
| Matt Kemp | | | 2 |
| Steve Garvey | | | 2 |
| A.J. Ellis | | | 1 |
| Carlos Ruiz | | | 1 |
| Hanley Ramirez | | | 1 |
| Howie Kendrick | | | 1 |
| James Loney | | | 1 |
| Jeff Kent | | | 1 |
| Joc Pederson | | | 1 |
| Justin Turner | | | 1 |
| Mike Piazza | | | 1 |
| Milton Bradley | | | 1 |
| Pedro Guerrero | | | 1 |
| Russell Martin | | | 1 |
| Tom Wilson | | | 1 |
| Wilson Betemit | | | 1 |
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 