Dodgers shut down Murphy
and that was about all they did right on Monday, losing to the Nationals 8 – 3 leaving them having to play must win baseball on Tuesday.
On the pitching side, things went wrong from beginning to end. Starter Kenta Maeda made it three straight poor starts by the Dodgers, and Kenley Jansen had what was arguably his worst major league inning.
On the scoring side for the Dodgers, it was Corey Seager once again getting the Dodgers off to a fast start by slamming a double off the RCF wall to plate Turner for the 1st run of the game. That would be the highlight of the Dodger offense until Carlos Ruiz blasted a two-run pinch-hit home run in the 5th to bring the Dodger to within one run at 4 – 3. That would be the last time the Dodgers scored. The score stayed that way until Kenley Jansen entered the game in the 9th inning.
On the pitching side, Kenta continued his poor pitching of late giving up four runs in only three innings. Kenta gave up five hits and two walks and seemed to be getting squeezed by plate umpire, Ron Kulpa. With no margin of error, the Nationals hit his strikes and Roberts was forced to bring in the bullpen in the fourth. Once again they proved to be the best part of the pitching staff this series shutting down the Nationals from the 4th to the 8th.
Everyone contributed except Kenley Jansen and Ross Stripling. Pedro Baez, Grant Dayton, Josh Fields, Luis Avilan, and Joe Blanton put up zeros before Roberts had to turn to Kenley Jansen because he had no one left but Stripling. With the score 4 – 3 Jansen watched Jayson Werth hit a home run about as hard as a home run can be hit. Still, it was just 5 -3 but it would get much worse. Murphy walked and Harper’s jersey was grazed to make it 1st and 2nd. Rendon would pop up, but Zimmerman hit a deep fly ball that Josh Reddick couldn’t handle as the ball hit the wall below his glove bringing in both runs as Zimmerman cruised into 3rd base.
To make matters worse, Josh Reddick had been brought in as defensive replacement because Toles had pinch hit for Puig in the bottom of the 8th. Roberts has decded that Puig can no longer be allowed to face right hand pitchers. This move blew up in his face as Toles made an out anyway and Reddick butchered the ball that Puig would certainly have caught, as most right fielders would have caught. Hell, Matt Kemp might have even caught that ball.
Ross Stripling replaced Jansen and Roberts had emptied his bullpen. Ross got his outs and the Dodgers went meekly in the 9th setting up game four tomorrow.
When the Dodgers were winning with a five-inning rotation it was because the rotation was at least giving the team a fighting chance. The starters have given up 3 runs, 4 runs, and 4 runs before the bullpen has come to the rescue in the 6th, 5th, and 4th inning.
You can’t win a postseason series that way.
Dodgers can’t score, Hill can’t finish
The story after three innings was Rich Hill setting a bizarre Dodger record. Hill recorded seven strikeouts in his first three innings something no other Dodger had ever done. The twitter and blogging world were agog with his success but it seemed that maybe they hadn’t noticed that Hill needed a Houdini double play to even get out of the 2nd inning unscathed.
I put my worry into words:
all this is great but will be a moot point if he doesn’t go five with the lead.
by meercatjohn on Oct 9, 2016 | 11:35 AM
And sure enough in the 4th inning after multiple beautiful curves, he hung one to the worst hitter in the National lineup, and Lobaton proved that even the worse hitter can hit a hanging curveball a long long way.
Hill would not even go five innings and left with the team behind 4 – 2. Eventually, the Nationals would score once more against the bullpen and win the game 5 – 2
The Dodgers had plenty of chances against Roark but simply couldn’t get the big hit they needed. Cory Seager started the offense off on the right foot once again slugging his 2nd home run of the series to get the Dodgers up 1 – 0. Better yet, Seager did it after Roark had fired a fastball over his head.
The Dodgers would get their second run on a single by Reddick to drive in Turner. Turner should have been out if the catcher had held onto the wrong side throw by Harper. At that point, Lobaton was wearing the goat ears.
Lobaton had hit into a double play that didn’t seem possible back in the 2nd inning. With the bases loaded he hit a ground ball back to Hill. Hill bobbled the ground ball and then threw the ball underhand to Grandal to get the force at home. To the amazement of everyone, Grandal fired to first and still got Lobaton at 1st place for the double play. That might have been the slowest moving major leaguer I’d ever seen, but at least he had a reason given he was playing on a bum ankle. When Lobaton dropped the throw from Harper that was two strikes against him.
But they couldn’t get the third strike and when Lobaton had deposited the ball into left field it was quite a ride from the basement to the penthouse.
Squandered opportunities abounded early:
- The Dodgers loaded the bases in the 2nd but had Rich Hill coming up. He made his predictable out, and Chase made the 3rd.
- The Dodgers loaded the bases in the 3rd with only one out and one run in. They were up 2 – 0 at that point and anything might have driven the nail in the coffin. Anything but a DP. Grandal hit into a DP.
- The Dodgers loaded the bases in the 5th with only one out. This time, Grandal did not hit into a double play, he struck out. Howie Kendrick pinch hit for Toles and worked the count full and struck a line drive, but it was right at Werth.
I’m not a fan of pinch-hitting for starting players in the fifth inning. The Dodgers started these guys for a reason and even though the Nationals have three left-handers in the bullpen the two best bullpen pieces are right handed.
Craig Minami suggested the Dodgers would be ill advised to knock out Roark early since the Nationals do have those three left-handers.
Craig was right, until the Dodgers can do something/anything against a left-hand pitcher they can’t aspire to go very deep in a postseason run.
How important was winning game one?
According to the Dodgers pre=game notes for game two, pretty damn important.
In Dodger postseason history, the club is 6-0 in series when winning Game 1 of a best-of-five set, advancing in the 1974 NLCS vs. Pittsburgh, 1978 NLCS vs. Philadelphia, 1981 NLCS vs. Montreal, 2008 NLDS vs. Chicago, 2009 NLDS vs. St. Louis and 2013 NLDS vs. Atlanta.
More from the Dodger pre-game notes:
YOUNG GUNS: The Dodgers are carrying seven rookies on their NLDS roster: Austin Barnes, Grant Dayton, Kenta Maeda, Corey Seager, Ross Stripling, Andrew Toles and Julio Urías. Were all seven to appear in the series, it would tie a franchise record for rookies used in a postseason series along with the 1953 World Series (Belardi, Gilliam, Hughes, Milliken, Podres, Thompson, Williams) and the 2006 NLDS (Billingsley, Broxton, Ethier, Kuo, Loney, Martin, Saito). The MLB record for most rookies used in a postseason series is 10, set by the 2013 St. Louis Cardinals (Source: Stats, LLC). In addition to Barnes, Dayton, Maeda, Stripling, Toles and Urías, Charlie Culberson will also be making the first postseason appearance of his career.
As postseason games go, this game had soul
I’ve been reviewing postseason box scores looking for historical games to write about, and I’ll have to admit if I saw this box score twenty years from now, it would not strike me as a particularly interesting game. That is the problem with box scores of games you never saw, they don’t really tell the story of the game, just the numbers.
I don’t usually do game reviews because 100 other Dodger bloggers will be doing one, but I do want to do them for games I want to remember, and this game I want to remember.
This game had soul.
The game started with a bang, as Corey Seager hit a bomb to CF on the first pitch from Max Scherzer. That home run was the youngest home run ever hit in Dodger postseason history, so it was only fitting it was hit by Corey Seager. No one has a better story than Andrew Toles and no Dodger fan should have been surprised when Toles slammed a single to CF to start the 3rd. Kershaw bunted him to second, and Chase Utley brought him home with a single to RF. One out later, Justin Turner hit a towering fly ball to left field that Jayson Werth was unable to bring back and as it landed beyond his reach, the Dodgers had a 4 -0 against the best right-hander in the NL.
That was the easy part.
Clayton Kershaw was doing everything possible to keep the lead the Dodgers handed him with those four surprising runs against Max Scherzer. Clayton clearly was groping for success and when it eluded him, he relied on pure grit and Danny Espinosa (3 K’s, 6 runners LOB). It was a Clayton Kershaw, Dodger fans have rarely witnessed because his normal brilliance allows him to sail through most games. In this game, he was in trouble every inning after the 1st, and while he gave up three runs in only five innings, it was astonishing he was able to do that well. Kershaw met the modest goal I had set forth for him, leave the game with the lead or tied.
By the time Kershaw was gone after five innings the Dodgers had a precarious 4 – 3 lead, and it would be up to the bullpen to save the game. This game was reminiscent of the games that his replacements pitched while he was on the DL. Time after time the bullpen would need to save a game where the starter could only get fifteen outs. With all that practice it was no surprise they were able to save this one. It would take a cast of characters from Joe Blanton pitching in the 6th instead of the 8th, Grant Dayton pitching in his 1st postseason game, Pedro Baez getting three key outs, and Kenley Jansen asked to get a five-out save. With Dodger fans hearts in their hands, they watched the bullpen get out after out until finally there were no more outs to get.
Just as the season was the season of the rookies, the game was the same way. Corey Seager started the offense off with a home run. Andrew Toles started the 3rd off with a single and would later score. Grant Dayton was asked to face Bryce Harper in his first postseason appearance and got the job done.
They were some key moments.
- The ball four that Heisey swung at for strike two with a 3 – 1 count. It was a high fastball that exploded past Heisey. If he takes the pitch the Nationals have two on and two out. Instead, Jansen threw his best pitch to strike out Heisey, an unhittable pitch at the knees.
- In the bottom of the 6th, Dayton struck out Harper to end the 6th with Turner on base. Dayton starts the 7th by striking out Werth but walks Murphy. Dayton was replaced with Baez, and Charlie Culberson replaced Chase Utley. That might have been the move of the night because Murphy tried to steal and was thrown out by Grandal. What the box score will not show is that Charlie Culberson made a brilliant tag by taking the one-hop throw and still made the tag with a smooth transition from catch to tag. I’m not sure Chase makes that play. Instead of a runner at 2nd with one out, they had two outs, and Rendon made the 3rd out.
- Luckily the Nat lineup is not long and Kershaw was able to use Espinosa as his out guy. In the 2nd Espinosa struck out with runners on 1st and 2nd and one out. In the 3rd Espinosa struck out with runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs. In the fifth with Kershaw hanging on by a thread, he strikes out Espinosa for the 3rd time for the final out with Werth on 3rd base.
This was a nerve-wracking start to the postseason and reminded me of games long ago in 1981 and 1988 as the team had to win close game after close game before they got to the World Series.
I consider that a good sign.
Three years ago today Juan Uribe lit up LA
The Dodgers have had several notable games on October 7th, but maybe none more memorable than the Juan Uribe game on 10/7/2013.
Eric Stephen had all the special moments.
Craig Minami and I were seated in the Loge down the left field line so we got a great view of that majestic home run. I feel this game is one of the top five games I’ve attended because of the magnitude and excitement. This game was known for several things:
- In the bottom of the 8th, the Braves best pitcher was left standing in the bullpen with his hands on his hips when Uribe hit the home run instead of being called upon to pitch to Uribe. Probably because they expected Uribe to bunt.
- Uribe tried to bunt first but failed, and then hit the home run that put the Dodgers into the NLCS.
- Clayton Kershaw basically shut out the Braves for six innings but left the game tied 2 – 2 because of an error by Adrian Gonzalez so both runs were unearned. On 10/7/2013 and 10/12/2013 Kershaw gave up zero earned runs in both starts. Those are the only starts of his postseason career where he has not given up an earned run.
- Carl Crawford hit two home runs in first two at-bats. That would be all the scoring the Dodgers would get until Uribe hit his two-run home run with Puig on base after Puig had hit a leadoff double(so much for the Puig can’t hit in the postseason)
Vin Scully had this famous comment:
“Isn’t it amazing what somebody can do when he can’t bunt,” Scully said.
Juan Uribe had one of those strange Dodger careers. When he was signed as a free agent I was not happy about the signing and wrote about my unhappiness with the acquisition. A year later it looked like I had been right as rain, as Uribe was horrible his first year with the Dodgers. In his 2nd year he was still horrible but for some reason, I had started to like him. His smile, his defense, his optimism even though his career looked over. Many thought or hoped Uribe would get released over the winter as Luis Cruz was now the incumbent 3rd baseman. Ned stayed with Uribe and that proved to be a prudent move by Ned as Cruz had his bubble pop from the get go, and luckily for the Dodgers, Juan Uribe was there to bail out the horrible decision to start the season with Luis Cruz as their starting 3rd baseman. Ned was rewarded with a huge comeback season from Uribe in 2013. Uribe did everything in 2013, he hit for power, he hit in the clutch, he played brilliant defense, and he seemed to click with a newcomer named Yasiel Puig. By the time the season had ended, for many Dodger fans, Juan Uribe had inexplicably become a huge fan favorite.
His home run on Oct 7th, 2013 was the icing on the cake.
The Dodgers would fail to carry the magic of the NLDS over into the NLCS. Probably because they weren’t playing the Braves anymore and because the Cardinals put the red-hot Hanley Ramirez out of commission by breaking his rib in his very first at-bat.
Can Kershaw do his part?
By asking that question, what I mean is, can Clayton keep his team tied or better by the time he’s lifted by Dave Roberts? Max Scherzer will be a stern test, it could very well be much like Wednesday’s game when Thor/Bumgarner threw zeroes at each other. The difference in the game was that Thor was done after seven and Bumgarner was not.
Andy McCullough offers up a thoughtful piece on Clayton Kershaw. It is a great read from beginning to end but the final paragraph is what caught me eye.
“Nobody talks about the success I’ve had in the postseason,” Kershaw said. “That’s fine. Ultimately, what it comes down to is if we win the World Series, everybody will stop saying everything, good or bad. That mindset is what I have to think about.”
I think the reason is simple.
No one talks about the regular season success of Madison Bumgarner because of Clayton Kershaw and the postseason bar that Bumgarner has created. No one talks about the postseason success of Clayton Kershaw because of Madison Bumgarner, and because of the bar that Kershaw has created with his regular season success. Each on their own could stand proud, but when compared to what each other has done respectively those accomplishments pale.
During the regular season, Kershaw has been the best pitcher in baseball for five years running. His cumulative fWAR is 41 which is 15 points above his closest NL competitor Johnny Cueto. That is a ridiculous number, so ridiculous that Clayton Kershaw can lay claim to being the greatest pitcher of the 21st century without too much of an argument.
Bumgarner has been the fifth best NL pitcher in this same time frame within five points of Cueto. Still, many find it hard to acknowledge he’s been one of the best regular season pitchers during the Kershaw run.
On the flip side Bumgarner has been the best postseason pitcher since 2010. How he stands among the greatest postseason pitchers is still a matter of debate, but his 2014 run was a postseason run for the ages. It is hard to compare what pitchers did who only had to pitch in the World Series compared to pitchers who have to make a Wild Card, Division Series, Championship Series, and World Series run.
Kershaw has zero World Series starts. He’s had one good NLCS start, his two worst starts occurred in the NLCS. His two best games were in the NLDS. Sure, Clayton has had some nice games in those ten starts, but he hasn’t won a deciding game yet though he should get credit for the Uribe deciding game four victory over the Braves. Unfortunately for Kershaw, he has had to face the Cardinals more than the Braves.
For me, I simply expect the best pitcher in baseball to out pitch his opponent or break even at least 75% of the time, not 40%. None of his ten postseason starts rank among the top 250 games ever pitched in the postseason. His best postseason game ranks 20th among LAD pitchers. Going game by game he led two times when he left, was behind six times when he left, and the score was tied twice when he left. If Kershaw isn’t leaving the game in the 7th inning at least tied, I don’t think he did his job even if that requires throwing zeroes.
I have high expectations but that is only because I’ve seen elite performances from LAD pitchers time and time again. Don Sutton pitched his team into the World Series in a playoff format. Fernando pitched his team into the World Series in a playoff format. Orel pitched his team into the World Series in a playoff format. Tommy John pitched his team into the World Series in a playoff format. You simply have to pitch better than your opponent. They all did that. Clayton did it last year in his last postseason start and everyone was happy. And if he had done that in his first NLDS start last year it would have meant the team was moving on. But he didn’t and they didn’t, because Greinke couldn’t do his part.
Are my expectations too high? I don’t think so, not for the best pitcher of the 21st century in his prime. I expect greatness from greatness, I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t.
Jon Weisman has his own opinion.
Bumgarner adds to his October legend
with another Wild Card shutout.
Madison may not be the equal of Clayton Kershaw during the regular season, but when the leaves start to turn, and World Champions are anointed, Bumgarner can stand with the best of them.
Bob Gibson had six in just nine starts, with his last coming at age 32. Christy Mathewson had four in eleven starts. Cliff Lee had four in eleven starts. And now Bumgarner with four in thirteen starts. Pretty hard to beat the percentage that Gibby has.
GmSc – Game Score – This is a value created by Bill James that evaluates how good a pitcher’s start was.
Start with 50 points. Add 1 point for each out recorded, (or 3 points per inning). Add 2 points for each inning completed after the 4th. Add 1 point for each strikeout. Subtract 2 points for each hit allowed. Subtract 4 points for each earned run allowed. Subtract 2 points for each unearned run allowed. Subtract 1 point for each walk.
For some reason, Dodger fans like to poo poo the accomplishments of Madison Bumgarner in October. Their main rivals ace, continues to show why he’s considered one of the greatest postseason pitchers in baseball history and is a big (biggest?) reason why the Giants have three rings.
I wish that was hyperbole but unfortunately, it isn’t. With his second shutout in a wild card game, he has now thrown twenty-two straight scoreless innings in win or go home games.
Add to that his three world series starts where he gave up zero runs, and his overall record in October and you simply shake your head at what Bumgarner has accomplished. Bumgarner now has four game scores above 80 in October. In thirteen starts he has seven game scores 70 or better.
His 2010 shutout of the Rangers in the World Series gave the Giants a commanding 3 games to 1 lead. In 2012 he pitched seven scoreless innings against the Tigers in game two and wasn’t needed to pitch game five because the Giants swept them. We already know what he did in 2014. His 2014 run is considered one of the greatest postseason runs of all time. Given he had run the gamut of Wild Card / NLDS / NLCS / World Series I agree with those who think it was.
The Giants have now won nine straight postseason series.
He has now started 2016 just as he started 2014. I hope it does not end the same way.
Building a ladder
It is the fall of 2008 and I’m staring out the window of the Van Nuys FlyAway Bus that will take me on a flight to Austin to see Jerry for maybe the last time. Jerry had just finished telling me he was too sick to make the drive and that Joe Guggina will be-be picking me up by himself.
Memories start flooding in about a game Joe and I played several years ago. In a life of having played over 500 softball games, this one sticks with me while many of the others have melted away from my memory. If you are lucky, as you go through life you have memories like this to help you build that ladder with the rungs you will need to move above the tough times. I don’t have any heroic memories, simple things are all I have. Sometimes that is enough, sometimes it isn’t.
Joe picked me up and for the first time, I was carpooling to my softball game. Joe expressed his worry over haven’t not played for several months but he was excited to be playing again. For years now Joe and I have talked about our softball exploits but we had never played together due to geographic limitations. That was going to change tonight. He had moved his business from Palm Springs to Chatsworth and I’d asked him to play on my Santa Monica team.
This was our 1st game of the season and many changes had been made. As with any team in softball some people just don’t show up and rarely do you know about it until game time. This game was no different, our 12 expected players dwindled to 10 by game time, and we had no SS. I put Joe in LF, confident in his abilities but worried about SS. I looked around at the team and realized I’d have to play a position I hadn’t played in 5 years, and even then I wasn’t very good at it. At 45 years old my arm was shot and over the last few years I just stuck myself at whatever position was vacate due to a no-show. It had been years since I’d done anything real noteworthy in the field. So with trepidation, I took some infield ball and prepared for the worse.
Still, the team was uneasy with Joe’s play in LF and several members asked me to move him to catcher. I resisted because he was a friend, and I truly believed he was just rusty. When he slammed into a double play I winced and headed back to the outfield. The game went back and forth, I was playing the game of my life at SS while Joe kept making miscues in LF. After each inning my best friend Byron looks at me like I’m crazy for continuing to let Joe play LF. He shouldn’t have had those thoughts, the same thing happened with him when he joined the team 15 years before and hadn’t played for a while. Rust is a tough thing to shed in one game, especially when you are over 40. By the 6th inning, we had a one-run lead when we ran into big trouble.
We were staring at the base loaded with two out and their best hitter up. Knowing I could get a force at 2nd or 3rd I played as deep as I could. The batter hits a rocket that looks like it is headed for left field. At that point, I didn’t think I had a chance but I lept anyway and it might have been the best vertical I’ve ever pulled. While at full extension of my 5’8 frame my short left arm lifted to the sky with the glove playing loose in my hand the line drive was snagged. By the time I touched down I felt like I had conquered all evil in the land. I’ve played league softball for 25 years and that play is the play I’ll always remember.
Bottom of the 7th inning came and we still only had that one run lead. Two men on, two out. My stomach is turning, saying please don’t hit it to Joe. And of course, they do, a sinking line drive that was begging to drop and skip into the gap. Joe sprints for the ball, with each step his rusty armor falls about him until he looks like Jolting Joe and closes the gap just in time to snag the line drive about shin level. As he looks up, he continues to run into the infield with the game ball secured in his glove and the grin he wears would make Smiling Sammy Saito proud. Game Over
Game Over
Don Drysdale wins first World Series game at Dodger Stadium 53 years ago
Don Drysdale christened Dodger Stadium into the postseason world with a brilliant 1 – 0 shutout of the New York Yankees in game three of the 1963 World Series. The first two games of the World Series in 63 had been played in Yankee Stadium with the Yankees only scoring three runs. This time, they couldn’t muster a run.
55,912 came out to see the first World Series game ever played at Dodger Stadium and for many, it may have been the best one ever until game one of 1988. Don Drysdale put up a game score of 89, making it the highest postseason game score in LAD history.
Junior Gilliam scored the first run via a walk and a RBI single by Tommy Davis in the first inning. It was fitting for Tommy Davis to drive in the first World Series run at Dodger Stadium given he had driven in 108 runs at the Stadium since it opened in 1962.
Jim Bouton did his best but that one RBI by Tommy Davis would be all that Don Drysdale would need. Bouton would shut out the Dodgers the rest of the game, but the most LAD of them all kept the Yankees off the board the whole game. Jim Bouton made three world series starts between 1963 and 1964 and only gave up four earned runs in twenty-four innings. He won both his starts in 1964 game three and game six. For a guy more famous for writing Ball Four, he was one heck of a pitcher at the age of 25.
Jim Bouton talked about that game with Rob Neyer. All these years later he felt that the normally good fielding Bobby Richardson should have made the play on the single by Tommy Davis that drove in the only run of the game:
When I saw Tommy Davis with the Pilots, the first thing out of my mouth was, “That wasn’t a hit! That was an error off Richardson’s kneecap.” He had to take two or three steps to his right, and the ball hit off his glove or his knee; if you watch the film, it’s hard to tell which. It was a play that he would usually make.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 