Wild, Wild Card Night leaves Giants being Schimpf’d

♦ September 14, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

All the main NL Wild card teams were leading in the 9th inning last night. Only one of them was unable to bring home the victory. The Giants were Schimpf’d in the 9th inning when Schimpf blasted a three-run home run after Bochy pulled right-hander Hunter Strickland for left-hander Steven Okert to face the lefty hitting Schimpf. The Giants were leading 4 – 1 entering the 9th and left it trailing 6 – 4.  Schimpf has now hit a ridiculous 19 home runs in only 236 at bats.  If Corey Seager, Story, and Diaz weren’t rookie shortstops, Schimpf might have gotten a few ROY votes himself.

The Mets had their own heroics, but they did it the hard way. The Mets led going into the bottom of the 9th but the Nationals scored two runs to tie the game. The Mets needed to score in the 10th to bring home the victory and close within a 1/ 2 game of the Giants. T.J. Rivera to rescue as made his first major league home run a memorable one, taking National ace closer Mark Melancon deep to give the Mets a 4 – 3 lead and eventual victory. It was the 3rd hit of the night for the rookie Rivera who is only playing because Todd Walker is out for the season.

The Cardinals won 4 – 2 behind a wild Al Reyes who threw four shutout inning in relief of Jamie Garcia. Reyes walked six in those four innings but managed to keep the Cubs off the scoreboard. Brandon Moss broke out of a slump to hit his 26th home run which provided the winning margin. A Diaz fresh off the DL hit a home run in his first at-bat.

The Marlins and Pirates also won but they need a lot more victories to get much space here. The Pirates scored three runs in the top of the 9th to secure their unlikely victory but last gasps won’t do much for a team who has lost seven of their last ten.

Jim Frenchy Lefebvre – 1965 NL ROY

♦ September 13, 2016 ♦ 8 Comments

Jim Lefebvre did it all, major league baseball player, Japanese League baseball player, major league coach, major league three team manager, Chinese National team Manager but before he did all that, he was the second LAD to win the NL ROY award, with the first being Frank Howard.

Jim Lefebvre was a local kid who went to Morningside High School in Inglewood. His father was an American Legion coach and is credited with creating the hitting tee. Jim was used as a LAD batboy in 1961 and must of have been to sign with his local team in 1962. He clubbed 39 home runs in his first season in the minors and by 1964  was already in AAA and ready to start his major league career.

Coming into 1965 it was uncertain if Jim Lefebvre would make the team but according to Jon Weisman, it was his defense that helped make the decision.

“Our defense was horrible last year, but John Kennedy and Jim Lefebvre will help to correct that situation,” he said. “If Lefebvre doesn’t stay with the club, shame on us. There was a rumor he might be farmed out for another year of experience.”

Lefebvre not only made the team he ended up playing in 157 games and led the team in home runs with a measly twelve.  Jim Lefebvre probably didn’t deserve to win the 1965 NL ROY over Joe Morgan but he did win the award and became the second LAD to win the NL ROY award.

Lefebvre and Morgan were both 2nd baseman, but one guy played on the best team in the NL and the other played on the worst team in the NL. One guy looked like a baseball player, the other guy looked like he should be riding horses for a living.  One guy was a cool switch hitter (forming the first all switch hitting infield in baseball history), the other guy flapped his arm like a chicken from the left side. One guy one played on a team behind Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale,  the other guy walked stole bases and scored runs. One guy had a bWAR of 4.6. the other guy had a bWAR of 5.6.

Hmmm, not as big a difference as I would have expected. What does fWAR think? Jimmy clocked in at 4.0 and Joe at 5.1. Joe is still clearly the leader but I have to admit I always thought the margin was larger. Jim Lefebvre had some sweet defensive numbers in 1965 and Joe Morgan, not so much.  This makes me sad because by the time I saw Lefebvre play it was 1970 and I don’t remember him dazzling on defense. I guess the back injuries had taken their toll.

One final 1965 note about Frenchy and his 12 home runs in 1965. Frenchy tied with Lou Johnson to lead the Dodgers team in home runs with those 12.  Let that sink in. The Dodgers won the World Series in 1965 and the top two home run hitters had 12 each.  Willie Mays hit 52 by himself that year. Let’s try that again for dramatic effect. The 1965 World Champion LAD hit 78 home runs as a team. Willie Mays hit 52 by himself.

Lefebvre not only won the ROY award he  even got 7 MVP voter points. 7 Dodgers received MVP voter points in 1965, which makes sense for a team that won the World Series.

Frenchy followed up his ROY season by being even better in 1966. He rocked 24 home runs while playing half his games at Dodger Stadium in 1966. Fifty years later that does not seem like a big deal, but back in 1966, it was a very big deal. Very few 2nd baseman had ever hit 24 home runs in a season and that short list was filled with HOF 2nd baseman.

and in 1966, Jim Lefebvre joined that select group. Granted there wasn’t much else that equated Lefebvre to those three HOF 2nd baseman, but just wanted to show at age 24 Jimmy Lefebvre looked to be on a solid career path. After two years in the majors and just 24 years old,  Jimmy had hit more home runs by the age of 24, than any NL 2nd baseman in baseball history except HOF Bill Mazeroski , even if that total was just 36.

Other notable items from that 1966 season per baseball savvy

  • First LAD to hit a home run from both sides of the plate in the same game on May 7th, 1966
  • Hit a home run off of Dave McNally in the World Series. It would be only one of two runs the Dodgers would score in the whole series

Much like Bill Grabarkewitz, his career would be sidelined by injury after injury and as his playing time diminished the Dodgers released him in 1972. What had once been a very promising Dodger career had come to an end. He would never come close to reaching the height of 1966 again.

Frenchy went to Japan to continue his playing career and had quite a run while in Japan.When you read his story you almost wonder if the Tom Sellick movie Mr. Baseball wasn’t based on his time there. He had one great season but that was it and after four seasons he retired to start an odyssey that eventually had him coaching and managing for three different teams.  In 2004 he was approached by Sandy Alderson to help the Chinese National team prepare for the Olympics. That three-month project turned into five years. This link has a plethora of Jim Lefebvre information if your interested in reading more about one of the more fascinating Los Angeles Dodgers. 

 

 

 

 

NL Wild Card race – Everyone lost and Mat Latos hit a home run

♦ September 13, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

The top three teams in the NL Wild Card race all lost last night. The two fringe teams also lost.

The Giants/Mets/Cardinals combined to score two runs last night and lost by a combined score of 16 – 2.

  • Giants were shutout by six Padre pitchers and lost 4 – 0
  • The Cardinals were almost no-hit by the front runner for the NL CYA and lost 4 -1. To no one’s surprise, the Cardinals hit a home run to break up the no-hitter. To everyone’s surprise, it was Jeremy Hazelbaker who hit the home run.
  • Even the Mets couldn’t figure out Mat Latos who showed up out of nowhere to start for the Nationals. Mat’s last start was back in June for the White Sox,  Mat was so glad to be back in the NL he slugged a home run. The Mets started youngster Rafael Montero, who was crushed and gone by the 2nd inning.

To be fair to the Mets and Cardinals they were playing the top two teams in the NL. The Giants had no such excuse.

This is insane!!! De Leon / Urias / Kershaw

♦ September 13, 2016 ♦ 2 Comments

Pitching in Yankee Stadium in the middle of September, in the middle of a pennant race. Sure, we all envisioned this could happen in 2018, optimistic folk might have felt it could happen in 2017. Yet, this is 2016.

The future is already here and it came blazingly fast

On the mound last night was the rookie Jose De Leon making his 2nd start. Rookies making starts in Sept is nothing new in baseball, rookies making starts for a team in the pennant race is a little more unusual. It happens, but not like this. The Dodgers have won three straight NL Western conference titles and how many rookies made starts for those teams in September before they clinched the pennant? Over that three-year period, four rookies

  • Joe Wieland last Sept, 9th
  • Carlos Frias 9/17/2014 and 9/3/2014
  • Stephen Fife 09/18/2013
  • Hyun-Jin Ryu  made four starts but Ryu like Maeda is not your typical rookie and not really what we are talking about here.

The Dodgers have used a rookie non-Kenta Maeda five times already this month, with Urias set to make it six times tonight. If we include Kenta, rookies have made seven starts this month, with Urias about to make it eight. With Maeda the Dodgers have used rookie starters in seven of the ten games played in Sept. Urias will make it eight of eleven games when he pitches tonight.

  • Jose De Leon – 2 times
  • Brock Stewart – 1 time
  • Ross Stripling – 1 time (and also on Aug 31st)
  • Julio Urias – 1 time ( and tonight will make it 2 times)
  • Kenta Maeda – 2 times

The non – rookies to make starts for the Dodgers this month?  Rich Hill &  Clayton Kershaw

And by the way, the Dodgers are 7 – 3 so far this month.

One final note, the likes of Weiland, Frias, and Fife were strictly filler and no one expected any of them to have a future beyond those spot starts. The starts were much appreciated at the time but not surprisingly none of them had a future with the Dodgers. Frias maybe, but most considered him a relief pitcher, and probably still should.  No, these guys are quite different, and if in a year from now the rotation was Kershaw, Hill, Maeda, Urias, De Leon or one of Stewart or Stripling, it would not shock me in the slightest.

Second final note, if Urias was not knocking on his innings limit he’d be a slam dunk as the Dodgers choice for 4th starter in the postseason. With limited options that might end up being Jose De Leon. The last rookie to start in the postseason for the Dodgers that was not a Japanese or Korean international signing looks to be Ismael Valdez in 1995. Before that, you’d have to go back to Fernando in 1981.

Updated

 

My buddy Hris almost got his Braun

♦ September 12, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

 Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports and MLB Network was first to report that the Brewers had claimed Puig on revocable trade waivers and engaged the Dodgers in trade talks. According to a source, one scenario would have netted the Brewers Puig and two prospects along with pitcher Brandon McCarthy, whose departing contract would have helped offset the Dodgers’ luxury tax hit for adding Braun. The source said Braun remained at Miller Park with some teammates after the Brewers’ Aug. 31 game against the Pirates while the Brewers and Dodgers continued talks up to 11:59 p.m. ET — a minute before the Trade Deadline to acquire players and have them eligible for the postseason. In the end, they simply ran out of time.

That would have been interesting. Adding Braun would certainly have helped the lineup against LHP as Braun crushed them like no one else on the current Dodger roster. To the tune of a 1.050 OPS in 2016 and 1.032 for his long career.

I’m not sure if it was a good thing the LAD ran out of time or a bad thing. Braun is probably a difference maker in 2016 and the future. Might have been the best for both parties to get fresh starts in new cities.

Oh well, it didn’t happen but thought this was interesting nonetheless that they came that close to actually moving Puig and picking up Braun.

Didi the Diamondbacks make a Gregorius mistake?

♦ September 12, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

Much has been made this summer and last winter about the Arizona Diamondback deal that sent SS Dansby Swanson and others to the Braves for Shelby Miller.  While Miller has been the worst pitcher in baseball, it is too soon to tell if Swanson can turn into that beautiful Swan or not.

Meanwhile a few years ago the Diamondbacks traded a different shortstop to the NY Yankees in a three-team deal. The Diamondbacks at least got back Robbie Ray in that deal, and Ray has become a solid part of the Diamondback rotation. Just the other day he put the Dodgers on their ear with his strikeout performance. 

Didi Gregorius was considered a defensive first shortstop with limited offensive skills. Those limited offensive skills have provided forty-seven extra base hits this year. Only four shortstops in 2016 have had at least 30 doubles and 15 home runs. Cory Seager, Carlos Correa, Jonathan Villar, and Didi Gregorius.

I hope the Diamondbacks are happy they kept Chris Owings, and Nick Ahmed instead.

Per fangraph, Didi’s overall numbers would look better if he wasn’t currently mired in a horrendous slump over the past 30 days:

Name wRC+ AVG OBP SLG
Gary Sanchez 216 0.351 0.439 0.784
Ronald Torreyes 188 0.395 0.439 0.632
Rob Refsnyder 151 0.333 0.455 0.444
Brian McCann 117 0.28 0.353 0.453
Chase Headley 112 0.265 0.338 0.471
Starlin Castro 109 0.284 0.296 0.514
Jacoby Ellsbury 106 0.266 0.327 0.457
Aaron Hicks 102 0.286 0.34 0.408
Brett Gardner 81 0.276 0.352 0.303
Tyler Austin 81 0.224 0.274 0.414
Mark Teixeira 72 0.196 0.274 0.375
Didi Gregorius 59 0.222 0.246 0.389
Aaron Judge 53 0.177 0.258 0.316
Name PA HR R RBI BB% K%
Gary Sanchez
114 12 17 20 13.20% 21.90%
Ronald Torreyes 42 1 6 4 4.80% 4.80%
Rob Refsnyder 11 0 3 1 18.20% 9.10%
Brian McCann 85 4 11 10 9.40% 12.90%
Chase Headley 77 4 10 10 10.40% 22.10%
Starlin Castro 115 7 15 14 2.60% 20.00%
Jacoby Ellsbury 105 4 16 13 8.60% 12.40%
Aaron Hicks 53 2 7 6 7.50% 20.80%
Brett Gardner 88 0 9 7 11.40% 11.40%
Tyler Austin 62 3 5 7 6.50% 35.50%
Mark Teixeira 62 2 5 9 9.70% 19.40%
Didi Gregorius 115 3 13 14 1.70% 19.10%
Aaron Judge 89 3 9 9 9.00% 43.80%

Hey, remember Ronny Torreyes? He’s the guy we traded last winter for Rob Segedin. Ronny got a brief run as the Yankee 3rd baseman in August and did quite well.  He’s been an excellent utility player for the Yankee’s so it looks like a nice win win for both teams.

 

Gary Sanchez and the Yankee 9/12/16 Preview

♦ September 12, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

How about this:

  • The Yankees got Alex Rodriquez to retire
  • Traded their best hitter in Carlos Beltran
  • Traded their best relief pitcher in Chapman
  • Traded their second best relief pitcher in Andrew Miller
  • Traded a key component of their 2016 rotation in Ivan Nova

Yet they have won seven of their last eight games to climb right back into the AL Wild Card race. The first trade they made was on July 25th when they unloaded Aroldis Chapman for a boatload of talent from the Cubs.  The record at the time was 51 – 48 , now they are 76 – 66.

From the Cubs for Chapman – Rashad Crawford , Billy McKinney , Gleyber Torres and Adam Warren. Adam Warren is actually on the major league roster and helping the Yankees. This is Christopher Crawford’s take on the haul.

Yankees fans might wonder if and how Torres compares with Jorge Mateo. Crawford gave Torres the nod, saying that Torres is now the top middle-infield prospect in the system, and that he’s Aaron Judge’s stiffest competition for the title of the best Yankees prospect.

From the Indians for Andrew Miller –  J.P. Feyereisen, Clint Frazier , Justus Sheffield and Ben Heller. Bernie Pleskoff breaks down this deal. 

Scouting grade for Sheffield: 55 – A consistent member of the starting rotation.
Scouting grade for Heller: 55 – A dominant member of the bullpen.
Without question, Frazier should make an impact with his new team with home run power and an exciting overall game

From the Rangers for  Carlos Beltran – Nick Green , Erik Swanson, and Dillon Tate

From the Pirates for Ivan Nova – Tito Polo and Stephen Tarpley

And finally this detailed report from saberballblog about everyone they got in the deadline deals.

In return for these 5 players, New York received quite a haul. In particular, this includes top 25 prospects outfielder Clint Frazier(#22) and shortstop Gleyber Torres (#24), as well as top 100 prospect, pitcher Justus Sheffield (#93). Additionally, pitching prospect Dillon Tate ranks all over the top 100, so his positions were averaged, coming in solidly in the 60-70 range. Lastly, outfield prospect Billy McKinney is a former top 100 prospect, and is generally among the first left off of midseason lists. He is estimated as being a top 125 prospect. The remainder of the prospects are either too young or too uncertain to project surplus value going forward.

They did send one of their own prospects Vincente Campos to the Diamondbacks for setup man Tyler Clippard.

How are they winning after depleting their team of at least four key members when they were barely a .500 team with those players?

Gary Sanchez

Lis Roscher of SBNation tells us why Gary has had some an impact:

Gary Sanchez is a rookie sensation in a season full of rookie sensations. Sanchez signed in 2009 when he was just 16, and has made his way up and down the prospect lists. Over seven seasons in the minors, he had a .275/.339/.460, which isn’t anything to get too excited about, but he’s certainly proved himself in the majors. The Yankees called him up when they traded nearly everyone on their roster, and ever since he’s been a magical baseball wizard, forcing Brian McCann into a part-time role. In 32 games and 129 plate appearances, he’s hit .341/.417/.707 with 12 home runs. In August alone, he hit .389/.458/.832 in 107 plate appearances. That’s just insane.

Click on the link above for the rest of the Gary Sanchez story. Well, worth reading about the most exciting young player to hit that tired Yankee franchise in many a year.

 

 

Daily Wild Card race update – 09/11/16

♦ September 12, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

The Giants went into the weekend facing stiff challenges from the Mets and Cardinals, but as the weekend ended they had increased their wild-card lead to 1 1/2 over the Mets and two games over the Cardinals by sweeping the Diamondbacks in Arizona. The Cardinals are now 1/2 game back of the Mets for the second spot.

The Giants beat Zack Greinke behind their deadline acquisition Matt Moore 5 – 3. The Giant bats which had been in a slumber for weeks, awoke this weekend scoring 23 runs. In their previous eight games, they had scored only 22 runs. The Giants are now 4 – 4 in games started by Matt Moore.  Hunter Pence is one big reason why the Giants are scoring again. Pence returned on July 30th and proceeded to put up a dismal OPS of .642 through Sept 5th. Since Sept 5th, Pence has collected 12 hits in five games, including four doubles and a home run, driving in four runs, and scoring eight times.  The Giant offense just got their best cog back in production, so the scoring line should continue to improve going forward.

The Mets clobbered the Braves 10 – 3 behind a grand slam by Cespedes. It was his 30th home run. James Loney clocked in his 7th home run. The Mets like the Dodgers have been getting good pitching from rookies. Yesterday it was Seth Lugo making just his 5th major league start at age 26 who picked up the victory with seven sterling innings. Name like Seth Lugo, Logan Verrett, Robert Gsellman, and Rafael Montero have all made key starts for the Mets while Harvey / Matz/Niese sit on the DL.

Cardinals lost to the Brewers 2 – 1 when Eric Siegrist gave up a home run to Ryan Braun in the top of the 9th inning. Former number one pick Luke Weaver dueled Zach Davies to a tie with each giving up one run in their respective innings. The Cardinals did not hit a home run which was news of it itself.

The Marlins beat the Dodgers but are still five full games behind the Mets.  Jose Urena pitched the game of his life, and maybe the game of his career.

The Pirates lost again and I won’t mention them again unless things change dramatically for them.

Boatload of outfield options awaits​ Roberts

♦ September 11, 2016 ♦ 2 Comments

With Andre Ethier joining the team this weekend and playing left field on Sunday, an already crowded outfield just got more crowded. The Dodgers now have seven legitimate outfield options, and lucky for Dave Roberts just about all have of them have severe platoon splits. Unfortunately for Dave Roberts based on the numbers he still doesn’t really have good options against left-handed pitching.

Splits by OPS:

Players LHP-2016 LHP-Career RHP-2016 RHP-Career
Yasiel Puig 0.765 0.847 0.716 0.829
Josh Reddick 0.368 0.643 0.865 0.784
Andre Ethier 0.635 0.889
Howie Kendrick 0.690 0.778 0.738 0.742
Andrew Toles 1.800 1.800 0.975 0.975
Joc Pederson 0.413 0.593 0.918 0.836
Kike Hernandez 0.699 0.877 0.537 0.637

Seems pretty clear that Josh Reddick  and Joc Pederson should never face a LHP in a playoff game, or a pennant race. I’d say the same about Andre Ethier. Andrew Toles has only five at-bats against LHP in the major leagues so his monster OPS can be taken with a grain of salt. The Dodgers don’t really have a left-handed hitting outfielder that should be allowed to start against LHP.

Puig for his career has shown he can hit either type of pitching but has had a noticeable drop-off in 2016 against RHP.  Given the plethora of left-handed hitting options, it would make sense for the rest of this year to simply use Puig against LHP.  Howie Kendrick isn’t hitting LHP very well himself this year.  Neither is Kike Hernandez. This is problematic because the Dodgers have seven outfielders but only one could you say with any conviction should actually be in the lineup against LHP and that is Puig. Hernandez will probably play CF because someone has to play CF against LHP and right now that is Hernandez. Even when Trayce Thompson was active, he was no great shakes against LHP and actually hit RHP better this year.

In a play-in game, the Dodgers would face either the Mets or Cardinals. You could expect the Mets to throw Thor and the Cardinals either Carlos Martinez or Adam Wainwright. The Cardinals could use Jamie Garcia to exploit the Dodgers inability to hit LHP. The Mets could use Steve Matz if he is ready to pitch by then.

If the Dodgers face the Nationals in the postseason Gio Gonzalez is the one left-hander the Nationals can throw at the Dodgers, so for that series their weakness with left-hand pitching may not be exploited to its full potential.

The Cubs have Jon Lester but nobody else that you’d expect to see who is left handed. I doubt they would start Mike Montgomery simply to get a left-hand starter into the rotation.

I don’t want to mention that the Giants can throw Bumgarner and Moore at them because that would mean the Giants either won the play-in game, and beat the Cubs, or won the Western Division and beat the Nationals.

So while the Dodgers are definitely top heavy with left bats, it may not be as big a problem as it seems during the season.  Of course, all this will be a moot point if Dave Roberts doesn’t pick the right group of outfielders to face the formidable right-hand pitching he’s going to get tossed at him in the post season. He has shown an affinity for Howie Kendrick against all kinds of pitchers, will he continue to use Howie as a starting left fielder against RHP in the post-season? If he does, will it be the right move?

The Dodgers have a 20 person analytic team to help them navigate the complexity of a modern day baseball organization, will they help Dave Roberts craft the correct lineup out of so many options? Or will it be a gut call?

Either way, tough decisions await Dave Roberts as he makes out his lineup on a daily basis, but it will get even tougher come October.

 

Now that was a Saturday Night game to stay home for

♦ September 10, 2016 ♦ 2 Comments

Some games have a little of something, and some games have a lot of something and this game had a lot of everything.

  • First of all the Dodgers won 5 – 0 keeping the Giants four games back  which is a good thing because it looks like the Giants rediscovered how to use a bat.
  • Joc Pederson hit a home run that was simply majestic. His swings are pendulums of power, and when he connects, oh my does that ball soar.
  • Yasiel Puig playing his first game in LF made a jump out of your chair and scream so loud catch that your wife thinks your and idiot and all the animals went flying for cover.
  • Joc Pederson hit another home run, giving him two home runs out of the eight spot, and 22 for the season.
  • These highlights are not in game order.
  • Corey Seager hit his 25th home run and collected two more hits giving him ten hits in his last five games, including two doubles, and two home runs.  For one brief moment, the Dodgers had three players with 25 home runs.
  • Justin Turner launched his 26th home run because he didn’t like Cory Seager and Grandal being tied with him at 25
  • The Dodgers broke the Marlin Don Mattingly five-game winning streak which had to be annoying to everyone.
  • Josh Reddick did not get a hit.
  • Puig did not get a hit
  • The Marlins did not get a hit off of Rich Hill
  • The Marlins did get a hit off of Joe Blanton, though I thought Seager should have caught that for a player his size. ROY my ass
  • Rich Hill made his 3rd straight scoreless start and has yet to be scored upon as a LAD

Dave Roberts went from being brilliant to being roasted on Twitter in a matter of seconds. His brilliance was on full display when Yasiel Puig made a circus catch to keep the Rich Hill perfect game intact. Within seconds Roberts made the effort a moot point by not allowing Rich Hill to go for his perfect game. I mean who sticks Puig in LF? Who doesn’t let a pitcher try for a perfect game?

As a fan, I wanted to see Rich Hill get a chance for the perfect game, cause those are rare. I assume they are rare, if not why do we hear the Vin Scully call on the Sandy Koufax perfect game over and over and over?

As a Dodger fan, I wanted Dave Roberts to make the best decision he could make based upon the information he has.  I don’t know if he did that. I do know that Puig would not have balled out like that for a game in which they had a 5-0 lead unless something bigger was at stake. And to pull that stake out, just left it all a little empty. Everyone on the team will support Dave Roberts, and Dave was probably right to do what he did, but damn, it sure made my jump out of my chair scream at the catch by Puig look purdy damn silly.

This was a Don Mattingly quote on the catch:

QUOTABLE
“That’s just an incredible play. Those are the kind of plays you see when you see a no-hitter or a perfect game or something. You see a play like that. That was one of those plays where you’re like, ‘Ah, you never know what’s going to happen tonight.’ You don’t see catches like that very often. That was an incredible play.” — Mattingly, on Puig’s catch to rob Prado in seventh

It was fun to watch the twitter world explode. I was kind of interested in what actual pitchers had to say.

You had Dan Haren defending the move by Roberts

 

Anyway when it comes to entertaining games, this one is a highlight for 2016.