Baseball notes -Dull is the new shiny toy for Oakland
Ryan Dull of the Oakland Athletics stranded two more runners on Monday and has now stranded 36 runners in a row. Susan Slusser tweeted that was most runners stranded in a row since 1961.
Dull’s 36-for-36 is the longest at ANY point in a season since at least 1961, topping Frank Francisco’s mark of 35 for 35 in 2007.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) July 4, 2016
In his last fifteen games, Kendry Morales of the World Champion Royals has hit eight home runs, driven in 22 runs, and has a 1.623 OPS. Since June 16th, Morales has raised his OPS from .603 to .800.
Corey Seager is not the only hot hitting SS in baseball. Since May 25th, Danny Espinosa has hit 15 home runs, and a TSL of .289 / .383 / .702 in 142 plate appearances. That slug % is not a misprint. Espinosa has raised his OPS from .592 on May 24th to the current .818. In the past week, he has had two games where he has hit two home runs and driven in 6 and 7 runs. Espinosa was the first SS to have a game with at least two home runs and six runs batted in since Arod in 2000. They are the only two shortstops in history to do it in the same year twice.
Corey Seager – anatomy of a seventeen game hitting streak
Corey Seager extended his streak to 17 games last night in style with a single and triple. Both hits came in key moments and helped propel the Dodgers to their fifth win in a row.
In his first two at-bats, Seager had a pop up and strikeout. In his 3rd at-bat with the Dodgers down 5 – 3, and Van Slyke on 3rd base, Seager slapped a single to LF to move the Dodgers closer at 5 – 4. With the score tied in the bottom of the 7th, Seager slammed a shot down the right field line, and when the ball hugged the corner, he turned on the Seager jets and slid into 3rd with a triple. From there it was a simple sacrifice fly by Justin Turner to put the Dodgers ahead for good 6 – 5.
- 76 PA, 29 hits, 15 runs scored, 8 doubles, 2 triples, 2 home runs
- Nine multi-hit games, seven times he’s had two hits, one time he’s had three hits, one time he’s had four hits
- Triple slash line during the streak of .414 / .461 / .671 with a robust OPS of 1.132
- Now holds the longest major league hitting streak of 2016 passing Ozuna and Zobrist
- 3rd longest streak for a LAD rookie, just one behind Bill Sudakis at 18, and three behind Tommy Davis at 20
- The streak started on June 16th, at the time Seager had a triple slash line of .275 / .337 / . 504 with an OPS of 841. His triple slash line is now .305 / .363 / .540 with an OPS of 903
The more things change the more things stay the same
Even with all the changes the Dodgers made over the winter, their record this year is 47 – 37, the exact same mark they had in 2015, and 2014.
This year it took a four-game winning, a nine-game winning streak at home, and winners of fourteen of their last nineteen to get to the same stage as the previous year.
In 2015 the Dodgers clobbered the Phillies 10 – 7 on July 5th, to get to 47 – 37.
In 2014 the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw shut out the Cardinals 6 – 0 on June 29th to get to 47-37.
In each of the past three years, the Dodgers won into their 47th win against 37 losses.
This year the big difference is that while the Dodgers are doing the exact same work the Giants are not. In 2014 that record got you within half a game of the Giants, In 2015 that record got you a five-game lead. In 2016 that record gets you five games back.
Bash brothers – Machado / Davis / Trumbo invade the Ravine
The Orioles are in first place because they bomb the hell out of the baseball. Halfway through the season they already have five players with at least thirteen home runs. They just broke the major league home run record for the month of June, blasting 56 home runs.
Jonathan Schoop has 13, career high is 16
Adam Jones has 16, career high is 33
Manny Machado has 18, career high is 35
Chris Davis has 21, career high is 53
Mark Trumbo has 24, career high is 34
Pedro Alvarez has been placed on the bereavement list, and since he was the DH, the Dodgers weren’t going to see him anyway.
This is a very healthy team, the only one on the DL is Darren O’Day and he’s due back tomorrow. The Orioles starting pitching won’t scare anyone but the offense sure well.
Manny Machado should receive some MVP votes if the season ended today. He’d slot in second in my vote behind the incomparable Big Papi. His wRC+ is fifth in the AL at 154, he’s a whiz at 3rd base, and he helped out at SS when JJ Hardy went on the DL. You could say Altuve deserves it, and I would not argue but I’m sticking with Machado.
Mark Trumbo finally found his home run stroke after it went awol when he left the Angels. Trumbo currently leads the major leagues in home runs with his 24.
Chris Davis is on his way to his third season of 40 plus home runs. Davis has 227 home runs at the age of 30. That sounds like a lot, let us see if it is. Hmm, not as good as I expected. That 227 home runs by the age of 30 is good enough for 36th place. However if Chris can hit another 20 home runs this year he can climb to 25th place, passing the original Yaz, and fitting in just below Roger Maris and Hall of Famers Hank Greenberg and Al Kaline.
I’m excited about watching this team, I’ve never seen Machado play in person so I hope to see him in person on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Earl Weaver would love this team.
I wish Urias the best of luck tonight, he is going to need it.
Corey Seager – anatomy of a sixteen game hitting streak
Corey Seager extended his streak to 16 games yesterday, with two singles.
- 71 PA, 27 hits, 14 runs scored, 8 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs
- Eight multi-hit games, six times he’s had two hits, one time he’s had three hits, one time he’s had four hits
- Triple slash line of .415 / .465 / .662 with a robust OPS of 1.126
- Tied for longest hitting streak of 2016 with Marcell Ozuna
- Currently the longest active hitting streak in baseball
LAD – by the numbers 07/04/16
Dodgers starters have figured in the winning decision four games in a row, the last time they accomplished that was May 22nd – May 25. That was done by Stripling, Kershaw, Bolsinger, and Kazmir. Only Kazmir is still in the rotation, and Kazmir was once again part of the current quartet to pull if off, Maeda, Norris, Kazmir, and McCarthy.
Brandon McCarthy is still undefeated as a Dodger, picking up his first win of 2016, coming off of his 3 – 0 record in 2015. McCarthy had a game score of 70 yesterday, which matched his best game score of 2015 on April 19th, also against Colorado, also at home.
Corey Seager removed all suspense about his hitting streak when he singled in the 1st inning, extending his hitting streak to sixteen games. Corey is now tied with Marcell Ozuna for the longest hitting streak of 2016. Corey’s hitting streak is the longest active streak.
Trayce Thompson hit his 13th home run, moving past previous ROY Todd Hollandsworth who hit 12 in 1996. Since seeing his OPS drop to .768 on June 27th, he has raised it back to .796.
Adam Liberatore pitched a scoreless sixth inning yesterday and has not allowed a run in his last 21 games (16.0 IP). Adam is two games away from tying the Dodger record for most consecutive scoreless appearances of 23 set by John Candelaria in 1991.
Dodgers are ten games over .500 for the first time in 2016. The sweep of the Rockies was the fifth sweep of the year for the Dodgers, but just the 2nd time the Rockies have been swept.
Howie Kendrick stealthily stealing his way into LAD history
Howie Kendrick has ways to go to break the LAD record of successful steals without being caught, but Howie has at least put himself on the leaderboard. Howie has stolen seven bases this year without being caught. Jamey Carroll once stole 10 bases without being caught.
It is doubtful that Howie can break the record because he would need to steal at least four bases and remain perfect for the whole season. Still, in a year where I’ve been rough on our left fielder, he has managed to do this one thing very well.
| Player | SB | CS | Year | |||
| Jamey Carroll | | | 10 | | | 0 | | | 2011 |
| Matt Kemp | | | 9 | | | 0 | | | 2013 |
| Eric Karros | | | 8 | | | 0 | | | 1996 |
| Greg Brock | | | 8 | | | 0 | | | 1984 |
| Howie Kendrick | | | 7 | | | 0 | | | 2016 |
| Mark Grudzielanek | | | 7 | | | 0 | | | 1998 |
| Bill Russell | | | 7 | | | 0 | | | 1986 |
Dodgers haven’t lost since losing Kershaw to DL
The Dodgers needed a shot in the arm just as much as Clayton Kershaw needed a shot in the back, and they both got just what they needed. Clayton received his epidural and is awaiting confirmation that he can start progressing toward a return. In the meantime, Bud Norris and Brandon McCarthy were added to the rotation just in the nick of time, and the results were spectacular.
The red-hot Dodgers have now won four in a row, and ninth in a row at home as Brandon McCarthy made a successful return to the Dodger rotation.
Craig Minami over at TBLA pulled up an interesting stat today.
Today will mark something that has not happened since 2003 when Darren Dreifort came back from Tommy John surgery to start 10 games for the Dodgers.
Since then, no Dodger starting pitcher who had Tommy John surgery during his major league Dodger career has made his return as a starter. Brandon McCarthy will be the fourth Dodger pitcher to make his return at the major league level: the others are Tommy John, John Tudor and Dreifort.
Given how many pitchers have had Tommy John surgery in the last 42 years, this was quite a surprise to me.
To the surprise of everyone, the Dodger starters held the Rockies scoreless in every game this weekend. Norris / Kazmir / McCarthy threw seventeen innings of scoreless ball. I’m not sure when the last time that happened so I’ll wait for someone to tell me but that seems like a rare occurrence.
The Giants / Mets / Cardinals all won so no ground was won but no ground was lost either.
Corey Seager extended his hitting streak to 16 games, and now it tied with Marcell Ozuna for the longest hitting streak of 2016. It is the current longest active streak.
Trayce Thompson blasted a home run to get the scoring started, and ended up with two hits. Trayce now has multiple hits in three of his last four games.
Yazmani Grandal continues to be an RBI machine, slugging another home run. Grandal now has thirty runs batted in, with only thirty hits. Contrast with Howie Kendrick who has driven in fifteen runs, with fifty-five hits. Multi-run home runs go a long way to salve a .185 batting average. Does this seem fair comparing Grandal to Howie? It is not like Howie is a 2nd baseman anymore, according to Dave Roberts he’s a LF, and left fielders are expected to drive in runs. Especially when the manager has them batting fifth or sixth in the batting order most of the time. So yeah, I think it is fair.
LAD – by the numbers 7/3/16 – home cooking hot
A. J. Ellis has now gone two months without scoring a run, after scoring seven in April, and one on May 1st.
Following their victory over the Rockies last night, the Dodgers have won eight in a row at home. They are now 16 – 3 at home since May 17th.
With the Giants meltdown last night, the Dodgers have moved to within five games of 1st place in the NL West.
The Dodgers are now nine games over .500 for the first time in 2016
The Dodgers wild card lead increased to 1. 5 games over the Mets and 2.5 games over the Cardinals.
Corey Seager extended his hitting streak to fifteen games. That is now the fifth-longest hitting streak in LAD history. Tommy Davis had a 20 game streak in 1960, Bill Sudakis had an 18 game streak in 1969, Andre Ethier and Steve Sax both had 16 game hitting streaks.
Justin Turner collected three hits last night, and since June 4th has a triple slash line of .340/.381/.681. Turner has eight doubles, eight home runs, and twenty-three runs batted in during this run.
Howie Kendrick went 100 plate appearances as a left fielder before driving in a run that was not himself on Friday night. Overall Howie is hitting .310 since June 13th.
In the past five starts for Trayce Thompson starting on June 28th, he has collected two hits, zero hits, two hits, zero hits, two hits. Which sure beats the stretch from June 20th to June 27th where he went zero for nineteen.
Scott Kazmir tied his LAD high game score last night with a 76. His 10 strikeouts were the 2nd time he reached double digits in strikeouts as a LAD.
Corey Seager – Anatomy of a 15 game hitting streak
Corey Seager extended his streak to 15 games last night with another single in four at-bats. With just a single in each of his last two games, the strength of the streak is starting to slow down.
- 66 PA, 25 hits, 14 runs scored, 8 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs
- Seven multi-hit games, five times he’s had two hits, one time he’s had three hits, one time he’s had four hits
- In seven of his last nine games he’s had at least one extra-base hit
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 