Working my way back to you babe
Two years ago I was shocked that the American electorate fell for a lying flim-flam man to be the leader of their country. It was only later I would learn of the involvement of a foreign nation in helping sow the sentiment via social media that helped elect the 45th President. But, all that Foreign Country did was sow the sentiment. The sentiment was there, the hate, the fear, the greed. That realization was a cold blow after eight years of Obama and hoping a new era had been ushered in. Little did I know the hate had simply been brushed under the rug and was just waiting for some hot air to blow it back into the open.
In those two years, my worst fears of his administration have come true but a hardy 40% of the electorate continued to support this President, meaning I was out of touch with a large percentage of Americans. I could understand 15 – 20% because hating anyone, not like you has always been an American passion but 40% alarmed me. The flat out lying every time he opened his mouth is incredibly bizarre.
If President Trump’s torrent of words has seemed overwhelming of late, there’s a good reason for that.
In the first nine months of his presidency, Trump made 1,318 false or misleading claims, an average of five a day. But in the seven weeks leading up the midterm elections, the president made 1,419 false or misleading claims — an average of 30 a day.
Even after they destroyed thousands of families who came here only seeking asylum so they could send a message to those who would make such a trip. Stay home or we will rip your family apart. We are not the answer to your trouble. You’d think Christians would have been appalled. I was wrong, these asylum seekers were brown and poor weren’t after all Citizens so do unto them whatever you feel like because evidently, the New Testament was all about protecting National borders. Who knew?
Even after White Nationalist after White Nationalist commits murder and mayhem in his name.
n Monday, an attorney representing Patrick Eugene Stein, one of three men convicted of plotting to bomb Somali refugees, filed an explosive memo in U.S. District Court in Kansas. Stein, his lawyer argued, should receive a more lenient sentence because he was inspired by then-candidate Donald Trump. “The court cannot ignore the circumstances of one of the most rhetorically mold-breaking, violent, awful, hateful, and contentious presidential elections in modern history,” attorney Jim Pratt wrote, “driven in large measure by the rhetorical China shop bull who is now our president.”
Anyway, unless you live under a rock you already know all of this. What I had hoped was that our country would have come to their senses and that these midterms would be a referendum on our Presidents corrupt to the core administration. Checks and balances were restored to 1/2 of the legislative portion of our branch of government when the House was taken back by the Democrats. If Speaker Ryan had done his job, had treated Trump like he would have treated Hillary Clinton, the checks and balances would have been working but when the Legislative branch does nothing, the system does not work. That was the least outcome I desired, and I got that. But I didn’t’ get enough and the thought-provoking writer Sarah Kendzior summed up eloquently how I was feeling last night.
If the midterms were a test of the country’s character, Americans failed | @sarahkendzior continues to speak with clarity and nuance; refreshing in the onslaught of takes on the election, and the socio-political state of the US in general https://t.co/xEpVsOrSTU
— Sarah Jankowitz (@SarahJanks) November 7, 2018
We gained something yesterday, and for the first time in two years, I feel we may be back on the path toward the hopes of Lady Liberty that our country constantly strays from whenever someone feels the need to fan Nationalistic fears.
As a child, the New Colossus poem written for Lady Liberty spoke much more to me than any constitution. We were the good guys. At least I thought we were. The reality is that we were never as good as we thought we were. We have always had the folk that Sarah Kendzior writes about except now we seem to have all of them at the same time.
Our national character is bifurcated anguish. Our national character feels like it’s possessed by every hellish ghost of American history: white supremacist patriarchs, gilded age swindlers, paranoid McCarthyists, Know-Nothings and Klansmen and con artists and terrorists. These dark impulses were always there, as American as the impulse to form a more perfect union and to fear nothing but fear itself. Nowadays, maybe we fear ourselves the most.
New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Anyway, my gratitude goes out to every person who actually works at making the American Democracy a thing. I’m not a doer but I sure admire those of you who are.
Three hurrahs for Kershaw and Dodgers
I had hoped those who were predicting 5/150 or even 4/120 were crazy and that if the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw came to an understanding it would be a reasonable one, but never did I imagine that the extension would be this reasonable.
Signing Clayton Kershaw for 3/93 without an opt-out tells me several things:
- Clayton wanted to pitch for the Dodgers and subverted his ego to help make it happen.
- The Dodgers wanted Clayton but did not want to be stuck with the possibility of an onerous contract.
- This just might be his last contract. He has never struck me as someone who will pitch forever since he has a full life outside of baseball.
I’m not as vested in Clayton Kershaw finishing his career as a Dodger as many Dodger fans but I love everything about this contract. I was having lunch with three Dodger fans when it was announced. Two were willing to go 120/4 or even 150/5 if that was what it would take to bring him back. One felt that 4/110 was reasonable. Those three were all optimistic that Kershaw could regain his ace status. I kind of think his best days are behind because those best days were the best anyone has ever pitched, and rarely do you get to revisit the past but I would have liked to have seen him stay at a reasonable future extension at 20 – 25 Mill per year. I just didn’t think Clayton would agree to pitch for that price. Instead, he fooled all of us and signed a three-year deal adding about 28M to his current contract.
Hats off to everyone involved in this contract. Clayton Kershaw, his agent, and the Dodger front office.
Who isn’t excited to see what Buehler/Urias/Kershaw can do for you?
Cherry picking Ryu’s Postseason like a seasoned Kershaw postseason apologist.
He ranked Ryu as the 22nd best Free Agent and I won’t quibble as I have zero ideas how I would rank the free agents but it was his comment about Ryu’s postseason that caught my eye.
22. Hyun-Jin Ryu
Possibly the most thorough and impressive of all of the comebacks. Ryu came back from the depths of shoulder hell to have a fantastic run. In the regular season, at least. In the postseason, he finished miserably, giving up 11 runs in his final 13 innings.
Still, while you shouldn’t expect a sub-2.00 (or sub-3.00) ERA again, Ryu is going to be a relative bargain because of his health history. Unless he’s a complete waste of money because of his health history. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to, really
I didn’t think Ryu had a miserable postseason but as Grant noted he did give up 11 runs in his final 13 innings. Of course, when you exclude the game where you excelled you can get lines like that. For instance, if we discussed the last two games of Clayton Kershaw’s 2018 postseason we get someone who gave up nine runs in his last eleven innings. That sounds bad. Especially since we excluded his eight innings of shutout ball in the 2018 NLDS against Atlanta, and his brilliant game five in the NLCS that turned the series around.
Ryu suffers from the same fate. Ryu was also brilliant in the 2018 NLDS shutting out the Braves for seven innings and getting the Dodgers started out in a very positive manner. In his next start against the Brewers in the 2018 NLCS, he shut them out for four innings. In the fifth, he gave up a solo home run, followed by a single, double putting runners on 2nd / 3rd with one out. He was done, and Madson came in to get the final two outs while giving up just one run. It would be the last time anyone would say Madson did his job. That game wasn’t good but like many Kershaw, apologists would say “he only had one bad inning”, if you take away the 5th, he was fantastic. In game six of the NLCS, he was legit hammered. Bad game. I don’t feel he pitched a bad game in the World Series. He gave up a home run in the 1st inning and then was brilliant until he had two outs and two strikes in the 5th when Vazquez got a lucky single to RF. The opened the floodgates for Ryan Madson to put a horrible line on Ryu that I didn’t think was indicative of his game in any way.
Or to put this another way, Ryu was no worse over his last two postseason starts than Clayton Kershaw was but when you look at the total postseason package for both pitchers, they had their great moments, and their bad moments, and judging them on their last two games just seems like the bigger picture is being missed.
The Dodgers don’t owe Clayton Kershaw anything
except for gratitude for being the HOF pitcher he has been. I read a tweet yesterday by a former Dodger that the Dodgers need to do right by Clayton Kershaw. I have no idea what this means. During the time that Clayton Kershaw helped lead the Dodgers to six straight NL West Divisions and two straight NL pennants, they have paid him $164,000,000, with an additional $70,000,000 on the books over the next two years. The Dodgers have already done right by Clayton Kershaw.
Clayton can opt out of his contract by this Wednesday, if he does so he will be leaving that $70,000,000 on the table. Supposedly the Dodgers and Clayton are in discussions about his future contract.
I guess one could argue that the Dodgers would benefit from Clayton Kershaw staying for the next two years and being paid $70Million to do so. I would not be making that argument, I’ll leave that for others.
He not only isn’t what he was but he hasn’t pitched over 175 innings since 2015 and given it is a back issue, it is doubtful he ever will again. His velocity took a noticeable dip in 2018 and it ain’t coming back. Even with the reduced velocity he was still very effective but do you really want to bet $70Million he can replicate that success over the next two years? I’d love to have Clayton remain a Dodger I just don’t think it is reasonable to pay him twice his value to make it happen. I mean I’d pay twice his value if that meant paying him 10 Million instead of 5 Million but 35 Million instead of 17 Million seems a bit steep to be paying for sentimental value.
That being said whatever Clayton does is a win-win for me. It is not my money. If Clayton walks, I think having him off the books will give the Dodgers some flexibility to use that $35 Million spread around instead of focused on one pitcher. If he stays, we keep our homegrown future HOF and still get an above average pitcher even if he’s being paid at an elite level.
What I don’t want to happen is for Clayton to get paid over the next five years as though he is still an elite pitcher. If they extend the contract from the current two to four or five years, I hope it is a reasonable contract for both parties. I doubt this happens. I expect Clayton to either walk or opt-in on his current contract. Ain’t no one going to be paying Clayton Kershaw $35 Million per year going forward except with the current contract he has.
Clayton was the best for a very very long time. We need to be prepared for that not being the case in the near future. It certainly won’t be the end of the world if he walks. The Giants didn’t win a World Championship until the best player of his generation was no longer a Giant. The Dodgers didn’t win a World Championship during the greatest run of a regular season pitcher I’d ever witnessed in Los Angeles. Many have said that is not the fault of Clayton Kershaw, but game five happened in 2017, and that doesn’t hold water. I’m not upset about that. I wanted Clayton Kershaw to hold those huge leads in game 5 for Clayton Kershaw. These are not my Championships that are lost on the mound, they are his, and he worked his ass to get one. I’m just sorry he couldn’t get one. Maybe if he stays he still can, but he won’t be the big boss on the team for the first time in ten years even if he’s still being paid like he is.
How do you improve a team that has won six straight NL West titles?
but can’t perform well enough to win even one World Championship during this six-year run?
I don’t have any answers, I’m just posing the question because this team seems pretty set heading into 2019 except how to replace Grandal and Ryu and Ryu’s replacement would seem to be Julio Urias.
Yazmani Grandal has been one of the top five offensive catchers during his Dodger run, but also is the worst performing Dodger postseason hitter of all time. I have no proof of this but a .462 career postseason OPS in 92 plate appearances is what I’d be heading into the trial with.
Kiké ended the 2018 season looking like a Star was Born only to see his stock fall back with his grisly October performance.
Maddening Manny Machado………..just say I won’t miss him
The Dodgers found their Andrew Miller in Caleb Ferguson and then left him off the World Series roster. Don’t tell me that didn’t bite them in the ass.
Ryan Madson found his way onto the postseason roster while Ross Stripling sat. Ryan was effective in Sept but horrible in October. Ross was ineffective in Sept but……….
I don’t know. The team seems set. More than set. Almost too many pieces.
1st – Muncy / Freese (they best pick up his option)
2nd – Hernandez / Taylor / Muncy
SS – Seager
3rd – Turner
Catcher – yup, that be a hole. Grandal is a free agent, and Barnes did little to inspire confidence he’d be a functional full-time catcher. I mean I have faith that Barnes could do it for 100 games but I’m not sure anyone else does. Keibert Ruiz couldn’t possibly be ready by 2019, could he? Muncy looks like a catcher maybe they can make him one:)
LF – Taylor/Joc//Verdugo/Toles
CF – Bellinger/Taylor/Verdugo
RF – Puig/Verdugo/Toles
SP – Buehler, Kershaw, Hill, Kenta, Wood, Urias, Stripling, Dennis Santana, Brock Stewart
RP – Jansen, Baez, Ferguson, Alexander, Fields, Chargois, Floro, Cingrani, Goeddel
Going to miss Ryu. Don’t expect Kershaw to leave but we will know in a few days. I’ll have thoughts on that today.
The Dodgers have a ton of money to work with even with Clayton optioning in. If he doesn’t that is an additional $32,000,000 to work with.
I expect them to add a short-term catcher, another starting pitcher, several relief pitchers. Players I don’t expect to be on the team come April 1st that aren’t currently free agents.
Alex Wood – arb eligible, could be the price for a catcher or a relief pitcher
Brock Stewart – a trading piece, for what I don’t know
Andrew Toles – he’s just so redundant with Alex Verdugo on the team, and Cody Bellinger now a Center Fielder.
Any number of the current relief staff except Jansen, Baez, Ferguson.
This is still a fairly young team with Muncy, Taylor, Kiké, Seager, Puig, Joc, Bellinger, Verdugo, Toles, Wood, Buehler, Urias, and Ferguson all under the age of 28.
Maybe just maybe they can grow into a World Championship.
Feebly into the night
Now we know what the fans of the 1966 Dodgers felt like after the Orioles swept them in four games. That series was known for the ineptitude of the Dodger offense and this one can sit right along with it. The difference being the 1966 team went into the World Series having scored only 606 runs while the 2018 team scored over 800 runs. The 1966 team was expected to win on the backs of the outstanding pitching staff and in 1966 that pitching held up their side of the bargain losing the final two games by the score of 1 – 0.
Maybe I should be talking about 1974 when the Dodgers lost in five games just as they did in the 2018 series. Except in 1974, the games were extremely close with the Dodgers losing three games by a score of 3 – 2. The expectations were also different because the 1974 team was brand new to the postseason. Just about everyone on the team was in the postseason for the first time so you could expect them to have some misfires while in the fire for the first time.
The 2018 team couldn’t possibly have anymore postseason experience. They have been in the postseason year after year and back to back World Series visits. The big debate will continue as to whether experience trumps skill but for this series, the best player for the Dodgers was the pitcher, pitching in his first postseason.
Players who did their part above and beyond expectations.
Walker Buehler, Rich Hill, and David Freese.
Players who were ok, Justin Turner, Muncy (one big hit), Puig (one big hit), Kershaw, Ryu, Urias
Everyone else was horrible.
Cody Bellinger had his second straight World Series with nary a positive impact. The Dodger catchers get their own special award for World Series offensive ineptitude. I don’t know how to search it via Bref play index but hard to imagine any position having a more meager offensive performance than the Dodger catchers over the past two World Series. Manny Machado can’t take off his Dodger jersey fast enough for me. If I hadn’t been a Dodger fan, and I was watching the postseason, just watching Machado would have been enough for me to root against the Dodgers. Kiké hit a pointless home run in game four but that couldn’t stop him from having one of worst Dodger offensive postseasons in recent memory that didn’t include Yazmani Grandal. Chris Taylor, Brian Dozier, and Joc Pederson just didn’t hit.
Play Play Play Play Play Play Play Play Name AB H HR RBI BA OBP SLG OPS Justin Turner 24 8 0 0 .333 .385 .417 .801 Manny Machado 22 4 0 3 .182 .208 .182 .390 Yasiel Puig 20 5 1 4 .250 .286 .400 .686 Max Muncy 17 4 1 1 .235 .316 .471 .786 Cody Bellinger 16 1 0 0 .063 .063 .063 .125 Enrique Hernandez 15 2 1 2 .133 .133 .333 .467 Chris Taylor 14 2 0 0 .143 .333 .143 .476 David Freese 12 5 1 1 .417 .500 .833 1.333 Joc Pederson 12 1 1 1 .083 .083 .333 .417 Austin Barnes 11 0 0 0 .000 .083 .000 . Matt Kemp 9 1 1 2 .111 .100 .444 .544 Brian Dozier 5 0 0 0 .000 .375 .000 .375 Yasmani Grandal 5 1 0 0 .200 .429 .200 .629 Totals 189 34 6 14 .180 .249 .302 .550
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/29/2018.
Clayton Kershaw started games one and five and didn’t pitch well enough for the Dodgers to win either game. Ryan Madson did him no favors in game one, but it wasn’t like he wasn’t being hit hard when he was forced to leave the game in the 5th inning. In game five dingers were the story, early, and late. He was awesome however from the 2nd – 5th innings, something the Kershaw postseason apologists can hang their hats on as they discuss his postseason legacy. The Dodgers weren’t going to win game five unless Kershaw was going to throw a shutout but that became a moot point when Pearce took him deep. Kershaw did keep the team in the game until two of the best hitters in baseball took him deep in the 6th and 7th. See, a Kershaw apologist lives within me, even now.
Enough can’t be said about what Walker Buehler did in game three.
Rich Hill almost duplicated that effort in game four but was taken out with one out in the 6th after issuing a walk The next hitter was left-handed Brock Holt and Hill had walked him and gotten him to ground out in his previous two at-bats. Dave Roberts in possibly his worst managed game in a World Series which is saying something, pulled Hill and went for Alexander hoping for a double play. The score was 4 – 0 at the time with one out in the 6th. By the time Roberts stopped pushing his buttons, the Red Sox would score nine times and the series was effectively over.
Ryu, like Kershaw in game one, deserved a better fate. Ryu pitched extremely well for fourteen outs. He was in cruise control getting the first two outs in the fifth and had two strikes on the worst hitter in the Red Sox lineup. One more good pitch he would be into the 6th, and he made that good pitch, but Vazquez looped the single into right field in front of Puig. Now it was trouble, and the Red Sox would put up a three-spot against Ryu/Madson.
All in all, I thought the Dodger rotation did the job well enough that if the bullpen had done their jobs, and the offense had hit even a little they could have taken this series to seven games.
The idea that the Red Sox are some legendary team just seems like a rationalization for having lost to them. Any team getting beat by Steve Pearce shouldn’t be putting the tag of legendary on them, they should be looking in the mirror.
Twittering away for eight hours
One of the great benefits of my Dodger twitter is that I follow just enough folk that I tend to get funny and informational tweets. Last night was no exception as records were falling faster than Grandal’s Free Agent rankings.
Walker Buehler’s 2018 season began with a start on April 5 in an Oklahoma City at Iowa Triple-A game.
The Dodgers’ farm team won 2-1. The deciding run? A 5th-inning Max Muncy solo HR.
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) October 27, 2018
Yeah, the heroes of game three were in AAA in April.
2018 NL home run leaders (including postseason):
Max Muncy 38
Nolan Arenado 38
Christian Yelich 37
Jesus Aguilar 37
Trevor Story 37— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) October 27, 2018
Yeah, the improbable Max Muncy is going to end the 2018 season with more home runs than any other National League player.
Nathan Eovaldi pic.twitter.com/2bPmZf8w1u
— Frank Lopez ⚾️ (@BeisbolFrank) October 27, 2018
How I felt about Eovaldi last night and this morning couldn’t have been said better than this gif.
— Bryan Kephart (@thundercrat) October 27, 2018
Can’t have a Tweetstorm without the thunder
😁😁😁😁😁😁😁 https://t.co/gVNkJtApzP
— Lola High Knees, Little Arms (@lawbibliophile) October 27, 2018
I should send this tweet to all the Front Office naysayers. I mean come on. They signed Max Muncy. They traded for Chris Taylor. They drafted Walker Buehler. They traded for David Freese.
When this game started, the Dead Sea was only sick
— 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐚 ⚾️ (@tokenbrotha) October 27, 2018
Lots of humor about the length of the game, but this was one of my two favorites.
this is the CVS receipt of baseball games
— BWH (@BWH85) October 27, 2018
This was my second favorite.
This game has now taken longer than the game time of the entire 1939 #WorldSeries.
That year, the Yankees swept the Reds in four games that took a combined 7:05.
— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) October 27, 2018
Crazy context
— Taylor Blake Ward (@TaylorBlakeWard) October 27, 2018
An image says a 1000 words
Just your typical World Series game three victory
If you expected Walker Buehler to show why he’s already the ace of this team you were not disappointed. As one time World Series hero Adam Wainwright tweeted:
I guarantee that anybody who played against or saw @buehlersdayoff pitch this season isn’t surprised at all by how he’s pitching tonight. Hands down best stuff I saw in person all year from a starting pitcher. Nasty. #WorldSeries2018
— Adam Wainwright (@UncleCharlie50) October 27, 2018
Walker was so good that he sent everyone to the baseball reference play index. This is the one I’m going with. Buehler was only the 2nd pitcher since 1958 to allow only two baserunners while throwing at least seven innings in a World Series game.
Player Date Series Rslt AppDec IP H ER BB BR GSc Jim Lonborg 1967-10-05 WS W 5-0 SHO W 9.0 1 0 1 2 88 Walker Buehler 2018-10-26 WS W 3-2 GS-7 7.0 2 0 0 2 80
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/27/2018.
How about Dodger World Series game scores? Yeah, 30 years ago was the last time a Dodger pitched a World Series game this good. Walker did so many things last night that he is going to fill the World Series leaderboards.
Player Date Series Tm Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc Walker Buehler 2018-10-26 WS LAD BOS W 3-2 7.0 2 0 0 7 80 Orel Hershiser 1988-10-16 WS LAD OAK W 6-0 9.0 3 0 2 8 87 Burt Hooton 1977-10-12 WS LAD NYY W 6-1 9.0 5 1 1 8 80 Sandy Koufax 1965-10-14 WS LAD MIN W 2-0 9.0 3 0 3 10 88 Sandy Koufax 1965-10-11 WS LAD MIN W 7-0 9.0 4 0 1 10 88 Don Drysdale 1963-10-05 WS LAD NYY W 1-0 9.0 3 0 1 9 89 Clem Labine 1956-10-09 WS BRO NYY W 1-0 10.0 7 0 2 5 81 Sherry Smith 1916-10-09 WS BRO BOS L 1-2 13.1 7 2 6 2 82
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/27/2018.
Maybe you expected a relief pitcher who was scheduled to pitch game four, pitch six innings in game three instead? Nathan Eovaldi is now one of only seven relief pitchers since 1958 to pitch at least six innings in the World Series. The Dodgers are well documented here with ex-Dodger Eovaldi, Rick Rhoden, and of course Moe Drabowsky who probably owns the greatest World Series relief effort in history. Anyone remember the Rick Rhoden game? Doug Rau was knocked out without recording an out, and Rick came in and bailed out the inning. This will need a whole new column dedicated to this game because I have zero memory of it but it might have been the greatest relief work in the history of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Rhoden gave up a hit to the second batter he faced and then retired thirteen in a row before giving up a home run to Reggie Jackson. He would then retire the next seven batters. Rick also hit a ground rule double for good measure. The Dodgers lost this game which is why it is lost to history. No one remembers the losers. In a few years, Nathon Eovaldi will be forgotten but Max Muncy will not be.
Rk Player Date Series Tm Opp Rslt AppDec IP H ER BB SO HR 1 Nathan Eovaldi 2018-10-26 WS BOS LAD L 2-3 12-GF(18) L 6.0 3 1 1 5 1 2 Rick Rhoden 1977-10-15 WS LAD NYY L 2-4 2-8 7.0 2 1 0 5 1 3 Tug McGraw 1973-10-14 WS NYM OAK W 10-7 6-12 BW 6.0 5 4 3 8 0 4 Bruce Kison 1971-10-13 WS PIT BAL W 4-3 1-7 W 6.1 1 0 0 3 0 5 Moe Drabowsky 1966-10-05 WS BAL LAD W 5-2 3-GF W 6.2 1 0 2 11 0 6 Bud Daley 1961-10-09 WS NYY CIN W 13-5 3-GF W 6.2 5 0 0 3 1 7 Bob Turley 1958-10-09 WS NYY MLN W 6-2 3-GF W 6.2 2 1 3 2 1
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/27/2018.
I’m sure we all expected Xander Bogaerts to set the modern day record for futility by failing to get on base in any of his eight plate appearances.
Player Date Series Tm Opp PA H BB IBB Xander Bogaerts 2018-10-26 WS BOS LAD 8 0 0 0 Willy Taveras 2005-10-25 WS HOU CHW 7 0 0 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/27/2018.
If you expected a couple of home runs from the crew that had hit over 100 home runs during the season but had yet to start a World Series game you were not disappointed.
Given how many times we saw the graphic that the Dodgers were leaving over 100 home runs on the bench in games 1 and 2 I fully expect Joc, Muncy, Bellinger, and Grandal to do the boom boom tonight.
— Phil Gurnee (@meercatjohn) October 26, 2018
These two teams combined to score 1680 runs in the 2018 regular season. They could only score 5 runs in eighteen innings last night and this morning.
If you expected Manny Machado to jog on an apparent home run you were not disappointed. You see balls hit the green monster and just become singles all the time, that may have been the first ball I’ve seen hit the Dodger left field fence and end up being a single. If Cody Bellinger had followed with a hit, it might have been a huge play, but Cody did what every other Dodger did all evening. Pop up.
Ian Kinsler gave us the worst play by an infielder I’ve seen in a World Series. Context is important here. The error he made can be made anytime, but it can’t be made with the tying run on 3rd base. You can’t make a throw that allows the tying run to score, not when you already have two outs. You just can’t. I’m sad for him because I expect Red Sox fans to let never let him forget it if the Dodgers go onto to win this World Series. I’m glad a Dodger didn’t make such a boner. They still haven’t forgiven Grandal for his transgressions and the Dodgers won that series.
People took naps for hours and woke up to find the game still on.
I watched the Clipper/Rocket game twice. Twice and the second time if ended just minutes before Max Muncy to the relief of everyone, sent them home or to bed.
This was not a game that created new baseball fans, but it will become a game that all Dodger fans will long remember.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 