Kershaw dominates AT&T Game Score Leaderboard
I knew even before I ran the numbers from baseball reference for best games scores by a Dodger at AT&T Park that Clayton Kershaw was going to be on the leaderboard. I just didn’t expect this kind of domination.
Only seven times has a Dodger pitcher had a game score of eighty or greater at AT&T Park, and Clayton Kershaw has done it six times. I would not have bet on Odalis Perez being the only other Dodger to accomplish this.
Player Date Rslt IP H R BB SO GSc Clayton Kershaw 2015-09-29 W 8-0 9.0 1 0 1 13 97 Clayton Kershaw 2011-07-20 W 1-0 8.0 3 0 1 12 87 Odalis Perez 2004-04-16 W 3-2 8.0 2 0 1 10 87 Clayton Kershaw 2014-07-26 W 5-0 9.0 3 0 1 7 87 Clayton Kershaw 2012-07-29 W 4-0 9.0 5 0 1 7 83 Clayton Kershaw 2010-09-14 W 1-0 9.0 4 0 0 4 83 Clayton Kershaw 2011-09-09 W 2-1 8.0 3 1 1 9 82
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Generated 4/27/2018.
Clayton Kershaw doing his WAL look
When Clayton Kershaw cruised through the first inning with three strikeouts you could understand why no-hitter, perfect game, a legendary game were coursing through Dodger fan minds. When a line drive bounced off of Kiké’s glove I even shouted you ruined a perfect game even though it was the second inning. Other fans behind me echoed the same thought. He had looked that good in the first inning.
Little did we suspect that two hours later, Clayton Kershaw would exit with one of the wildest games of his career. Clayton walked six Marlins in just five innings. Only ten times in his career has he walked at least five. Only three times has he walked six. The last time was in 2010. And it wasn’t just the walks when the Marlins made contact they hit the ball hard. Very hard.
Date Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc 2018-04-25 L 6-8 5.0 5 3 6 7 46 2009-08-03 L 5-6 4.0 4 3 6 6 42 2010-04-07 L 3-4 4.2 5 3 6 4 40 2010-08-22 L 2-5 7.0 5 3 5 11 61 2010-06-04 W 5-4 6.2 5 3 5 8 53 2010-04-13 W 9-5 5.1 3 2 5 7 56 2012-09-23 W 5-3 5.0 5 1 5 5 53 2011-04-16 L 2-9 4.2 6 5 5 5 32 2009-07-01 W 1-0 5.0 1 0 5 5 65 2009-07-12 W 7-4 6.0 2 1 5 4 63
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Generated 4/26/2018.
Game of juxtapositions
This game was supposed to be about the HOF bound postseason veteran pitcher dominating the young kid who had never been West of Oklahoma. For one inning it played that way, as the HOF bound pitcher struck out the side on twelve pitches. From that point on though the HOF looked like a rookie pitcher missing his spots more time than not and left the game behind 3 – 0 when it easily could have been six or seven to nothing.
The rookie pitcher, the kid who was in indy ball at this point last year, the kid who never been West of Oklahoma looked like he was the one bound for the HOF. This kid struck out ten Dodgers in a fourteen out outing. He had only one walk headed into the fourth inning when he struck out two, and walked two, and was replaced with two on and two out. The Dodgers failed to score and his final tally read fourteen outs, one hit, zero earned runs, three walks, and ten strikeouts.
To further complicate this game, the Dodgers had the 2016 ROY at shortstop. The Dodgers had the shortstop who came in third in MVP voting in 2016. The Dodgers had the shortstop who came in seventeenth in MVP voting in 2017. The Marlins had a shortstop who was a glove-first guy, a throw-in, in the Dee Gordon deal, a guy who was only starting because the Marlin starting shortstop has been hurt all year.
The Dodgers shortstop had one of the worst games of his young career. He would weekly make outs four times before finally getting a single in the 9th. He would strike out twice. He would make two costly blunders in the 9th. One was a simply throwing error, the second was falling down on a simple fly ball. I’ve seen many senior softball players fall down on that play, I haven’t seen many major league shortstops with the athleticism of the Dodger shortstop fall down on that simply play. Those plays were key in the Marlins scoring two unearned runs in the 9th. Which turned out to be important given the Dodgers managed to score three runs in the 9th and only lose by those two runs.
The Marlin shortstop, the glove-first guy, had the big blow of the game for the Marlins against the HOF bound pitcher. That pitcher had wiggled out of trouble in the 2nd, 3rd, and fourth and was one out away from doing it again when the shortstop slugged a mistake down the foul line and off the pole.
This is the kind of game that stop gamblers from betting on baseball. Everything was in the Dodgers favor. Everything. They still lost.
Dan Hudson took the hard road
In a quiet move on April 2nd, the Dodgers signed free agent pitcher Daniel Hudson after Hudson had been released by Tampa on March 28th. You might have wondered why the Dodgers would take on a pitcher that a pitching-poor team like Tampa could not find a spot for on their major league roster.
You could have wondered the same thing when the Dodgers signed JT Chargois after the Twins inexplicably took him off their 40 man roster and allowed him to be made available to all of baseball. We now know the answer to that. The Twins front office was not smart about Chargois and the Dodger front office was. His stuff plays, he may not be great but he certainly is a major league pitcher.
The same can be said of Dan Hudson. He is a long cry from his days before multiple TJ surgeries but he is still a major league pitcher. The Dodgers ultimately decided they liked what they had in Hudson over Wilmer Font. Hudson now has to prove he can be more valuable to the team, than Kimi Garcia who is rounding into shape in Oklahoma.
He took a baby step in that direction last night with a flawless inning. Hudson has to manage the walks and last night pitched a clean inning.
Hudson may not last long in the Dodger bullpen, the odds are against it, but considering his road, I’m rooting for him to be a difference maker.
Tommy John surgery. Elbow tears again.
Another Tommy John surgery. Almost three years to get back.
Thrives. Gets paid.
Struggles. Gets traded.
Cut. Goes to the minors.
Daniel Hudson has been through a lot. So to see him punch out two in his Dodgers debut — that was cool.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 25, 2018
I’ve always been a fan of Dan Hudson. You can never tell why I take a liking to certain players but Dan Hudson was one of them and it is always pleasing when those players end up on the Dodgers. I think Jimmy Wynn was the first of these players, Chase Utley continued the trend, and Dan Hudson is the latest.
I may have to come up with a column on all the players I’ve liked before they were Dodgers.
Dodger alarm clock fails to go off
On Dodger Alarm Clock giveaway day, the Dodger offense played little heed to the numerous alarms going off throughout the stadium and instead stayed in their “somnambulant” sleep.
SOMEONE AROUSE THE SOMNAMBULANT OFFENSE!!!
— David Young the Elder (@DavidYoungTBLA) April 25, 2018
The Dodgers are treating the Marlins pitchers as though they are facing Randy Glavine and Frank Viola, two crafty lefthanders who bedeviled hitters for most of their careers. I’m pretty sure that Garcia and Peters are not that good and that the offense is simply sputtering.
Kiké couldn’t save the offense today and the bullpen gave away the meager runs that they were able to produce. Kenta did his job for six innings giving up just the solo home run to Realmuto. Daniel Hudson making his Dodger debut pitched a perfect seventh with two strikeouts. Tony Cingrani, however, did something he hadn’t done all year and gave up a run. You can blame the balk but the run scored. Pedro Baez than gave away the game. It happens, when you only score two runs a game, you are working with a thin margin for victory.
At some point, Corey Seager has to start hitting the ball with some authority as he has been a big part of the successful Dodger offense over the past two years. Chris Taylor needs to get on base at a better clip, and Puig needs to start being productive, but the real problem has been 3rd base. It is not surprising given the Dodgers best hitter was our 3rd baseman yet it was expected that Logan Forsythe would produce some offense, and it was realistic to expect the other options to at least have some production but the combination of Forsythe, Muncy, and Farmer have been the worst producers at 3rd base in all of baseball. When a position on your team can only put up a .150 / .225 / .263 triple stat line after twenty-two games you have a huge problem.
Split PA BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP as C 99 .310 .414 .512 .926 43 3 as 1B 100 .253 .310 .418 .728 38 2 as 2B 92 .221 .337 .325 .662 25 1 as 3B 89 .150 .225 .263 .487 21 3 as SS 104 .278 .356 .444 .800 40 2 as LF 93 .244 .323 .402 .725 33 1 as CF 105 .245 .286 .469 .755 46 2 as RF 98 .233 .286 .289 .575 26 2 as P 47 .095 .116 .095 .212 4 0 as PH 50 .326 .420 .442 .862 19 0 as Infield 484 .244 .331 .396 .726 167 11 as Outfield 296 .241 .297 .389 .686 105 5
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Generated 4/25/2018.
Kiké does it all
The night was supposed to belong to the debut of Walker Buehler but it took Kiké to bring home a Dodger victory. Walker did his part, getting fifteen outs, looking filthy at times, looking ragged at times (walking the pitcher) but I’m not sure his final line would have looked so inviting if hadn’t had Kiké playing shortstop behind him.
The Kiké game:
Goes to his left makes an outstanding play to take a hit away.
Goes further to his left, makes an outstanding play to take a hit away.
Comes up with the game tied and the pitcher throwing a no-hitter and hits a bomb into the left-field pavilion giving the Dodgers a one-run lead
With the game tied and a runner at 2nd, lays down such a great bunt he beats it out giving the Dodgers a runner at 3rd with no outs. Very important he beat the bunt out because if he does not the runner is at 3rd with one out. Corey Seager struck out and thus the fly ball by Bellinger that gave the Dodgers the winning run would not have scored if he had not beaten the bunt out.
Corey Seager made his own web-gem after Kiké had moved to left field. It was quite a defensive game for the Dodgers shortstops.
The Dodgers have now won seven of eight as the schedule allowed them to play the Padres and Marlins with the Nationals sandwiched between. They need to beat these type of teams, and that is what they are doing.
The best part of the game today was Kiké because he needs to create a future for himself, while Walker already seems to have his future well in hand. It easy to imagine Walker Buehler showing up in Sept as a dominant setup man and carrying that into October. I didn’t think he was ready last year for that role, this year I think he is. That is assuming of course that the rotation stays healthy enough that he’s not needed there except for the spot starts.
Ramon Martinez No Hitter sits on top of this leaderboard.
The best game against the Marlins at Dodger Stadium by game score belongs to Ramon Martinez who hurled a no-hitter against the Florida Marlins back on July 14th, 1995. I, however, would pick the Hideo Nomo seventeen strikeout game as my favorite. Curious that of the six game scores that were 80 or more, three of them occurred in 1995/1996.
Not surprising the only active pitcher on this list is Clayton Kershaw. Nomo is the only pitcher on the list twice.
Player Date Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc Ramon Martinez 1995-07-14 FLA W 7-0 9.0 0 0 1 8 94 Clayton Kershaw 2011-05-29 FLA W 8-0 9.0 2 0 1 10 92 Hideo Nomo 1996-04-13 FLA W 3-1 9.0 3 1 3 17 91 Hideo Nomo 1995-07-15 FLA W 3-1 9.0 3 1 0 10 87 Kevin Brown 2001-05-07 FLA W 1-0 8.0 2 0 2 10 86 Pedro Astacio 1993-09-12 FLA W 1-0 9.0 5 0 2 7 82
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Generated 4/23/2018.
Ryu and Padres lead Dodgers back to respectability
The Dodgers started the week 5 – 9 and in last place in the NL West. They ended it 10 – 10 winning five of six games, and Hyun-Jin Ryu was a big reason why. Ryu got the Dodger week started on the right foot by winning Tuesday night. That was a win that even Wilmer Font could have produced since the Dodger offense exploded for ten runs. The big win, however, came this Saturday when Ryu outdueled Steve Strasburg pitching the Dodgers to a 4 – 0 victory. Coming right after Max Scherzer had shut down the Dodger offense and beat Clayton Kershaw the outstanding game by Ryu couldn’t have come at a more critical time. Ryu has made three straight scintillating starts and right now is pitching better than anyone else in the rotation. For a guy who was supposed to be the weak link in the rotation, Ryu has instead shown why the Dodger rotation is still the best in baseball.
Date Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc IR
Apr10 OAK W4-0 6.0 1 0 1 8 77
Apr16 SDP W10-3 6.0 3 2 0 9 67
Apr21 WSN W4-0 7.0 2 0 3 8 78
3-1 22.2 11 5 9 27 65
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Generated 4/23/2018.
Enough can’t be said about how the Padres helped the Dodgers out. The Padres have some young talent, their minor league system is bubbling with outstanding prospects but none of that talent is currently in the major league rotation and the Dodger offense was able to take advantage scoring thirty runs in just three games against the beleaguered Padre pitching staff. All this spring I had been hearing about the ultra prospects Fernando Tatis Junior and Luis Urias, but in this series, they showed off two talents in Christian Villanueva and Franchy Cordero who surprised me. It is easy to write off Villaneuva as a fluke but he was very impressive to me and just might be their 3rd baseman of the future right now. Franchy not only has the best first name in baseball but he also might be the real deal for them, giving them someone to help setup the table for Hosmer along with Margot. The rotation, however, is punchable, and the Dodgers knocked them out each game.
The offensive leader for the week using fangraphs wOBA and wRC+ metrics was surprise.
…………………………………………….Kiké Hernandez…………………………………………..
| Name | PA | wOBA | wRC+ | HR | OBP | SLG | R | RBI | AVG |
| Enrique Hernandez | 13 | 0.571 | 275 | 1 | 0.538 | 0.818 | 3 | 2 | 0.455 |
| Matt Kemp | 14 | 0.489 | 220 | 2 | 0.357 | 0.846 | 3 | 6 | 0.385 |
| Yasmani Grandal | 29 | 0.461 | 201 | 1 | 0.448 | 0.625 | 5 | 11 | 0.333 |
| Corey Seager | 30 | 0.407 | 164 | 0 | 0.433 | 0.5 | 5 | 4 | 0.333 |
| Joc Pederson | 17 | 0.403 | 162 | 1 | 0.412 | 0.5 | 5 | 2 | 0.286 |
| Cody Bellinger | 28 | 0.375 | 142 | 1 | 0.357 | 0.542 | 7 | 4 | 0.25 |
| Chris Taylor | 30 | 0.327 | 110 | 0 | 0.333 | 0.407 | 5 | 0 | 0.259 |
| Kyle Farmer | 10 | 0.318 | 104 | 0 | 0.4 | 0.375 | 0 | 2 | 0.25 |
| Chase Utley | 16 | 0.299 | 91 | 0 | 0.375 | 0.308 | 2 | 2 | 0.231 |
| Austin Barnes | 6 | 0.27 | 72 | 0 | 0.333 | 0.2 | 2 | 0 | 0.2 |
| Max Muncy | 16 | 0.245 | 55 | 1 | 0.25 | 0.357 | 2 | 2 | 0.143 |
| Yasiel Puig | 23 | 0.216 | 35 | 0 | 0.261 | 0.19 | 1 | 2 | 0.19 |
Yeah, I thought it was going to be Matt Kemp or Yazmani Grandal. Complete shocker. Of course Grandal had twice as many plate appearances so he certainly had more of an impact on the week. Everyone but Chase Utley, Puig, and Barnes enjoyed an above average week.
Somehow Joc Pederson had more at-bats than Matt Kemp. Joc hit a home run on his birthday and had his best week of the young season. The two-headed leftfielders put up some great numbers for the week. I can’t say I’m a big fan of how Dave Roberts is currently using Matt and Joc but I also have to admit it is kind of working. For a week anyway. Joc hitting a home run off of Strasburg was way more impressive than Matt Kemp hitting two home runs against the Padre pitchers. Yeah, it was.
Max Muncy won the bat flip of the week with his first home run as a Dodger. He looked like someone who had been doing this for a while not someone who had just hit his first Dodger league home run and only his sixth major league home run at the age of 27. Muncy also made the surprise defensive play of the week when he backhanded a ball that carried him into foul territory and fired a bullet to nab the runner. I was not expecting him to be that nimble but what I really didn’t expect was the arm. I doubt Max will be around long but he’s been fun to watch even though he hasn’t done much with the bat since that home run.
If it seems like the bullpen outside of Jansen and Alexander had a fantastic week, it is because they did. The Dodgers used nine pitchers out of the bullpen this week and six of the nine got thirty-seven outs without giving up any runs. Cingrani and Liberatore led the left-hand crew by recording 16 outs, eight by strikeout, just one walk, and just zero hits. Scott Alexander might be the one heading to AAA instead of Liberatore who looks like the guy from 2016.
Jansen was at his worst last Tuesday blowing another save, but looks to have turned things around this weekend. He’s still not the Jansen we know and love but at least he’s getting outs and stopped walking folk.
It was a good week, and now the Dodgers get the Miami Marlins whose rotation could easily be replaced by the Dodgers AAA rotation.
And I mean that seriously.
Connor can do no wrong
The week was filled with fantastic performances by Dodger prospects including Connor Wong but the weekly Farm Factory Award is being rewarded to Dennis Santana for striking out eight consecutive hitters in route to striking out ten of the fifteen hitters he faced.
Dennis is 3rd in the Texas League in strikeouts with 23, and is also 3rd in WHIP at .79.
David Hood did a lengthy scouting report on the game over at truebluela.
It took a pitching performance like the one Santana provided to keep Connor Wong from winning the weekly Farm Factory Award. Connor went six for twelve with three home runs. He hit two home runs on this Sunday, and two home runs last Sunday. He’s hit five home runs in his last sixteen at-bats.
As of right now on April 22nd, 2018, Connor Wong leads the California League in RBI, home runs, total bases, Slugg%, and OPS. I put the little chart down below so you can see just how far in front he is OPS. A .300 point OPS lead is crazy even if we are only 50 at-bats into the season.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the strikeouts. Connor has struck out 20 times in only 48 at-bats. So………Connor has seven singles, four doubles, and eight home runs and has struck out 20 times. Which means that 19 times that Connor has made contact he’s turned it into a hit. Probably not sustainable.
| NAME | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | OBP | SLG | AVG | OPS |
| Connor Wong | 48 | 16 | 19 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 17 | 5 | 20 | 0.463 | 0.979 | 0.396 | 1.442 |
| Bryson Brigman | 53 | 10 | 22 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 0.492 | 0.66 | 0.415 | 1.152 |
| Buddy Reed | 63 | 13 | 26 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 2 | 16 | 0.431 | 0.698 | 0.413 | 1.129 |
Other outstanding perfermances this week.
Tulsa Driller Yusniel Diaz showed up this week and went seven for thirteen plus two walks in his first games played in 2018. The last time we saw Yusniel he was tearing up AA in August of 2017. He picked right up where he left off. The Dodger top outfielders in AAA are both left-handed in Verdugo and Toles. In AA they are both right-handed in Diaz and Peters.
Tulsa Driller Drew Jackson hit in every game last week and now has an eleven game hitting streak.
Oklahoma keystone combo Tim Locastro and Donovan Solano are both hitting .380. Tim Locastro also hit in every game last week but he did it a little more spectacularly with nine hits in twenty-four at-bats along plus four walks. The difference between the two is that Solano is 30 years old and already has over 1,000 at-bats in the major leagues.
Rancho 3rd baseman Rylan Bannan hit three home runs in one game and added another on Sunday to give him four home runs for the week.
Rancho pitcher Dean Kremer struck out eight of his fifteen outs. In his last three starts Kremer has struck out twenty-two, with only two walks, in fourteen innings
Pitching in relief for the Great Lake Loons, Zach Pop struck out six of the eight hitters he faced.
HOF Don Sutton is on top of this LAD leaderboard
The best game ever pitched at Dodger Stadium against the Expo/National baseball franchise using game score as the criteria was performed by HOF Don Sutton back in 1975. Don had to throw 11 innings to get that game score of 89.
Clayton Kershaw and Derek Lowe are the only two LAD who have produced a game score >= 80 against the Washington Nationals.
There are no unlikely names on this list as every one of these pitchers were all solid pitchers for the Dodgers. Sutton, Messersmith, Fernando, Leary, Reuss, Kershaw, Lowe, Rau, Hooten, and Astacio.
Remember the franchise didn’t come into existence until 1969 so Koufax, Drysdale and company never got a shot to pitch against them.
Player Date Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc Don Sutton 1975-08-24 MON L 3-5 11.0 4 1 3 9 89 Andy Messersmith 1975-06-09 MON W 4-0 9.0 4 0 3 12 88 Fernando Valenzuela 1986-05-20 MON W 4-0 9.0 2 0 1 6 88 Tim Leary 1988-08-21 MON W 4-0 9.0 6 0 0 12 87 Jerry Reuss 1982-07-20 MON W 10-1 9.0 4 0 0 8 85 Doug Rau 1979-05-11 MON W 7-0 9.0 1 0 4 4 85 Clayton Kershaw 2013-05-14 WSN W 2-0 8.2 5 0 1 11 84 Clayton Kershaw 2015-08-12 WSN W 3-0 8.0 3 0 0 8 84 Orel Hershiser 1988-08-19 MON W 2-0 9.0 5 0 1 8 84 Orel Hershiser 1985-09-03 MON W 4-0 9.0 4 0 1 6 84 Tim Leary 1988-05-19 MON W 2-0 9.0 7 0 0 10 83 Derek Lowe 2008-07-26 WSN W 6-0 8.0 1 0 1 4 83 Andy Messersmith 1974-04-26 MON W 7-1 9.0 3 1 3 7 81 Jerry Reuss 1980-08-31(1) MON W 2-0 9.0 4 0 1 3 81 Burt Hooton 1978-08-28 MON W 4-0 9.0 4 0 1 3 81 Pedro Astacio 1994-07-05 MON W 2-1 8.0 2 1 2 8 80 Don Sutton 1978-06-18 MON W 5-0 9.0 6 0 1 6 80
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Generated 4/21/2018.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 