Remember when the Dodgers never lost if they scored four runs?
The Dodgers lost two games in April when they scored four runs or more.
The Dodgers lost four games in May when they scored four runs or more.
The Dodger lost one game in June when they scored four runs or more.
They lost zero games in July when they scored four runs or more.
The Dodgers have lost two games in August when they have scored four runs or more.
See anything interesting?
| Gm# | Date | Opp | W/L | R | RA | |
| 17 | Friday, Apr 21 | @ | ARI | L | 5 | 13 |
| 18 | Saturday, Apr 22 | @ | ARI | L | 5 | 11 |
| 35 | Thursday, May 11 | @ | COL | L | 7 | 10 |
| 38 | Sunday, May 14 | @ | COL | L | 6 | 9 |
| 39 | Monday, May 15 | @ | SFG | L | 4 | 8 |
| 44 | Saturday, May 20 | MIA | L | 6 | 10 | |
| 67 | Thursday, Jun 15 | @ | CLE | L | 5 | 12 |
| 130 | Tuesday, Aug 29 | @ | ARI | L | 6 | 7 |
| 131 | Wednesday, Aug 30 | @ | ARI | L | 4 | 6 |
How about that the Diamondbacks were the team who beat them both times in April when they scored four runs or more, and are the same team to do the trick twice in August?
The Dodgers are 75 – 9 when they score four runs or more, they are 75 – 5 against everyone but the Diamondbacks when they score four runs or more. They have one loss at home when they score four runs or more.
For those who want to panic, as you can see from the schedule the Dodgers were outscored in Arizona 24 – 10 in those two games. The Dodger record on April 22nd was 8 – 10. It is now 91 – 40.
Don’t panic.
Route 66 has a quirky problem
Jeff Sullivan was the man for the job. I had just visited Fangraphs and couldn’t figure out why Puig had such a low fWAR for a man having his season.
Yasiel Puig rates as one of the worst baserunners in baseball.
This didn’t make much sense until I remembered that for some reason hitting into double plays is calculated as part of the base running stat. We know he’s hitting into more double plays than he ever has, but he also ranks as one of the worst baserunners when he does get on base.
Jeff goes through this quite thoroughly and based on his information I’m going to go with the fact that Puig has simply been extremely unlucky this year.
At least the eye test with Puig on defense is holding up. Not one regular right fielder in the NL has a positive defensive fWAR number except for Puig. Puig is a 5.5, the closest RF in the NL is …… Curtis Granderson at -.50.
How about them apples?
Ok, now about the whole double play being part of a baserunning stat. I don’t get it. If you don’t get credit for being able to hit with runners on base (RBI), why would you get dinged because the hard ground ball you hit, turned into a double play?
Diamondbacks look like a post season team
It is funny how circumstances change so rapidly in this game. A year ago there was no team more disappointing than the Diamondbacks who won only 69 games. It is only August 30th, and they have already won 74 games. From a laughingstock to a bonafide contender in one winter.
In a normal year, Arizona would be battling for the Western Division. They currently have a .561 winning percentage, and the Dodgers won the division last year with a .562 winning percentage. They just picked a bad year to have a good year but they can take solace in that they should control their own destiny if they want to play in the play-in game.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I expected the Diamondbacks to take control of the wild card race and that seems to be happening. They have won five in a row and now have a two game lead on the Rockies and a six game lead over the Brewers.
The team has it all, good hitting, good power, good starting pitching, and even a good bullpen. With Robbie Ray back, and Patrick Corbin pitching like he did before his TJ surgery they have a staff that can match anyone in a postseason series along with an ace in Greinke that can take the ball in a play – in game.
Bellinger’s back
It turns out that Adrian Gonzalez is not an adequate replacement for Cody Bellinger. I was wrong on Adrian, I had hoped that Adrian would show that with his back somewhat healed he could once again provide some butter and eggs but instead he has looked very much like the same player who displayed an anemic bat before hitting the disabled list.
Adrian has had a couple of good swings, but for the most part, he’s been horrible.
Split PA 2B HR RBI BA OBP SLG OPS April/March 96 5 0 10 .259 .337 .318 .654 May 55 4 1 10 .269 .273 .404 .677 June 31 2 0 3 .214 .258 .286 .544 August 45 3 1 4 .190 .222 .333 .556
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/30/2017.
When Cody returns tonight, Dave Roberts has said that he is his first baseman so while Adrian may see a start or two, at this point, it looks like he is going to be a bench player most of the time.
Cody has some work to do if he wants to catch Frank Robinson and set the NL rookie home run record. Cody has not homered since August 12, and sure he hasn’t played since August 19th, but he hasn’t had many spells of five games without a home run. At 34 he still needs one to tie Mike Piazza for the LAD rookie home run record.
Fontastic
Wilmer Font completed his amazing regular season in AAA with a flourish, pitching six shutout innings. Font finished the game with six innings, three hits, zero runs, one walk, and eight strikeouts.
Font will surely be the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year finishing the year 2nd in ERA with those above 100 innings (3.24), first in strikeouts with 178, first in SO/9 at 11.9, first in SO/BB ratio with at least 100 innings (5.9), first in WHIP with at least 100 innings at 1.10.
Font did it all this year but could not break into the Dodger rotation. We have no idea what we have in Font but he’ll get a shot at the major leagues somewhere next year.
The Dodgers are gunning for a World Championship so may not have the roster space or the time to reward Font for his season with a few starts this Sept, that is understandable, but he deserves some kind of reward for having himself quite a season.
Can Stanton lead Marlins into the postseason?
Giancarlo Stanton for me epitomises what an MVP player is. He is taking a team that has no business having any postseason aspirations and placed them on his shoulders as he tries to carry a load that no mere mortal could handle.
Split PA HR RBI OBP SLG OPS April/March 100 7 16 .350 .529 .879 May 115 7 21 .348 .579 .927 June 112 7 13 .357 .516 .873 July 113 12 23 .407 .731 1.138 August 110 17 35 .482 1.000 1.482
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/28/2017.
Don Mattingly was trying to give credit to other members of the team such as Dee Gordon.
Gordon’s ability to reach has put teams in a tough spot, because it makes it more difficult to pitch around the slugger.
“Dee is the key to that,” manager Don Mattingly said. “Dee getting on base changes things. You have to pay a little bit of attention to him. G’s been able to take advantage of that.”
and for a second I bought into that. Until I checked the splits for Gordon for August. That OBP of .303 isn’t doing much setting up. But I will say the just about every time Dee does manage to get on on-base, he is scoring. Dee has reached base thirty times in August and scored twenty-three runs. For context, Chris Taylor has reached base thirty-six times in August and scored 50% of the time with eighteen runs.
Don Mattingly moved Stanton to the number two hole and the results speak for themselves.
Split PA HR RBI OBP SLG OPS Batting 2nd 364 39 78 .420 .751 1.171 Batting 4th 155 11 29 .335 .565 .901 Batting 5th 28 0 1 .321 .346 .668
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/28/2017.
Batting order may not mean much but for Giancarlo Stanton, they mean the difference between being an MVP and simply being great. For this move alone you could consider giving Don Mattingly the Manager of the Year award if the Marlins make the postseason.
Speaking about the postseason, at the break the Marlins were 41 – 46 and lost five of the first six after the break to put them at 42-50. Since that time they are 24 – 13 and with 66 wins are now 4.5 games back of the Rockies for the 2nd wild card. That is still a ways to go but they do have a soft schedule coming up. Still, the odds are high they will not make the postseason but for the first time in a long time, I would have no problem giving my MVP vote to a player on a team who did not make the postseason.
It isn’t just Stanton, but he is the biggest part of the Marlin resurgence. The Marlin outfield is playing like the best outfield in baseball. And when Dee Gordon does run, he has learned to pick his spots. Dee is 8 of 9 in SB in August and 46/10 for the season. Ex-Dodger AJ Ellis is having a nice August as All-Star Realmuto struggles, and Miguel Rojas has been the starting SS for most of the month.
Player Split Year HR PA OBP SLG OPS Giancarlo Stanton August 2017 17 110 .482 1.000 1.482 Christian Yelich August 2017 3 105 .381 .478 .859 Marcell Ozuna August 2017 7 103 .408 .575 .982 Dee Gordon August 2017 0 100 .303 .316 .619 J.T. Realmuto August 2017 4 96 .208 .360 .568 Derek Dietrich August 2017 3 95 .400 .506 .906 Miguel Rojas August 2017 0 88 .295 .278 .574 Tomas Telis August 2017 0 55 .273 .314 .586 Tyler Moore August 2017 0 49 .229 .267 .496 Mike Aviles August 2017 0 36 .353 .355 .708 A.J. Ellis August 2017 2 28 .357 .429 .786 Ichiro Suzuki August 2017 1 23 .391 .500 .891
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/28/2017.
Other crazy baseball notes.
Rhys Hoskins is eclipsing all of the records that Cody Bellinger set earlier in the year. Hoskins hit his 11th home run yesterday, in just his 18th game. For good measure, he started a triple play yesterday.
Hoskins has homered in eight of his last nine games. The only game in which he didn’t hit a home run came in the nightcap of a doubleheader, so he’s actually hit a home run in eight straight days that the Phillies have played a game.
For the rest of us under the age of 50, it may simply be enough to know that even if we’re having a particularly bad day, statistically speaking things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.
Evidently, my happiness is supposed to be on the upswing.
The Chicken runs at midnight
The pressure to take over for one of the greatest voices in baseball history had to be daunting, I’m sure some would not even make the attempt, Dodger fans should consider themselves lucky that Joe Davis decided to uproot his Midwestern family and take them West.
This weekend has given Joe plenty of fodder to tell his stories, the same kind of stories that were a staple of Vin but I have to say, Joe’s sometimes go just a little bit deeper into the emotional bailiwick. By the time Joe finished with his “the chicken runs at midnight” story of Rich Donnelly / his daughter Amy / Craig Counsel, he had my complete attention. Which was pretty amazing given that I had been napping and woke up in the middle of the story and as he kept saying Rich, I thought he was talking about Rich Hill. When I realized it was not Rich Hill, I rewound the DVR to the beginning of the story. This was a long story, and I realized that Joe may have waited until Pedro Baez had taken the mound to tell the story so that he knew he’d have time to get it in.
I may have read or heard the story before, print but I had never heard it with such timing.
If I was going to attempt to tell that story, my voice would have choked up and given it all away, but Joe was able to keep his composure as he told a story that surely brought a tear to many of those who listened.
My wife loves Joe’s stories but she was taking a nap, so I put the game on pause so she could hear this one. When she hears it, I expect she will say to me once again, “that Joe Davis is really good”, and I’ll nod again in affirmation.
Thanks, Joe.
If you didn’t get to hear Joe tell his story, this ESPN story gives it quite a telling. I know many of you don’t click on the provided links, but you should click on this one.
Kershaw takes the mound in AAA
With many familiar faces taking the field with him.
Trayce Thompson is in CF
Andre Ethier is in LF
Rob Segedin is at 3B
Joc Pederson is at DH
Charlie Culberson is at SS
With only Andre doing rehab work it just shows how hard it is, to stay in the major leagues after you have made it. Even someone like Joc Pederson who thought he was done with AAA unless it was in a rehab situation is going to find it hard to find a place on the Dodger 25 man roster.
Andre seems guaranteed to make the team when the rosters are expanded in September, but who else will?
Is there any spot for last years Vin Scully game hero Charlie Culberson? Or do they simply reward him for being a good guy and sticking out the whole season at AAA?
Same could be said for Justin Masterson.
Hard to say Trayce Thompson has earned the right. Or Segedin.
Will be awkward for Joc given he not only lost his starting job but any job at all.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 