Dodger record without Kershaw is insane
In 2016, Clayton Kershaw the best pitcher during the regular season in the universe went on the DL after making a start on June 26th. The Dodger record was 41-36. When Clayton Kershaw made his next start on Sept 9th,2016 the Dodger record was 79-60.
The Dodger record without Clayton Kershaw in 2016 was 38-14.
In 2017, Clayton Kershaw the best pitcher during the regular season in the universe went on the DL after making his last start on July 23rd. Clayton would go two innings, the Dodgers would win putting their record at 68 – 31. They have gone 11 – 1 since that game for a record of 79 – 32.
The Dodger record without Clayton Kershaw so far in 2017 is 11 – 1
Overall, the Dodgers are 49 – 15 with out Clayton Kershaw over the past two years.
Amazing
Possible NLDS Preview
The Dodgers are in Phoenix facing the team they most likely will face in the NLDS. The Diamondbacks reached their potential one year too late to save the job of Dave Stewart but they are now playing at the level expected in 2016.
This is a good team with great balance between the hitting and pitching. Fangraphs has them ranked 6th in the NL in hitting. They have a legit MVP candidate in Paul Goldschmidt, a decent robin in Jake Lamb, a johnny come lately in JD Martinez, and some pesky minions in Peralta and Pollock.
They have suffered several injuries, one that ended the season for shortstop Chris Owings, utility infielder Nick Ahmed is out until late August, and the other to Yazmani Tomas who will be out until late August.
The replacement for Chris Owings was Ketal Marte who might be better anyway.
JD Martinez was the big deadline acquisition replacing Tomas in the outfield. ESPN made a point of saying that JD Martinez may have been added simply to beat the Dodgers in a short series. At one time it looked like the Dodgers would throw only left handed starters in the postseason but the acquisition of Yu Darvish changes all of that up. Sure JD Martinez is crushing LHP in 2017. He is eating them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner but he only has 50 PA against them in 2017. In 2016 his OPS against LHP was only .861 in over 100 PA. I don’t say .861 lightly. That is good, but that isn’t someone who destroys LHP. His career OPS against LHP is .896. Again that is good but heck, Kiké Hernadez has an OPS against LHP of .962 in 2017. And………..Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill, Alex Wood, and Ryu are not the normal left-hand pitchers he would have been beating up in the AL.
JD Martinez was a good addition for the Diamondbacks but he is no Chris Taylor.
| Name | wOBA | wRC+ | WAR |
| Paul Goldschmidt | 0.426 | 159 | 5.2 |
| Jake Lamb | 0.373 | 124 | 2.4 |
| David Peralta | 0.349 | 109 | 1.9 |
| A.J. Pollock | 0.344 | 105 | 1.2 |
| Brandon Drury | 0.326 | 94 | 1.1 |
| Chris Iannetta | 0.328 | 94 | 0.8 |
| Ketel Marte | 0.348 | 108 | 0.5 |
| Chris Owings | 0.313 | 85 | 0.5 |
| J.D. Martinez | 0.383 | 131 | 0.4 |
| Nick Ahmed | 0.3 | 76 | 0.3 |
| Yasmany Tomas | 0.319 | 89 | 0.3 |
| Gregor Blanco | 0.318 | 88 | 0.3 |
| Daniel Descalso | 0.321 | 90 | 0.3 |
| Jeff Mathis | 0.27 | 57 | 0 |
| Rey Fuentes | 0.27 | 57 | -0.1 |
| Chris Herrmann | 0.256 | 47 | -1.1 |
The pitching has been great, 2nd best only to the Dodgers in the NL. The rotation is second best only to the Dodgers in the NL. The bullpen is second best only to the Dodgers in the NL.
Robbie Ray is a strikeout machine but he took a ball off the noggin the other day and won’t pitch in the Dodger series. The Dodgers will face the two Zack’s and Walker. It will be the three best pitchers the Dodgers have faced in weeks. For the first time since July 4th-6th they will be facing a competitive team. In case you forgot, the Dodgers swept the Diamondbacks, winning each game by one run.
Going into the season I felt the back end of the bullpen would be their undoing unless they fixed it but Fernando Rodney continues to generate save after save. Strangely he has only pitched six innings in the last 30 days. Archie Bradley has been the main savior for the bullpen, he has pitched in 41 games and only been scored upon in seven of them. The only help they got was re-acquiring David Hernandez. The numbers say they don’t need any help, but I still can’t bet on a team leaning this heavily on Fernando Rodney in the postseason. If the Diamondbacks fail to make the NLDS I’m going to bet that Fernando had something to do with it in the play-in game against the Rockies.
| Name | WAR | GS | IP | K/9 | BB/9 | ERA | FIP | xFIP |
| Zack Greinke | 3.6 | 22 | 142.1 | 9.93 | 1.71 | 3.1 | 3.24 | 3.19 |
| Zack Godley | 2.6 | 15 | 94.1 | 9.16 | 2.77 | 2.86 | 2.98 | 3.21 |
| Robbie Ray | 2.1 | 20 | 118.2 | 11.45 | 4.4 | 3.11 | 3.89 | 3.88 |
| Taijuan Walker | 1.9 | 18 | 105 | 8.4 | 3.09 | 3.6 | 3.84 | 4.22 |
| Patrick Corbin | 1.6 | 23 | 128.2 | 8.74 | 2.73 | 4.76 | 4.38 | 3.88 |
| Archie Bradley | 1.6 | 0 | 49.2 | 10.33 | 1.81 | 1.45 | 2.29 | 2.87 |
| Randall Delgado | 1.2 | 5 | 62.2 | 8.62 | 2.01 | 3.59 | 3.14 | 3.52 |
| Fernando Rodney | 0.9 | 0 | 36.2 | 11.29 | 4.91 | 4.66 | 3.06 | 3.86 |
| Andrew Chafin | 0.7 | 0 | 38.1 | 11.03 | 3.29 | 2.58 | 2.8 | 2.76 |
| Jake Barrett | 0.2 | 0 | 12.2 | 9.95 | 3.55 | 0.71 | 3.14 | 4.08 |
| Anthony Banda | 0.2 | 2 | 11.2 | 9.26 | 3.09 | 3.86 | 3.48 | 4.66 |
| David Hernandez | 0.2 | 0 | 2.1 | 7.71 | 0 | 0 | 1.43 | 2.95 |
| T.J. McFarland | 0 | 0 | 39.1 | 4.81 | 2.52 | 3.66 | 4.39 | 4.24 |
| J.J. Hoover | 0 | 0 | 28 | 12.86 | 6.11 | 4.82 | 4.75 | 4.33 |
| Braden Shipley | 0 | 2 | 11.1 | 7.15 | 7.94 | 6.35 | 5.35 | 6.71 |
| Daniel Descalso | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.14 | 8.48 |
| Jorge de la Rosa | -0.1 | 0 | 41 | 7.24 | 3.73 | 4.17 | 4.75 | 4.76 |
| Silvino Bracho | -0.1 | 0 | 10.1 | 9.58 | 2.61 | 5.23 | 5.66 | 4.81 |
| Rubby de la Rosa | -0.1 | 0 | 7.2 | 14.09 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.97 | 3.2 |
The Wild Card race in the NL is strangely non-competitive. Headed into the season most would have bet on a team coming out of the East (Mets?) and a team coming out of the Central (Cardinals) or possibly one team coming out of the West (Giants?).
No one would have bet on two teams cruising to the wild card from the West, and those two teams being the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies. They had lost 93 and 87 games respectively in 2016.
In a season that has seen everything go right for the Dodgers, even the NL wild card race plays into their hands. With both teams cruising neither will be forced to use their best pitcher during the season ending weekend which means that the ace for both teams will be primed to pitch the play – in game leaving them available for only one start in the NLDS. At best two on short days rest if the series goes five games.
Which means the Dodgers if they have to face the Diamondbacks, would only have to face Greinke one time. You could argue that Robbie Ray is just as good as Grienke but I would not make that argument yet. Zack Godley has been as big a surprise in the Diamondback rotation as Chris Taylor has been to the Dodger lineup but I’m not ready to crown him until I see him finish the season which still has seven weeks to run. Just as I was not ready to crown Alex Wood in the same way.
The Diamondbacks do have four good pitchers, but one is clearly heads and tails above the rest and if you only have to face him one time, that bodes well for the Dodgers.
The Rockies best pitcher missed most of the season but I would think by seasons end Jon Gray would get the nod in the play-in game. Leaving Chad Bettis if he comes back, German Marquez, Jeff Hoffman or Kyle Freeland. If the Dodgers can’t beat the Rockies facing that rotation, then this really was just a regular season marvel once again.
FFA Week of July 31st – Aug 6th
The contenders are:
Willie Calhoun who hit four home runs.
Alex Verdugo is hitting .179 over his last ten games with only two walks.
Walker Buehler pitched his first game in relief and gave up three runs while getting four outs.
Oops, I’m doing this wrong.
Henry Ramos – AAA/OKC – Ramos was promoted to AAA last week and continued to hit going eight for seventeen, two home runs, and a robust 1.382 OPS for the week. Ramos was signed as a minor league free agent on Nov 28th, 2016 after spending multiple years in the Red Sox organization. Ramos never had an OPS above .820 in his seven years in the minor leagues prior to joining the Dodger organization. At AA for the Dodgers, he had an OPS of 1.117 and won the Farm Factory award for the week of July 3rd – July 9th. He’s been playing RF so far. Might be time to find out just who is Henry Ramos and Dennis Schlossman of Think Blue did just that back on March 1st.
For those unfamiliar with Ramos, the switch-hitting prospect was signed by the Dodgers as a minor league free agent last November. Originally drafted by the Red Sox in the fifth round of the 2010 draft, he had ties to current Dodgers vice president of international and amateur scouting David Finley, as Finley was in Boston’s scouting and player personnel departments at the time that Ramos was selected. At one point last year, he was ranked as high as No. 16 on the Red Sox Top 30 Prospects list, but ultimately fell out of high regards when his vital stats gradually fizzled by season’s end.
Tim Locastro – AAA/OKC – The 25-year-old infielder was also promoted to AAA when Willie Calhoun was traded. Tim went six for seventeen as he tries to make a career as a possible major league utility player. He didn’t really have a good enough week to be considered for the FFA but I did want to mention him since he’s now at AAA.
Yaisel Sierra – AAA/OKC – Sierra pitched two games in relief going three and two innings respectively. He is being worked hard as a setup man getting at least six outs in his last nine outings. Five of those nine times he has gotten nine outs, and one time ten outs. Sierra is still having some control issues as he has walked eight in fourteen AAA innings but he is keeping runs off the board.
Jacob Scavuzzo – AA/Tulsa – Scavuzzo has had a tough year repeating AA but things started to click for him this past week. Jacob went nine for nineteen with two home runs. Over his past ten games, Jacob is hitting .356 with five home runs.
Keibert Ruiz – A+/Rancho – didn’t think we could let a week slide without talking about the Keibert, did you? They increased his workload this week, as he played in six games, and once again hit in every game. The pace of his hits had slowed down to one a game but yesterday he stroked three hits. The only concern right now is that the great plate discipline he showed with the Loons is not showing up right now but that might be because he’s simply seeing so many hittable pitches. Ruiz was promoted to Rancho on July 10th and has had a hit in every game that he’s had an at bat except one and that was way back on July 13th.
Caleb Ferguson – A+/Rancho – Might not be a hotter pitcher right now than Caleb Ferguson. Caleb got two starts last week and struck out twenty-one hitters in only thirteen innings. Over his last three starts, 19 innings, 19 hits, four earned runs, six walks, 31 strikeouts.
Ibandel Isabel – A+/Rancho – Ibandel played seven games last week and collected a hit in every game. Overall he went nine for twenty-four, with two home runs, five walks, and six strikeouts. We mention the walks because he has 140 strikeouts to only 35 walks, so when he has a hot hitting week in conjunction with five walks, that is good news. Ibandel leads the California league in home runs with 24.
Zach Reks – A+/Rancho – Zach was just drafted in June in the 10th round and he is already at Rancho making him the only player drafted in June at this level. Zach must have deserved the promotion because he collected three hits, three times last week. Someone to keep an eye on. He is already twenty-three and will be turning twenty-four in November so he should be at this level, but still it is good to see him hit the ground running.
Cody Thomas – A-/Loons – Cody hit the three home runs in one game last week while collecting nine hits for the week. He now has eighteen home runs which is 2nd in the league behind Fernando Tatis Junior. Overall his OPS is only .723 and he is twenty-two but we knew he was raw, and this is a very tough league on hitters.
Edwin Uceta – Rookie/Raptors – We don’t normally go to the rookie leagues, and I don’t think I’ve ever gone here for a pitcher but Uceta did something fairly unique. Uceta pitched a perfect game for six innings and left with the perfect game intact. Uceta had just made an adjustment and it paid off big.
“His arm slot and where he throws from was kind of blocking his delivery a little bit,” Cuellar said. “As soon as he saw it, he worked on it and started adjusting to it — not be so blocked off on his landing foot and his arm slot started repeating and his pitches started coming back.”
Against the Mustangs, Uceta threw 37 of 64 pitches for strikes to retire all 18 batters he faced. He recorded six outs on the ground and seven through the air, with Cuellar saying he displayed brilliant execution of a three-pitch mix that consisted of a fastball, changeup and curve.
And the winner of the Farm Factory Award for the week of July 31st – August 6th is…..
Have to go with Edwin Uceta. Normally a three home run game or the two great games by Caleb Ferguson would do the trick but Ferguson won the FFA award a month ago so I want to spread it around.
Other minor league notes:
Starling Heredia was just announced as one of the July Minor League Players of the Month by MLB for the Pioneer League. Starling was recently promoted to the full season Midwest League with the Loons.
Ogden Raptors (Dodgers) outfielder Starling Heredia led the Pioneer Baseball League in average (.427), doubles (11), slugging (.732) and OPS (1.221) while finishing second in extra-base hits (16) and total bases (60). His 35 hits and .489 on-base percentage were good for third in the league. Heredia, 18, was signed as a non-drafted free agent by Los Angeles in 2016 out of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Ryu Rules Sunday Nights
Hyun-Jin Ryu once again dominated on a nationally televised game on Sunday night pitching seven shutout innings for the second Sunday in a row. The pitcher who no one was counting on in March has now thrown fifteen scoreless innings in a row and has thrown a monkey wrench into the Dodger future rotation.
Ever since Clayton Kershaw went down every single Dodger starter has stepped up their game except Brandon McCarthy who decided to sit this competition out.
The Dodgers have five legitimate starters with Yu, Hill, Wood, Kenta, and Ryu, with the ace on the DL, and Brandon McCarthy getting healthy as well.
Ryu is looking as good as the numbers say. This is as good as I’ve ever seen him, he’s looking just like if not better than the Ryu of 2013.
The Dodgers went out and acquired two LHP relief pitchers at the deadline for October. The best one might have been on the roster all along. As great as Ryu has looked he would have to continue to pitch at this same level to knock off Hill or Wood from the postseason rotation, but he could be the ace in the hole for the bullpen.
Other Dodger notes.
They are incredible. Never seen any thing like this. Ever. Steamrolling.
I keep waiting for the inevitable team slump to hit for a few weeks, a malady every team has to deal with over 162 game season. It hasn’t happened yet, it may never happen.
Cody Bellinger passes Ted Williams
With his 32nd home run last night, Cody Bellinger blew past HOF Ted Williams who had hit 31 home runs in his rookie campaign. Cody also passed Angel great Tim Salmon who hit his 31 home runs back in 1993. Jim Ray Hart who had one of the great names in baseball history hit 31 home runs back in 1964. Hart was only 22 at the time and was part of a studded San Francisco Giant team that included HOF Willie Mays, HOF Willie McCovey, HOF Orlando Cepeda, and the famous Alou brothers. Things looked bleak for the rest of the NL but the Baby Bull Orlando Cepeda would get hurt and miss most of 1965, and get traded to the Cardinals in the middle of 1966. Cepeda would then lead the 1967 Cardinals to the World Championship, earning MVP honors along the way.
Jim Ray Hart was quite the slugger who had 139 home runs by the age of 26. Very few 3rd baseman in the history of the game has hit as many as 139 home runs by the age of 26. Jim Ray would only hit 31 more home runs the rest of his career.
Player HR From To Age OPS Eddie Mathews 253 1952 1958 20-26 .923 Ron Santo 167 1960 1966 20-26 .841 Adrian Beltre 166 1998 2005 19-26 .783 Troy Glaus 164 1998 2003 21-26 .849 Eric Chavez 163 1998 2004 20-26 .856 Bob Horner 161 1978 1984 20-26 .858 David Wright 140 2004 2009 21-26 .907 Jim Ray Hart 139 1963 1968 21-26 .837 Nolan Arenado 136 2013 2017 22-26 .869
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/7/2017.
Cody now sits alone with the most home runs by rookie left handed hitter in the NL with his 32.
Hal Trosky has the major league rookie record for home runs by left handed hitter with 35.
Trosky had an interesting career. When you look at his baseball reference page you see a player who started with a bang but stopped playing at age 28 in 1941. I thought the war interrupted his career but the baseball sabr bio says it was migraines.
his career reached its apex in 1936, when he led the American League in runs batted in with 162, yet he has largely been consigned to historical obscurity. This anonymity is not only due to the reality that his career overlapped a triumvirate of Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg, and Lou Gehrig, a triumvirate of future Hall of Fame first basemen who held a virtual lock on the position on the American League All Star teams of the mid-’30s, but also because, at what should have been the peak of his career, Trosky was sidelined with two years of severe migraine headaches, pain so debilitating that he became unable to take the field for days in a row.
From age 21 – 28 Trosky hit 215 home runs. He tried to come back in 1944 and 1946 but it didn’t work out and he ended his career with only 5748 plate appearances and 228 home runs with an OPS+ of 130. He had a short but brilliant career. The man once hit 42 home runs, drove in 162 runs, had an OPS of 146, led the league in TB with 405 and finished 10th in MVP voting.
Player HR Year Age Tm Lg PA Mark McGwire (RoY-1st) 49 1987 23 OAK AL 641 Frank Robinson (RoY-1st) 38 1956 20 CIN NL 667 Albert Pujols (RoY-1st) 37 2001 21 STL NL 676 Al Rosen 37 1950 26 CLE AL 668 Jose Abreu (RoY-1st) 36 2014 27 CHW AL 622 Mike Piazza (RoY-1st) 35 1993 24 LAD NL 602 Ron Kittle (RoY-1st) 35 1983 25 CHW AL 570 Rudy York 35 1937 23 DET AL 417 Hal Trosky 35 1934 21 CLE AL 685 Aaron Judge 35 2017 25 NYY AL 460 Ryan Braun (RoY-1st) 34 2007 23 MIL NL 492 Walt Dropo (RoY-1st) 34 1950 27 BOS AL 609 Jose Canseco (RoY-1st) 33 1986 21 OAK AL 682 Earl Williams (RoY-1st) 33 1971 22 ATL NL 550 Jimmie Hall (RoY-3rd) 33 1963 25 MIN AL 571 Cody Bellinger 32 2017 21 LAD NL 380 Chris Young (RoY-4th) 32 2007 23 ARI NL 624 Matt Nokes (RoY-3rd) 32 1987 23 DET AL 508 Tony Oliva (RoY-1st) 32 1964 25 MIN AL 719 Tim Salmon (RoY-1st) 31 1993 24 CAL AL 610 Jim Ray Hart (RoY-2nd) 31 1964 22 SFG NL 625 Ted Williams 31 1939 20 BOS AL 675 Mike Trout (RoY-1st) 30 2012 20 LAA AL 639 Nomar Garciaparra (RoY-1st) 30 1997 23 BOS AL 734 Pete Incaviglia 30 1986 22 TEX AL 606 Willie Montanez (RoY-2nd) 30 1971 23 PHI NL 683 Bob Allison (RoY-1st) 30 1959 24 WSH AL 638
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Generated 8/3/2017.
Chasing Piazza/Robinson/Green/McGwire on Aug 7th
Cody Bellinger rocked his 32nd home run last night giving him four home runs for the week and putting him well ahead of the pace of NL Rookie HR champion Frank Robinson who only had 25 on this date on his way to 38. Frank Robinson would pick up the pace and club ten home runs between now and August 31st.
While Cody is chasing Robinson, Aaron Judge is chasing Mark McGwire who holds the major league Rookie home run record of 49. Judge has slowed down quite a bit in the 2nd half so far but if he catches a second wind, watch out. Right now he is only two home runs behind the torrid McGwire pace.
| Player | PA | HR | HR/PA | Aug 7th | Total | Leader | Year |
| Mike Piazza | 567 | 32 | 17.72 | 22 | 35 | LAD Rookie HR | 1993 |
| Frank Robinson | 525 | 32 | 16.41 | 25 | 38 | NL Rookie HR | 1956 |
| Mark McGwire | 330 | 32 | 10.31 | 37 | 49 | AL Rookie HR | 1987 |
| Shawn Green | 501 | 32 | 15.66 | 31 | 49 | LAD Alltime HR | 2001 |
| Cody Bellinger | 380 | 32 | 11.88 | 32 | ??? | Chasing | 2017 |
| Aaron Judge | 462 | 35 | 13.20 | 35 | ??? | Chasing | 2017 |
LAD single season home run leaders
A few weeks ago I displayed the table showing every single LAD team home run leader from 1958 to 2017. This table is a little different. It is going to show you the history of the most home runs hit in a season since 1958.
Charlie Neal and Gil Hodges held the record for only one year as they both hit 22 home runs in 1958.
Gil Hodges hit 25 home runs in 1959 to claim the most.
Frank Howard hit 31 home runs 1962 to lay his claim to the greatest LAD home run hitter.
That record stood for twelve years before Jimmy Wynn eclipsed it with 32 home runs in 1974.
Steve Garvey only let the Toy Cannon hold the mantle for three years before hitting 33 home runs in 1977.
Pedro Guerrero couldn’t beat Garvey but he did tie him with 33 home runs in 1985.
Eight years later in 1993, a rookie catcher named Mike Piazza hit 35 home runs to break the tie between Garvey/Guerrero. Piazza would keep adding to that single season total by hitting 36 home runs in 1996, and finally 40 in 1997. It took almost 40 years before a Dodger hit 40 home runs in a single season.
Is it ironic that the player the Dodgers traded Piazza for would break Piazza’s record by hitting 43 home runs in 2000?
Shawn Green didn’t let Gary Sheffield hold the record for very long when he blasted 49 home runs in 2001.
That record has now stood for 16 years, the longest stretch between changes.
| Player | HR | Year | Age |
| Charlie Neal | 22 | 1958 | 27 |
| Gil Hodges | 22 | 1958 | 34 |
| Gil Hodges | 25 | 1959 | 35 |
| Frank Howard | 31 | 1962 | 25 |
| Jim Wynn | 32 | 1974 | 32 |
| Steve Garvey | 33 | 1977 | 28 |
| Pedro Guerrero | 33 | 1985 | 29 |
| Mike Piazza | 35 | 1993 | 24 |
| Mike Piazza | 36 | 1996 | 27 |
| Mike Piazza | 40 | 1997 | 28 |
| Gary Sheffield | 43 | 2000 | 31 |
| Shawn Green | 49 | 2001 | 28 |
Saving Weecha
One of the first books that I read as a child that left an impression with me was the book Weecha about a raccoon that is chased by hunters and their dogs.
Memories being what they are, I was off a bit. The book is about Weecha the Raccoon but the main story was the friendship between Weecha and an orphaned puppy who ends up having to hunt Weecha and instead saves Weecha from the other hunting hounds.
Hunting, drowning puppies, animals being killed by Nature. It was classic early Disney but no one would recognize it anymore as a Disney property which is all happiness and blueberries these days. No one would read this book to their child today. Not without some parental editing.
Anyway, for such a simple book it greatly impacted how I would live my life. I was so taken with the characters and the fear they felt from the hunters I never felt the urge to hunt the rest of my life and raccoons have always been one of my favorite animals.
Living in Woodland Hils for the past 20 plus years we have had numerous encounters with raccoons at our house. We have a fence just a few feet from our bedroom window and summer after summer we have watched mothers parade their brood over our fence past our window. We have always wondered how they make the trek because they have to cross busy Victory Blvd to get to our house. Why don’t they just stay on the other side of the street? Pick a side is what I thought every time we saw them make the late night journey across Victory.
Their luck ran out Friday night. It was about 11:30 when Verdell said she just heard a car accident. We have had numerous car accidents in front of our house as people simply underestimate how to make a left turn with a car coming 55 MPH at them. About ten years ago we even had a jaywalker get killed.
I went out front and couldn’t’ see any cars so I just thought she had heard something else, but as we were about to turn around we noticed someone else come out across the street. At that moment I saw a large raccoon laying in the middle of the street. We started to hear screaming coming from the street, so loud it was upsetting to the mind. I felt the raccoon had been mortally wounded and was screaming in pain.
I’d like to say I immediately went to help the hurt raccoon but that was not the case. We went inside to call the animal pickup people, and I just hoped the raccoon would die soon at which point I’d go out and move it from the street because nothing is worse than it being splattered numerous times. As I moved to shut the windows to drown out the screams, I changed my mind and decided to see if I could do something.
I put on some gloves and left the house, as I did so I now noticed three women on the street. Two were fifty yards further away from the large raccoon I had seen and one was in front of the original raccoon. The women were doing their best to stop the traffic. The traffic was sparse at that time of night but they tend to drive fast so the fact they were doing that emboldened me to do something. I had a large blue bin in my truck that I had just used to help someone move with, I emptied the bin and ran out toward the raccoon. It was twitching and making noise but not the screaming I was hearing. At the moment I was focused on how I could get this fifty-pound raccoon into the blue bin with out being bitten or scratched. I couldn’t pick it up, I knew that, so I turned the bin on the side and as the raccoon was twitching I was able to kind of scoop her into the bin. I picked the bin up and ran to the sidewalk, she was still twitching and making horrible noises when I put the bind down.
With the large raccoon off the street, I looked toward where the other women were stopping traffic. Something else was on the street and that was where the raucous noise was coming from. It was smaller than the large raccoon I had just scooped up. I ran toward the noise and as I got closer the screaming from the animal was piercing to the ears and worse, to the heart. I could tell this was a baby raccoon which meant that was the mother I had just scooped up. The ladies from across the street had done a great job in saving the baby raccoon from being splatted by stopping all traffic but they didn’t know what to do with the baby raccoon. When I arrived I expected to find a small raccoon in need of medical care because of the noise coming from it. I took a quick inventory and didn’t find any spilled guts or smashed head. It actually looked just fine. Without really thinking I reached down and picked up the baby raccoon and put him in the box I had brought with me. To my astonishment, it stopped yelling. Instantly. It didn’t try to bite me. It didn’t try to scratch me. I took it back to where the mother was.
The mother had stopped twitching, I was still holding the baby raccoon and it let me take a look at it. Miraculously the baby raccoon had never been hit by the car. It must have been walking with the mother across the street when the mother was hit and carried fifty yards away. Somehow no one else had hit this little critter before the neighbors across the street came out and kept the rest of cars at bay. I put the baby in with the mother, the mother gave a big sigh and passed away.
The baby raccoon was now an orphan.
I gave the baby a moment with the mother and then picked it up and found a dog carrier to put it in. I would pick up the orphan for each of the tasks I needed to do and each time it would calm down. Our orphan had gone from making the saddest noise I’d ever heard before, to being simply mute. Of course, it was in shock, but I was thankful it was so calm. We spent the night and morning trying to find a rehab specialist for raccoons. With help from the animal care community and our friend Sherry, we eventually found a lady in Pasadena who specialized in rehabbing/orphan raccoons and opossums.
Today we took the orphan raccoon to the lady who worked here as a vet tech.
We had saved Weecha
Bill Singer stands tall in NY
Bill Singer has the best game score in LAD history against the New York Mets while pitching in New York. You have to give Singer extra credit for this game score. He did it against the 1969 World Champion New York Mets.
I say that because six of the top eleven game scores came against the Mets when they were in their infancy 1965 and earlier. Bill Singer did against the best team in the NL, the Miracle Mets of 1969. Not against the team that was more famous for making players into beer light commercial actors like Marv Throneberry.
With at least 20 game scores of 80 or better that Dodgers have thrown some superlative games against the Mets in NY. The list is loaded with some of the best pitchers in LAD history. The only outlier might be Tom Candiotti.
Player Date Tm Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc Bill Singer 1969-06-04 LAD NYM L 0-1 9.0 2 0 0 10 93 Sandy Koufax 1963-07-12 LAD NYM W 6-0 9.0 3 0 1 13 93 Clayton Kershaw 2015-07-23 LAD NYM W 3-0 9.0 3 0 0 11 92 Johnny Podres 1963-07-10 LAD NYM W 1-0 9.0 3 0 2 11 90 Don Drysdale 1963-08-18(1) LAD NYM W 7-0 9.0 3 0 0 8 89 Bob Welch 1983-05-22 LAD NYM W 5-0 9.0 2 0 5 9 87 Don Drysdale 1964-09-04(1) LAD NYM W 3-0 9.0 3 0 0 5 86 Burt Hooton 1975-08-09 LAD NYM W 2-0 9.0 3 0 2 5 84 Sandy Koufax 1965-06-12 LAD NYM W 5-0 9.0 5 0 1 8 84 Al Downing 1971-06-15 LAD NYM W 2-0 9.0 5 0 2 8 83 Don Drysdale 1965-04-12 LAD NYM W 6-1 9.0 4 1 1 9 83 Orel Hershiser 1993-04-27 LAD NYM W 4-1 9.0 3 0 2 5 82 Burt Hooton 1979-04-28 LAD NYM W 3-1 9.0 4 1 1 8 82 Don Sutton 1972-07-07 LAD NYM W 6-1 9.0 3 0 2 5 82 Don Sutton 1966-07-16 LAD NYM W 7-1 9.0 5 1 2 11 82 Don Drysdale 1964-06-07(1) LAD NYM W 6-1 9.0 6 1 0 10 81 Tom Candiotti 1995-05-25 LAD NYM W 3-0 9.0 5 0 2 5 80 Fernando Valenzuela 1987-08-25 LAD NYM W 3-1 9.0 4 1 8 13 80 Don Drysdale 1967-05-23 LAD NYM W 7-0 9.0 5 0 3 6 80 Don Drysdale 1965-06-11 LAD NYM W 2-1 9.0 4 1 1 6 80
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/4/2017.
You will notice no great games by Kuroda, Nomo, Ishii, or Maeda. With Yu Darvish set to take the hill tonight, he only has to put up a game score of 68 to pitch the best game by a LAD that was born in Japan.
Player Date Tm Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc Hideo Nomo 2003-05-07 LAD NYM W 2-1 7.1 3 1 4 4 68 Kenta Maeda 2016-05-28 LAD NYM W 9-1 5.0 2 0 2 3 64 Hideo Nomo 2002-08-16 LAD NYM W 3-2 6.0 4 1 2 4 62 Kazuhisa Ishii 2004-08-29 LAD NYM W 10-2 6.0 4 1 2 2 60 Kazuhisa Ishii 2003-05-08 LAD NYM W 6-1 6.0 5 1 3 3 58 Hideo Nomo 1995-08-20 LAD NYM L 3-5 7.0 6 5 2 13 56 Hiroki Kuroda 2010-04-27(1) LAD NYM L 0-4 6.0 5 2 3 4 55
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/4/2017.
Cody Thomas and Carlos Rincon make history
I don’t normally do individual minor league games unless they warrant special attention but the Loons had a quite a historical game last night.
The Loons hit seven home runs last night but the more interesting part was that it was done by only three hitters.
Yeah, that is kind of cool but not as cool as
Cody Thomas hit three of the seven home runs.
Yeah, that is kind of cool but not as cool as
Carlos Rincon and Cody Thomas went back to back twice
Yeah, that is kind of cool but not as cool as
Before the Class A Loons sent their pitcher to the mound Thursday, Cody Thomas and Carlos Rinconpulled off a very rare feat in the top of the first inning.
An out hadn’t been recorded yet when the outfielder and the Dodgers No. 24 prospect belted back-to-back homers. Later in the same frame, the duo provided an encore.
Overall, Cody Thomas hit three, Carlos Rincon hit two, and Jered Walker also hit two.
In the same Gavin Lux had three hits but did not hit a home run after hitting three in his previous four games. Lux’s previously anemic bat has woken up and he has collected ten hits in his last five games including those aforementioned three home runs.
Jordan Sheffield pitched his best game of the season with ten strikeouts.
This was kind of a redemption game for the 2016 draft class as Lux/Sheffield/Thomas had all under performed expectations so far in 2017.
It was also the debut of 18-year-old Starling Heredia in full season professional baseball. Starling only managed one hit while his teammates were pouring the ball over the fence. What a bust.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 