LAD overview headed into June
The Dodgers are coming off one of their most successful May’s in history as they ran down the Rockies and Diamondbacks who both played great ball in May themselves.
What is in store for them in June?
1st Base – Adrian Gonzalez is back and I have a feeling he is going to make up for his lackluster start with a huge June. Just a hunch. I could be dead wrong, the one walk and one home run might be a harbinger of things to come, but my spidey sense is telling me that is all behind him.
2nd Base – Justin Turner should be back soon which means 2nd base will once again belong to Logan Forsythe. Or will it? Of the four players who can play 2nd base, Logan has been the least productive. Nice problem to have. Chase probably just had the hottest stretch he will have the rest of his career, but it has to be nice to know he’s alway available. Chris Taylor, for now, is entrenched in CF, but once Joc comes back, how will that play out? Is it possible that Chris Taylor is a better 2nd baseman than Logan Forsythe? It is not out of the realm of possibility when you consider that just three years ago Logan was pretty much in the same spot as Chris Taylor. A utility player who played a hot streak into a starting position with the Rays due to injuries of players in front of him. I’ve got no crystal ball on this one.
Shortstop – Cory Seager had a mediocre May based on his career stats so far. Will he bust out in June? Odds say yes.
3rd Base – Should once again belong to Justin Turner for most of this month. Turner cooled down quite a bit from his sizzling April but will be ready once again to take his spot in the 3rd spot in the order and continue to provide above average defense.
Catcher – Grandal and Barnes combined for a brilliant May with Grandal providing the average and Barnes the power. Not exactly how I would have expected that to play out. Grandal hit a lot of singles in May but only walked five times. Strange. Barnes continued to give reasons for giving Grandal plenty of rest. Might be the best backstop combination the Dodgers have had since…………Let me think about that.
LF – has to belong to Bellinger for now. If Bellinger is still the starting LF come July, I would imagine he did enough in June to warrant it.
RF – has to belong to Puig for now. He may not be hitting like a RF, but he is at home, and he’s looking like an elite defensive right fielder. Like everyone else I was hoping for more but with a slugging infield, the Dodgers can afford a right fielder like Puig. For now.
CF – this may be in play. Joc is hurt and may be out the first week or two in June. Chris Taylor is doing everything to make it harder for Joc to have his job back when he’s healthy. At the very least I don’t think Joc gets anymore at-bats against LHP so it will either be Joc/Taylor or Joc/Kiké. But it would not shock me if Joc is sent to AAA to get full time at-bats and his confidence back when he comes off the DL if Taylor is still performing.
Bench – Barnes/Hernández/Chase/Gutierrez are the givens. Is Taylor a CF or a bench piece? If Taylor is a CF, is Joc a bench piece or headed to AAA? Those answers will decide if Eibner or Trayce Thompson get the last open spot. Gutierrez is just an injury away from opening a spot for Eibner or Thompson no matter what they do with Joc.
I think we can agree that Chris Taylor won’t be seeing AAA unless he craters. Which is very possible. Anything is possible.
Starting Pitching:
If Alex Wood is okay, the rotation is looking awful deep. Ryu has proven to me he should be in the rotation, but there is no place for him. As they head into June they have six viable starting pitchers. They have Urias getting his command together in AAA. Kazmir is getting healthy. Brock Stewart is in rehab. Or is it Stewart is on rehab? In rehab sounds like he’s battling an addiction.
The real key is Alex Wood. In May he was just about the best pitcher in baseball. Can he keep any semblance of this the rotation is not only deep, it is great.
They Dodgers used only seven different starters in May. I expect that number to be the same in June with the exact same pitchers.
Bullpen:
Jansen is a beast. Fields has been a mini-beast. Baez is growing up before our eyes. Hatcher has been an important and productive piece. Romo has settled down after a rough patch. Stripling is blowing my mind.
The only bummer has been the decay of Grant Dayton but you can’t have everything go right.
Will Morrow hang around? He’s looked good in two appearances.
Avilan should be back which probably sends Liberatore back to AAA.
The bullpen can’t be as good in June as they were in May. Or can they? Jansen only threw 10 innings in May. He needs to earn his contract and pitch more than that:)
Summation:
I wasn’t worried about the Dodger record in April but I didn’t expect a May like we saw. It is even more amazing when you think that they:
- Lost their 1st baseman for 1/2 the month
- Lost their starting LF for the rest of the year early in the month
- Lost their 3rd baseman for the 2nd half of the month
- Lost their starting CF for the last week of the month
- Somewhat tepid performance by their best hitter Cory Seager
- Somewhat underwhelming Kershaw based on his historical norm
That is why those of us who trumpeted the depth card blew it hard. It is the deepest team I’ve seen since the 1970’s.
I expect another great month for the Dodgers, this time led by Adrian/Seager/Kershaw/Hill and to still be in first place come July 1st.
LAD May Double Leaderboard – Grandal sneaks in
Nomar Garciaparra had fourteen doubles in May and no one else is close but Grandal did manage to sneak onto the leaderboard with his ten doubles in May.
Puig seems to be on every May leaderboard based on what he did in 2014.
Player Split Year 2B PA RBI BA OBP SLG OPS TB Nomar Garciaparra May 2006 14 122 28 .375 .426 .625 1.051 70 Wes Parker May 1970 11 132 27 .301 .394 .496 .890 56 Raul Mondesi May 1994 11 113 18 .336 .363 .636 .998 68 Andre Ethier May 2012 11 116 20 .366 .422 .594 1.016 60 Shawn Green May 2000 10 118 24 .367 .508 .667 1.175 60 Orlando Hudson May 2009 10 137 19 .328 .404 .414 .818 48 Yasiel Puig May 2014 10 128 25 .398 .492 .731 1.224 79 Yasmani Grandal May 2017 10 91 16 .337 .374 .523 .897 45
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/1/2017.
LAD May RBI Leaderboard – Bellinger makes a dent
Oh so close. Bellinger ends the month of May with twenty-seven RBI but falls one RBI short of Eric Karros and Nomar Garciaparra who both drove in twenty-eight.
Puig is here to remind us that he used to be great, and used to drive in runs.
I kind of expect Tommy Davis or Steve Garvey to be the leaders in these monthly RBI leaderboards because they were the kings of the RBI during their LAD heydays.
Nice to see Wes Parker here. Wes Parker was also a 1st baseman who could play the outfield. In fact if you were around in the early 60’s you got to see both Ron Fairly and Wes Parker play both 1st base and the outfield on a regular basis. I never did. I only got to see Parker play 1st base and he was as good a fielding 1st baseman as I’ve ever seen.
Player Split Year RBI PA OPS TB Eric Karros May 2000 28 113 1.021 63 Nomar Garciaparra May 2006 28 122 1.051 70 Wes Parker May 1970 27 132 .890 56 Joe Ferguson May 1973 27 125 .896 53 Raul Mondesi May 1998 27 123 .946 73 Raul Mondesi May 1999 27 117 1.034 70 Cody Bellinger May 2017 27 118 .880 60 Steve Garvey May 1974 26 127 .911 64 Tommy Davis May 1962 25 125 .927 61 Yasiel Puig May 2014 25 128 1.224 79
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Generated 6/1/2017.
LAD May Home run Leaderboard
Cody Bellinger blasted nine home runs in May. How does that stack up historically?
Pretty good.
Only two players have hit ten home runs in the month of May. Mondesi did it twice, and Shawn Green when he destroyed the Brewers in 2002.
Bellinger joins a select group of eight players who have hit nine home runs in the month of May. Hey look, Joc Pederson. The only surprise to me on this list is Davey Lopes. Lopes would go onto hit 28 home runs in 1979, his career high before that was seventeen and he would never hit over 20 home runs again. Todd Hundley hit 24 home runs in back to back years for the Dodgers so that isn’t that big of a surprise but nine in one month out of 24 is pretty good % of his total in one month of baseball.
Player Split Year HR PA OPS TB Raul Mondesi May 1998 10 123 .946 73 Raul Mondesi May 1999 10 117 1.034 70 Shawn Green May 2002 10 120 1.127 68 Reggie Smith May 1977 9 118 1.039 62 Davey Lopes May 1979 9 127 1.039 74 Ron Cey May 1981 9 119 .997 65 Pedro Guerrero May 1987 9 108 1.127 68 Mike Piazza May 1996 9 94 1.193 58 Todd Hundley May 2000 9 79 1.139 50 Joc Pederson May 2015 9 123 .860 55 Cody Bellinger May 2017 9 118 .880 60
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/1/2017.
One other note, I added the total base column, and Davey Lopes had the most total bases for this group. Which makes me wonder what the May leaderboard for total bases looks like. I’m going to guess that Davey Lopes just might sit on top of that leaderboard. Let’s find out:
Player Split Year SLG 2B 3B HR TB Yasiel Puig May 2014 .731 10 1 8 79 Davey Lopes May 1979 .661 8 3 9 74 Raul Mondesi May 1998 .629 9 0 10 73 Nomar Garciaparra May 2006 .625 14 1 4 70 Raul Mondesi May 1999 .667 6 1 10 70 Shawn Green May 2002 .694 5 1 10 68 Raul Mondesi May 1994 .636 11 3 5 68 Pedro Guerrero May 1987 .701 4 0 9 68 Pedro Guerrero May 1982 .619 6 3 6 65 Ron Cey May 1981 .619 7 0 9 65 Eric Karros May 1995 .571 4 0 8 64 Kirk Gibson May 1988 .627 8 1 7 64 Steve Garvey May 1974 .533 7 0 5 64 Eric Karros May 2000 .649 8 0 8 63 Mike Piazza May 1994 .624 6 0 6 63 Pedro Guerrero May 1981 .649 5 1 7 63 Dusty Baker May 1977 .636 6 0 7 63 Raul Mondesi May 1996 .549 6 0 8 62 Reggie Smith May 1977 .633 2 2 9 62 Corey Seager May 2016 .540 6 0 7 61 Tommy Davis May 1962 .540 4 2 5 61 Cody Bellinger May 2017 .566 5 1 9 60 Andre Ethier May 2012 .594 11 0 4 60 Shawn Green May 2000 .667 10 1 5 60 Steve Garvey May 1979 .526 6 0 6 60 Jim Wynn May 1974 .706 4 2 7 60 Ron Cey May 1973 .612 4 3 5 60 Willie Davis May 1961 .577 5 2 7 60
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Generated 6/1/2017.
Nope, it was the great May of 2014 by Puig. At the time Puig had given the Dodger one year of brilliant hitting and you could hear talk of MVP. You don’t hear that talk anymore.
I made the cutoff 60 total bases to see how Bellinger stacked up. He’s fairly far down the list.
Succesful May bullpen is in the books
Overall Record 33 wins / 21 losses
May Record – 19 wins / 9 losses
Position – 1st place / half a game in front of the both the Rockies and Diamondbacks
Dodgers led the NL in pitching fWAR with 5.5, closest team was 4.0.
Dodger led the NL in starting pitching fWAR with 3.7 barely beating out the Diamondbacks at 3.4
Dodgers crushed the NL in relief pitching fWAR with 1.7.
May Pitching stats for 2017:
Player IP W ERA GS H HR BB SO WHIP SO9 SO/W OPS Clayton Kershaw 40.2 3 2.43 6 37 6 7 39 1.082 8.6 5.57 .676 Alex Wood 28.1 5 1.27 5 22 0 7 41 1.024 13.0 5.86 .510 Kenta Maeda 22.1 2 3.63 4 19 1 8 19 1.209 7.7 2.38 .629 Hyun-Jin Ryu 19.1 1 3.72 3 20 2 9 13 1.500 6.1 1.44 .804 Brandon McCarthy 17.2 2 3.57 3 13 0 3 16 0.906 8.2 5.33 .496 Julio Urias 17.2 0 6.62 4 19 1 10 7 1.642 3.6 0.70 .829 Ross Stripling 16.1 0 1.65 0 11 1 3 19 0.857 10.5 6.33 .519 Josh Fields 14.1 2 0.63 0 8 1 3 14 0.767 8.8 4.67 .456 Chris Hatcher 14.1 0 3.14 0 16 3 1 17 1.186 10.7 17.00 .793 Rich Hill 14.0 1 4.50 3 12 1 9 14 1.500 9.0 1.56 .696 Pedro Baez 13.1 0 1.35 0 9 1 5 12 1.050 8.1 2.40 .556 Kenley Jansen 10.1 1 0.87 0 5 1 0 18 0.484 15.7 .361 Sergio Romo 9.2 1 3.72 0 6 3 1 11 0.724 10.2 11.00 .680 Luis Avilan 6.2 0 4.05 0 8 0 4 12 1.800 16.2 3.00 .746 Grant Dayton 4.0 0 11.25 0 5 1 3 3 2.000 6.8 1.00 1.088 Adam Liberatore 3.0 0 0.00 0 2 0 1 5 1.000 15.0 5.00 .432 Brandon Morrow 2.0 1 0.00 0 0 0 0 1 0.000 4.5 .000
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/1/2017.
Standout Pitching:
- Alex Wood was unbeatable in May going 5 – 0 and outpitching Clayton Kershaw which hasn’t happened very often over a month in the last nine years.
- Brandon McCarthy had a WHIP below 1.00 and an OPS against below .500. Impressive
- Jansen only pitched ten innings but struck out eighteen with zero walks
- The setup men, Fields, Baez, Stripling were simply outstanding
Pitching Notes:
- For a pitcher destined for long relief, Ryu finished the Month on fire
- Urias had a bad month. He not only pitched horrible, the one game he was great, he ended the season for Toles.
- Romo ended the month on a high note
- Chris Hatcher had more brilliant moments than bad.
- Rich Hill still has a lot to prove but at least he ended the month by getting fifteen outs in one game.
- Only seven pitchers started a game in May. In 2016 only seven pitchers made starts in May but the names were Bolsinger/Kazmir/Stripling along with the first major league start by Urias.
Even though the bullpen lost the last game of the month, no one can complain about the work the bullpen did in May. If you had asked everyone what they felt the team needed when May started I think most would have said another great bullpen arm. With May in the books I’m not sure that is the case. Provided they don’t send Fields back to AAA again.
Successful offensive May is in the books
Overall Record 33 wins / 21 losses
May Record – 19 wins / 9 losses
Position – 1st place / half a game in front of the both the Rockies and Diamondbacks
Dodgers led the NL in runs scored in May with 159, averaging 5.67 runs per game. That was forty-seven more runs scored in April, with only two additional games.
May Hitting stats for 2017:
Player OPS PA R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG Austin Barnes 1.031 36 7 9 5 0 1 6 7 4 .310 .444 .586 Chase Utley .974 83 9 22 3 3 3 14 8 13 .314 .402 .571 Chris Taylor .941 107 20 29 5 0 4 14 17 28 .322 .430 .511 Yasmani Grandal .897 91 9 29 10 0 2 16 5 20 .337 .374 .523 Cody Bellinger .880 118 22 26 5 1 9 27 11 40 .245 .314 .566 Enrique Hernandez .878 69 15 16 9 0 2 11 8 14 .271 .353 .525 Brett Eibner .856 20 3 4 0 0 2 6 1 9 .222 .300 .556 Franklin Gutierrez .839 26 4 6 1 0 1 4 4 6 .273 .385 .455 Andrew Toles .825 26 5 9 2 0 0 2 1 4 .360 .385 .440 Justin Turner .808 63 9 17 2 0 0 5 8 11 .333 .435 .373 Corey Seager .758 116 21 25 7 0 2 7 17 24 .255 .371 .388 Adrian Gonzalez .677 55 2 14 4 0 1 10 1 12 .269 .273 .404 Logan Forsythe .664 32 2 4 1 0 1 3 7 8 .160 .344 .320 Yasiel Puig .646 97 16 20 2 0 4 16 6 23 .222 .268 .378 Joc Pederson .588 64 9 10 3 0 1 4 6 15 .182 .297 .291 Scott Van Slyke .582 11 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 3 .100 .182 .400
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/1/2017.
Hitting standouts:
- Chase Utley with 3 doubles/ 3 triples / 3 home runs
- Seven players with a slug% over .500
- Every bench player except SVS had an OPS over .800
- Kiké with nine doubles in only 69 plate appearances
- Cody Bellinger led offense in runs scored, homer runs, RBI, and strikeouts
- Chris Taylor tied for team lead in hits and led team with most walks
- Grandal tied for team lead in hits and led the team in doubles with ten.
Hitting Notes:
- Grandal only walked five times preferring to swing the bat in May
- The Dodgers had an exceptional offense in May with their best hitter Cory Seager merely being ordinary.
- Puig only hit four home runs but that was good enough for second on the team for the month.
- Adrian Gonzalez walked one time in fifty-five plate appearances. I suspect this was his lowest OBP of his career for a month.
Hitters who might qualify for historic LAD May Leaderboards:
- Bellinger with his nine home runs
- Bellinger with his twenty-seven RBI
- Grandal / Taylor with twenty-nine hits
- Grandal with ten doubles
We will find out later today as I work my way through this May.
Geezer May triple leaderboard
Only twelve players since 1913 who were 38 or older have ever hit three triples in May. It is quite a list.
Player Split Year 3B PA Ty Cobb May 1925 8 147 Sam Rice May 1928 6 128 Jake Daubert May 1922 5 140 Sam Rice May 1930 4 130 Steve Finley May 2006 4 120 Omar Vizquel May 2006 4 118 Jake Daubert May 1923 3 114 Tris Speaker May 1926 3 127 Babe Ruth May 1934 3 109 Bob Johnson May 1945 3 101 Raul Ibanez May 2010 3 105 Chase Utley May 2017 3 79
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Generated 5/31/2017.
Ty Cobb hit eight triples in May of 1925 at the age of 38.
Strangely enough, four players have done it in the 21st century though the last time it was done in the 20th century was 1945.
Babe Ruth is on this list. How about that?
The Silver Fox eludes the bloodhounds of time
Logan Forsythe the starting 2nd baseman had gotten hurt on April 23rd and was a month away. It was now up to the 38-year-old second baseman to find out if he had anything left. Things didn’t look promising, Chase looked done but maybe he could find a rhythm with steady at-bats.
Chase got some regular at-bats but did nothing with them. On May 3rd you could be excused if you felt that Chase Utley had run out of time as a productive major league ballplayer. He was after all only 5 for 48 with one double. Even more telling he had just taken three called 3rd strikes against the Giants in one game. The bloodhounds of time were hot on his tail and he had been treed, the only thing left was for time to shoot him out of his tree.
That is what we expected to happen. Instead, the Silver Fox somehow eluded time and landed on his spry feet hungry for competition.
On May 5th and 8th he went a combined 0 – 3 but there had been some sign of life in his bat. He made contact each time and hit the ball hard something he had rarely done in 2017.
On May 9th he hit a pinch-hit double. On May 10th another double. May 11th it was a triple. May 12th was another triple. The OPS had jumped from .325 to .601 in four games. The extra base power was back. Or was it? He would not collect another XBH over his next nine games. The OPS had sauntered back to .569. Had that brief four-game fling been a mirage?
Many thought so.
Many were wrong.
From May 25th thru May 30th, Chase Utley slugged three home runs, a double, and a triple. His OPS now stands at .777.
Whatever happens going forward won’t detract from the fact that the Silver Fox helped save the Dodgers bacon in May. First Logan Forsythe went down and he helped at 2nd. Adrian Gonzalez went down and Andrew Toles, moving Chase to 1st base. Justin Turner went down so he went back to 2nd base.
Chris Taylor and Cody Bellinger are compelling stories, but Chase Utley’s resurgence at age 38 can stand side by side with those other men of May.
Oh, and by the way, Chase Utley has three triples in May. You want a crazy looking leaderboard? How about the most triples in May by a LAD. Chase cracks the list.
I bet you didn’t’ expect to see Blake DeWitt on this list, did you? Ron Cey? WTH!
Player Split Year 3B PA Willie Davis May 1970 5 123 Jim Gilliam May 1958 4 134 Manny Mota May 1970 4 86 Brett Butler May 1994 4 125 John Roseboro May 1958 3 74 Dick Gray May 1958 3 51 Maury Wills May 1961 3 125 Willie Davis May 1972 3 121 Ron Cey May 1973 3 125 Davey Lopes May 1979 3 127 Pedro Guerrero May 1982 3 120 Steve Sax May 1983 3 115 Jose Gonzalez May 1990 3 33 Mitch Webster May 1992 3 54 Jose Offerman May 1993 3 112 Raul Mondesi May 1994 3 113 Wilton Guerrero May 1997 3 90 Juan Pierre May 2009 3 125 Blake DeWitt May 2010 3 88 Chase Utley May 2017 3 79
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Generated 5/31/2017.
OTDIB – May 31st, 1981 – Fernandomania moves the turnstiles
May 31st, 1981 – Fernandomania moves turnstiles
Playing before their tenth consecutive home sellout, the Dodgers pound the Reds 16-4 and raise their season attendance to 1,026,725 in 22 dates. It is the earliest any team has cracked the one million attendance barrier.
16 – 4 sounds like a fun game. And it was. Look at this box score. Two of the best pitchers of that year Mario Soto and Jerry Reuss squared off. Reuss only pitched to one batter before being lifted for Rick Sutcliffe. By the bottom of the 3rd the Dodgers were down 4 – 0 before scoring the next sixteen runs. They only hit one home run that game courtesy of Rick Monday. Reuss would make his next start so I’m not sure what happened to him. Dave Goltz/Dave Stewart/Terry Forster pitched five scoreless innings. If only Dave Goltz had at least 3 innings of scoreless ball in his arm the previous October.
May 31st, 1980 – This one is for Big Mike
Ken Landreaux goes 0-for-4 in Minnesota’s 11-1 loss to the Orioles to end his hitting streak at 31 consecutive games. Baltimore southpaw Scott McGregor does the honors. It is the longest streak in the A.L. since Dom DiMaggio’s 34-game stretch in 1949.
Kenny Landreaux would become a Dodger in 1981 and be the starting CF on the 1981 World Championship team. He had a sweet left-handed swing that seemed to indicate more production than what you actually got so you always felt like you didn’t get the best of him.
Ok, this is cool. Kenny Landreau was drafted by the Angels with the 6th pick of the 1976 draft. He was traded to the Twins for none other than Rod Carew. He was then traded to the Dodgers on March 30, 1981, just before the start of the season. For fan favorite Mickey Hatcher. Landreau would retire in 1987, but Mickey Hatcher would rejoin the team in 1988 and rekindle his love affair with the Dodger fans and be an integral part of the World Championship 1988 team.
It is all just one big circle.
And to cement that circle is this Rod Carew heart transplant story that aired on CBS Sunday Morning. It will get misty.
19th win in May puts LAD in select company
With their nineteenth win in May, last night the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers moved into select company. Only four other Dodger teams since 1958 have won nineteen games in May and those four are among the greatest in Los Angeles Dodger history.
Split Year W W-L% ERA tOPS+ sOPS+ May 1962 21 .750 3.03 91 77 May 2009 20 .690 3.42 106 86 May 2010 20 .714 3.72 93 83 May 1981 19 .655 3.06 103 85 May 2017 19 .704 2.96 94 71 May 1974 19 .704 3.24 99 81 May 1965 19 .613 2.46 89 67 May 1973 19 .704 3.17 114 93
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Generated 5/31/2017.
The 1965 team went 19 – 12 in May on their way to the Los Angeles Dodgers 3rd World Championship and second in three years. They would win 97 games on the season.
The 1981 team went 19 – 10 in May on their way to the Los Angeles Dodgers 4th World Championship and first since the 1965 team. That team went 63-47 but they only played 110 games because of the strike that shortened the season.
The 1974 team went 19 – 8 in May and would play the Oakland Athletics in a tightly fought World Series. The young team would ultimately lose to the A’s but it will always remain one of my favorite teams. It was the Dodgers first time back to the World Series since the Orioles swept them away in four games in 1966. This team went 102 – 60 and won the most games of any Los Angeles Dodger team in a 162 game season. The 1962 Dodgers also won 102 games but only because of a three-game playoff against the Giants that for some reason has been counted as regular season games.
1973 team went 19 – 8 but unlike the other three teams, there would be no post-season for them. This team did win 95 games but came up 3.5 games short of the division title. If they had wild card teams back then, they would have made the postseason. The Mets had won the Eastern division with only 82 wins. The Reds and Dodgers were by far the two best teams in the NL that year but only the Reds got to the postseason. The Mets showed that wins mean little over a 162 season when you let postseason advancement be decided in a five-game series. The Mets beat the Reds three games out of five to get to the World Series. The Mets lost a thrilling World Series to the A’s 4 games to 3. If you ever wonder about the talk of the Rollie Fingers age of relief pitching this stat might tell you all you need to know. Rollie Fingers pitched more innings in the World Series than any other Oakland pitcher including three innings in game seven.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 