Andrew Toles joins LAD five-homer LF club for April
With Andrew Toles clubbing his fifth home run today he joined a select few LAD left fielders to have hit at least five home runs in the time period of March/April.
Player Split Year PA HR Andrew Toles April/March 2017 77 5 Gary Sheffield April/March 1999 102 5 Gary Sheffield April/March 2000 100 10 Gary Sheffield April/March 2001 90 7 Manny Ramirez April/March 2009 98 5 Wally Moon April/March 1961 70 8 Rick Monday April/March 1978 80 8 Mike Marshall April/March 1984 104 7 Pedro Guerrero April/March 1987 83 5
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Generated 4/30/2017.
Bellinger and Beltre
Cody Bellinger joins Adrian Beltre as the only LAD 21-years or younger to have two home runs in the month of April. Of course, Beltre was a starter the whole month and got 102 plate appearances to hit his two home runs, Bellinger did it in 20.
Player Split Year HR PA OPS Adrian Beltre April/March 2000 2 102 .770 Cody Bellinger April/March 2017 2 20 1.047
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Generated 4/30/2017.
Bellinger blasts off – The 3+Whoops Game
Sons of Steve Garvey put out my favorite tweet for this game. For those who remember the back to back to back to back game.
The 3+Whoops Game
— Sons of Steve Garvey (@sosgsosg) April 30, 2017
Games like Saturday Night are why we love baseball. Down 5 – 2, the only reason to stick around was to see the young kid get another at-bat. Who knows, maybe he’ll hit another home run. Doubtful but stranger things have happened at the Ravine.
It used to be that a Puig at-bat was the reason to stick around but he’s old news and hadn’t crushed a ball for a while. Puig changed the dynamic when he took a ball over the fence to cut the lead to 5 – 3. It was nice to see Puig put a charge into the ball but still down two runs to the Phillie closer only stirred the passion arrow a little. This all changed when Bellinger crushed his second home run of the game (and second of his career) off the foul pole, a majestic blast that stirred the crowd into a frenzy and moved the passion arrow deep into green territory. What had been 5 – 2 was now 5 – 4 with still no outs.
Justin Turner strode to the plate as a pinch-hitter with a fourteen game hitting streak. Pinch-hitting is normally death to a hitting streak but with a one-run deficit, Dave Roberts had to bring his best hitter into the game. I was hoping for a double, but instead, we got a game-tying April busting bomb deep into the left field pavilion, sending everyone into happy riot mode and the passion arrow was straining at the far right threatening to bust out. The homer by Turner blew up my narrative about being the first LAD to not hit a home run in April but still have an OPS north of .900.
Oh well, all narratives eventually have to die, and this narrative died heroically.
Neris looked rattled and threw the first pitch into the dirt but recovered to strike out Chris Taylor. Austin Barnes (playing 2nd base) fell behind 1 – 2 but squeezed a single past the shortstop. A lefty replaces Neris to face Toles/Seager/Adrian and gets Toles for the second out. Seager slams a line drive into left field but this brought up Adrian Gonzalez.
Gonzalez has been an empty shell of the egg and butter man that Dodger fans are used to watching. He has slumped all of April and it didn’t seem likely he could be the Dodger to end this game before extra-innings. With the count 1 – 2 Adrian grounded the ball to the left side, but it had enough spin that it hand cupped the 3rd baseman Franco and it bounced off his glove and better yet spun out of the reach of the SS thus allowing Barnes to scamper home with the running run. It was ruled a hit, it was not a hit, but it was the ground ball the Dodgers needed to reach their first three-game winning streak.
Must C Comeback: Dodgers’ bats come alive in the 9th https://t.co/CGsQ8gibC3 via @mlb
— Phil Gurnee (@meercatjohn) April 30, 2017
Brandon McCarthy started the great pitching streak and ended the pitching streak by getting knocked around for the first time this year. Brandon still managed to get fifteen outs while giving up four runs.
Game notes:
- Dodgers win three in a row for the first time in 2017
- Grant Dayton entered the game in the top of the 9th, got his three outs, and enjoyed a W for his effort.
- Bellinger hit his first major league home run, and Andrew Knapp followed that for the Phillies with his first major league home run. A great day for both of them.
- Andrew Toles led off with a home run, but is going to be hard pressed to keep Bellinger from taking his job.
- Justin Turner now has a 15 game hitting streak
Rotation has turned on a dime
With that seven-inning masterpiece by Kenta Maeda last night, the Dodger starting rotation starting with Brandon McCarthy has been brilliant over the past six games. In five of the six games, each starter has walked only one hitter with Urias having the only blemish. That helps if you want to get more than fifteen outs per start.
| Starter | Outs | Hits | ER | KK/BB |
| McCarthy | 21 | 5 | 2 | 6/1 |
| Ryu | 18 | 5 | 1 | 3/1 |
| Kershaw | 21 | 6 | 1 | 7/1 |
| Wood | 18 | 1 | 0 | 5/1 |
| Urias | 17 | 4 | 1 | 4/4 |
| Maeda | 21 | 5 | 2 | 8/1 |
With the Urias start that is still 33/9 KK/BB. Without the Urias start, it is 29/5. Dang
I’m not sure where Rich Hill figures into this rotation right now but I sure wouldn’t mess with what is working. Hill is scheduled for a rehab start next Thursday, which if all goes well could bring him back the week of May 8th. By that time who knows if Ryu/Wood/Kenta/McCarthy will have stayed hot or healthy.
Justin Turner will sit tonight and hopefully not waste a pinch-hit duty that would kill his hitting streak. I dig hitting streaks.
Grant Dayton is back. Yeah, I love Grant Dayton. Josh Fields had to go to make room for Dayton which is too bad. Fields was nails.
Competition Notes:
Shelby Miller will undergo TJ surgery. He suffered the injury while pitching against the Dodgers last week. The Diamondbacks could ill afford to lose a part of the rotation. For now Zack Godley will replace him in the rotation. Zach pitched well in his 2017 debut but has limited upside.
Brandon Crawford was reinstated off the bereavement list and immediately put on the 10 day DL.
Kenta Maeda looks to pull a Tanaka
To put it mildly, Kenta Maeda has been a huge disappointment so far in 2017.
Date Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO HR Game Score Apr4 SDP L0-4 5.0 6 3 2 4 1 45 Apr9 COL W10-6 5.0 5 4 1 5 1 45 Apr15 ARI W8-4 4.0 4 4 1 5 1 42 Apr22 ARI L5-11 5.0 9 6 1 5 4 29 Apr 4 to Apr 22 2017 2-2 19.0 24 17 5 19 7 40
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/28/2017.
He may be pitching for his spot in the rotation. Looking for some hope I turned toward his countrymate, Masahiro Tanaka. Tanaka also started off April with a string of poor starts but as you can tell from the game logs below, Tanaka has gotten better with each start and threw a shutout against the Red Sox last night, outdueling Chris Sale.
I’m not dreaming of a shutout for Kenta, but maybe he can do the Kenta and give the Dodgers 5 2/3 of two-run ball ?
Date Tm Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO HR Game Score Apr2 NYY TBR L3-7 2.2 8 7 2 3 2 15 Apr8 NYY BAL L4-5 5.0 6 3 4 5 0 44 Apr14 NYY STL W4-3 6.1 5 3 2 5 1 54 Apr19 NYY CHW W9-1 7.0 6 1 2 6 0 65 Apr27 NYY BOS W3-0 9.0 3 0 0 3 0 84 Apr 2 to Apr 27 2017 NYY 3-2 30.0 28 14 10 22 3 52
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Generated 4/28/2017.
Look for Gandal to have a big game. According to stats he has the highest OPS against the Phillies
Yasmani Grandal, LAD 1.172 (.442 OBP + .730 SLG)
Justin Turner was able to turn an extra inning affair into a plus by collecting a hit to keep his hitting streak alive it is now at 13. Both Turner and Gonzalez are searching for their first home run in April.
Justin Turner inches closer to another homerless April
Last year Justin Turner became the 2nd LAD starting 3rd baseman to ever go homerless in the time frame of March/April. The key criteria is starting 3rd baseman. Turner is just three games away from turning the same trick in 2017. Given how successful his 2016 season was after not hitting a home run in April, maybe we should be rooting for it again.
Homerless March/April by Position using 80 PA as the criteria:
1st – 4 times (Gonzalez, Loney, Garvey twice)
2nd – 11 times (Sizemore (twice), Lopes (twice), Sax (twice), Randolf, Reed, Cora, Carroll, Ellis, Gordon
SS – Wills (three times), Russell (three times), Griffin (twice), Offerman(three times), Vizaino, Izzy (twice), Furcal(twice)
3rd – Turner (once so far), Ron Cey
RF – Willie Crawford
LF – Bill Buckner
CF – Brett Butler(four times), Willie Davis (twice), Law, Landreaux, John Shelby, Mike Ramsey, Juan Pierre
And Nate Oliver in 1963
Gonzalez going Loney on us
The last time a starting LAD first baseman went the month of April without a home run was James Loney in 2009. It has only been done four times in LAD History. I used 80 PA as the criteria. At least Loney was hitting, Adrian is not even doing that.
Rk Player Split Year PA HR RBI OPS 2 Adrian Gonzalez April/March 2017 83 0 9 .661 8 James Loney April/March 2009 97 0 16 .810 33 Steve Garvey April/March 1982 92 0 11 .560 37 Steve Garvey April/March 1976 87 0 7 .659
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Generated 4/28/2017.
Were you surprised to see Steve Garvey on this list? I sure was.
Schimpf and Schebler – Struggling or Super?
I always have my eye on Scott Schebler simply because I enjoyed him as a prospect and have been rooting hard for him to make it with the Reds. Schimpf had such a bizarre 2016 I was curious how 2017 would turn out for him.
Both of them are having a strange April and by most accounts would be considered struggling hitters. Schimpf finally lost his job, but Schebler seems to have kept his for the time being. Both of them homered yesterday giving them eleven home runs for the season.
Ryan Schimpf has seven hits in seventy-eight plate appearances. If that sounds bad it isn’t, it is horrific. But here is the fun. Four of the seven hits are home runs. Plus he has walked fifteen times in those seventy-eight plate appearances. That is a walk rate of almost 20%. None of them have been intentional. Even though he can’t hit a lick he is getting on base. A quick look shows that only seven other NL players have had at least 15 walks this year. His BABIP is .091. If bad luck had a name in 2017 it would be Ryan Schimpf. All of this got him benched yesterday. The Padres brought up Cory Spangenberg to play 3rd base. He wasn’t sent to AAA, his coach said he would still get plenty of chances and that they continue to believe in him. Schimpf bided his time, came off the bench against Fernando Rodney and proceeded to blast a game-winning three-run home run. I should almost mention that his K rate is 33%. Oh, he also has nine RBI so he’s averaging more than one RBI per hit. Who doesn’t love that?
Scott Schebler has only fifteen hits in eighty-two plate appearances and just managed to pop over the Mendoza line last night. His value, however, is in what makes up those fifteen hits. Ten of those fifteen hits are for extra bases. Seven of them are home runs. Even with a batting average of .203 and an OBP of .280, that slug% of .527 makes him a dangerous hitter. He also has a BABIP that has to go up. It currently sits at .170 but last year it was .312. My biggest disappointment with Schebler is that his penchant for minor league triples has not transferred to the major league level. Scotty hit 62 triples in the minors but only two in the majors so far. He also has fifteen RBI, so he’s averaging a RBI for every hit. Who doesn’t love that?
Dodgers lose but many things go right tonight
Even with the Dodgers losing a tough one-run game to the Giants tonight, many things outside of their control went right.
The Rockie rotation showed their shaky side as they got lit up for the second straight game by the Nationals. Overall the Rockies gave up twenty-six runs in two games, with the rotation being responsible for thirteen of those twenty-six runs.
Fernando Rodney blew a save the way that only Fernando Rodney can blow a save. With the Diamondbacks in cruise control holding a 5 – 3 lead, Rodney gave up five runs including a three-run blast by the benched Ryan Schimpf.
These are problems that I expect will continue to plague the two teams the Dodgers have to catch. Even with the Dodgers unable to put together a substantial winning streak, it is only a matter of time before it comes together.
I can imagine many fans saying “Wat” when Joe Davis said that Pedro Baez had an eighteen inning scoreless streak given he seems to hang a home run every few games. It was hard to believe, what wasn’t hard to believe was the home run that Michael Morse jacked into LF.
Cody Bellinger is off to a rough start and to tell you the truth I like it better when the prospect struggles out of the gate. Just as long as that struggle is temporary and not a career.
Alex Wood was as good as he has ever been. Six man rotation with Kershaw getting the ball every fifth day, and everyone else working around him? If you can get six innings per start from the six-man rotation you won’t need as many bullpen pieces.
The longer Adrian Gonzalez struggles the more I look forward to his hot streak.
The day Frank Howard led off
With Cody Bellinger leading off tonight, David Young wondered if he was the tallest lead off hitter in Dodger history. He found that Ex-Dodger Frank Howard had once led off but it wasn’t as a Dodger it was with the Senators. Big Hondo was 6’7 and a mountain of a man.
Once David posted that info my old mind kicked into gear and I vaguely remembered the reason. I lived in Alexandria, VA at the time and the Senators were my adopted team. I felt it had something to do with the home run race so I popped over to Baseball Reference to see if my memory was functioning for once.
It was. In 1969 on the morning of Oct 1st, both Frank Howard and Harmon Killebrew had 48 home runs. The Twins were playing the White Sox in a day game on Wednesday Afternoon. Killebrew hit his 49th home run in the first inning.
Ted Williams had Frank Howard lead off so that he could get more at-bats to try to hit his 49th home run. Hondo came up empty and for the Senators that was the last game of the year. The Twins still had one more game but Killebrew went hitless on Oct 2nd.
1969 was the year of the home run with seven players hitting forty or more home runs.
Player HR Year Age Tm OPS Pos Harmon Killebrew 49 1969 33 MIN 1.011 *5*3 Frank Howard 48 1969 32 WSA .976 *73/9H Reggie Jackson 47 1969 23 OAK 1.018 *98/H Willie McCovey 45 1969 31 SFG 1.108 *3/H Hank Aaron 44 1969 35 ATL 1.003 *9/3H Rico Petrocelli 40 1969 26 BOS .992 *6/5 Carl Yastrzemski 40 1969 29 BOS .870 *73/8
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Generated 4/26/2017.
Frank Howard led MLB in home runs in 1968 and 1970 with 44 home runs but came in 2nd in 1969 when he blasted 48.
The American League was loaded in 1969 but it was the Mets who found history by defeating the Orioles in the World Series. The Orioles had won 109 games and swept a powerful Twin team. It was a shocker then and still a shocker now when I think back to that World Series.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 