Monthly Archives: September 2012

Sep 26

Game Thread 9/26/12

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Nobody told me today’s game was at 12:35pm HST!

The Dodgers send Aaron Harang out to do battle with Clayton Richard. Harang hasn’t won a game since August 18 (not a surprise; if commenter scooplew’s math is correct, yesterday’s game was the 20th consecutive one in which the Dodgers’ starter did not get a win). Meanwhile, Richard’s been on a roll. In his last eight starts he’s 6-1 with a 3.25 ERA.

The game is televised by Prime Ticket today, so I’ll have an opportunity to watch. I’ll post the lineup later when Mattingly tells the media who’s starting.

Lineup per Eric Stephen @ True Blue LA via Twitter:

Victorino RF
Herrera LF
Kemp CF
Gonzalez 1B
Ramirez SS
Cruz 3B
Punto 2B
Treanor C
Harang p

Victorino was a late scratch. Here’s the new lineup:

Herrera, E, LF
Punto, N, 2B
Kemp, M, CF
Gonzalez, A, 1B
Ramirez, H, SS
Cruz, L, 3B
Rivera, J, RF
Treanor, M, C
Harang, A, P

Sep 25

Once more, with no timely hitting

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I managed to see the ESPN clips on SportsCenter. That ninth inning was a perfect example of the Dodgers’ last half of the season — out of synch. If Ethier had hit the fly ball that Kemp did the game would probably have been tied and it would have gone to extra innings, but no. Andre struck out, his third strikeout of the game.

Here’s ESPN’s Game Report.

The team is 4 1/2 games back of the Cardinals with 8 games to play. I don’t want to throw in the towel, but it would take a small miracle for them to get past the Brewers and the Cards to make it into the 2nd wild card spot from here. It’s hard to believe this team was 17 games over .500 on June 18 and it’s now only 4 over.

Sep 25

I’m hip, baby!

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Actually, I’m probably not. But Jerry Hairston’s hip is, and the condition he had is the same as the one Kershaw’s described as having: a hip impingement. Here’s what repairing that involved:

The procedure is arthroscopic, but not minor. His left leg was placed in traction to separate the leg from the hip far enough for arthroscopic tools to enter the joint. The torn labrum was repaired and an irregularity in the head or neck of the femur that caused the impingement was shaved to allow for smooth rotation in the joint. When the ball and socket don’t fit properly, friction tears the labrum.

Having undergone surgery recently myself, I’m inclined to think there’s no such thing as minor surgery if it’s being done on your own body, and that certainly doesn’t sound minor to me. Separating the leg from the hip via traction? Ouch!

Today’s game pits Josh Beckett against Edinson Volquez. If you can rely on history (doubtful), Beckett ought to be favored. He’s 5-1 with a 2.16 ERA in six career starts against the Padres, which sounds good, but the last time he pitched against them was five years ago. I’m pretty sure the entire Padres roster has flipped in those five years.

It’s a KCAL game, so I’ll have to rely on Gameday and you folks for game action. Let this be the game thread.

Lineup:

Ellis, M, 2B
Ethier, A, RF
Kemp, M, CF
Gonzalez, A, 1B
Ramirez, H, SS
Victorino, S, LF
Cruz, L, 3B
Ellis, A, C
Beckett, J, P

Gameday

Sep 24

Last off-day of the year

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As foul tip commented below, a 3 – 3 split with two division leaders tied with one another for the most wins in baseball (92) isn’t bad. Considering how poor the offense has been for three weeks, if we’re honest with ourselves we might admit we didn’t expect results even that good. Now if they can sweep the Padres before coming home to the beautiful setting of Dodger Stadium to play the Rockies and Giants, there might still be a little hope left. The Cardinals have three with the Astros starting today, and the Houston team is redefining the word hapless in its last season in the National League. But the Cards then have to play the Nats and the Reds to close out the season. The Dodgers could get a little help from those two teams.

Let’s be realistic here. The Dodgers are fighting for the 2nd wild card slot. Winning that buys you the chance to participate in a one-game playoff with the winner of the 1st wild card slot. The winner of that game goes on to play in the five-game NLDS, and from that point on the postseason is the same as it has been since the wild card was instituted in 1995. Unless the offense gets untracked over the next week, they won’t have even that slim opportunity.

Just for fun, from MLB:

If the postseason started today …

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Wild Card: A’s at Orioles
Division Series: Yankees vs. White Sox | Rangers vs. Wild Card winner

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Wild Card: Cardinals at Braves
Division Series: Reds vs. Giants | Nationals at Wild Card winner

• For the 2012 postseason, the team with the better record will play the first two games on the road to start the Division Series.

In the American League I’m rooting hard for the Orioles to overtake the Yankees in the AL East and the Tigers to catch the White Sox in the AL Central. While no Dodgers fan needs to explain why he’d like the Yankees to lose, I used to live in Washington DC when the Orioles were the better team of the two within rooting distance, and I’ve apparently got some residual memory of them. With the Tigers I’d like to see Verlander, Fister, Fielder and Miguel Cabrera in the postseason.

Sep 24

Site news

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I don’t know how many of you folks used the links in the sidebars at Dodger Thoughts. I confess I didn’t use very many of them very often. However, some of you may have been relying on Jon’s site to navigate through to other Dodger or general baseball sites, so I added them to the sidebar here. I cut some which haven’t been updated in six months or more, so if your favorite is gone, that’s why.

I left off the entire section Jon had called “Elsewhere in the world,” (see here), but if you’d like those added, just say so in the comments.

I also tried to click the little button in setup which says “open new window when this link is clicked” for all of those links, but I may have missed one. If you click a link and it opens in the same window as Elysian Fields, please leave me a comment telling me which link did that.

Thanks.

Sep 23

Game Thread 9/23/12

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Gratuitous Giants video, only because a) it’s a helluva play and b) Kung-Fu Panda is actually blowing a bubble when he takes off after this foul ball!

When ESPN scheduled this game for its final Sunday Night Baseball game of the season, I’m sure it thought it would have a bearing on at least one if not two division titles. As the season went along, I imagine they felt pretty good about it until the All-Star break, when the Dodgers’ injuries were starting to mount up. After the past month of Dodger futility, by now the guys in charge of baseball programming in Bristol are all saying “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”

Lineups aren’t out yet, but Ken Gurnick reports at Dodgers.com that Kershaw has been cleared to pitch tonight.

If it were me managing, I’d say “Clayton, you’ve had a very good year, but the likelihood of us going into the playoffs isn’t going to be increased if you pitch anymore this season. Unless we start to hit, there’s no reason to risk you hurting yourself permanently. Sit down and rest that hip.”

Lineup:

Ellis, M, 2B
Ethier, A, RF
Kemp, M, CF
Gonzalez, A, 1B
Ramirez, H, SS
Cruz, L, 3B
Herrera, E, LF
Ellis, A, C
Kershaw, C, P

Gameday

Sep 22

Bad day for LA

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Alas, no joy from the Dodgers today, as the Reds’ Mat Latos shut them down for eight innings and Aroldis Chapman did the same in the ninth. I suppose they could claim a moral victory since Chapman didn’t strike a Dodger out, but that seems small consolation.

By winning the Reds clinch the NL Central, and the Dodgers fall to three games behind the Cardinals in the second wild card race.

For good measure, the Oregon State Beavers defeated the UCLA Bruins 27-20. UCLA will in all likelihood fall out of the Top 25 rankings.

The next two games I’m interested in today both begin at 4:30 pm HST. 22nd-ranked Arizona (an alma mater of mine) plays 3rd-ranked Oregon in Eugene and Nevada travels to Hawai’i to resume an old rivalry in a new conference (the Mountain West).

Sep 22

Dodgers Game Thread 9/22/12

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The Dodgers’ win last night kept the Reds from clinching the NL Central, but the successor to the Big Red Machine gets another chance today. Any combination of a Reds win or a Cardinals loss gives the Queen City its second division title in three years after fifteen years without one.

Young Mr. Fife takes his 2.49 ERA up against the likes of Votto and Phillips as well as two Old Friends today: Messrs. Paul and Navarro are in the lineup for the Reds. The game is on Big Fox TV.

Lineup:

Ellis, M, 2B
Ethier, A, RF
Kemp, M, CF
Gonzalez, A, 1B
Ramirez, H, SS
Cruz, L, 3B
Rivera, J, LF
Ellis, A, C
Fife, S, P

Gameday

If you need something to divert you before the Dodgers game, it’s OSU at UCLA at the Rose Bowl this afternoon.