Game 52, 2014

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After yesterday’s excitement, the season goes on at a slightly lower level.

Reds at Dodgers, 5:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

The Reds send Johnny Cueto to the hill. He’s 4-3 with a 1.86 ERA this season, coming off a bad outing in which he gave up six runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings in a loss to the Nationals. The Dodgers counter with lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu, who’s 4-2 with a 3.00 ERA. In his last start he went six innings and gave up two runs to the Mets, winning 4-3.

In an attempt to get Matt Kemp’s bat into the lineup without harming the defense, Mattingly is going to start him in left field for a while. In eight-plus years in the major leagues he’s averaged four errors per season, and he’s already got that many in just 39 games this year. And that doesn’t count the balls he’s not gotten to or taken bad routes on.

“Here’s where we’re going with Matt,” Mattingly said on Sunday morning after he put Andre Ethier in center for a third consecutive game. “We’re going to start working Matt a little bit in left field. We’re going to continue to work him in center. We’re just feeling like we’re giving him time to really get healthy. Not that’s he’s not healthy, but give him a chance to get all the way back.”

Kemp, who missed only 11 games from 2008-11, missed 145 games from 2012-13 due to injuries. He is currently hitting .264 with 13 doubles, five home runs and 13 RBIs in 42 games this season.

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73 thoughts on “Game 52, 2014”

    • Let’s hope there’s no need for a bottom of the 9th in these next 9 games!

  3. Following the team is year is like taking a bunch of trips to the dentist.

    Even when things eventually work out. May need something stronger than Novocain.

      • Puig saved the game there. Turner made several nice plays to preserve Ryu’s perfecto-in-progress but, in Beckett’s no-no, there were no truly difficult plays.

  9. Hearing Broxton in brings back some painful memories. Besides the playoffs, I was at Chase Field when he blew two consecutive games, if I remember right.

  19. Doesn’t this just typify this season? Hoping for a perfect game turns to just hoping for the win.

  24. Looking at Cueto’s performance I wondered about the highest combined GS. Sandy’s 101 was combined with my namesake’s 80 (one hitter, but only 3 Ks). The highest, of course, was Marichal (112) and Spahn (97).

    • I’m sure the Blue D is becoming more and more conscious of their shortcomings.
      If they were nervous yesterday,that’s nothing compared to today!

  33. C’mon, Ryu — you know the Dodger pitchers’ batting mantra: ‘If it’s meant to be, it”s up to me.’

  35. Need more runs!
    There’s enough pressure on Ryu, much less having the outcome in question.

  38. Skirting the rule here, but Reds broadcasters said no team has ever followed what JB did yesterday with another the very next game.

    But said a couple teams have had it done TO them the very next game after tossing one.

    Also, no walks or errors tonight. Outstanding, no matter what happens last 2 innings.

  39. So, Steiner says Ryu has been “nearly perfect.” What more does he want?

  42. so did Gordon get to the plate before the out at third? I’m guessing no one else on the team would have made it

  44. Just before the game starts, let me offer up a couple of book recommendations: a while back I discovered that the famous broadcaster Red Barber had written an autobiography called Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat, published in 1968 and recently reprinted. I went to buy it and discovered he’d also written a rather more specific book called 1947: When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball: The Year Jackie Robinson Broke the Color Barrier. Since he was the Dodgers radio man from 1939 to 1953 he had an intimate view of those events.

    I’ve finished the first one and am about to begin the second. The first is a good story of his life and incidentally how radio was introduced to MLB (kicking and screaming; the Yankees and Giants refused to do it for years after Barber first started in Cincinnati and moved to Brooklyn).

    I am really looking forward to the second one.

  45. with the Gnats and Rockies both currently losing, hopefully today is moving day

  47. This is AJ’s year to be snakebit! And I’m wondering when Kemp will get back on the field? But yesterday was so special – still riding that train. Go blue.

  48. So much for starting Kemp in left field today. DM is playing his two lefties and Puig in the OF.

    • There are some interesting trade-offs here, which are muddled because Kemp is only hitting .389 OPS against lefties so far this year(.946 lifetime). Dre is hitting .509 against them, SVS 1.242, Crawford .490, and to round it out Puig .950.

  49. Cubs scored three in the 5th and two in the 6th to reverse a 3-1 deficit and now lead the Giants, 6-3, in the top of the 7th.

  50. A.J. sprains ankle stepping on Butera’s mask after last night’s celebration, and is on 15-day DL. FedEx recalled from ABQ.