Monthly Archives: May 2014

May 11

Game 39, 2014

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Giants at Dodgers, 1:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Once upon a fairly-recent time if there was a big game between these two old rivals you’d expect the pitching matchup to be Lincecum for San Francisco and Kershaw for Los Angeles. Not anymore. Today’s game has Kershaw, but his opponent is 38-year old 209-game winner Tim Hudson, who’s been an ace for several teams in his career. Oddly, despite all his years with the Braves, he’s only started four times in Dodger Stadium and won only once. Overall he’s got a 6-4 record and a 3.49 ERA in 14 career starts against the Dodgers. Kershaw was 3-1 in five starts last year alone against the Giants.

May 10

Game 38, 2014

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Giants at Dodgers, 1:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, Fox Sports 1

The Giants send out Matt Cain and his 0-3, 4.35 ERA to face the Dodgers’ Zack Greinke and his 5-1, 2.35 ERA. Greinke went only three innings in his last outing, but that’s because the rains came and halted the game for three-plus hours. In those innings he gave up two runs which turned out to be enough to saddle him with his first loss of the year. This is Cain’s first start since he missed two with a cut on his index finger, suffered when he tried to catch a knife that fell while he was making a sandwich. There’s no word on what kind of sandwich he was making that required such a sharp knife; probably not peanut butter.

Puig has a nine-game hitting streak which equals the longest of his career. In less cheery news, the Dodgers opened the series with the worst fielding percentage in the league and ranked third in most runners left on base. Given that, it’s amazing they’re still above .500.

May 09

Game 37, 2014

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Giants at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Madison Bumgarner for the Giants, Paul Maholm for the Dodgers. Seems like a mismatch, particularly when you read this data about the Dodgers’ outfielders past performances against the Giants’ pitcher: “Carl Crawford is 0-for-3 with a strikeout. Andre Ethier is 3-for-24 with nine strikeouts. Matt Kemp is 4-for-24 with seven strikeouts. Yasiel Puig is 4-for-15 with five strikeouts, while Scott Van Slyke is 2-for-5 with three walks.”

Bumgarner is 3-3 with a 3.18 ERA on the season; Maholm is 1-2 with a 4.70 ERA. Each pitcher did have a quality start in his last appearance.

Lineup when available.

May 07

Game 35, 2014

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Dodgers at Nationals, 10:05AM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN

Dan Haren’s off to a great beginning with the Dodgers. He’s 4-0 with a 2.39 ERA in six starts. He’ll face Stephen Strasburg, who’s 2-2 with a 3.60 ERA so far this season.

Is Carl Crawford finally coming out of his season-long slump? He’s had two multi-hit games and has a four-game hitting streak going into today’s game.

May 06

Game 34, 2014 — The Return of Kershaw

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Dodgers at Nationals, 4:05PM PT, TV: SPNLA

The Dodgers have been getting very good starting pitching this season, even without their ace. Tonight will be Kershaw’s first start since the Antipodean Opening Day on March 22 in Sydney, Australia. He’s had two successful rehab starts in the minors after getting the word from the docs that his shoulder muscle was healed.

The Nats send out Blake Treinen, a right-hander with a record of 0-0 with a 1.35 ERA. He’s been at AAA Syracuse. This will be his first career start.

May 05

Game 33, 2014

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Dodgers at Nationals, 4:05PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Zack Greinke puts his 5-0, 2.04 ERA record on the line against the Nats’ Jordan Zimmermann and his record of 2-1, 3.27 ERA. The Nationals have never beaten Greinke. He’s 3-0 with a 1.78 ERA in four lifetime starts against Washington, and his last time out against them he threw six scoreless innings last July 20 in his only start at Nationals Park. Zimmerman is looking for his second consecutive win.

Lineup when available.

According to Bill Plunkett of the Orange Country Register “Yasiel Puig will not be taking batting practice on the field with #Dodgers Rode stationary bike this afternoon, headaches came back.”

May 04

It seems worse than this

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Here are the Dodgers’ team stats with runners in scoring position so far this season (the Runs column is N/A for every team; I’m not sure what the statisticians are doing with that) :

AVG R H HR 2B 3B RBI SB OBP SLG
.253 N/A 72 9 11 1 98 10 .334 .393

They’re 13th of 30 teams. The Rockies lead with a .309 average, and the Padres bring up the rear with a dismal, measly, pick-your-adjective .180.

May 04

Game 32, 2014

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Dodgers at Marlins, 10:10AM PT, TV: SPNLA

The Marlins send Jose Fernandez (4-1, 1.59 ERA) to the hill to face spot-starter Stephen Fife (0-0, 0.00 ERA), just called up from Albuquerque to take Hyun-Jin Ryu’s spot in the rotation. Fernandez is really really good at home. He’s got a 12-0 record with a 1.00 ERA in 19 career starts at Marlins Park.

Lineup when available.