48 thoughts on “Game 68, 2014

  1. Thank you all for the compliments. Keep commenting! 😉

    I can’t believe I woke up so late that the game was in the third inning, the Dodgers were down 2-1, and I hadn’t gotten a game thread up yet. Cursed day games and time zones!

    • I woke up and it was all over – I may have a slight time zone excuse however 🙂

    • No prob, Link . . . if t’weren’t for you, there’d be no site to not have a game thread on! (I will not let my grammar teacher see that sentence.)

  2. Well, I have officially lowered my expectations for this year, as of today. I will enjoy my team, but don’t believe we will make it into October. I really hope I’m wrong, but making the choice to let go means I can stop feeling so frustrated by our offense, and so mad at Donnie, who seems to have gotten even more blanketed with ennui since his contract got renewed.

    • Even at the underachieving pace so far, we are pretty good shape for making it to October (currently tied for third best record in NL) under new wildcard rules.

      • To use another Peanuts/Lucy analogy . . . the way this team has played so far, I’m afraid that would just be Charlie Brown all set to kick the field goal and Lucy pulling the ball away at the last minute . . . then Chuck flat on his back, wondering why he got his hopes up AGAIN.

        But things can always change . . . for the better.

        • Not sure I understand the analogy? You mean if they make the playoffs, they will disappoint? Perhaps, but my point was that “the way the team has played so far” they were tied for third best record in the NL going into today’s game and would make the playoffs as a wildcard.

    • I think that’s a healthy approach (remember the Dodger Thoughts mission statement was ‘a psychological way of dealing with the Dodgers’?) . . . otherwise frustration from the team’s underachieving ways could bleed into our lives . . . I know my bosses wouldn’t be happy with that, even tho I’m nowhere near a (multi-) million $ contract.

    • Then if they succeed like they should after all, you can be pleasantly surprised. ;/.)

  3. Gameday clocked Chapman 3 times at 102 and once at 101 in Romak’s AB. Welcome to the big leagues, son.

    Only sure way to beat that kind of heat is not to face it. ;-])

  4. Brandon League, not ready for prime time. Donnie may hope he can pick up some of Wilson’s slack in the 8th due to his good streak. But IIRC, in every medium to high leverage situation he’s been in lately, he has fouled it up. Aarrgh….

    • Totally agree. As a Dodger, he’s generally been good in non-pressure situations this year, generally bad otherwise. Yet he had 37 saves for Seattle in 2011.

  5. No hard data to back this up, but I think when things aren’t going well, most Dodger hitters tend to press, try too hard. Then they’re not relaxed and don’t focus on executing a given AB the way they should. They’re a little off as a result, and so it builds, one AB to the next.

    If they–if any star athlete, for that matter–focuses on the process of doing things right, results will come more often than not due to sheer talent as well as experience.

    Nick Saban’s system for Alabama football and Geno Auriema’s for CT women’s basketball and maybe some others preach this total focus on process, not results. Gets them great results, even if indirectly. I think it’s what DM and others mean by playing the game the right way, at least partly.

    It’s a big part of the mental game and sports psychology. Execute this AB, this pitch,
    this play and shut out everything else, including expectations–most of all their own.

    Didn’t Lucy charge 5 cents for psychiatric help in the comic strip Peanuts? Guess I can charge 4 and undercut her. ;-])

    But there IS a lot of truth in what I said.

    • In that regard, yesterday’s game was an example where they seemed to be totally focused on process, such that it took the Reds 170 pitches to get through them even though it was a shutout. The results, not so much.

      • Results included what, 16 Ks. Cueto’s good, but to me 16 Ks says trying too hard, even if they did make him and other Reds pitchers work…before they struck out. ;-])

        • Agon struck out three times, but he saw 31 pitches. That is not pressing too hard and flailing away.

          • That looks like what you’d hope to see, except of course for those particular results. Good results aren’t guaranteed no matter how good a player’s approach, just more likely the better the approach.

            Of the regulars, Agon is the one who seems least affected by distractions. Doesn’t mean he’s happy with bad outcomes, or with being in his recent funk. But he does seem to stay on an even keel.

            I’ll say that players who struggle more with their emotions (Kemp as poster child for that) are more likely to struggle as I’m describing.

            DM said something recently about liking to see emotion because it means players care. OK. But can they control it when needed?

          • Kemp is frustrated with some of the calls that he is getting lately, but we as fans may be overreacting as well. Going into today’s game Kemp in the road trip (23 PA) had an OPS 1.147. The four Ks the other day were actually the first of the road trip where is K-rate is only 17%. Today he went 2 for 3 with a walk and no Ks. Doesn’t seem to fit the poster child narrative.

          • To be clear, I’m not one of those down on Kemp or trying to scapegoat him. I’d love to see him regain superstar status, as would we all.

            Yes, he’s doing better lately. But he did get thrown out in the first inning yesterday for overreacting to umpire calls, which in and of itself is distracting for the entire team. Beefing at umps and getting tossed sometimes is part of the game. But you can argue he let the team down by pushing hard enough to get tossed so early in a big game.

            Fortunately SVS was available. Right now he’s not much if any drop off from Kemp. And, realistically, given how Cueto pitched, it didn’t much matter yesterday who played LF. Does seem like Kemp had decent history v Cueto. Either way, made irrelevant by events.

            There were several reports Kemp didn’t handle the move to LF well at all, and he did go into a hitting funk when that happened. Wouldn’t expect him to like it since it’s kind of a blow to the ego.

            And the “I’m not a 4th outfielder” bit early on was ill-advised and gave his critics plenty of ammo. A player with his talent should not be a 4th outfielder, granted. But claiming a lineup spot every day thru his performance while keeping quiet would have been far better.

            None of us know what’s in any hitter’s mind. But one sure way for performance to fall off is to get distracted and invested emotionally in the wrong things. I suspect but of course can’t know this is part of Kemp’s struggle, along with not yet being 100% physically.

          • I appreciate that, but I was reacting to: “I’ll say that players who struggle more with their emotions (Kemp as poster child for that) are more likely to struggle as I’m describing”. My point was that he has not been struggling as you describe during this road trip. In fact he has been the best hitter on the team during this period.

          • OK. As far as I’m concerned, horse headed to glue factory after this.

            I think my last post was accurate as far as the point I was trying to make. White he may have been the best the last few games, recently he was in a bad slump, and I believe his emotions bleed thru and affect his performance–and to some degree have all year, as evidenced by what was cited.

            Some other recent numbers, from dodgers.com story of the 12th headed “Mattingly believes Kemp can turn things around”….

            “Kemp went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI in Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the
            Reds. He is batting .254 with five home runs and 19 RBIs on the season.
            In his previous 19 games, he had been hitting .206 (13-for-63) with no
            homers and five RBIs. Though he had a good series in Colorado (5-for-9
            with two triples and three RBIs), he struggled in the first three games
            in Cincinnati, going 1-for-8 with five strikeouts.”

            And got tossed early after an outburst in one of those. Can’t be a team leader if you’re not in the game.

            SSS on both my numbers–which include only traditional numbers–and yours. My perspective is intended to be season-long.

            Let’s hope he produces big-time the rest of the way and gives us good things to talk about instead of his struggles.

          • Very poor form to say that the discussion is over and then to go on to cite something like this. But I will hold my tongue, as it were.

          • Not my intent to insist on the last word–or anything of the sort.

            It’s just that some discussions hit a point at which people are just restating things they’ve already said, maybe using different words, but not saying much if anything different. I kinda thought that’s where we were. I understood your points and thought you did mine.

            But feel free to respond, now and always.

            I acknowledge that Kemp has done better lately. But for whatever reasons he has struggled overall this season, and I stand by thinking that better emotional control would help his performance, as evidenced by my earlier posts.

            Not sure the problem with what I cited last post. Didn’t think it opposed yours so much as it said, “yes, but…” ;-])

          • I was certainly looking at it more in the short term. He was starting to heat up with the bat when he was benched and then put into left, and I am sure he was not a happy camper. He seems to have made the adjustment after about five games and started heating up again with the OPS of 1.180 during the road trip. All the best, to him and to you.

          • I think the emotional poster boy comment referred to Matt’s outburst which got him tossed from the game yesterday.

  6. First and third with no one out and we can’t score. When you send up a catcher who is hitting below .130, followed by a career minor leaguer who has a no-hit reputation (lifetime minor league batting average of .238 in nine seasons), then send up a pinch-hitter who doesn’t hit righties well, the outcome is not surprising. Parts of this team are not well-constructed.

        • Saying exactly what you said — those were not the hitters who should’ve been up there at that time in the game and it’s a legitimate question Donnie will have to face after the game.

      • I agree, but early in the season I was worried about our catching and our bench. I am surprised that Ned hasn’t done more to remedy both.

  7. Yesterday’s lack of offense was credited to Cueto.
    What’s the excuse today?
    LA batters are turning to their incredible talent of making any pitcher look like an ace.

    • Sad, but too often true this season. Is one bad inning going to pin a loss on Greinke?

      • Maybe it’s one of those things that don’t happen as much as it seems, but seems like a lot of the time when both Zack and Josh give up runs, it’s via the longball.

    • We have averaged 4.8 runs per game this road trip and yesterday was the only day that we scored less than 4. The two losses in the road trip were when our pitchers let in 5 runs.

    • Today was one of those totally frustrating games, where we look positively anemic. Not a championship team, that’s for sure.