Game 112, 2014

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

Josh Beckett (6-5, 2.74 ERA) tries to recover his early-season form for the Dodgers. Ex-Dodger (and half-a-dozen other teams) Edwin Jackson has had a poor year so far (5-11, 5.79 ERA) and is hoping to press reset himself.

Lineup:

109 thoughts on “Game 112, 2014

  1. Matty NL Player of the Week? 5 dingers, 9 rbi and 1.549 OPS. (no idea who other canidates might be).

  2. With our outfield glut, Pederson is solidly blocked. And we truly need whatever little spurt he can add, plus we have to have morale problems, over and above the non-performance problems our non-playing outfielders have to deal with. Looking at some of the outfielders the more financially restricted teams have, I cannot believe one or two of them wouldn’t take Crawford and/or Ethier for a low prospect if the Dodgers would pay all the salary except two or three million a year. In retrospect, the big deal with Boston two years ago was really not a good deal, while Agon and Punto carried their weight, the others were millstones. Time to admit their mistake and cut their losses. Similarly, I think Time-Warner Cable way over-paid the Dodgers for broadcast rights. The other cable companies and satellite broadcasters are refusing to foot the bill. TWC will have to eat big losses or go bankrupt. In the beginning I think the fans wanted their providers to give in to TWC, I know I did. Two-thirds of a season later, the Dodgers have taught me that I can live without them, I don’t need a higher satellite bill, Thank you. I’ll bet a few million other people learned that too.

    • Pederson has talent, but there’s no guarantee he’d be a short-term improvement – there’s a steep learning curve in the majors. His high strikeout rate is a red flag.

        • Defensively, Joc would probably improve the outfield. Offensively, it’s far from certain.

          • Let us all remember the cautionary tale that Trayvon Robinson became. “No!” we cried when he was sent to the Mariners. A couple of years later he’s back in our minor league system after being DFAed by the Orioles.

            Prospects, no matter how good they look in the minors, aren’t always what they seem. Pederson might be great, might be average, might be junk. It’s hard to tell.

    • Don’t think that there is room this season for Joc and forcing the issue is risky (after all, we are in first place) and maybe not best for Joc’s own development. That said, I think that Donnie could use his outfielders far more effectively. He seems to have grown fond in recent weeks with the L-R-L-R-L lineup, even when it means starting CC against lefties. I would prefer if he went the SVS /(CC/Ethier) platoon in lf. Don’t think that there were ever any illusions that we would get our money’s worth from the Boston deal even from management, who needed to shake things up and make a big splash with the suddenly flush organization. So not sure that they have to be convinced that it was a “failure” in order to eat some of the money. (We actually have gotten about 4.0 WAR out of CC and Beckett).

    • I suppose that we can always do with a little spurt, but we actually lead the NL in OPS+. Much more worried about our 4-5. Actually wouldn’t have minded parting with Joc if we could have used him for a frontliner, but looks like most of the sellers got a lot more than that.

  3. Look, I know we have problems but:
    1) we are 2 and a half ahead
    2) our last 10 has been 7-3 (not 3-7 like someone else)
    3) we still have the best record in the NL and the 3rd best overall
    4) tomorrow is another day
    🙂

    • And the Cubbies won three before they played us, so they were already feeling their oats. Now they’re feeling their oats, AND their Wheaties.

      • I like all of the above, except LA won SIX before the Cubs and they definitely have more potential.

        Still, you guys are like attending an addiction meeting and getting support from others.

        What’m I saying?! . . . I AM addicted . . . and I AM getting support.

        Hi everyone, I’m Bob and I’m a Dodger-holic.

    • “4) tomorrow is another day”

      Didn’t some lady named Scarlett O’Hara say that? ;-])

      • Whether she did or didn’t, frankly, I don’t give a dam*. 🙂

        (I’ve never seen “GWTW” all the way through — invariably I end up dozing off for a while . . . felt that way during many of today’s innings! (And I think many of the Dodger hitters also dozed off.)

  4. oh to be the Twins today, 9 runs in the 8th and back to back to back Hr’s in the 9th

  5. So much for this Cubs series being a bright spot in the long stretch facing winning teams . . .

  6. One last thing….
    ….
    It’s one thing to focus on the runners left on base in scoring position, but, it takes 9 innings to win a game… And, in my opinion Friday’s game and today’s games have both been lost 60 feet, six inches from home plate at that place called the mound. From Dan Haren to the inconsistent relieving corps, the pitching staff needs some help.
    ….
    And, to those who would retort… “Hey, we’re in first place… so, our pitching can’t be that bad…”
    While a statement like that makes one stop and think, it’s a statement of the past, as in ‘past achievement’ – previous games which have landed this team in first pace. Personally, given their body of work, I wouldn’t trust this staff “as a whole” going in to the playoffs when you look at the staffs in Detroit, Oakland, et. al.

    • Totally agree about the past is past — especially since there was soo much success vs. weaker teams.

      But the onus moving ahead is also on the offense — look how great Zack and Kersh pitched in the LCS (other than the finale for the latter), yet LA was 0-2 coming home.

      • I agree Bob.
        Hopefully, the resurgence of Kemp has some staying power.
        And, I still feel that somehow, someway…. that Andre Ethier will be called upon this season at some point…. In fact, I was surprised they didn’t put him at 1B last night in place of Gonzo….

        • I know Andre has always been a streak hitter . . . which makes it tough when he’s not playing. That, plus some apparent lack of confidence in him on Donnie’s part, doesn’t bode well.
          I wish he could return to those glory days of his walkoff summer. Who knows — as you said, look what’s happening with Kemp!

        • Was surprised they didn’t put him in CF and SVS at 1st (though Turner has been hot). Ethier at first, not so much. He has played there all of one inning in the bigs. Not the sort of situation a manager would want to put a player in who he thinks is struggling already, no?

  7. Here’s a Zen-ish question: how would the inconsistent Dodger batters do facing the inconsistent Dodger bullpen?

  8. now if Hanley and/or Matt can pop one over the fence – well you never know

  9. I think we could see this coming after our efforts in the first inning (it set a bad tone)

    • Yep!
      But I try to be optimistic. But with the Dodgers, that becomes trying . . .

      • mind you I have only just tuned in (to see us go behind 6-2), so it was all a bit retrospective after I read the comments below, as well as the play by plays

        • Lucky you!
          At least I’m trying to get some work done so it’s not a total waste of time for me.

          • With an 0-38 record trailing after 7 AND the way they’ve hit these last 5 games, don’t expect much.

            If they DO pull it out, I think the Vatican will have evidence of another miracle in someone’s cause for sainthood!

  10. I’m wondering how much that 6-game winning streak affected the thinking as the trading deadline approached.

    They WERE playing like a team. They WERE winning. (Tho they really weren’t hitting those last two games.)

    Now, as they face being humiliated in 2 of 3 games by a team currently 17 games under .500, their thinking has to be different.

  11. Gosh. I hate to join the discussion on such a negative note…
    However….
    1. Why is Brandon League even pitching to Castro? (Donny Ballgame????)
    (He’s their best hitter with first base open. There was nothing to be gained.)
    2. At this point, why even take League out of the game?
    (What is Perez going to possibly do? – Perez= 2013 Brandon League here in 2014)
    Personally, at that point, I would have left League in the game and let him just ‘rot’ out there so he could walk off the field to a maximum amount of boos.
    Sorry… thanks for letting me vent. 🙂 I hope you’re all having a great weekend.

    • At least Perez can’t blow our chances. League has already taken care of that. (Acknowledged Rule 8 violation)….See you all during the week.

  12. Bill Paxton from “Aliens” comes to mind: “Game over, man!”
    Thanks, League!

  13. Brandon League seems to get himself into trouble about 75 percent to the times he takes the mound.

    • Yep — and with a pitcher like him, you can score without a hit . . . guess that’s what the Dodger batters are hoping for.

      • Time to jettison League and Perez. I would have added Maholm to that, but he will be out for quite a while with an injury…..Also, if the Dodgers think they can get by with Beckett and Haren as starting pitchers, they are delusional. Our starting rotation consists of three aces and two jokers.

        • I’m not quite so hard on Beckett . . . tho I live in Vegas, I’m not sure what would be a step up from a joker yet not quite that respectable.
          Still, he’s probably hurting.

          • I agree, but if he is hurting, he needs to go on the disabled list and bring up someone else

      • So he definitely gets into trouble but wasn’t always hurt?
        Today caught up with him since those were all “his” runners.

          • The problem today was the lack of control — something not new to this year’s bullpen.

  14. Besides asking the question about not using Andre (tho that’s becoming moot based on his performance), Donnie and Honeycutt have to be asked about the bullpen’s poor record with walks.

    • Did you start to have expectations again?
      To paraphrase Al Pacino in “Godfather III,” ‘Just when you start to relax and not expect much, they pull you back in.’

      • Ha! Good reminder! Yes, obviously I grabbed that fishhook back. Time to unhook. Again.

  15. It’s one thing if they were looking at losing a series to a better team, but . . .

        • Freeze on a line drive until you see what happens when there are fewer than two outs. One of the the basics of baseball, Butera.

  16. They get the occasional long-ball, sometime even with a runner on base . . . but they need that hit with a RISP. One or two such hits today and this would be close to a laugher.

    • AGon hit a ball off the wall in the first, and Turner only made it to third from second.

      • True . . . but the results are indicative of those wheels that keep on spinning but don’t seem to end up anywhere.

        Vin at first was supportive of Turner holding up, seeming to understand his hesitation, thinking the ball would be caught. But then he had the same dismay I had when I first heard it.

  17. Josh, HAREN is the guy who’s been bitten by the gopher-ball bug. Have you been infected too?

    C’mon, offense, get off the dime here. EJ isn’t THAT good.

  18. I’m officially on-board the “we are in trouble with the current 4th & 5th starters” wagon . . . especially since the offense can’t be counted on to score on a consistent basis.

  19. Andre is not making any kind of a positive case for himself — which, I’m sure, leads to pressing more.

  20. ‘The Dodgers are certainly not a bunch of clutch hitters.’ Vin stating why I’m not too optimistic about their long-term effectiveness.

    Yes, during that 6-game winning streak, there was the feeling from last year, that this was a team pulling together and if so-and-so can’t do it, someone else will, . . . But that feeling has been balanced too often this year by ‘How are they going to get out of this without scoring?’

    Of course, all of this is heightened because of their ineffectiveness vs. a last-place team.

  21. I wonder why no SVS against the left-handed pitcher? Mattingly not doing Ethier any favor playing him today. That’s what I call holding a grudge….

  22. Vinny agrees with us — the Dodgers should never load the bases. He cited stats to show the LA ineptitude in such situations.

  23. ‘The minimum out of the maximum . . . . As only the Dodgers can do it.’ Vin summed it up.
    Silver Lining Dept.: early-season Dodgers wouldn’tve scored at all!

  24. Two hits after a double and he’s only at 3rd?!!
    I understand what happened, but this could be ominous.
    C’mon, Hanley!

  25. I’m not expecting a lot from Buckett but, hopefully, Dodgers score abundant runs and he goes six or so.