Game 33, 2015

Marlins at Dodgers, 4:50PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Note the 4:50PM start time: “The unusual start time of 4:50 p.m. PT (7:50 p.m. ET) was selected to comply with MLB travel rules, so the Marlins would have a day off Thursday without traveling.”

Carlos Frias goes to the mound for the Dodgers. He’s 3-0 with a 2.13 ERA and will be making his third start of the season. The Marlins will counter with Jarred Cosart, who’s 1-3 with a 3.67 ERA and has had some bad results recently, giving up seven runs in his last nine innings.

Lineup:


Rollins gets a day off, the rotating third base position lands on Turner, and apparently Scott Van Slyke is plumb wore out from his heroics of the last two days.

97 thoughts on “Game 33, 2015

  1. Baez having MRI this morning. Says felt pain in area of right pectoral muscle, could be Labrum or Rotator Cuff. Looks like I might have been wrong in accusing them of faking the injury. But they have been accused of doing that before in order to get someone on DL in order to bring someone up from AAA. If they always acted in an honest, moral, and honorable way, they would not be accused of things like that. Yes, I know the whole world acts that way and it is so depressing…

    • They are certainly not above doing this. I can recall in the past them putting a few pitchers on the DL where it seemed that the objective was to have them work on some mechanical issues down on the farm, but contractually difficult to option them there. In this case it didn’t seem to make sense to fake an injury, in that Baez would have been the fellow you wanted in there to face Prado and Stanton. In any event, I would guess that there is a sign for this relayed by the catcher.

      • Unfortunately, lying and cheating seems to be a big part of the sports idiom, that’s why they have umpires etc. Golf is supposed to have a strict honor system but it too fails because we’re talking humans here and there are design flaws. Time for a product recall, I think.

    • My cousin (mother’s twin sister’s son) lives in Denver, but he doesn’t care a lot about baseball. He’ll go with me to Coors when the Dodgers are playing, though.

  2. Funny that with a 4:50 start time the final score would be 4-5 for the first time this year.

    Yes, it feels awkward to put the smaller number first when giving the score of the game.

  3. Giants lost to Houston, 4-3, stay 5.5 games back. Padres will be five back in they win, six back if they lose.

  4. When the Dodgers were down 2-0 I was feeling ok about the possibility of them losing tonight, However, once they went ahead 4-2, the loss has a bit of a sting to it.

    Now we know what happens when the Dodgers score exactly 4 runs: They lose.

  5. First runs allowed by Liberatore are the difference; Hatcher sure didn’t halp things out, however.

  6. I would be quite happy with even one run here. Feels like a night for extra innings. Probably because the game started much earlier than usual.

  7. Houston’s Springer just hit a solo homer off the Giants’ Affeldt to snap a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the 8th.

        • Did you see the replay of the hit? As soon as the ball is hit, Baez reacts in a perfectly normal manner, giving no sign of pain of any kind. I say that while everyone was watching Gordon, a signal was made to Grandal. We’ll see. If he goes on the DL then obviously I’m wrong. If they say he felt a twinge but everythings OK and he pitches in the next game or two, then I’m going yo be pretty sure I’m right.

          • On the other hand, Baez was the guy to face Prado and Stanton (like he should have in the previous inning).

  8. And it looks like a spot may have just opened for Jansen. Baez out via some sort of injury.

  9. Nice at bat by old friend Dee. Doesn’t he look a lot like Michael Jackson in “Thriller”?

  10. SVS almost tied it up. Are they just trying to hit home runs at this point?

  11. Running out of daylight! (balls only making it to the warning track at this point)

  12. That half-inning felt like baseball’s version of “The Never-Ending Story”!

  13. Can’t blame Wallach for ineffective pitching, but what’s the record when Donnie gets booted?

    • In most cases they are probably already losing. (Baez would have been my call in that situation – like Donnie did the other night)

    • It’s not wallach, Mattingly is still calling the shots from the clubhouse or tunnel. Besides, all managers do this stupid thing. A pitcher pitches well for 5 or 6 innings, then gives up a hit. They immediately yank him. If the next pitcher gives up a hit or walk, they pull him too. Etc… If they had left the starter in, he most likely would have worked out of the inning. I never saw a manager I liked.

      • I believe Frias was above 100 pitches.
        With a good bullpen — which LA has — there’s no reason to overtax the starter.

  14. Lotta talk here at times about Joc’s whiffs. I’m sure he’d like to strike out less. No doubt he’d like that much more than any of us fans. But look at these stats. His 43 Ks (3rd column) thru Tuesday lead the team by 17 over Rollins, followed by Kendrick and AGon–all of whom have about 20 more AB (first column) than Joc.

    But his 28 BB (second column) leads the majors. With a 1.004 OPS, strikeouts aren’t exactly killing him. Also, the patience and good eye he utilizes to draw walks are going to lead to a certain number of called third strikes–and the umpire won’t always be right.

    Pederson, J 98 28 43

    Rollins, J 121 14 26

    Kendrick, H 120 11 21

    Gonzalez, A 121 12 20

    Fans often think “at least putting the ball in play” beats striking out. Well, Juan Pierre didn’t strike out much, pretty much made contact, and pretty much led the known world in weak ground outs to 2B, often specializing in double plays.

    Would anyone really want Juan Pierre over Joc?

  15. Finally able to check in: What a team!
    Hard to believe how well they are playing right now.

  16. What a surprise the starting rotation has been: mostly pleasant, one disturbing (and hopefully that gets turned around manana).

  17. Lotta talk, especially after the offfensive explosion last night, about how many Dodgers are hitting .300 and above. But look at OPS of the top 6 after that slugfest. Incredible.

    Guerrero, A .353 .393 .784 1.177

    Gonzalez, A .372 .434 .719 1.153

    Turner, J .309 .377 .655 1.032

    Van Slyke .373 .414 .608 1.022

    Ethier, A .329 .423 .598 1.020

    Pederson .255 .422 .582 1.004

  18. In Cleveland, Corey Kluber is pitching an extremely interesting game through five v. the Redbirds.

    • No longer so interesting, but 16 Ks through 7 innings with only one hit allowed is pretty good for last year’s AL Cy Young winner. He’s had some bad luck and some misguided pitches so far this season.

  19. More Frias stats via TBLA: 11 Ks, only 2 walks. SSS, but velocity up on both 4-seam FB (97.13 mph, up from 95.29) and sinker (from 94.38 to 96.81 mph), per Brooks Baseball.

    He also has a ground ball rate of 62.2%, 16th-highest among the 325 MLB pitchers with at least 10 IP. It matches his philosophy. “I’m not a strikeout pitcher, I’m a ground ball pitcher. I know my role,” Frias said last July. “You have to get a ground ball. You never see a ground ball hit over the fence.

  20. Encouraged by the job that the backenders are doing. Carlos and Bolsinger look promising, as did Weiland after that dreadful inning. Get well Ryu!

      • Needs to get the bapid down from .364 (i.e., better luck). His FIP now as well as BB/9 are as good as they were for the entire 2012 season when he won the Cy Young. he is just giving up 3 more H/9.

  21. I didn’t know about the early/odd start time (I usually don’t look ahead and I’m still in a fog from this crud, anyway) — but it may be good for Angelinos.
    When there’s a 7:10 game, I try to get there by 5 to avoid the traffic — don’t know how much I avoid much because it’s always heavy getting there.
    With the start BEFORE 5, will everyone try to beat the rush and therefore have a good showing . . . or semblance of a crowd only appearing by the 6th inning?