Game 47, 2015

Dodgers at Cardinals, 5:15PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN, FS-M

The Dodgers hope Mike Bolsinger can come close to duplicating his last outing, when he gave up only one hit and got 23 consecutive hitters out at one stage of the game. He’s 3-0 with a Kershaw-like ERA of 0.71. He also grew up a Cubs fan, so he’s got a built-in dislike of the Cardinals. The Redbirds send out 36-year-old 154-game winner John Lackey, who’s 2-3 with a 3.18 ERA.

Lineup when available.

57 thoughts on “Game 47, 2015

  1. OK, after this enough time on the Dodgers for a while–

    1) For those interested in Dodger history, which is most of us–the 1968 Dodger MLB draft is considered the greatest ever–period. Not just for the Dodgers. They branched out and used some football draft tools for the first time in baseball.

    http://m.dodgers.mlb.com/news/article/127539444/dodgers-draft-in-1968-was-the-greatest-ever

    2) Repost from last night. Going by number of thread posts then, few saw it. About Vin’s long-time right-hand man, a job many Dodger fans would give their eyeteeth for. Long, but the kind of thing many here will like.

    http://www.thinkbluela.com/index.php/2015/05/29/boyd-robertson-vin-scullys-right-hand-man-literally/

  2. Gnats are annoying when they’re flying around your face, but their life span is short.

    • “The Gnat Catcher – Home
      To eliminate gnats from your home, remove the food source. Eliminate rottin…
      gnatcatcher.weebly.com

      Obviously should be done, since according to this site some varieties suck blood and can spread diseases such as river blindness. And who knew that black flies really are gnats?

      These guys can help. And they’re already in CA.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gnatcatcher

      Apparently the importance of CA gnat-catching is well-known–

      “…to help ensure that this species will not disappear from its former range. California gnatcatchers are a focal species in many regional habitat conservation planning efforts.”

  3. Zack Lee pulled after 3 innings last night at AAA. Not in trouble at all–only one batter over minimum.

    So, it appears he may start one of the doubleheader games in CO Tuesday.

    ABQ altitude seemed to mess with him, so naturally his first MLB start may be in Denver. Wonderful.

    But starting him then would keep the 5 man rotation on schedule.

  4. What a shame to waste a quite decent pitching performance last night. I imagine after AJ’s pathetic display we’ll probably see the kid catcher today. IMO we ought to keep him up all year (unless we acquire a better option), make AJ a catching or assistant pitching coach or something. That way he could still help the team and we could re-activate him in case of injury to our other catchers. Rollins is another question. He’s almost good enough to keep playing. Almost. If Seager stays hot another week, dump Callaspo (to the Giants!) and bring up Seager. It’s easy to criticize the manager for a lot of his decisions but I think the Heisey situation sheds a lot of light on things. It seems apparent to me that the FO is dictating some of the things the manager does. We just don’t know how many. They admittedly want to micromanage the roster and other team operations, it’s not a big leap to think they’d micromanage the manager!

    • Ballslinger continues to surprise on the upside behind that self-taught curve and so far has maintained the control he needs to be effective without a lot of velocity. Grandal is scheduled to be back today. Heisey is playing because SVS has back issues, tho supposedly not enough for the DL. Agreed that this FO won’t hesitate to make its wishes known–forcefully, if they think it’s necessary and DM resists. Their style is control freak central, which we’ll eventually see the outcome of.

      Yesterday Rollins said in so many words he knows the lay of the land.

      http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/los-angeles-dodgers-jimmy-rollins-corey-seager-shortstop-052915

      • I was/am skeptical about SVS’s bad back, Dodger Management has little or no credibility with me. I was really referring to those times when they bring Heisey up to replace Pederson for one game. I should have made that more clear. I have no doubt he would hit better if he played a lot more often here but to fly him 1500 miles for 3 or 4 at-bats is an exercise in futility. Ethier or SVS could surely play center for one game, they have before, and ethier of them probably has ten times the likelihood of getting a hit or two, under the circumstances. This is a circumstance of the FO thinking up a cute wrinkle manipulating the roster rules and doing it just to prove they can. Trouble is, it just don’t help any…

        • The team also says OF-capable K. Hernandez isn’t 100% healthy, so that also figures in the latest Heisey appearance.

    • hmmm….send Callaspo to the Giants, that will revitalize his career under Bochy…
      so, where are we on the wild card chase, since we are out of first…

  5. I know it will get better, but right now we look hapless, helpless and hopeless. This is depressing, even more so given how the Giants are playing.

  6. Ellis ejected. Why didn’t he kick him out two innings ago? Anybody can make an out.

  7. I just got home from umpiring a baseball game. I see that Bolsinger’s strong pitching may go to waste, that Ellis is not just toast, but burnt toast, and that the Cardinals remain our nemesis. We have scored more than three uns only twice in our last 12 games, including tonight thus far. Those were the first two games in the series with the Braves.

  8. On the bright side, a very decent outing by Ballslinger, even if less spectacular than his last game.

  9. Wow – quiet night for the Dodger offense so far. And quiet night here so far as well.
    Time to turn it around on both counts.

  10. Going just from Gameday, it looks pretty much like Lackey is just toying with the Dodgers. Right?

  11. Unfortunately, this has a playoff feel from recent years: decent pitching job, MIA bats.

    • — and the walk. Bases loaded, none out and give up only one — and that on the DP.
      Hopefully the awakened bats show up today.

    • With Puig in RF, it woulda been a single or out at second. Maybe out at second if Dre hadn’t juggled it.

      • As Vin points out, ““Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’ “

        • Alternatively, “if wishes were horses then beggars would ride.” Or, “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a helluva Christmas.”

  12. I like his attitude, and his skill at fooling bats so far. We’ll see how this game goes. I will miss the first few hours, alas, so I’m counting on you guys to hold down the fort.

  13. It’ll be difficult to even come close to matching an outing that few major league pitchers have ever equaled. Nobody should be expect him to be that good again, but tonight’s game will neither make nor break him.