Dodgers at Reds, 4:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA
It’s a battle of lefties as the Dodgers’ Alex Wood (8-8, 3.79 ERA) goes against the Reds’ rookie John Lamb (0-1, 6.35 ERA). This will be Lamb’s third big league start and second against the Dodgers. On August 14 he went 6 innings against them, giving up eight hits and five runs, four of them in the fifth inning including a three-run homer to Adrian Gonzalez. Wood started that game for the Dodgers and went 6 1/3 innings as the Dodgers won 5-3.
Lineup when available.
Tonight's #Dodgers lineup:
Rollins SS
Puig RF
Gonzalez 1B
Turner 3B
Van Slyke LF
Utley 2B
Ellis C
Hernandez CF
Wood P #Whiff
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 25, 2015
NPUT
Grant Brisbee – greatest Gnatblogger, can we trade Steiner for him? – on the washed-up Gnatt Cain: “Cain isn’t a 23-year-old learning how to pitch. He’s 30, with barnacles in his elbow, and it’s been three years since he was consistently excellent.”
http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2015/8/25/9209539/sf-giants-recap
followed the game on and off while at work (work filter lets me do that!). Much better news (on both counts)
So back to where we started (2.5 games up) before the road trip began. That didn’t take much.
8-1 Cubs after 6.
Cubbies 7 zip over giants (sic) top of the 6th.
Make this weather go away! It’s been raining for several days and my pool is full to within two inches of the top!
Yabba dabba doo for the win!
We’ll take all the rain you can spare. I think we average less than 5 inches. Sure do miss all that good California rain. (Yeah, I know, you live in Hawaii…)
Yeah, but will you take the tropical storms/hurricanes that are passing us by closely enough to give us all this rain?
We win! A little sad that after having to slog through last weeks losing games, I wasn’t around to enjoy this one. But – that looks like it was a pretty solid win (against a bad team). Whatever – we’ll take it!
Woo-HOO!!! Just checked in!
That’s three. First win since Sunday, August 16.
That’s two.
That’s one.
I guess the context demands Kenley, even this a four run lead.
Don unaware it’s no longer a save situation?
A great big sigh of relief.
Nice job Avilan!
That was a great pitch.
Might prefer Juan to give up a three run home run and get Kenley for the 4 out save.
Don thinks saves only happen in the ninth.
Old friend Chris Capuano was just touched for a six-spot, all earned, by the Astros in the top of the 7th at Yankee Stadium. He allowed three hits, walked four. Capuano’s ERA is now 7.71. He is 0-4. The Astros, behind Keuchel, lead 15-0.
The Mattingly School of Bullpen Management strikes again.
Wood had thrown 88 pitches, but despite giving up a two-out single in the 6th, seemed in control. The Dodgers bullpen is like Russian Roulette, except that three or four of the six chambers are loaded.
Don has to do something to try to justify his position. Wood did have a slightly poor strike-to-ball ratio, but he was not in trouble and had a comfortable lead.
Donnie appears gun shy with Wood. In a couple of his outing things have gone south pretty quickly on him.
Delete for site glitch.
Huh?
Disqus was telling me there was maintenance, but it would eventually post my comment. Then it did so several times.
Hatcher immediately makes his presence known.
Should Justin have made that play?
Difficult. At best he might have stopped it.
Delete for site glitch.
The Mattingly School of Bullpen Management strikes again.
Prediction: We will need more than three runs to win this game. Wood is probably good for one more inning, two if we are fortunate.
How is the game score for a pitcher computed?
Google is your friend: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_score
Thanks, Link. That may be the most difficult stat to figure during a game.
JT makes his presence known.
The unreachable star!
Package expecting A.J. to steal second….
Dodgers batting averages in the last seven days (not counting tonight): Ellis .600, Puig .364, Ethier .333, Hernandez .250, Gonzalez .211, Utley .154, Rollins .136, Crawford .077, Turner .056, Guerrero .000 (5 ABs), Pederson .000 (7 ABs), Grandal .000 (8 ABs), Van Slyke .000 (10 ABs).
Dodgers score! Dodgers score!
But the big hit continues to be the unreachable star.
Going out for a farewell dinner for a colleague. Hopeful to see some good news when I get home. No score predictions from me tonight since my 3-2 guess for Sunday’s game was unfortunately so near and yet so far.
Grandal still bothered by sore shoulder, will sit tonight: http://www.truebluela.com/2015/8/25/9208001/yasmani-grandal-sore-shoulder-dodgers
Link:
You asked the other day if there was a worse way to end the game than with a
strikeout and if there is, you didn’t want to know about it. There is. And forgive me for sharing it. It was on April 21, 1978 — I remember this one and I researched it to get all the gory details.
The Dodgers were playing the Astros at Dodger Stadium and had blown a
lead of 4-0 but led 6-5 heading into the 9th inning, when the Astros
scored three runs on a homer by Joe Ferguson to take an 8-6 lead.
Bill Russell singled to lead off the bottom of the 9th and Reggie Smith followed with a single, moving Russell to second. Ron Cey then hit a liner to first baseman to Bob Watson, who stepped on first to double off Smith. Watson then spun and threw to Roger Metzger at second who beat Russell to the bag to complete the triple play. I remember the look on Cey’s face. It was like “what the heck just happened?”
Three outs, end of inning, end of game.
Lots of games end on strikeouts. Very few end on triple plays – I expect we can count the number on fewer fingers than we have on one hand.
Ack. Okay, that’s worse.
Nonetheless, we won the pennant that year.
Unlikely there’s any correlation, let alone causation.
Coincidence.