Dodgers at Angels, 6:05PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSW
Down I-5 (or maybe up, considering they just played four games in San Diego) to Anaheim, home of the Angels. Pujols and Trout versus Greinke and Kershaw. The Angels are 5-5 over their last ten games, which has left them 5 1/2 games behind the Astros in the AL West and 2 1/2 games behind in the race for the AL’s second Wild Card.
Today the Dodgers send Zack Greinke out in search of his 16th win to go along with his MLB-leading ERA of 1.59. The Angels send out Nick Tropeano, who’s had three separate single-game stints with the team earlier in the year and is a September call-up. He’s 1-2 with a 5.51 ERA in MLB this year. In his tours with the AAA Salt Lake City Bees he was 3-6 with a 4.81 ERA.
Odd fact: “The Angels lead the all-time series against the Dodgers, 57-46. But the Dodgers swept the Angels in August and have won the last six meetings.”
Lineup when available.
Updated lineup*:
Crawford LF
Utley 2B
Gonzalez DH
Turner 3B
Ethier RF
Seager SS
*Ellis C
Van Slyke 1B
Pederson CF
(Greinke P)
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 7, 2015
NPUT
Every morning, the NL West standings bring me greater pleasure.
Hooray!
Greinke’s era is now an unsightly 1.68.
So glad the offense picked him up this time. He’s done it enough times all year.
Tied with Kershaw with 10 unscored upon outings in a season (Koufax had 13 one year). This was his worst start since being shelled for 5 or 6 first inning runs a while back (vs Pirates maybe).
Offense left a lot of runners on base. That game wasn’t the laugher it might have been.
Finally win one in AL park. Closest stadium to Dodger Stadium, but it still counts.
Hope the Kershaw game tomorrow requires about 5 less pitchers for the Dodgers.
Exhausting game, to manage, play, and watch!
I give Mattingly full credit for pinch-hitting Ethier’s spot in the lineup which lead to the early 3-1 lead. But I deduct major points for bringing in HBP/WP machine Johnson.
Woo-HOO!!!!
We win! Magic number 17.
8.5 game lead. Let’s whine about Joc’s strikeout!
Ball game!
Pujols looked awful there.
Ks the two big boys. One more!
Tense
Kenley bakes Trout.
A.J. butchers one.
Geronimo!
Trout’s almost as good a CFer as Joc.
Hope bottom 9 goes as quick and quiet as the top.
Kenley is going to have his mighty hands full.
I would love for Adrian to get a hit and break the spell.
Let’s score again. Why not?
Nice job, Hatcher.
Lousy throw by A.J.
Luckily, no harm done.
Good throw might have had Aybar.
Or that.
DP would be nice right about now.
Joc has only reached base four times tonight.
And then there were eight. (Pitchers) But will eight be enough?
Van Slyke is getting the weirdest hits tonight.
Just thinking that myself. Some days you get the breaks.
Recall back in the day when Maury would hit the ball off of the hard ground in front of home at DS.
SVS hitting screamers all night.
This is stupid baseball. Changing pitchers 2, 3, 4 times in an inning.
I really felt for Howell. Bad calls, late time called when he was in mid wind-up, no call on a checked swing. (And now the wild pitch!)
I don’t begrudge Donnie trying to find the best match ups in a tight situation without shut own types in the pen.
Stupid baseball is using Jim Johnson in anything but a blowout (one way or the other).
Exactly.
Victorino totally got into Howell’s head. Late call for time, etc.
Oh, no. Victorino. One of my least favorite players.
One more to get out of this jam.
It’s just going to be one of those games. Tit for tat. See saw. Etc.
Three big hits for Joc tonight.
Nice. Some here don’t wish Joc well because it doesn’t conform to their negative opinion of him.
We’re killing them with dribblers and bloopers.
Angels ploughing through pitchers.
Smart base-running by Seager.
Woot!
Really good bunt by AJ.
Do you suppose Trevor Gott is related to Jim Gott?
Ach, mein Gott!
Alright, AGon. We’ll take it.
Joc hitting hard liners tonight – very encouraging sign.
Tied up. Rats.
Jeeze. We scrape and struggle for two, and they get two back with two fast strokes of the bat.
“IN PLAY, RUN(S)” is not what I want to see when the other team is hitting.
Aren’t you watching?
Back and forth between the office where the desktop is and the kitchen where the TV is.
You don’t have MLBTV?
No. And my tablet is locked and the only alternative is to erase all the apps while unlocking, which is a pain but probably my only option.
Don acknowledges Ethier can’t hit lefties, and it pays off.
Dodgers’ offence have been doing well recently in the middle innings.
Ruggiano is not a great player, but he can hit lefties.
Trout’s been in a slump, which is bad for him and the Angels and good for the Dodgers. But Pujols? Hitting only .246 for the season? That’s awful for Albert.
Pujols has been valuable this year, but Arte Moreno will regret that contract in the not-too-distant future.
He probably already does. 10 years to a guy in or near his thirties?
Albert is already 35, and his contract has another seven years to run.
Hope our 2-3-4 hitters can produce a little tonight. AGon with a walk but swung through some hittable pitches.
By the way, just a heads up that I will be leaving tonight’s thread at some point mid game. My wife and son were away camping for the weekend while I stayed home to work. They should be back very soon and so I won’t be around after that (except to celebrate if the Dodgers win).
So you escaped sleeping on the hard ground and eating poorly cooked food over open fires, huh? 🙂
Apparently they did alright. They had ribs one evening. But yeah – I do love my own bed.
Greinke getting hit. And perhaps I shouldn’t complain about fly outs after the way the Angels hits have been ordered (HR, then 2 singles).
If Rollins is healthy – Rollins or Seager to start if the Dodgers make the postseason? That is, who would you choose – not what the Dodgers will do (Rollins obviously)?
I expect it’ll be Rollins but, if Turner continues struggling, Seager could see some 3B time.
Yes, that could work.
Feels like the Dodgers always fly out on the third out and never the first or second when there is a runner on third.
I know it’s not true, but it does happen enough.
Don’t know if AJ would have scored anyway if it hadn’t gone into the stands.
No way. A.J. is the slowest guy on the team. A real base-clogger.
Nah. Adrian.
AGon can run backwards faster than A.J. can run forwards.
Seager may be up to stay.
Need another hit to make this inning work.
And Scott Van Smash delivers.
Yep. I like him.
I think I like Seager a lot.
With Kemp in CF, Trout’s ball is a triple – or a three-base error.
The Dodgers almost stealing bases at will now.
Still have RISP problems, though.
Sadly yes. Another stolen base to nowhere.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any better: https://twitter.com/mccoveychron/status/641041481541812224
Dbacks 6-1 over the Giants in the 8th inning.
Find Waldo. There is a fellow in the line up over which we would scream bloody murder if Donnie didn’t play him. Over the past month he is OPSing 130 points lower than Joc and has committed an error almost every ten chances. Heck, there is another regular at a non-prime fielding position who is OPSing 50 points less than Joc. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Justin Time Turner and Adrian Gonzalez.
SVS ???
You would scream bloody murder?
No, just guessing.
A bit worse than Justin, actually.
Can’t be Guerrero, Donnie already doesn’t play him…
OK, I give up. And no one else is interested, or they’re not here as usual. Who is it?
See above
Does Mattingly have a son in the organization we can bring up like Bochy?
Not anymore.
From Dodger Insider: “Don Mattingly also told reporters today he expects to start Turner at first base Monday against the Angels, while Adrian Gonzalez plays designated hitter.”