Dodgers at Mets, 5:00PM PT, TV: ESPN2
Sunday Night Baseball in Queens features Clayton Kershaw (7-1, 1.48 ERA) starting for the Dodgers and Bartolo Colon (4-3, 3.44 ERA) starting for the Mets. Kershaw has already thrown three shutouts this month, so it’s not impossible he could get another.
Kershaw is 7-0 with a 1.17 ERA and has held Mets’ hitters to a .185 average over 10 career starts. Colon has had rather less success against the Dodgers: 2-6 with a 5.54 ERA. Of course, the rosters don’t remain static: if you were 3-0 against a team five years ago the odds are good that very few of the guys you beat then remain on the team this season. On the other hand, in Colon’s long career Utley (10 hits in 20 ABs, three for extra bases) and Gonzalez (12 for 27 with two home runs) have hurt him.
Lineup when available.
Corrected lineup:
Utley 2B
Seager SS
Turner 3B
Gonzalez 1B
Puig RF
Pederson CF
Kendrick LF
Ellis C
Kershaw P pic.twitter.com/Pd1CMjO7wv— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 29, 2016
Despite what that says, Howie Kendrick is in LF.
NPUT
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, the Barves are teeing off on the Gnats’ Smegma in the early going.
Ninth inning rally comes up short, Braves take it.
Glad to hear AJ say he had “playoff-type jitters” for the game “even though it is just May”.
Makes me feel better about my nervousness tonight!
Can I breathe now?
Good job, everyone.
Hard to believe we were one more 9th inning run on Friday night short of sweeping the Mets in NYC.
I’ll take the win and the series win and the season win against the Mets.
But still wanted Kershaw to get the W by his name.
Woo-HOO!!!!
We win!
One more out to go.
Man Puig. I’m glad Gonzo came through because Puig is not helping tonight.
Phew!
Sweet!!
Puig came awfully close to catching it, but he shouldn’t have had to.
Roberts is going to get a bunch of questions about that after the game. “Why not your ace closer, Dave?”
He should.
Absolutely.
What on earth were they thinking? Lefty on lefty, fine, but Jansen is a lot more trustworthy than Liberatore is.
Especially against Granderson.
In 32 PA lefties have a BA of .107 against Liberace. Kenley in 33 is at .157.
I would have gone with Kenley.
Oh yes, me, too. Poor Kershaw.
I knew it. Hate to say that, but I did.
Grfff.
No, it is Liberatore.
Hope for the best.
ACK!!!
They really don’t want to go to Jansen here I guess.
Oh – is it KJ? I thought I heard someone else.
My mistake.
After the second out they changed their minds, I guess.
Yikes. Pulling Kersh for KJ, with Granderson up. Even though I like it, yikes.
That nervous feeling I had at the beginning – which had left me for a while – has come roaring back.
I can hardly watch.
Roberts should pull him I think. He looks pretty tired.
Ugh. Lead off single. He’s tiring.
Double play would be great right here.
Yes. Liberatore up now.
Lipitor? Atorvastatin?
Kershaw is such a fighter.
Might have another inning in him and then cue Jansen.
He’s at 105 pitches, but no one warming up as of now.
Now Coleman is warming up.
Kershaw starting too struggle/tire a bit tonight?
They say it’s a hot night.
So we are playing the Cubbies next, who have won 24 in a row? I like our odds, even given the pitching imbalance. Unless we’re in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead land…
Or Wonderland, or Through the Looking Glass land, or Brigadoon, or Never-Never Land, or…
Or Even Year land…
Agh! NOT THAT!
The stuff of nightmares.
Brigadoon!
I’m as much a sucker for musicals as I am for old movies.
“Take my hand, I’m a stranger in paradise…”
I was thinking “Almost like being in love.”
Is it too much to ask for a few more runs right here?
Steiner continues to have difficulty describing routine infield grounders.
These guys are praising Kershaw to the skies and rightly so, but they might spare a few words for our rookie shortstop, who’s 2 for 3 with a run scored tonight and has fielded his position well.
I’m stuck with Steiner’s incompetence.
But is he as good as Cueto?
Kershaw that is.
Jessica said some good things about his approach and the maturity it shows.
Good. I must have been out of the room.
RBI time Gonzo.
Is Kershaw alright? What happened?
Bat broke and the barrel hit him on the neck. Glancing blow.
Still sounds painful.
Looks like he will have a bruise, but mostly just scared him.
It was the backswing after he hit the ball. He hit the side of his neck with the end of the bat. Surprised and scared him. Obviously didn’t bother him much.
Oh Kershaw. You pitch quite well.
I imagine Puig is cussing. I would be.
Oh, stop with the in-game conversations with managers. Whose stupid idea was this?
Collins is a jerk.
Better a 1-0 lead than tied at zero and a Mets team which thought it won a review call.
Oh good!
Too bad it wasn’t Utley sliding into second there.
Not pretty but it scored a run.
Seager is pretty cool.
Nice lesson from Jessica on Clayton’s delivery.
What was the lesson?
Demonstrating the coordination of hand and foot movements
She is about ten zillion times better at that job than Schilling.
And she discussed Joc’s swing on that last double.
Did Bonds get that boo’d in LA or other places?
He certainly deserved to.
Zing!
2 k’s and a 1 pitch out is a pretty good inning.
“That ball had more English than the Queen.” Not a bad line by Steiner.
Love the swings and misses.
Phooey, but at least we got him to sweat a little.
Help your brother out, AJ.
Kendrick better at jam shots than Puig.
Gnats have won 17 out of 19. So irritating.
Their boat will spring a leak at some point and they will take on water. They will need to bail at some point soon.
Very nautical.
Just call me skipper.
Gilligan?
Ha ha. Can I be the professor?
Steiner is the broadcast version of waterboarding.
Funny.
High pitch count to start – 19 pitches.
More than half of them that last at bat. Or actually I’m not sure about that…
Averages 13.
That to me is Kershaw’s most significant and amazing stat. To lead the league in strikeouts and have such a low average pitch count/inning is incredible.
Feeling nervous for some reason. Too high expectations are dangerous.
Me, too.
Here we go. Let’s score some runs here to start it off.
Or not. You do you Dodgers.
So, it’s ESPN blackout night.
At first I couldn’t find the game, because of UCLA softball. But then I found a second ESPN channel.
I think it would be tough to shut out the Mets, but let’s hope it can happen.
Almost happened last night.
3 shutouts in one month is Koufaxesque!
Count Jim Palmer as another of Kershaw’s admirers.
Loved watching Palmer pitch and his give and take with Earl.