Game 77, 2016

Dodgers at Pirates, 5:08PM PT, TV: ESPN

The Dodgers make their fifth appearance of the season on Sunday Night Baseball tonight. They’ve split the previous four. Tonight they’ll ask Clayton Kershaw to break the tie, and the odds would seem to be in their favor. He’s 11-1 and leads the major leagues in ERA (1.57), innings pitched (115), strikeouts (141), WHIP (0.67), K/BB ratio (20.14), opponents’ batting-average-against (.174) and shutouts (3). His opposite number is set to be Chad Kuhl, who will be making his major league debut. He’s been pretty good in AAA, though: 6-2 with a 2.58 ERA and 1.19 WHIP.

Annoying fact: “The Pirates have won 12 of their last 15 games vs. the Dodgers, winning five of six games vs. Los Angeles last season.”

Lineup:

63 thoughts on “Game 77, 2016

  1. Dodgers Lineup for Monday, June 27
    Hernandez, LF
    Turner, 3B
    Thompson, CF
    Puig, RF
    Kendrick, 2B
    Van Slyke, 1B
    Ellis, C
    Taylor, SS
    Kazmir, P

  2. Apparently the Dodgers have some interest in Jay Bruce to add a left side hitter to the outfield. I guess he would platoon with Puig.

    I would like to add Lucroy. I would hope that Grandal would be included to decrease the number of prospects needed to get him.

    Maybe De Leon has had enough injuries to take him off the untouchable category. Between De Leon, Cotton, Stewart and De Jong, I would want to keep Stewart. Not sure how his tools compare to the other three, but he is rising so quickly I think his whole is greater than the sum of his tools.

    For some reason I think of Sonny Gray when I think of Stewart.

    Back to Lucroy–it would be nice if Cotton, De Jong, and Grandal would suffice and if not I would see Diaz go instead of De Leon.

    Also, if the Dodgers need a left side hitter to platoon with Puig, I would love to see Verdugo or Bellinger get a cup of coffee instead of trading for Bruce.

    • Bruce would be a short term fix. Verdugo and Bellinger have high ceilings but are far from ready.

    • I hope that Friedman and Zaidi are as thoughtfully considering the roster, its problems and where we need to go as you are.

  3. It could be worse, they could wear whatever it was that the Pirates were wearing.

    • Reminds me of that old Henny Youngman line about the fellow for whom things were not going well. His friend told him, “Cheer up, things could be worse.” “So I cheered up, and things go worse.”

  4. I feel about the Giants the same way that the rest of you do. But today shows a difference between them and us. Cueto was ineffective, more so than Kershaw. The Giants blew three different leads but won. Kershaw was not great and had one bad inning. The Dodgers could never overcome the 4-0 deficit and had four hits. And we lost.

        • Here’s an example:

          Gonzalez is batting just .176 over his past 13 games, with a .204
          on-base percentage. He has just two extra-base hits and two RBIs over
          that time.

          The struggles are reminiscent of the Dodgers’
          seven-game homestand that started in late April, when Gonzalez went a
          brutal 0-for-20, with eight strikeouts.

  5. Win 6 in a row, lose 3 in a row. To the freakin’ Pirates, who have, yes, gotten to the post-season recently but aren’t playing really well this year.

  6. Enough already with Grandal. The occasional home run or walkoff walk don’t overcome his general ineptitude at the plate. He is batting .196 over the last 365 days prior to tonight’s game, according to baseball-reference.com. We need a catcher who can hit the ball. And pardon me if I have posted this before.

    • I agree. And he was loafing to first the last grounder he had. Puig got benched for less.

    • I agree he’s not hitting, but he still had three game-winning PA’s last week, and his offense has far greater upside than A.J.

  7. Come on Mazda, do you really think we are going to believe that you make every car by hand?

  8. The Dodgers have the bases loaded with two out and get nothing. The Pirates in the same situation, get four.

    • Phillies made a valiant, albeit ultimately unsuccessful effort to win this one.

  9. Giants-Phillies tied 7-7 after 7 1/2. Phillies have rallied to tie from deficits of 5-1, 6-5 and 7-6, but have never led. Cueto won’t win or lose this one.

  10. After four innings today in San Francisco: Giants 5, Phillies 3. The Phillies started Aaron Nola. His ERA in his prior three games was 15.83 and for the season 4.11 with a 5-7 mark. The Giants started Johnny Cueto, who was 11-1 with an ERA of 2.06. Nola lasted 3 1/3 innings, allowing the five runs (all earned) and 10 hits. He hit three batters including one with the bases loaded. Cueto is not as sharp as usual.