NLCS Game Six, 2016

Dodgers at Cubs, 5:00PM PT, TV: FS1

LHP Clayton Kershaw (2-0, 1 Sv, 3.72 ERA this postseason) tries to keep the Dodgers afloat for a Game Seven. He’ll face RHP Kyle Hendricks (0-1, 3.00 ERA this postseason). They matched up in Game Two and Kershaw got the best of it, going seven innings and getting the 1-0 win. Both pitchers will have had five days rest, one more than usual. I doubt that makes a difference for either of them.

Lineup when available.

Huh. “Shake up the order” is the phrase of the day.

219 thoughts on “NLCS Game Six, 2016

  1. Here is my all internal crazy team that does not include free agent signings:

    RF Toles
    3B Puig
    SS Seager
    CF Pederson
    LF Thompson
    1B Bellinger
    2B Calhoun
    C Grandal

    I prefer to sign Turner and trade Gonzales and Grandal. Will Smith is one ord two years away to start hopefully a long term role as catcher. Maybe Lucroy would add that righty bat and be the place holder for Wil Smith.

    I would also like to trade for Shea Turner to play second and would see if some combination of Verdugo, Calhoun and maybe Toles could entice WA. Having both Toles and Shea’s speed on the team would be awesome.

    • Trading Grandal would be truly crazy. Turner’s not on the market, and nobody will want AGon at his current salary. Puig is not an infielder.

      In retrospect, the loss of Thompson really hurt the team v. LHPs. We’ll have to see if he can come back (though many things about him were encouraging, there were also weaknesses in his game).

      • WBB, Puig not an infielder because he hasn’t been converted yet. Don’t be so rigid. Grandal does not provide the righty bat even though he does switch hit and Lucroy would probably be a better fit for the Dodgers than Grandal. And, does a player have to be on the market before he can be traded? Is that a League rule or does the Players Union forbid it?

        • Ruiz has an affordable option as the RHH backup catcher for next season. Turner’s going nowhere. Puig is valuable as an outfielder.

  2. Dear Link.
    Thank you.

    Thanks for another year of hosting and posting. You open your front door, layout all the snacks and let the rest of us feel very at home. I have spent many fine hours enjoying the company of this community.

    So again I say thanks!

  3. Thinking back about the series with the Cubs the only thing that bothers me is the last game against Lester. I know that Lester is quick to the plate and Ross has a strong and accurate arm but if a runner is going to take a 22 foot lead they should also run on first movement.

    That big lead and retreating to first on first movement was silly looking and Kike’ was the most silly doing it.

    • Lester obviously wasn’t going to throw over. Nothing to lose by actually trying to take bases being conceded and making the Cubs prove they could stop it. If forced to throw over, Lester’s yips could have led to throwing errors and Dodger runs and maybe even a victory, as could actual swiped bases. Unlikely straws to grasp at, but still…

      Small ball and running is not they style this team plays, but this was one game where it could have paid off big time. They faced Lester twice and could have tried to run both games. Who knows?

    • I think the change of first base coaches changed our aggressiveness. If Lopes was still there…

  4. Next up is the re-signing or not of Turner and Jansen.
    If not Jansen will it be Meloncon? If not Melocon will it be internal? If internal I think Stripling might be able to do it. I assume it won’t be Chapman.

        • Hasn’t been showing the bat lately that would make it a good move unless he were a ++ fielder there (a la Beltre), which would seem unlikely at this point.

          • He is fun to watch on defense in RF that’s for sure and I like the way he has been swinging the bat regardless of the outcome.

            He is very acrobatic, has a quick, very accurate arm, and as we all know, a strong arm. I think he has a chance to be a plus defender at third.

            My first choice is Turner for no more than 3 years. I wonder if Turner would rather have a 3 year $42M contract or a $17M QO.

          • Guessing that has age and what he has accomplished he would want to cash in on three year contract.

  5. Take aways: better team won and Kenley outpitched Chapman, both FAs, age 28 and currently making around $10-11 million per year.

  6. only caught a brief score check today. we went out with a wimper, but it’s been a great year

  7. Could’ve been a lot worse — this is an even-#ed year and the NL team in the Series is not from the Bay Area!

      • I can do that. I think there’s an official moratorium on trades during the World Series, but after it ends I can put up a post for your comments about what the Dodgers should do.

  8. Silver Lining Dept.: Especially with the outcome, at least it wasn’t a marathon game.
    This was one of the VERY few Dodger games to finish (considerably!) under 3 hours!

  9. Did anyone else own any of the phonograph records the Dodgers sold of classic games?
    I sure wish the team would put together a DVD of the tributes to Vin and — if possible — his great calls.
    The proceeds could go to Vin’s favorite charity.

  10. I blew it — the radio station here dumps away as soon as they can and I didn’t get into MLB Audio, so I can’t hear the final wrapup with Rick and Charlie. Since I started following the Dodgers, I always tried to hear that toss to the off-season.

    • Flip of G2, right? Shut out and only two hits?
      Just flipped the pitchers, except Hendricks pitched better in losing than Kershaw did.

  11. I second Scoop. Thanks to Link for
    maintaining a safe, intelligent, civil and entertaining space for all of us, where we can converse, connect, and vent when necessary. I feel genuine affection for all of you. Don’t know what I’d do without this site, actually. I may check in during the WS, but it won’t be the same. Love to all.

  12. I want to thank all of you — too numerous to mention — for sharing the highs and lows of this season with me, and so many before it, and for your knowledge, support, humor, and class. You all make each season that much better. I look forward to this site throughout the baseball year. It wouldn’t be possible without you, Link, and thanks for your diligence in keeping it going (and to Jon Weisman before you). I have never met any of you, yet I feel that I have gotten to know you. I don’t post much in the off-season, so here is to next spring if, as my mother, who is 96 (next month) is wont to say: “Lord willin and if the creek don’t rise.”

    • I agree.
      What’s the thinking out there about the FO and other teams’ interest and purse strings?

          • Started with the Giants’ field goal, if I remember right — marching down the field, eating up the clock, then getting the kick.
            My Cowboys contributed to one of those losses. I was in a community theatre play when the Super Bowl started — “Born Yesterday.” One of the stars was a Bills’ fan and I was for Dallas. At the curtain call, we took out a baseball cap to reveal our preference.
            (There was still time after the play to enjoy the Dallas victory.)

      • 3 or 4 . . . but they were good enough to make it to the Super Bowl all those year.

      • I know very little about handegg and care even less, but I do know that the Dodgers have lots of young talent in the pipeline including, but not limited to, Julito Urías.

    • Last three — but definitely tonight.
      How tough for Hendricks — he gives up only his 2nd hit, the runner’s not even in scoring position, and he’s yanked.
      Of course, Maddon has another series to worry about. Excuse me — Series.

  13. The best baseball that I saw today was a fall league Pony game that I umpired from behind the plate. Went 10 innings in sparkling weather at Carmel High on the Monterey Peninsula.

      • Yes. That is the age group. Kids at that age know how to play ball. I first started umpiring most of them in Bronco, which is the level just below. And I know many of the parents. This is my 15th year of umpiring youth baseball. I am proud to say that I have never thrown anyone out — player, coach or fan.

        • When I played Pony we had 6 teams in our league and 12 little league teams fed that league. Big weening of players between little and pony.

  14. A good friend of mine who lives in a Chicago suburb is a Dodgers fan, as much as we are. His mother, who died a couple of years ago at the age of 100, was a lifelong Cubs fan. Near the end, she asked her children to see if the Cubs could be her pallbearers. Why, they asked. Her answer: They’ve let me down for so many years; let them let me down once more. Her long wait looks almost over. At least for winning the pennant.

  15. Bad for us, the seemingly-inevitable result, but good for the Cubs fans that they will be able to celebrate this at home.

  16. This game has made me think of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If.”

    If you can keep your head when all about you

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;

    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

    Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

    If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;

    If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

    Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

    If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

    And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

    If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,

    And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

    If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

    If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

    If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

    Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

    • I believe it was MAD Magazine which too that an ended ” . . . then you don’t know what’s going on.”

  17. My main hope is that Kershaw keeps his spirits high and doesn’t have a winter of personal discontent. Don Newcombe was one of the greatest pitches in Brooklyn Dodgers history and he went 0-4 in the post-season (all World Series). Kershaw, one of the greatest pitchers in L.A. Dodgers history (I’d say second best) has done far better in the post-season.

    • I suspect this story line will be more about the greatness of the Cubs ( and Hendricks at home) than the lacks of Kershaw, at least tonight.

      • I think it’s going to be split — I was hearing from lots of Cubs fans that they were conceding this game and banking on G7.
        Of course, if the Cubs go on to win the Series, that absolutely is THE story.

  18. Sure hope whoever represents the NL in the Series can hit the Indians like the Cubs have hit Kersh.

  19. A lot of this started with a 30 pitch first inning and half of those were due to Toles’ error I think.

  20. Worse and worse for Kersh.
    The team may’ve been out of it with the first Cubs run.

  21. This still may get better. It doesn’t feel like it and I haven’t seen it, but it may get better.

  22. Wow, just checking in after being busy with family for the past week. Where is that goat curse when we need it?

        • No — for me, the worst was what happened to Kersh, after making such strides in rehabilitating his postseason image.
          The way the team played the two previous games was reminiscent of pre- streaky August/September offense. which came back after clinching — flat and anemic. WORSE, their defense started letting them down. (Of course, both continued tonight.) . . .
          I didn’t expect them to beat the Cubs and was pleasantly surprised they had a lead in the series, oh-so-long ago. When their uninspired play resumed, I felt I saw the writing on the wall, tho there WAS a chance they could win.
          So, not being that optimistic about their ability to mount two offensively effective games in a row, I guess I was resigned to them losing.
          I wasn’t resigned to Kershaw have such a terrible outing.

    • Hey, thanks. Very thoughtful of you. That looks great. How did you know about it? Sunset Center is a great venue. Wonderful sound system. My wife and I have been there many times and it is less than a half-hour from where we live. Memorable concerts attended there include Jackson Browne, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Dave Mason and Arlo Guthrie. Of course that date will conflict with the third game of the World Series at Dodger Stadium.

      • You’re right, I thought the Friday was an off-day. We try to see Richard Thompson whenever he’s in the area. He’ll be in Napa Saturday night, but we have a conflict with that.

        The Blind Boys do a brilliant version of Richard’s “Dimming of the Day.”

  23. Confessions of a fan of 61 years: I thought that Kershaw would pitch well but that we would lose a close game. Historically, we have had virtually no success since the 1988 World Series of winning the post-season game that would force the make-or-break game the next day. The NLDS this year was an exception. Winning two in the NLCS is as good as we have done since ’88, and that was in 2013 vs. the Cardinals. Still, we have some time tonight, and where there’s life, there is hope. And I am still alive.

    • If we go by history, we should have no problem against the Cubbies (they have their own litany of woes in the playoffs).

  24. I didn’t give up on the Dodgers, but their play the previous two games wasn’t very encouraging.
    So i was hoping for Kershaw to have a good game to match this postseason’s turnaround.
    0-2, tho the game can still be pulled out.

    • How do you feel about 0-3? We have seen them do it. Fowler thinks he is in Coors, so the Dodgers should start hitting that way as well, no?

  25. Steiner after pickoff: “Nothing going right for the Dodgers.” That describes these last three games.

    • Steiner makes bad things even worse. I’m listening to the Spanish-language TV, but the audio synch is poor.

  26. Getting bad news is worse with an energetic opposition crowd.
    And unfortunately we’ve been hearing a lot of them this inning.

  27. Not the Kersh of Game 2.
    Unfortunately, it may be the LA bats of Game 2. (But it’s only the 1st)

  28. Hello from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. I’m at a friend’s wedding and once more will be mostly absent from tonight’s game. This week has not lined up for me well in terms of Dodger games! I trust this means that they will at least force a 7th game which I should be home to watch tomorrow.

    Even better would be going to the World Series so that I can join in more of the fun!

    • And Dodgers must find and use their bats . . . picking up from the 9th inning of the last gamke would be nice.