Nationals at Dodgers, 2:00PM PT, TV: FS1
To extend their season the Dodgers have decided to go with Clayton Kershaw on short rest. He’s done this three other times in the postseason and put up a 1.89 ERA. However, those other times he hadn’t spent two months of the season on the DL with a bad back. We shall see. His opponent will be RHP Joe Ross (7-5, 3.43 ERA). More preview here from ESPN.
Lineup:
#Dodgers' NLDS Game 4 lineup:
Utley 2B
Seager SS
Turner 3B
González 1B
Reddick RF
Pederson CF
Grandal C
Toles LF
Kershaw P— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 11, 2016
Cubs at Giants, 5:30PM PT, TV: FS1
The Cubs go with RHP John Lackey (11-8, 3.35 ERA) against the Giants’ LHP Matt Moore (13-12, 4.08 ERA). Lackey is a postseason veteran who’s got an 8-5 record with a 3.11 ERA over 127 1/3 postseason innings. This will mark the 16th playoff series for him. Moore has given up two runs or fewer in six of his last eight starts, so he’s on his game.
Grant with a dose of reality.
http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2016/10/12/13259748/clayton-kershaw-postseason?_ga=1.246258695.2014194878.1389713399
Nice to have had this day of rest from stress. And rest for the bullpen.
Who will be our starter in Game one of the NLCS?
Guessing Maeda.
that’s who I would have thought
Game two starter is the real question.
Kershaw or too soon?
Brock Stewart has been mentioned. Stripling might also be a possibility.
Stripling sounds sensible, then I guess it would be Maeda – 2 and then Kershaw – 3.
Kershaw on Sunday would have normal (four-day) rest. Hill on Tuesday (Game 3) would also be on normal rest (presuming he pitches tomorrow).
Yeah, I missed a finger in counting. Kershaw would be fine for Sunday. I do think that Maeda is a good candidate for the first game, however. Not his normal rest, but he did only throw 63 pitches. Brock does have 5 strong innings under his belt against the Cubs, but won’t have the element of surprise this time out.
Maeda has not pitched well lately.
We shall see how Honeycutt and the trainers assess the situation and whether the kid has a “tired arm” or not. Brock, Stripling or Urias are options, with Brock requiring a roster move.
I forgot that teams will get to reset their line ups.
You can always reset your lineup, but not reset your roster, as you can between series.
Since we are counting chickens in any event, you got me thinking. If they want Clayton to be available for three starts in a seven game series, what is the best set up? One option would be Clayton on Saturday on three days, then again on Weds with four days rest and then on Sunday with three days rest. Such a sequence might mean Maeda for the second game with his normal five days rest.
Apart from Justin, the Dodgers aren’t hitting a lick yet are tied 2-2. Makes me feel bad and good at the same time.
Ditto. But you’ll help them turn it around tomorrow at the Park!
Scherzer’s gopher ball has been working, though.
I woke up this morning before daylight, and used the time to watch every pitch of the Gnats’ gninth. Schadenfreude remains fun!
Grant’s post-mortem. Sub-headline (it helps if you remember playing the board game Clue):
“It was the bullpen, in AT&T Park, with the noose.”
Priceless.
wow, just checked back in, I cant believe they lost that one. I bet the crowd went really quiet.
And the crowd goes silent has less of a ring to it than the crowd goes wild. But in this case, it sounds beautiful!
So – for those scoring at home: Last year’s champ won’t win (KC), 2014 (and 2012, 2010) champ won’t win (SF), 2013 champ won’t win (Boston), 2011 champ won’t win (St. Louis).
You have to go back to the 1992-1993 Blue Jays repeat winners to find the last time one of the remaining playoff teams won! New faces, teams, cities for the World Series!!
The 1st game of the NLCS is Saturday — October 15 . . . one of the greatest dates in Dodger history. Sure hope the Dodgers are still playing!
If they are, they will be in playing in the (perhaps not too) friendly confines of Wrigley Field. But yeah – let’s be there!
As long as it’s in an MLB park, I don’t care where they’re playing!
https://twitter.com/mccoveychron/status/786052022919278592
Poor Vin Scully. I wonder if he was hoping for SF vs LA?
As was I.
Gnot I! – the Gnats didn’t deserve to get as far as they did.
It was an incredible postseason run by the Giants — 10 victories in postseason elimination games — but glad it’s over.
Very glad it is done. Makes me feel much better about 2018 and 2020 as well!! 🙂
Great point!
Would have preferred the Dodgers being the ones to do it.
Well – that would have meant the Dodgers were advancing to the WS – so yeah that would have been good.
On the other hand, they had a chance to make the streak irrelevant this year and were not impressive in failing.
A win or two would have been nice, but there is no way that should have been their objective during that series,
Major major meltdown.
Kenley & Chapman both redeem themselves
For the record, Chapman Ked the side.
CUBS WIN!!!!!
K for 2nd out.
Can the Cubs advance (and end the SF postseason streak)?
KK. Whoa. Crazy Cubbie Comeback.
Could cap cool celebration
I haven’t been paying much attention, but it sounds as if this could be a Grant classic.
I didn’t even think of that.
Yeah, thinking that as well.
K for 1st out.
Kenley redeemed himself.
If Chapman does, Cubs win!
Chapman time.
Jinx, you owe me a Coke (Zero) — kind of.
But since it’s your birthday, it’s on the house. 🙂
Oh my goodness! Gnats bullpen meltdown!
Cubs lead, Cubs lead!
3 more outs to advance!
Runner at 1st, only 1 out
Giants bringing in 5th pitcher of the INNING . . . let’s hope their bullpen continues with what they’ve done so far in the 9th . . .
Cubs get a break — bunt goes to pitcher who gets the out at 2nd, but Crawford throws it away . . . go-ahead run at 2nd, 1 out.
Tied up!!!
Runner at 1st, none out for Chicago . . . let’s go, Cubs!
1 run in, tying runs in scoring position for Cubs in the 9th!
Meanwhile, SF up 5-2 in 9th . . . Chicago has but 2 hits. I believe they were hit by lack of hitting last year as well.
We win! A very late response to the game – but I just got home.
better late than never
David Ross is trying to Murph the Giants — sac fly gets one back, now 3-2 SF, top of 5th.
Missed DP to get out of it because Lackey’s foot came off the bag covering 1st.
3-1 SF
Matt Moore helps his own cause with a basehit to give SF the lead, with bases still loaded.
C’mon, Cubs!
That sucks! An AL pitcher gets a hit.
Was soo nice to know that cheers today meant good things for the Dodgers.
Now rooting for the Cubs but cheers are from SF fans and therefore bad for Cubs.
Okay, finally have juice! Woo-HOO ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Luckily, so did the Dodgers!
Turner’s route efficiency on Turner’s flyball (exit velocity 76 mph) He began 66 feet from where ball landed, ran 69 feet & was 4 feet late
Terrific athlete, but his inexperience showed there.
tied up at 1. I know there is still a long was to go, but a best of 7 series with the cubs would make for some fantastic baseball
And I would HAPPILY support the winner in the WS.
Old friend Ross ties it up for Cubs, 1-1.
SF leads, 1-0 after 1.
Hill to the hill?
Hopefully with a rich game!
There’s no Friday, so all hands on deck.
Let’s blister the Nats on Thursday.
I’ll bow out on that. Well played. And hopefully prescient!
How about spin out
Pitchers TBD from both teams for Game Five on Thursday. I’ll be flying all afternoon that day, but I’ll have a thread posted.
Great game by Kersh, tho the 7th inning is once again his kryptonite.
The thinking that he would go deeper and thus need less of the bullpen than Urias was accurate. The fact that the bullpen was needed more than expected is on them.
But the team won and that’s the bottom line!
The off-day helps.
Amen!
Like that they made more than enough mistakes to lose, but they won.
Wasn’t 8 – 2 but and my pre-game peace was challenged, that was a good game. Thank you Dodgers and Nats.
April bullpen was overcome by September offense — let’s hope at least the latter is seen again on Thursday!
Phew!
Happy Birthday, RBI!
Only thing better for you would’ve been a hit by Dre
But let’s hope the Cubs add more to the celebration!
Dre got a hit.
Game-winner, then — I was at a soccer game with students and didn’t hear specifics, other than Chase’s hit.
It was a key hit, in any event.
Definitely. I was thinking back to the Year of Dre’s Walkoffs . . . this wouldn’tve been one of them but still key . . . and the player in front of me when i heard he was coming up wored #16.
Chase/Kenley!
Geronimo!
GAME OVER
YES!
Great comeback after giving it up!
There IS a Thursday!
And I got my tix!
And you brought ’em luck last Friday!
Get the out, get the out!
(doesn’t havta be a K)
C’mon, KJ!
First pitch was a strike!
Uno mas, por favor!
¡De acuerdo!
Two down
Kenley!
KK-enley!!
Keep this guy off the bases!
Done.
HBP new Dodger offensive weapon. Three have score and another drove in a run.
Same for them.
HBP most valuable play for both teams.
One down
K-enley!
Geronimo!
C’mon, Kenley — Redemption Time!
Get er done Dodgers
Man with half a muumuu walks to the mound
Nice to see that they have bullpen issues as well and decided to wait before bringing in their last southpaw.
Will we see Kenly?
Why, you wanna see Baez again? jk Good question.
He is resting after making his pitch tonight
Toles/Chase!
Glad Toles was the runner
Anybody but A.J. woulda scored on that.
Come on Utley
Alright
Nats fans must really hate this. No love for Utley from his days with the Fillies.
Don’t know why but that makes more special
Dre on the roster for these moments.
This keeps going, we may see Urias
Blanton did his job !!
The crowd is yelling “Blue you suck! Blue you suck!” And booing him at every opportunity.
I have better manners…oh, who am I kidding. I’d yell it too.
We’re here and we can’t figure it out.
Check swing called by home plate ump. Replay shows that he didn’t swing.
Do Umps still have a thing in for Puig?
Seems like it, doesn’t it?
I rarely complain about umpires, but that was a terrible call.
What just happened?
Its weird that the catcher can request the home plate ump check with a base ump but the hitter can’t
He didn’t go around from up here, so we were all confused by the call.
Jobbed by the ump.
I did like that Kersh stayed in and he just missed on a couple of pitches that would have been strike 3 on Harper but maybe his biggest weakness is not being able to say okay to the Manager and come out of a game. That might be one of Greinke’s better traits.
A-Gone dinger seems so long ago.
https://www.facebook.com/AwesomeAnimalRescues/videos/1845692505664582/
Huskies having their say about the game
Stopped the bleeding. Now for the bats. Puig and Ruiz still lurking.
Horrendous.
Shades of Game Three of the1962 playoffs, Baez and Avilan play the roles of Roebuck and Williams.
and we start again (and its still not over)
Worked our way past Werth and Murphy though
not very well
Horrible.
Torture! Delicious torture!
one more out, please
Oh man.
Werth has been swinging well, but sure glad it’s not Murph coming up.
Jeez.
So Baez or Avilan against Werth. This is scary, given what Werth has been doing in this series.
Righty, no? This may take half an hour.
And that was the commercial break
Ha! That didn’t take long. (And here I was afraid of a walk).
That was fun. Great job Kersh.
Great job Harper as well.
Agony…
Fun, Fun, Fun
Playoff baseball!
Our guy against theirs!
Tough pitches, oh so close
Well, what now?
Staying in.
Given the options, the guy I want facing Harper in this situation.
That one was over the middle of the plate (fingers crossed)!
Severino helps out.
You get the feeling they wanted him for 2 batters, then Baez. Hope he didn’t overplan this.
Grr….another line drive, this one drops in.
Get him outta there, Roberts. They’re starting to tee off.
Site went down, but only on my iPad. Must be problem on my end.
maybe one more for Kershaw?
No, due up second and Baez warming up.
Wow! He bats.
I’m not sure they sell leashes as short as he will have for the 7th.
It’s the right call, especially with bottom of order coming up.
Yeah, but PHs likely.
Now his time or running on the bases could decide if he come back to pitch. Of course if he scores…
Not thrilled that he walked
I’m not sure they expected him to spend al this time on base either, however.
Thank you Klayton!
Lot of line drives for them this inning. Is Kershaw tiring?
Last inning.
Joc shows Turner how to play CF.
ugh, no more Murph – mares please.
Ty
Joc my boy!
Loved his reaction when he finally realized the ball was not a home run.
75 pitches through 5. And he seems to be getting sharper.
Pretty good, given how rough his first was.
He seems to have the slider working real nice now.
That’s 3 of our guys plunked now. Obviously Joc was a mistake, but still.
That was a soft breaking ball.
Nice to have an easy inning, even if it is the bottom of the order.
Kershaw strong. Now mowr runz as the kids say. Later friends.
62 pitches through 4, with a 2 run lead. This is
close to ideal for what I hopped for.
We are locked in. Let’s keep it that way.
By hook or by crook inning. Joc’s two foul hits were close and closer to HRs.
Nice smooth easy swings too
first pitch out, very helpful
I’m heading out for the evening and will check in when I can.
We’ll keep the lights on for you
OK Kersh. Shut them down here.
Yeah Kersh, hit and pitch the Dodgers into a win.
I wanted more there but since I predicted an 8 – 2 win it will be more fun to score a few times in the upcoming innings.
Link – what time do you fly in on Thursday?
Arrive DCA 8:45PM.
I believe that if the Cubbies win a possible fifth game would have an 8pm start. I have a tix if things were to fall that way, if you want it.
It would be fun, but I don’t see how it could work. If I don’t get in till nearly 9:00pm I’d have to find my way to the ballpark and I’d be pretty tired at that point. I appreciate it, though.
Not what I was asking for but will hapilly accept it and hope Joc isn’t hurt.
Wish we could have had a few more hacks at Ross.
Especially Joc.
Not the easiest of RBI’s for Joc.
Joc just missed creating party time. Foul ball.
Ross has lost the ability to find the strike zone all of a sudden. And it is giving Kershaw a breather in the dugout.
Ross on the ropes here.
Need Joc to land the finish blow.
What the heck was that?
Turner butchered Turner’s routine fly ball.
Turner drives in Kershaw!
Which Turner?
Ted!
Turner dives in Kershaw.
I see what you did there.
I’m hoping he doesn’t melt down from time on the basepaths like Hill did.
Kershaw channeling his inner Arrieta.
Hopefully a better result for the good guys!
Let’s go Chase.
Hey…there is some more offense!
That’s one of the first curves he has thrown.
I still say we win 6-4 or something like that.
And the Cubs win tonight too. 😉
They do not look fooled or uptight about our ace, or our team right now.
Not many swings and misses at all.
Puig’s arm vs Turner’s running would have been fun.
Turner is a real nuisance.
I wish they had brought him up next year instead.
I almost wish the Pads still had him. He’s good.
Keep rolling Kersh! Let’s get Harper.
Ump has missed a couple of Kershaw high strikes.
One on Turner that would have meant a K.
I agree. Binoculars don’t lie.
Wish Werth had ended up dropping that!
He treated the bottom of the order appropriately, and pitch count looks manageable all of a sudden.
Could still use another few low pitch innings. 27 pitches in one inning is a lot to make up for. But yes – great job in the second. Perhaps the smoothest he has looked this series. Even better than striking out the side in the first inning of game one.
Not better. That was the top of the line up.
Bob – the hitters were better then but Kershaw looked smoother this inning. Less stress and fewer pitches. His release point looked more on this time.
Ross – half the hits and half the pitches of Kershaw. But twice the runs!
Batting 1.000 with runners on
But .000 RISP.
Good thing Turner wasn’t in scoring position!
Professional hitter?
Go Gon!
Launches one!
AGon, again . . . finally!!!!!!
Okay, signing off to save power.
Keep breathing RBI!
We hope your return to these fields is with terrific news.
Last time they hit JT, he hit back — a 2-run HR.
This time AGon hit back for him with the 2 run HR!!
Back-to-back for 2 runs
Utley anxious at bat.
He hasn’t been the stalwart at the plate nor in the field this series, other than that RBI.
Well, he’s not alone. Ever since our playoff win, bats have been pretty silent.
Yep.
But what surprised me the most were those two plays in the field on Friday.
I would like many many Dodger runs for my birthday, please.
Dodgers win 6-4 for you! 😉
Then we need to line up other Dodger fans to make the same request throughout October!
Happy Birthday!
Hau`oli Lā Hānau, RBI!
Glad we got away with only one.
Good future person.
Been there done that . . . and hoping for the good news!
Ah, now I get it!
This looks like another 5 inning game for Kersh. Hopefully.
Then what?
The pen that we are bullish on.
They aren’t swinging and missing. He doesn’t seem to have the A stuff today.
Fine. Let them score first this game. Maybe it will work better for us this way.
I like your positivity. Me? Nauseous right now. I need to calm down and enjoy the sunshine or something.
We are going to score runs off of Joe Ross today. 6 is my guess.
Then Hill will out pitch Roark on Thursday – but I’m getting ahead of myself… 🙂
I have a friend/colleague who is literally becoming sick over the Cubs. Her son is telling her ‘it’s not like it’s something about grandma, it’s just a game.’
Intellectually, she agrees.
Emotionally, the Cubs have been a wonderful diversion this year from “real life.”
Murphed . . . again.
Bad future person…
Let’s morph Murph into Bill Bergen for the rest of this week.
Not sure who that BB is (I’m one), but the context sounds good!
Among position players, the worst hitter by far was Bill Bergen, an outstanding defensive catcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the early 20th Century. During the 1909 season, Bergen went hitless in 46 at-bats;, the longest slump among position players. His 1909 batting average was only .139, the lowest in history among full time players.
Making things worse for Kersh, he may no longer feel as confident that it’s not up to carry the team. I’m sure he has confidence in the bullpen, but the bats the last two weeks have been suspect.
Huh?
I left out “to him.”
Referring to his quote that in years past he felt he had to carry the team but felt this year’s team was more complete and it wasn’t all on his shoulders.
K=ersh!
Well, on the positive side, Kershaw kept the kid from stealing second.
Nine pitches to Harper plus three throws to first.
Ugh….not the best start
Stomach in knots.
Turner makes their line up so much better than it was.
I hope we get the regular season Kershaw and not the October one for today’s game.
I don’t know why but I think we win today.
Because you’re the Prez!
I am here. It’s my Beatles birthday (Will you still need me, will you still feed me?”). I have a brand new foam finger. Kershaw.
How can we lose?
But I forgot my battery pack for my aging iPhone, so will only check in very occasionally.
Let’s win this one for Vin, shall we?
xxxooo
Have a great time, RBI, and hopefully a happy drive home.
May your screen name be noted next to many Dodger players today!
You rock RBI! October’s a great month for a birthday – and Dodger victories! Hope you have lots to celebrate today!
Once Stripling was used last night I thought Kershaw would pitch today. Urias for 4 and stripling for 3 or 4 I think would have worked. Maybe it will in game 5.
Wonder if Hill might go if there is a 5th.
Wish I didn’t feel this kind of sinking expectation, but I do.
I feel okay. I think we have this one.
8 – 2 Dodgers
Either way, a crazy but fun year.
Whatever today’s result – and/or tomorrow’s – this has been an oddly memorable season, and the future looks bright.
I would have gone with Urías, but I’ll try not to second-guess people who know more than I. More often than not this season, improvisation has meant success.