Game 101, 2017

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Twins at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSNO

The Twins trot out RHP José Berríos (9-3, 3.50 ERA) to face the Dodgers’ RHP Kenta Maeda (8-4, 4.23 ERA). Berríos is 2-2 in his last five outings, logging a 5.26 ERA. Maeda has gone 7-2 with one save in his last 13 appearances, posting a 3.09 ERA while holding batters to a .227 average and striking out 61 against just 17 walks.

Which Dodgers have been hit-by-pitch the most? Alex Cora’s rank on this list surprised me, but I’d forgotten he spent five full years with the Dodgers and parts of two others early in his career.

Chris Taylor is hitting .318, which puts him seventh among National League batting leaders. Justin Turner remains atop the list at .369.

This date in Dodgers history:

  • 1962 At Sportsman’s Park, Stan Musial surpasses Giants’ legend Mel Ott as the National League’s all-time RBI leader. ‘Stan the Man’s’ two-run home run off Don Drysdale in a 5-2 loss to the Dodgers gives the Cardinals’ right fielder 1,862 career runs batted in with the Redbirds. (Ed. — He’s still seventh on the all-time list, behind Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Alex Rodriguez, Cap Anson, Barry Bonds and Lou Gehrig)

Non-Dodgers history which amuses me as a lapsed guitarist: 2010 The Baseball Hall of Fame honors John Fogerty for his classic rock song “Centerfield”. At the induction ceremonies, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer performs his 1985 hit and then donates his baseball bat shaped-guitar to the Cooperstown museum. Here’s that song with the man playing that guitar, which I’d never seen before.

Lineup when available.

105 thoughts on “Game 101, 2017”

  3. The Dodgers now lead both the Rox and Snakes by 12-1/2 games. They lead the Gnats by 31-1/2 games and could, in theory, eliminate SF mathematically before the end of August.

  4. Kenta’s overall body of work so far this season is pretty close to what he gave the Dodgers last year. Reports of his demise are a bit exaggerated. Pretty good production for a 4-5 starter.

    • Copied this earlier but left out and don’t recall source. Anyhow…

      “Let’s remove Kenta Maeda’s first four starts of 2017 from the equation. That pitcher with an 8.05 ERA and 1.53 WHIP that surrendered seven home runs in 19 innings is gone. What we’re left with is since April 28, in 14 games (12 starts), is a pitcher with a 3.00 ERA and 1.12 WHIP who has allowed five home runs in 69 innings.”

      • If you do the same for 2016, based on ERA that April he was a phenomenal 1.41 in 5 starts! Take that away, for May to late July he was around 4.00. So it seems he is headed in the right direction this year over the past three months.

    • He’s been valuable, but I’d like to see him go a little deeper into games.

      • Yeah. I recall that he was said to have tried to bulk up a bit. He is around where he was for all of last year at about 5 and a half innings per outing. Issue seems to be more with efficiency and pitch count at this point.

        • Last night he began very efficiently, but then really got bogged down in the fourth and fifth.

  5. It is 6 am in the Midwest and I peeked to see if the game had a positive outcome, which it did.

  6. This will interest WBBsAs:

    The Red Sox added a right-handed bat with defensive versatility on Tuesday night, acquiring Eduardo Nunez from the San Francisco Giants for two Minor League pitchers.

    The Red Sox are sending Minor League right-handers Shaun Anderson (their 18th-ranked prospect) and Gregory Santos to the Giants for Nunez.

    Of the 75 games Nunez has started for the Jints, 47 have been at third base, which has been a black hole for the Red Sox.

    • There are three operative factors here:

      1) The Gnats want to save some bucks, and Núñez is an upcoming free agent whose salary dump – though relatively modest – can bring them a couple low level prospects.

      2) They want to give Phlablo another chance to embarrass himself.

      3) They need to clear space in a warehouse full of Panda hats.

  7. From the MLB Recap:

    In 19 games this month, Taylor is 34-for-76 (.447), and he’s 23-for-44 (.523) with five doubles, three triples, two homers and nine RBIs in 11 games since the All-Star break. He has multiple hits in seven of his last eight games.

  8. Steiner said the 1942 Dodgers got to 70 wins in 99 games. Fat lot of good it did them. They went 104-50 for the year and still ended up two games behind the Cardinals in the 8-team NL.

    From Baseball-reference:
    During that season their biggest lead was 10 games on Wednesday, Aug 5
    The farthest behind they were was 3 games on Thursday, Sep 17

  14. I just looked at our 25-man roster. It consists of 14 pitchers and 11 position players.

      • I can’t ever recall the Dodgers carrying 14 pitchers. Back in the days of Drysdale, Koufax, Osteen and Podres, I think they generally carried 10 pitchers. They used only 12 pitchers in all of 1965.

        • Amazing as regards 1965. Not sure how long they will keep this up, but Doc’s use of Barnes has made use of what was previously basically dead weight, so in practice it’s like having 12 players on the bench as before.

          • Koufax, Drysdale and Osteen combined to start over 120 games in 1965. Podres started 22. There was no such thing as a designated set-up man. Relievers, except for the closer who wasn’t called that yet, were often failed starters.

          • Most relievers are still failed starters (or catchers, or third basemen!), though the Dodgers have drafted college relievers on the recent past.

  18. The Giants are playing their 102nd game of the season tonight. Bumgarner is about to win his first.

  27. Dodgers appear to have an excellent chance of picking up more ground on both the Rox and the Snakes tonight.

  37. Like that once again, this is a team effort — several contributing to bring in the runs.
    (Not that I would object to a dinger after several getting on.)

  45. Stewart starts tomorrow, A-gon getting closer. Also,

    “With this back strain, it really varies from individual to individual, so with Clayton we’re going to let the first three, four, five days kind of settle and not do a whole lot,” Roberts said. “We’ll know more as his medicine takes, and I think we’ll go from there.”

    • One can become more conservative with a 10+ games lead.
      One should be more conservative with a player like Kershaw.

      • IMHO they should shut him down for longer than necessary, maybe give him 1 start before the playoffs so he can get his eye in.

  49. I drove home from L.A. on Sunday, timing my departure with the start of the Dodgers-Braves game, expecting to listen to a victory by Kershaw. I listened to virtually the entire game, finding a new station when 570 began to face out. I haven’t listened much to Steiner; now I know why so many people don’t like him as a broadcaster. Some observations:
    –He doesn’t say what the pitch was, e.g. curve, slider, fast ball, splitter, etc.
    –On a single he doesn’t say whether it was a line drive or a ground ball; he does note a bloop.
    –All fly balls start the same. Only during the flight of the ball does he give you an indication of whether it is routine or not, and he is slow on this. I now understand the term “steinered.”
    –He repeatedly said that Roberts and the trainer came to the mound in the second inning when Adams was batting; Actually, Flowers was at the plate. Steiner said Kershaw stayed in and struck out Adams. He stayed in to walk Flowers, and then fanned Adams.
    –He rarely gives the scores of other games.
    –He did note that the Giants were losing to the Padres, 5-2, and rhetorically asked what had happened to the Giants this season. He should have answered his own question: they got old, terrible bating from the left field spot, Bumgarner’s injury, Samardzija’s bad year, Pence’s bad year, no power from Span, etc. Pretty basic stuff.
    –On the Inciarte steal that set up Atlanta’s first run, all he said was Inciarte had stolen second. He never said if there was a throw from Barnes — I presume there wasn’t — and, if not, why not, or what kind of jump the runner got.
    –He offers no history or anecdotes on the players; in this, he is the antithesis of Scully,
    Monday offered some comments, but Steiner is the play-by-play guy.

          • Ron Fairly may have been the most unlistenable announcer I have ever tried to listen to when he was a broadcaster for the Giants many years ago. Hate to say that about someone who was one of my favorite Dodgers.

          • I loved listening to Fairly for what we called his Fairlyisms – “Ron Davis loves the outdoors – he still lives there, in fact.”

          • Mind you, at that time the Gnats also had the great Hank Greenwald – “You get Bob Walk 15 runs, and he can be tough.”

          • Greenwald was tremendous. Was he ever partnered with Lindsay Nelson on the Giants’ broadcasts?

          • I can’t recall that, but Hank was at his best when the Gnats were at their worst.

  50. I had to get to sleep before the game ended last night — having flown back from D.C., I was still on Bob H.-time and EXHAUSTED.
    My choice to learn the outcome (it was 3-4 when i went to bed) was either At Bat or this site.
    I chose you guys . . . and learned the great news!
    A truly magical year so far for Belly and the team as a whole.

  52. OK, a question….no one is likely to want to trade for a player on the DL due to risk and uncertainty over damaged goods. But some less than brilliant folks in a couple other places want to trade Urias. Which won’t happen. And shouldn’t.

    But is trading someone on the DL even allowed in baseball?

  53. Even though Fogerty’s a Gnatfan, “Centerfield” remains a masterpiece. I still have my picture sleeve 45 of Danny Kaye’s “Dodger Song,” though.

        • I was in Hawaii when I became a Dodgers fan. I believe we got broadcasts of both the Dodgers and Giants on the weekend and I chose the Dodgers. (Now I have a better idea of how it felt to have your fate determined by the Hogwarts Sorting Hat!) I think a large part came because of Vin Scully.

          • Lived there as a kid. 57-60. Baseball was mostly about the Yanks (Mickey), but went Dodgers when we move to Southern Cal. Moon shots!

          • I was ’68-’72, leaving as a 7th Grader.
            Went from “the rock” to the desert.