Monthly Archives: July 2017

Jul 06

Game 87, 2017

Posted on by

Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS-A

The D-Backs try to salvage one game of the series by sending out a left-handed pitcher! It’s true, it’s true! He’s Robby Ray (8-4, 3.06 ERA), who’s going to the ASG by virtue of his fellow players voting him in. Ray is 6-1 with a 1.81 ERA in his last eight starts. The Dodgers, not to be outmaneuvered, send out their own LHP, Rich Hill (5-4, 4.00 ERA), who’s made his last two starts of the year his best ones. In the last one he shut out the Padres for seven innings, giving up just four hits, striking out 11 and walking just one.

Kiké Hernandez is 7-for-18 lifetime against Ray with 3 HRs and five RBI, so expect him in the Dodgers’ lineup.

This date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1938 At Crosley Field, Yankees’ hurler Lefty Gomez is defeated for the first time in four All-Star starts as the NL wins the All-Star game 4-1. National League shortstop Leo Durocher becomes the first Dodger to start in an All-Star Game and gets a ‘bunt’ home run
  • 1953 In his first major league start, 24 year-old right-hander Al Worthington throws a two-hitter, blanking the Pirates, 6-0. The Giants’ rookie, known as ‘Red’, will become the first National League freshman to throw consecutive shutouts at the start of a career, when he repeats the feat in his next outing, also blanking the Dodgers, 6-0.
  • 2000 Vin Scully, 72, is voted the No. 1 sportscaster of the 20th century by members of the American Sportscasters Association. The Dodger veteran broadcaster’s 51-year career has included play-by-play of 25 Fall Classics and 12 All-Star games.

Lineup when available.

Jul 05

Game 86, 2017

Posted on by

Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS-A, MLBN (out-of-market only)

The D-Backs send RHP Zack Godley (3-2, 2.67 ERA) to the hill to face the Dodgers’ unbeaten LHP Alex Wood (9-0, 1.83 ERA).

Godley lost for the first time in a month last week when he gave up three runs in seven innings to the Cardinals. Wood hasn’t lost yet this year, obviously, and he’s 8 1/3 innings shy of qualifying for the league lead in ERA. His last time out he went six innings and gave up one run to the Padres while getting a win.

This date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1935 The Cuccinellos become the third pair of brothers, following the Waners (2) and Ferrells, and the first on opposing teams to homer in the same game when Al goes deep in the bottom of the ninth in the Giants’ 14-4 loss to Brooklyn at the Polo Grounds. The New York’s third baseman’s sibling, Tony, playing second base for the Dodgers, had homered in the previous inning.
  • 1952 In their final season in Boston, the Braves play in front of the largest home crowd of the season when 13,405 fans watch Brooklyn beat their team for the 12th consecutive time, a 5-3 complete-game victory by Carl Erskine. The most memorable moment of the contest occurs in the second inning when the game is delayed because a small dog has to be escorted off the field by Dodger outfielders Carl Furillo and Duke Snider.
  • 1961 Cardinals first baseman Bill White collects 14 total bases when he hits three home runs and a double. The 27 year-old infielder’s offensive output helps the Redbirds rout the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 9-1.
  • 2004 At Dodger Stadium, Diamondback third baseman Chad Tracy’s ninth inning run-scoring single on an 0-2 changeup ends Eric Gagne’s record streak of 84 consecutive saves. The new mark established by the Los Angeles closer is 30 more than the prior mark set by Tom Gordon for the Red Sox in 1999.
  • 2007 At Dodger Stadium, Chipper Jones’ two solo home runs are the difference in the Braves’ 8-6 victory over Los Angeles. With his pair of round-trippers, the team’s third baseman surpasses Dale Murphy for the Atlanta team record of 372 homers.

Today is also the anniversary of the first game Larry Doby played for the Indians, integrating the American League. He ended up with 1,515 hits, only three behind Jackie Robinson. Also on this date in 1953, Robin Roberts pitched his 28th consecutive complete game, shutting out Pittsburgh at Forbes Field, 2-0. Twenty-eight straight complete games! We’ll never see that again!

Lineup when available.

Jul 04

Game 85, 2017

Posted on by

Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 6:10 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS-A

This is a big series. The D-Backs are 2 1/2 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West, which at this stage of the 2017 season looks to be the class of the National League and provider of both Wild Card teams if it were to end today. The D-Backs send lefty Patrick Corbin (6-7, 4.76 ERA) out to face the Dodgers’ lefty Clayton Kershaw (12-2, 2.32 ERA) in a twilight game.

Corbin faced the Dodgers on April 15 and did not do well. He gave up five runs over six innings and got the loss. On the other hand he’s gone 2-1 with a 2.96 ERA (eight earned runs in 24 1/3 innings) in his last four starts, including a five-hit, two run, six-inning outing against the Cardinals last Thursday. Kershaw went 8 1/3 innings on April 14 to beat the D-Backs, giving up one run on four hits.

Turner leads the NL in the Final Vote for the ASG, which continues through Thursday.

This date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 2006 Nomar Garciaparra ties the major league record for being hit by a pitch in a game as he is plunked three times by three different Diamondback pitchers in a 10-4 Dodger victory. The LA first baseman is the first National Leaguer to equal the mark, both literally and figuratively, since the 2000 season when Astros outfielder Richard Hidalgo got thwacked thrice in a game in April.

It’s the day in 1985 when the Mets and Braves played a 19-inning game which went until just before 4 a.m. the next day. After the 6 hours, 10 minutes game, the 1000 fans left in Atlanta Fulton County Stadium saw pre-dawn fireworks which awakened and frightened many of the ballpark’s neighbors. Probably infuriated quite a few, too.

This is also the day in 1939 when Lou Gehrig gave his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium.

Lineup when available.

Jul 03

Articles I noted in passing

Posted on by

What’s it like to be Latino in MLB today? Prospects, starters and future Hall of Famers share their stories.

From ESPN: Beisbol Experience MLB 50-man interview

“We are not understood. We have to adapt. There are things we are not used to doing in our countries. When you keep doing things wrong, people get tired; I even got tired myself. There should not be so many rules. You just have to do your job and let people have fun, which is what I was doing in 2013. They’ve wanted to change so many things about me that I feel so off. I don’t feel like the player I was in 2013.”

YASIEL PUIG, DODGERS, CUBA

Unused sports venues can represent millions in wasted money, but also in lost moments of joy and sorrow.

Via the Dodgers Dugout email from Houston Mitchell of the LA Times:

Since the All-Star game began in 1933, which Dodgers have pitched the most career innings for the team without ever appearing in the game?

  1. Doug Rau, 1,250 2/3
  2. Ismael Valdez, 1,065
  3. Tom Candiotti, 1,048
  4. Luke Hamlin, 1,011
  5. Joe Hatten, 961 1/3
  6. Pedro Astacio, 886 2/3
  7. Darren Dreifort, 872 2/3
  8. Hugh Casey, 867 2/3
  9. Roger Craig, 814
  10. Tim Belcher, 806

And which Dodgers batters appeared in the most games without ever making the All-Star team?

  1. Eric Karros, 1,601
  2. Wes Parker, 1,288
  3. Steve Yeager, 1,219
  4. Willie Crawford, 989
  5. James Loney, 896
  6. Dave Hansen, 884
  7. Billy Cox, 742
  8. Dave Anderson, 713
  9. Joe Ferguson, 699
  10. Alex Cora, 684

It doesn’t startle me that none of those pitchers ever made the All Star Game, but I am surprised that neither Karros nor Parker ever made it. It may be that first base has been a traditionally star-laden position.

Jul 02

Game 84, 2017

Posted on by

Dodgers at Padres, 1:40 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD

The Dodgers ask RHP Kenta Maeda (6-3, 4.15 ERA) to pitch them to a sweep of the Padres, who’ll counter with RHP Jhoulys Chacin (6-7, 4.76 ERA).

Maeda had an excellent start his last time out, pitching seven shutout innings against the Angels last Wednesday. He faced the Padres and Chacin in San Diego in May, going five innings, allowing only one run and striking out eight in a no-decision. Chacin has been exceptional at home this season, putting up a 1.83 ERA at Petco Park. He had five consecutive quality starts in June. Against the Dodgers his results have been mixed: on Opening Day in LA they got nine runs off him in 3 1/3 innings, but in the May game against Maeda he held them to one run in 5 1/3 innings. He too got no decision.

This date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1962 Johnny Podres ties a major league mark record, striking out eight consecutive batters in LA’s 5-1 victory over Philadelphia. The 29 year-old southpaw’s streak begins with the third out in the top fourth frame and ends after the first out in the seventh inning of the Dodger Stadium contest.
  • 1995 Dodger right hander Hideo Nomo, who is leading the National League in strikeouts, becomes the first player from Japan to be selected for the major league All-Star game.

Today is also the anniversary of the 1963 16-inning marathon in which 42-year-old Warren Spahn and 25-year-old Juan Marichal pitched 15 scoreless innings against one another before Willie Mays homered in the 16th off Spahn.

Lineup when available.

Jul 01

Game 83, 2017

Posted on by

Dodgers at Padres, 7:10 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD

LHP Rich Hill (4-4, 4.60 ERA) is coming off his longest and maybe his best outing of the season, when he went seven innings giving up three runs on four hits against the Angels. He’ll face LHP Dillon Overton (0-0, 6.38 ERA), who was just picked up off waivers by the Padres. He’d made nine appearances for the Mariners this season before they let him go. This will be his seventh career start. He made one for Seattle this season and five for Oakland in 2016 and has a 9.85 ERA in that role.

Sometime down the road could there be a little sibling rivalry? Earlier this week Cole Bellinger, brother of slugging Dodgers first baseman Cody Bellinger, signed with the Padres for $350,000.

This date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1968 Bob Gibson’s scoreless inning streak ends abruptly at 47 with a questionable call when the official scorer rules a wild pitch, and not a passed ball, allowed Len Gabrielson to score in the first inning of the Cardinals’ 5-1 victory over the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine. Without the hometown decision, the Redbird right-hander, who will blank San Francisco in his next start, would have been within three innings of breaking the mark of 58 scoreless frames established in June by Don Drysdale, tonight’s losing pitcher.
  • 2011 In the seventh inning of a 5-0 inter-league victory of the Angels in Anaheim, Dee Gordon steals second and third base and then completes the stolen base cycle by swiping home. The Dodger shortstop becomes the 40th major leaguer to accomplish the trifecta in the same frame.

Lineup when available.