Game 162, 2017

Dodgers at Rockies, 12:10 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, ATT Sportsnet RM, TBS (out-of-market only)

RHP Ross Stripling (3-5, 3.86 ERA) will start what looks like a bullpen game for the Dodgers and may go only a couple of innings. He’ll face LHP Tyler Anderson (6-6, 4.81 ERA). Anderson is 0-3 with a 7.00 ERA in four starts against the Dodgers this year, but overall since he returned from the DL on Sept. 11 he’s had a 1.19 ERA in four appearances.

This day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1944 Dixie Walker, an outfielder on the seventh-place Dodgers, wins the National League batting crown with a .357 batting average, finishing ten points higher than runner-up Stan Musial. In 1947, the “People’s Cherce’s” younger brother, Harry “the Hat”, will also lead the Senior Circuit, hitting .363 in the year when he is traded, after playing ten games for St. Louis, to Philadelphia.
  • 1950 In the season finale, Robin Roberts, in the first of his six consecutive 20-win seasons, becomes the first Phillies right-hander to win twenty games for the team since Grover Cleveland Alexander accomplished the feat with a total of 30 victories in 1917. The complete-game, ten-inning 4-1 Ebbets Field victory over the Dodgers hurled by the Whiz Kid from Springfield (IL) clinches Philadelphia’s first NL pennant since 1915.
  • 1950 After they retire today, Burt Shotton of the Dodgers and the A’s Connie Mack will become the last managers to wear street clothes. Although no edict specifically mandates a skipper must wear a uniform, there is now a rule that states that a person not wearing a uniform, except medical personnel, isn’t allowed on the field of play during a game.
  • 1950 On the last day of the season, Pee Wee Reese, ignoring second base ump Frank Dascoli’s directive to slow down when his high outfield fly becomes stuck between the screen and the right field wall, continues sprinting around the bases at full speed, crossing home plate with the tying run in a game the team needs to win to finish tied with Philadelphia for the NL flag. The Dodgers shortstop’s unusual inside-the-park homer, due to an odd ground rule, will be the only run Robin Roberts gives in the Phillies’ pennant clinching 4-1 victory at Ebbets Field.
  • 1951 The Giants’ 3-1 victory over the Dodgers in the first game of the National League playoffs is the first major league contest to be televised coast-to-coast. CBS, who obtained rights to the game, transmits the picture from Ebbets Field, but has to get the signal from ABC, who had made previous arrangements with WOR-TV, the New York station which carried Brooklyn’s regular season games.
  • 1955 After losing the first two games in the Bronx, the Dodgers even the World Series at two games apiece when they defeat the Yankees at Ebbets Field, 8-5. Brooklyn will make it three victories in a row tomorrow with a 5-3 victory over the Bronx Bombers, but it will take a dramatic Game 7 for the ‘Bums’ to capture their first World Championship.
  • 1961 The Wrigley Field on the West Coast hosts its last professional baseball game when the Angels, who will play at Dodger Stadium next season, are defeated by Cleveland, 8-5, in front of 9,868 fans at the 36 year-old ballpark, which will be torn down in five years to make room for an eventual public playground and senior center. In addition to being the home for the American League expansion team, the venue housed the PCL’s Angels from 1925 through 1957 and served as the location for the 1960 television series Home Run Derby.
  • 1974 At the Astrodome, Mike Marshall establishes the major league mark for the most appearances by a pitcher when he throws two innings in the Dodgers’ 8-5 victory over Houston. With his 106 appearances, the right-handed reliever appears in 65% of the games that his team played this season.
  • 1993 Mike Piazza scores Jose Offerman with a first-inning single to set a new team mark for runs driven in by a rookie with 107. The 24 year-old Dodgers catcher breaks the franchise record for rookie RBIs established by Del Bissonette, a freshman first baseman who played with Brooklyn in 1928.
  • 2009 The Rockies’ 9-2 win over Milwaukee assures the team of a wild card berth in the postseason, and puts the team in position to still win the NL West by sweeping the Dodgers this weekend in L.A. Although the team was 12 games under .500 on June 3, today’s victory, their 91st – a club record – puts Colorado 23 games over .500, another first in the 17 year history of franchise.

Lineup when available.

154 thoughts on “Game 162, 2017

    • Liked several of those, especially the ones who said I’ll be able to use my ticket to the first LCS game! (And even more the ones who predicted the LA WS drought is over!)

  1. I’m glad national expectations have been lowered for the Dodgers to go all the way. I prefer being a slight underdog. I am also hoping the four days off will refresh and revitalize our rookies. Look what two days off did for Taylor!

    • National experts at ESPN heavy favor Snakes to win WC and beat Dodgers. SBNation, made up of local experts for various teams favor Dodgers mostly.

    • Could force FO’s hand to have Wood in the pen as the third southpaw. Would mean Ryu as fourth starter, despite his last performance. He has a poor history pitching in Coors, but fairly good in Snake Pit.

  2. I guess I’ll put up posts for the two Wild Card Games before the Dodgers’ Friday start. Who has a preference between the Yankees and the Twins? The Rockies vs. the D-Backs?

  3. This is for you WBB. Pablo just hit a walk-off HR in the final game and the win cost the Gnats a number one pick. Grant Brisbee is going to have a field day with that!

  4. Scoring. Did any of you keep score when you were first becoming a fan? When I was ten I lived in Westwood. While listening to Vin and Jerry I’d be sitting on my bedroom floor, drawing a scorecard on 8 1/2 x 11 spiral notebook paper and learning how to draw circles around Ks to indicate swinging strikeouts, 4-3 to indicate 2nd-to-1st groundouts, and so on,.

      • I would score the games, even when while listening to Vin and Jerry on the radio. My dad bought me a Scoremaster scorebook in 1962 and that made scoring a lot easier. I still have one — somewhere in the garage — dating back from that season, including Drysdale’s 20th win.

  5. If we win today we end the season on an 8-2 run and enter the post-season with some momentum. I purchased two tickets to Saturday’s game through RBI and am looking forward to that immensely. I will shortly bid you farewell until later in the week. In a little bit, my wife and I are about to take our dog to a local pet shop to give him a bath. They provide a big sink, towels, an automatic soap dispenser and a hair dryer for $15 — less than it costs to park at Dodger Stadium.

  6. Mo just confirmed — rosters are due the morning of the first game of the series, at least LDS.

  7. Pre-Elysian Fields, my son and I went to DS with a group of Dodger Thoughts fellows to meet McCourt, of all people. He was slick and sly even then. A few years later, I was wearing my Dodger Thoughts t-shirt at a game and Jon Weisman came over to introduce himself. It was like meeting a Beatle.

  8. Remember April, when McCarthy and Kersh were the only effective starters and we were rhyming their appearances and bemoaning their absence?

    • Good decision, I feel that this year it would not be necessary, as others have pitched almost as well as Kershaw has

      • Two months ago, I would’ve agreed, regarding the others pitching almost as well — they were!
        Lately, tho, it’s up in the air.
        Bottom line, tho I don’t think it’s worth damaging him, possibly for the long-term.

    • Perhaps not, unless the Dodgers are down 1-2, as they have been the past three years. The year before that he was even used when the Dodgers were up 2-1. Now that was done by Donnie Baseball with an eye towards setting up rotation for NLCS, which never happened. So, stay tuned.

      • And Walt Alston kept Don Drysdale ready for Game 1 of the World Series in 1962 and brought in Stan Williams instead in the 9th inning in Game 3 of the playoffs vs. the Giants, and our season imploded right then and there.

  9. ICYMI, Joe Davis tells us that the Dodgers have been playing baseball since 1883 and the Rockies since 1993. Even with the Dodgers’ 110-year edge, the Rockies have had the same number of NL batting champs: 10.

  10. Milestones: Bellinger needs a homer today to reach 40 and three more RBIs to reach 100.

    • Sure is. I went to the opener and when Joc hit a grand slam and had five RBIs I thought he would have a big year. After all, he was on a pace to hit 162 home runs and drive in 810!

    • Thanks Scoop et al! May today mark the start of a remarkable month for Dodger baseball.

  11. Link: This day in Dodgers’ history is a joy to read, day-in and day-out. Thanks, and thanks, of course, for keeping this site going on a daily basis for so many years. I have developed a group of friends over the years, only one of whom I have ever met.

  12. Stan the Man in the previous year had won the batting crown and was MVP as a 22 year old! What a long storied career. Recall watching him on the tube as a youngster in the early 1960’s.