Game 59, 2019

Phillies at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: KTLA, MLBN (out-of-market only), NBCSP, SPNLA

The Fightin’ Phils ask LHP José Álvarez (0-1, 3.92 ERA) to make his first start of the season after 22 relief appearances, and he gets to face future Hall-of-Famer LHP Clayton Kershaw (5-0, 3.46 ERA) for his sins. Álvarez hasn’t gone longer than two innings all year, so don’t expect him to be around long. In contrast, Kershaw hasn’t gone less than six innings in any of his eight starts this season. The Phillies are the only team that has a winning record (5-3) against him.

Rich Hill is now MLB’s oldest pitcher and hopes to go a lot longer. Here’s something I hadn’t realized:

Because of his earlier injuries and his years as a reliever, he has thrown only 911⅔ major-league innings and 1,705 professional innings. Clayton Kershaw, eight years his junior, has thrown 2,148⅓ major-league innings and 2,397 professional innings.

“You think about the mileage on Kersh, who is 31 years old, versus Rich, who battled through independent ball and all that stuff and doesn’t have as many innings,” Stripling said. “That helps. Also, the fact that he went through that is probably what motivates him.”

Friday night’s home run barrage:

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1955 Duke Snider blasts three home runs in the Dodgers’ 11-8 win over Milwaukee. Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, and Roy Campanella also go deep in the Ebbets Field’s contest, helping Brooklyn set a franchise record with six home runs.
  • 1962 In the nightcap of a twin bill at Shibe Park, Don Drysdale beats the Phillies for the 13th consecutive time, continuing a streak which started in 1958. The Dodger right-hander, however, will drop his next seven decisions against Philadelphia after today’s victory.
  • 1997 When Wilton Guerrero scurries to pick up pieces of his shattered bat after grounding out to start the game, home plate ump Steve Ripley becomes suspicious and discovers that the rookie used an altered bat. The Dodgers second baseman is immediately ejected from the game by crew chief Bruce Froemming, and the 21 year-old infielder will also receive an eight-day suspension and a $1,000 fine for his use of a corked bat.

Lineup when available.


78 thoughts on “Game 59, 2019

  1. Trying to pick a Dodger base runner off? Try picking on someone your own size. Cause we too fast!

  2. Fish have beaten the Pads. If Dodgers win this, their lead is nine games over both them and Rox. Snakes will be either 10 or 12 out.

      • Well Scoop you know what they say: Where there’s a Will, there’s a way (back and gone)!!

          • I’ve been thinking about that lately. It’s about as good as it gets as a fan (at least in the regular season). So many wins in the last 6 or 7 years.

    • Speaking of bullpen woes, I hope that the FO doesn’t let our big lead in the standings dissuade them from bolstering our pen.

      • Maybe Mets would be better with three relievers better than what they have now other than Diaz and decide to deal Diaz to the Dodgers for those three.

    • McCutchen doesn’t have a great throwing arm, and he was not in a good position to make the throw.

  3. The Dodgers could score more runs – as per RBI’s request – once they stop striking out (5 in a row) or hitting into a double play (6 batters ago).

  4. Keep thinking how close Kershaw might be to reaching (or surpassing) Koufax’s 165 win total in what is his 12th year – same number of seasons as Sandy.

    • Koufax, however, was 2-2 in his first season (1955) and 2-4 in his second season, appearing in a total of 28 games. He was anchored to the club because of baseball’s bonus baby rule of the time. Through his first six seasons Koufax was only 36-40.

  5. Good outing from Kersh thus far. Only 1 earned run through 6. Although – with a WP and error in the inning when the Phils scored, that earned run feels at least half unearned.

  6. Rox have beaten the Scrub Jays, but Pads are trailing Fish 5-2 in sixth. If scores hold, Rox move into second place, but Dodgers’ division lead would increase to nine games.

  7. I was watching the iPad in the dining room when Freese homered. When I returned to my office, the inning still hadn’t started on my Samsung “Smart TV.”

  8. Was up in the San Francisco Bay area this week. My daughter took me to see “Hamilton,” which is superb, and I took her to see “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” which is tremendously nostalgic and enjoyable for those of us who are of a certain number of years and remember so many of those great rock-and-roll songs of the 1960s.

    • Scoop – you are making me so jealous. I would love to see Hamilton! I’m less familiar with the Carole King show – but in general I love musical theatre!

          • The Carole King musical was not fantasy. It was pretty true to her life story. Hamilton was a musical adaptation of him and his times presented in a fashion that many young people could understand.

      • My daughter won the Hamilton “lottery” and was allowed to buy two tickets for $10 each. They sell a small number of tickets this way for each performance. Walking around downtown San Francisco, where I worked as a newspaper reporter in the early 1980s, it was sad to see so many homeless people. It seemed far worse than when I was there way back when.

    • My favorite stats from yesterday were Andrew Cashner’s quality start to beat SF: 5 IP, 8 H, 6 ER. 5 BB, 0K (zero strikeouts, that is), 109 pitches and only 60 strikes.

      By the way, you misspelled “Gnats” again.