Game 59, 2021

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Dodgers at Braves, 10:20 AM PDT, TV: Bally Sports Southeast, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

The visiting Dodgers hand the ball to RHP Trevor Bauer (6-3, 2.24 ERA) and ask him to win the rubber match. The Braves counter with LHP Max Fried (2-3, 5.12 ERA), whom the Dodgers last saw in Game Six of the 2020 NLCS. They got three runs off him in the first inning but nothing in the remainder of his 6 2/3 inning effort.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1941 The Giants join the Dodgers and Senators in requiring their players wear protective headgear. The durable plastic liners, which are sewn into the hat, don’t provide a defense against defeats when the team drops both ends of a doubleheader to Pittsburgh at the Polo Grounds, 5-4 and 4-3.
  • 1957 After an 86-minute delay, the first fog out in major league history occurs at Ebbets Field when the umpires call off the Dodgers’ game against the Cubs due to extremely poor visibility. Brooklyn has a 1-0 lead when the game is postponed with one out in the bottom of the second inning.
  • 1968 The day after Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, Maury Wills refuses to play in a 4-2 loss to the Dodgers, his former team. The 35 year-old shortstop stays in the Chavez Ravine training room, reading RFK’s book, To Seek a New World.
  • 1994 Mike Piazza hits the longest home run recorded in the history of Joe Robbie Stadium when his first career grand slam is estimated to travel 477 feet. The catcher’s Ruthian blast, one of four Dodger round-trippers during the Florida contest, isn’t enough to thwart the Marlins’ 11-10 come-from-behind victory.
  • 2006 On the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the century, the Dodgers score six runs in the sixth inning during the sixth game of the homestand, beating the Mets, 8-5. On 05/05/05, the Twins scored five times in the fifth inning en route to a 9-0 victory over the Indians.
  • 2007 At Petco Park, Trevor Hoffman becomes the first reliever to save 500 games. It takes the all-time saves leader 10 ninth inning pitches, including an 87 mph fastball thrown past Russell Martin for the final out, to reach the milestone in the Padres’ 5-3 victory over the Dodgers.

Another event of note: in 1944 Baseball canceled its scheduled eight-game slate due to the Allied invasion of Normandy known as D-Day. The military operation has 60,000 Allied troops, including six minor leaguers who will be killed in action, landing along a heavily protected 50-mile stretch of the coastline in France to begin an offensive assault against Hitler and the Nazi party. Of less momentous note, in 2000, thanks to the Angels’ video crew playing a clip from the 1994 movie “Ace Ventura, Pet Detective” on the JumboTron, the Rally Monkey is born. With the words “Rally Monkey” superimposed over a monkey jumping up and down in the Jim Carrey movie, the crowd goes wild when Anaheim scores two runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Giants, 6-5.

Lineup when available.

84 thoughts on “Game 59, 2021”

  2. If Mookie doesn’t revert to career form, it will be hard for us to go anywhere.

  3. I listened to some of the Braves broadcast on SiriuisXM yesterday. Their announcers are true rooters and homers. When the Dodgers bungled that pop up in short left field, and it wasn’t caught, one of them gleefully said, “And three Dodgers can’t catch one ball!” When you listen to announcers for other clubs, you realize how fortunate we have been to have the crews, as far back as Vinnie and Jerry Doggett, that we have had. Scully once said that after the Dodgers were beaten in the third and final playoff game vs. the Giants in 1962, it was particularly hard to do an ad for Simple Simon Frozen Pies, but he did as a true professional.

      • Yes, I agree re Joe and Orel carrying on the tradition. I like Monday as well. I think Porter got a raw deal. Never understood why he was let go.

    • Dodger broadcasters have long been the exception to the rule. The Mets guys are pretty good, as are the Pads’. Toronto not too bad. The rest are homer hacks.

  4. I had shared at the end of yesterday’s game that umps were actually doing better at calling balls and strikes than ever – as per Posnanski in The Athletic:

    In 2008, umpires called Chase/Waste Zone pitches “strikes” 3.7 percent of the time, a shockingly high number.

    By 2013, the umpires roughly cut the mistakes in half, calling them strikes 1.9 percent of the time.

    And now? Well, this year, umpires are calling those pitches a strike only 0.4 percent of the time — it has happened only 135 times in 2021. I say “only” because, as of this moment, there have been 422 games played, meaning that you will get one truly bad pitch call in every three or so games.

    Here is the full article (subscription required): https://theathletic.com/2572120/2021/05/07/giancarlo-stanton-thrills-where-does-albert-pujols-go-from-here-its-joes-week-in-baseball/?source=user_shared_article

    • The underlying report is in Fangraphs I believe. The chase/waste pitches are 4-6 inches off. My concern would be closer pitches that the Dodgers are trained to lay off of. Other teams are more likely to swing at those so they are not called pitches.

      • Agree that it affects the Dodgers – but also think Joe’s larger point of umps greatly improving on calls is interesting.

        • Sure, but how much is batters swinging at balls out of the zone cuz they believe the ump would call it a strike anyway. Would be interesting to know for example, if foul balls have increased as a result.

          • Theoretically, batters would have to swing/foul off less than before if umps are improving. Or am I misinterpreting the information?

          • I am assuming that the study only uses called pitches. I may be wrong. If a batter swings and missed or swings and fouls at a ball out of the zone, it is not accounted for in the study.

  8. This is dismaying: Since starting the year 13-2, we are 21-23. We need to turn things around (duh!)

  9. If the Giants win today, we would be 4 games back, territory that we haven’t visited since August 2018. Giants are leading the Cubs, 3-1, in the third.

  11. Dismal showing this afternoon. We got no walks and issued 6. Offense was pathetic.

  22. Dodgers going to need something special to win this game.
    The first special will be to minimize the damage here.

    • Saw Freddy live in San Jose a couple years before his death. A truly great singer.

  26. Bauer’s NL stats: 3rd most HRs allowed, tied for 5th in walks, 2nd in Ks, 5th lowest batting average allowed, 7th lowest WHIP.

  29. Dodgers haven’t wasted many opportunities today, because they simply haven’t created them.

  48. I am so confused by this year’s team. Are we great? Good? Mediocre? Really seems to depend on the day.

  49. Dodger are 7th in the NL in most strikeouts, first in MLB in most walks.

    • My wife’s late father, who was career Army, landed at Normandy a few days after D-Day. He was a 20-year-old from Lincoln, Nebraska. He was in the infantry and saw heavy action, won two Bronze Stars and was awarded a Purple Heart. Like many vets, he seldom discussed his military experiences, but he did near the end of his life. He died at the age of 90 a decade ago. My late father, who was in the Army artillery and spent about a year-and-a-half in Europe, was from Brooklyn. He did his basic training at Fort Jackson, and spent some time there with my mother. They were stunned and disgusted that the Nazis who were POWs were allowed to eat in restaurants there but the Black GIs were not.

      • Sounds about par for South Carolina.

        My father was in the Army Air Forces in the Pacific theater, and never wanted to say a single word about his experiences there.

        • My father as well was in the Army Air Corps. Stationed first in Australia and later in New Guinea