Category Archives: Dodgers History

Sep 02

Game 135, 2023

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Braves at Dodgers, 6:10 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports SE, SPNLA

RHP Bryce Elder (11-4, 3.50 ERA) pitches for the Braves; the Dodgers have yet to name a starter.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1944 Batting cleanup for the Dodgers, Dixie Walker completes a cycle when he hits a sixth-inning double off Rube Fischer in the team’s 8-4 win over the Giants. The Brooklyn right fielder’s four RBIs prove to be the difference in the Ebbets Field’s contest.
  • 1969 Willie Davis, with his sixth-inning double in the team’s 5-4 loss to New York at Dodger Stadium, breaks a 53 year-old franchise record by hitting safely in thirty consecutive games. The LA outfielder surpasses the streak established by Zack Wheat in 1916 when the team played in Brooklyn.
  • 1971 Cesar Cedeno hits an inside-the-park grand slam when Dodger second baseman Jim Lefebvre and right fielder Bill Buckner collide, trying to make the fifth inning catch. The 200-foot dropped bloop contributes to the Astros’ 9-3 victory over LA at the Astrodome.
  • 1972 In his major league debut, Doug Rau throws a three-hitter, beating St. Louis at Busch Stadium, 5-1. In his first big-league at-bat, the 23 year-old Dodger southpaw helps his cause with a RBI-triple in the second inning.
  • 1993 The Rockies, drawing a crowd of 47,699 for their 62nd home game, surpass the 1982 Dodgers when the team attracts 3,617,863 fans to Denver’s Mile High Stadium, setting a new National League single-season attendance record. The expansion club will also break the 1992 Blue Jays’ major league mark of 4,028,318 before the season is over.
  • 2002 In the top of the ninth inning, Diamondback first baseman Mark Grace hurls an inning of relief with the team trailing the Dodgers, 18-0. The All-Star infielder retires three of the four batters he faces in the Bank One Ballpark, yielding a two-out home run to David Ross.

Lineups when available.

Sep 01

Game 134, 2023

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Braves at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports SE, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

The Braves’ LHP Max Fried (5-1, 2.85 ERA) takes on the Dodgers’ LHP Julio Urías (11-7, 4.41 ERA) in Game Two of a four-game series at Dodger Stadium. Friod spent three months on the IL with a forearm strain, only being activated on August 4.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1890 On Labor Day at Brooklyn’s Washington Park, the Bridegrooms, later to be known as the Dodgers, win all three games against Pittsburgh in the first tripleheader ever played. The home team sweeps the visiting Alleghenys, who will be renamed the Pirates next season, 10-9, 3-2, and 8-4.
  • 1953 The Cardinals tie a major league mark, hitting five homers in a 12-5 loss to Brooklyn at Ebbets Field. The solo shots hit by Stan Musial, Harry Elliot, Rip Repulski, and Steve Bilko (2), all off starter Preacher Roe, aren’t enough to offset the Dodgers’ 17-hit attack, which includes six doubles but no round-trippers.
  • 1969 At Dodger Stadium, Willie Davis ties the franchise record by hitting in 29 consecutive games with his second-inning single in LA’s 10-6 victory over New York. The mark was established by Zack Wheat in 1916.

Lineups when available.

Aug 31

Game 133, 2023

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Braves at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports SE, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

The Braves send their ace RHP Spencer Strider (15-4, 3.46 ERA) to the mound. He’ll face the Dodgers’ newly-acquired RHP Lance Lynn (10-9, 5.56 ERA).

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1950 In front of 14,226 fans at Ebbets Field, Gil Hodges becomes the fourth major leaguer in the century to hit four home runs in one game as Brooklyn routs the Braves, 19-3. The Dodger first baseman also ties the major league record for total bases with 17.
  • 1959 Sandy Koufax fans 18 batters to establish a new National League record for a nine-inning game in the Dodgers’ 5-2 win over San Francisco at the LA Memorial Coliseum. The left-hander’s performance equals the major league mark established in 1938 by Indians fireballer Bob Feller during a 4-1 loss to Detroit.
  • 2010 The Dodgers trade a player to be named (infielder Tony Abreu) to the Diamondbacks in exchange for starter Jon Garland. The 31 year-old right-hander will post a 3-2 record with a 2.72 ERA in his six late-season starts for the Dodgers, before signing as a free agent with San Diego.

Lineups when available.

Aug 30

Game 132, 2023

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Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: Diamondbacks (see Game 130 post), MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

RHP Brandon Pfaadt (1-6, 5.91 ERA) takes the hill for the DBacks and RHP Ryan Pepiot (0-0, 2.00 ERA) does so for the Dodgers.

Tony Gonsolin knew after undergoing an MRI test in mid-June that he had torn the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, but the Dodgers right-hander continued to pitch to prop up an injury-depleted rotation, an effort that ended with Monday’s announcement that Gonsolin will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss next season.

“Kershaw was down at the time, Julio [Urías] was down, we had Bobby [Miller] and [Emmet] Sheehan called up from double-A, so I feel like I was pitching out of necessity,” Gonsolin said Tuesday. “I thought I could do it. It just got to the point where the stuff wasn’t performing. I was hoping I could make it through the season, put up good numbers and post. It didn’t work out.”

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1918 At the Polo Grounds, the Giants beat the Dodgers, 1-0, on an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth in a contest that takes only fifty-six minutes to complete. Pete Compton’s base hit off Jack Combs plates Larry Doyle, who had singled to lead off the frame and moved to third on Ollie O’Mara’s errant throw on a sacrifice bunt.
  • 1952 Nine-time All-Star infielder Arky Vaughan drowns with a friend when their boat capsized while fishing in a volcanic lake near Eagleville, CA. The former shortstop and third baseman, who compiled a .318 batting average and a .406 on-base percentage playing with the Pirates and Dodgers, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1985.
  • 1966 Sandy Koufax, in his final decision facing the Mets, lasts only two innings, losing to Bob Friend at Shea Stadium, 10-4. The Dodgers Hall of Fame southpaw has compiled a 17-2 record against the lowly expansion team since their inception in 1962.
  • 2000 Earning his 1,600th victory, Braves’ manager Bobby Cox passes former Dodger skipper Tommy Lasorda on the career list for most managerial victories. His 5-2 victory over the Reds puts him 14th on the all-time list.
  • 2015 The NL’s eventual 2015 Cy Young Award recipient Jake Arrieta, needing just 116 pitches, beats Los Angeles, 2-0, tossing the 12th no-hitter ever thrown at the Chavez Ravine ballpark, and the 13th no-no in Cubs history. The contest marks the second time in ten games the Dodgers has been unable to get a hit; they were held hitless by Astros right-hander Mike Fiers on August 21.

Lineups when available.

Aug 29

Game 131, 2023

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Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: Diamondbacks (see listings at prior game post), MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

RHP Merrill Kelly (10-5, 2.97 ERA) pitches for the D-Backs and LHP Clayton Kershaw (11-4, 2.52 ERA) does so for the Dodgers.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1939 Wheaties sponsors the first telecast of a baseball game when their ads are aired during the Ebbets Field contest between the Reds and the Dodgers. The commercial broadcast is available only in New York City, where an estimated 500 people own television sets.
  • 1948 Jackie Robinson hits for the backward cycle when he homers in the first inning, triples in the fourth, doubles in the sixth, and completes the rare event with a single in the eighth. In addition to his ten total bases, the Dodger second baseman drives in two runs, scores three times, and steals a base, helping Brooklyn beat the Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park, 12-7.
  • 1951 With his second home run of the game, the sixth time he has accomplished the feat this year, Gil Hodges hits his 36th round-tripper to establish a new franchise record for homers in a season. The Dodger first baseman’s seventh-inning three-run blast in the team’s 13-1 rout of Cincinnati at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field surpasses the mark of 35 set by Babe Herman in 1930.
  • 1989 Giving up just three singles, recently acquired Mets southpaw Frank Viola outduels Orel Hershiser and beats the Dodgers, 1-0. The classic contest between two aces marked the first time in baseball history that the reigning winners of the Cy Young Award have faced one another in the regular season.

Cultural history note: On this date in 1966: On a typically cool night, the Beatles play their final concert at Candlestick Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants. The “Fab Four’s” performance on a five-foot stage, which is located just behind second base surrounded by a six-foot high wire fence, is less than stellar due the ballpark’s inadequate lighting, poor acoustics, and the group’s growing disdain of doing live shows.

Lineups when available.

Aug 28

Game 130, 2023

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Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: Diamondbacks — Spectrum, Comcast, Cox, DIRECTV, DIRECTV STREAM, Fubo, Orbitel Communications, Mediacom, Suddenlink and TDS; Dodgers — SPNLA

The D-Backs give RHP Zac Gallen (14-5, 3.11 ERA) the ball; the Dodgers counter with RHP Bobby Miller (7-3, 3.86 ERA).

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1945 A moment in American history takes place in Brooklyn as Branch Rickey meets with Jackie Robinson to share his plans to integrate the major leagues. During the three hour meeting, the Dodgers’ president will shout racial epithets to ‘test’ the 26 year-old ballplayer’s mettle to withstand the abuse which will come with being the first player to cross the color line this century.
  • 1951 The Giants’ 16-game winning streak comes to end when Howie Pollet six-hits the team in the Pirates’ 2-0 victory at the Polo Grounds. The consecutive victories enable Leo Durocher and his club to narrow the Dodgers’ lead from 13.5 to six games.
  • 1967 Giants hurler Gaylord Perry begins the longest consecutive inning scoreless streak in franchise history when he shuts out the Dodgers at Candlestick Park, 7-0. The right-hander will not give up another run over a span of 40 innings, a feat the son of a tenant farmer from North Carolina will repeat three seasons later.
  • 1977 Steve Garvey collects five extra-base hits in one game when he bashes three doubles and two homers, including a grand slam, in the Dodgers’ 11-0 rout over St. Louis at Chavez Ravine. The LA first baseman becomes just the fourth major leaguer to accomplish the feat, joining Lou Boudreau (1946 Indians – HR, four 2B), Joe Adcock (1954 Braves – four HR, 2B), and Willie Stargell (1970 Pirates – two HR, three 2B).
  • 2003 Eric Gagne earns his 44th straight save in the Dodgers’ 6-3 victory over the Astros at Minute Maid Park. The Los Angeles reliever’s effort establishes a new major league record, surpassing Tom Gordon, who had saved 43 in a row to begin a season with the Red Sox in 1998.
  • 2008 In the 11-2 victory over the Dodgers, Cristian Guzman becomes the second player in Nationals history to hit for the cycle, joining Brad Wilkerson, who accomplished the feat in 2005, the team’s first year in Washington, D.C. The 30 year-old shortstop completes his cycle with an eighth inning triple.
  • 2015 “Vin will be back for one more year (at least). God bless us, everyone” – JIMMY KIMMEL’s cue card message to the crowd.

    Team executive Magic Johnson, appearing on the Dodger Stadium video board, introduces Jimmy Kimmel to report “big, breaking news.” The ABC late-night television host, who waves to the fans without saying a word, displays a succession of cue cards, informing the Chavez Ravine crowd the 87 year-old Vin Scully will be returning to broadcast Dodgers games in 2016 for his 67th season.

  • 2020 On the same day MLB celebrated Jackie Robinson Day, Chadwick Boseman, the actor who portrayed the Brooklyn Dodgers star in the 2013 movie 42, dies of colon cancer. The 43-year-old actor, best known for the title role in Marvel’s blockbuster Black Panther, also played music legend James Brown and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshal on the big screen.

Lineups when available.

Aug 26

Game 128, 2023

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Dodgers at Red Sox, 1:10 PM PDT, TV: NESN, SPNLA

LHP Julio Urías (11-6, 4.15 ERA) takes the Fenway mound. He’ll face the Red Sox’ LHP James Paxton (7-4, 3.79 ERA).

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1939 At Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, NBC televises the first major league game in history on experimental station W2XBS, covering a doubleheader split in which the Reds win the first game, 5-2, and the Dodgers take the nightcap, 6-1. The network employs two cameras, one behind home plate, showing a wide view of the field, and the other on the third base line to capture the plays at first base.
  • 1947 Dan Bankhead becomes the major league’s first black pitcher. The 27 year-old right-hander doesn’t do well in a relief stint, giving up ten hits and six runs in 3.1 innings in a 16-3 loss to the Pirates, but the Dodger rookie hits his only big league home run in his first major league at-bat.
  • 1965 At Shea Stadium, the Mets beat the Dodgers, 5-2, making Tug McGraw (2-2) the first Mets pitcher to defeat Sandy Koufax (21-7). Previously, New York had lost 13 consecutive times to the future Hall of Fame southpaw.
  • 1993 The Mets announce that Vince Coleman will remain on paid administrative leave until the end of the season, effectively ending his playing career with the team. Co-owner Fred Wilpon’s unequivocal decision that the controversial outfielder, who signed a four-year $11.95 million contract before the 1991 season, will not ever put on a Mets uniform again is the result of Coleman admitting to tossing a M-100 firecracker from a Jeep departing from a Dodger Stadium parking lot last month, injuring three people.
  • 2020 “Our team and the Reds felt that with our community and our nation in such pain, tonight we wanted 100 percent of the focus to be on issues that are much more important than baseball,” – BRENT SUTER, the team’s MLB Players Association representative.

    MLB postpones the Miller Park contest to respect the Brewers’ decision not to participate in the game against the Reds following the police shooting of a 29-year-old Wisconsin black man. Later in the day, the Mariners, who have more Black players than any team in the sport, and the Dodgers also choose not to play.

Lineups when available.

Aug 24

Game 126, 2023

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Dodgers at Guardians, Time TBD, TV: Bally Sports Great Lakes, SPNLA

The Dodgers give the ball to RHP Ryan Pepiot (0-0, 1.80 ERA). He’ll face the Guardians’ RHP Gavin Williams (1-4, 3.02 ERA).

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1941 During a double-header against the Cardinals, a rag-tag group of five ‘musicians’, dubbed the Dodger SymPhony by announcer Red Barber, makes their Ebbets Field’s debut. This band, in which none of the members can read music, performs their zany antics at all evening and weekend games.
  • 1955 A telegram sent to Brooklyn president Walter O’Malley by the Patchogue Chamber of Commerce offers the team “thirty acres or more of dry flat land in open country in the heart of Long Island’s densest Dodger fan concentration.” The village’s attempt to attract the fleeing franchise to the south shore of Suffolk County will not materialize, and the club, after exploring many different venues as an alternative to Ebbets Field, will leave the East Coast in 1958 to play in Los Angeles.
  • 1957 The Dodgers, in a 13-3 loss to Milwaukee at Ebbets Field, use eight pitchers in one game, tying a major league record. Johnny Podres gives up three home runs in the fourth frame when Nippy Jones, Hank Aaron, and Andy Pafko all go deep off the Brooklyn starter.
  • 1960 During a dull game, Vin Scully, the play-by-play voice of the Dodgers, knowing that many fans in the stands follow the game on transistor radios, asks his listeners to help him surprise third base umpire Frank Secory. His ballpark audience responds when the veteran broadcaster tells them, “Let’s have some fun. As soon as the inning is over I’ll count to three, and on three everybody yell, ‘Happy birthday, Frank!'”
  • 1974 Davey Lopes steals five bases, tying a National League record established in 1904 by Giants first baseman Dan McGann. The Dodger second baseman’s quintet of stolen bags adds to the team’s franchise mark of eight stolen bases in their 3-0 victory over the Redbirds at Chavez Ravine.
  • 1975 Davey Lopes steals his major league record 38th consecutive base, but the streak will be stopped by Montreal backstop Gary Carter when he attempts to swipe another base in the Dodger Stadium contest. The second baseman will be thrown out in the 12th inning of the team’s 5-3 loss in fourteen innings.
  • 2014 Joc Pederson becomes the fourth player in the history of the Pacific Coast League to have a 30-30 season, and the first to accomplish the feat in 80 years, when he steals his 30th base for the Isotopes. The 22 year-old Albuquerque slugger, who has 32 home runs and a .432 slugging percentage in 116 games this season, will join the Dodgers when rosters expand next week.

Lineups when available.

Aug 23

Game 125, 2023

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Dodgers at Guardians, 4:10 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports Great Lakes, SPNLA

LHP Clayton Kershaw (11-4, 2.48 ERA) pitches for the Dodgers and RHP Xzavion Curry (3-1, 3.24 ERA) does likewise for the Guardians.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1958 Gil Hodges hits his 14th career grand slam in the Dodgers’ 10-1 victory over Milwaukee at LA Memorial Coliseum. The first baseman’s bases-full round-tripper establishes a new National League record, but is far fewer than Lou Gehrig’s major league mark of 23.
  • 1989 In the 11th frame of an eventual 22-inning 1-0 loss, the Expos’ Youppi! becomes the first mascot to be thrown out of a game when Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda complains to the umpires about the hairy orange giant’s behavior at Olympic Stadium. The L.A. skipper takes exception to the loud noise caused by the hairy creature’s running leap onto the visitors’ dugout before sneaking back into a front row seat.
  • 1989 In that same game, the second-longest shutout in big league history ends when Rick Dempsey hits a home run in the top of the 22nd inning, giving the Dodgers an eventual 1-0 victory over the Expos at Olympic Stadium. The Astros blanked the Mets for 24 frames en route to a 1-0 win at the Astrodome in 1968.
  • 2000 Team president Bob Graziano apologizes to a female couple who were asked to leave Dodger Stadium on August 8th because the two shared a kiss during a game. The pair felt the action of the eight security guards was discriminatory because the couple’s friends, a man and a woman, also kissed but were not ejected.
  • 2013 At a Dodger Stadium press conference, LA announces Vin Scully will continue to broadcast Dodgers’ games for his 65th consecutive season. Some of the historic moments the Hall of Fame broadcaster has called include Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, 19 no-hitters, including four thrown by Sandy Koufax, Hank Aaron’s 715th home run, and Kirk Gibson’s dramatic walk-off home run in the 1988 Fall Classic.

Lineups when available.

Aug 22

Game 124, 2023

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Dodgers at Guardians, 4:10 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports Great Lakes, SPNLA

The Dodgers’ RHP Bobby Miller (7-2, 3.70 ERA) takes the mound at Progressive (formerly Jacobs) Field, where he’ll face the Guardians’ RHP Noah Syndergaard (2-6, 6.57 ERA). The Dodgers dealt Syndergaard and cash away last month in exchange for infielder Amed Rosario.

In case you missed it: here’s the customized bat the Phillies’ Bryson Stott took to the plate during Sunday’s Little League Classic game against the Nationals.

Today in Dodgers’ history

  • 1917 In a 22-inning contest against the Dodgers, Pirates’ outfielder Carson Bigbee sets a major-league record with 11 at-bats. The game was also the fourth straight extra-inning game played by Pittsburgh (59 innings in all), which sets a National League record.
  • 1965 Juan Marichal thinks John Roseboro throws too close to his head returning the ball to Sandy Koufax and attacks the Dodger catcher with his bat. The Los Angeles backstop suffers cuts on the head during the 14-minute brawl.
  • 2000 Hitting a solo blast and a three-run round-tripper during a nine-run sixth inning of a 14-6 victory over the Expos, Dodger first baseman Eric Karros becomes the first player in the 111-year franchise history to hit two homers in an inning.

In 1886 Louisville’s Chicken Wolf hits a game-winning inside-the-park home run, thanks to a stray dog impeding Abner Powell from fielding the ball. The canine, who had been sleeping by the fence, refuses to let go of the pant leg of the Reds center fielder, who watches in dismay as the Colonel batter races around the bases in the team’s 5-4 loss at Eclipse Park.

Lineups when available.