Category Archives: Game Threads

For discussion of today’s game

Oct 03

Game 161, 2015

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Padres at Dodgers, 6:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD, MLB.TV (free game)

Zack Greinke looks to lower his ERA even further, win his nineteenth game and fend of Jake Arrietta’s late charge for the NL Cy Young Award. What more needs to be said about him? His opponent will be lefty Robbie Erlin, who’s 1-1 with a 6.30 ERA. He’s made two appearances for the Padres this season, both starts. The first was against Colorado; he went three innings and gave up nine hits and seven runs, all earned. His next start was against the Diamondbacks; he went seven innings and gave up two hits and no runs.

The Nationals beat the Mets 3-1 in the opening game of their doubleheader, which puts the Dodgers a full game up on the Mets in the race for home field advantage.

Lineup when available.

A Puig sighting!

Oct 02

Game 160, 2015

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Keep talking about the postseason in the thread below; this one’s the game thread.

Padres at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD, MLB.tv free streaming (out of market)

The Dodgers start Alex Wood, who is 11-12 with a 3.89 ERA. His last start was awful: he gave up 11 hits and 8 runs in 5 1/3 innings at Colorado. In fact, he hasn’t yet shown the Dodgers or their fans a lot since being acquired in July: he’s gone 4-6 in 11 starts for the LA team with a 4.55 ERA.

Wood’s opponent will be Casey Kelly, who spent almost the entire year in AA San Antonio. This will be his third appearance for the Padres; he gave up six runs in the first two innings of his last start against Arizona but got the last 11 men he faced.

Matt Kemp is out for the year with a partial tendon tear in his right middle finger. Juston Upton will be a game-time decision after straining his neck running into a wall in Wednesday’s game. The Dodgers are hoping Justin Turner’s bruised left forearm has recovered.

Lineup when available.

Oct 01

Game 159, 2015

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Dodgers at Giants, 12:45PM PT, TV: SPNLA, CSN-BA

Businessman’s special today — baseball under the sun as Abner Doubleday meant it to be played!

Brett Anderson goes for the Dodgers. He’s looking for win number 10 on the year, but perhaps even more importantly, if he goes three innings he’ll surpass the 175 1/3 innings he pitched in his rookie year of 2009, the most he’s ever pitched in a single season. He’s had a tough September, though, going 1-1 with a 6.20 ERA for the month and 11 earned runs in only 8 2/3 innings in his last two starts.

He’ll face Tim Hudson, who is the major leagues’ active leader in wins with 222 against 132 losses. He’s got a career ERA of 3.49. He’s retiring at the end of this season, during which he’s 8-8 with a 4.30 ERA. His last start was not good; he went only 1 1/3 innings against the As on Saturday.

Lineup:

Sep 30

Game 158, 2015

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Dodgers at Giants, 7:15PM PT, TV: SPNLA, CSN-BA

The Dodgers (88-69) have clinched the division title, but if they want home field advantage in the NLDS they need to continue winning and hope the Mets lose while they do so. They trail the Mets (89-68) by one game in the overall standings. To that end they send Mike Bolsinger to the hill tonight. Bolsinger has not shown himself to be the pitcher he was in the first half of the season; since his September callup he’s got an 8.66 ERA in four starts. In his last one on September 25 he gave up seven hits and seven runs, four earned, in just four innings. He may be pitching for a long relief spot on the NLDS playoff roster.

Bolsinger’s opponent will be Mike Leake, who was acquired by the Giants from the Reds at this year’s trade deadline. He too has been a disappointment to his team; he’s gone 1-5 with a 4.86 ERA since his arrival.

Lineup when available.

Grandal at first base, huh?

Sep 29

Game 157, 2015

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Dodgers at Giants, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, CSN-BA

It’s Clayton Kershaw’s turn to try to advance the Dodgers into the postseason and turn out the lights on the Giants’ hopes of getting there. He’s 15-7 on the year with a 2.25 ERA, 1-2 with a 2.76 ERA against the Giants. He and his teammates will face Madison Bumgarner, who’s 18-8 with a 2.88 ERA, 2-1 with a 1.63 ERA against the Dodgers this season. Both of these pitchers have been excellent since the All Star break: Kershaw’s gone 9-1 with a 1.48 since then, while Bumgarner has been almost as good, going 9-3 with a 2.31 ERA. He’s also thrown three complete games in that span.

There are some other games of consequence being played today and tonight as well.

Lineup when available.

Sep 28

Game 156, 2015

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Dodgers at Giants, 7:15PM PT, TV: SPNLA

With the Dodgers’ magic number stuck on two, it would relieve a lot of their fans if they won this game and dispensed with the suspense. To that end they send out odds-on Cy Young favorite Zack Greinke, who’s 18-3 with a microscopic 1.65 ERA to face Jake Peavy, who’s 7-6 with a 3.83 ERA. Greinke skipped his last start with a sore calf but pitched his usual bullpen session on Friday and is thought to be fine. Peavy has been a Dodger-killer in the past if you look at his record (14-3 with a 2.42 ERA in 28 career starts against them), but those numbers were amassed with a different team and facing different players on the Dodgers; I’m not persuaded those kinds of statistics mean much.

I’m sure the Dodgers will be just fine, because they have:

Lineup when available.

Sep 27

Game 155, 2015

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Dodgers at Rockies, 1:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

The Dodgers hope lefty Alex Wood (11-11, 3.60 ERA) can get them closer to clinching the division title. He’s alternated wins and losses in his last eight starts and lost the last one, so if you believe in patterns he should win today. His opponent will be lefty Chris Rusin, (5-9, 5.39 ERA), who walked four, gave up six runs on eight hits in just four innings in his last start last Tuesday.

Lineup when available.

Despite Mattingly’s earlier remarks, Adrian’s back must still be sore.

Sep 26

Game 154, 2015

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Dodgers at Rockies, 5:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Brett Anderson tries to get past his worst start of the year. He gave up five runs including two home runs in 4 2/3 innings against the D-Backs on September 21. He’ll face right-hander Kyle Kendrick, who had a bad outing himself his last time out on Sunday against the Padres, giving up six runs in four innings. Anderson’s looking for win number ten to go above .500 for the season; Kendrick is looking for win number seven against thirteen losses.

Lineup when available.

Update: New Lineup:

Adrian rests back, Grandal moves to first base.

Sep 25

Game 153, 2015

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Dodgers at Rockies, 5:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

The Dodgers, whose magic number is down to three, send Mike Bolsinger out to see if he can recover the form he showed before being sent down to AAA in the wake of the Latos-Wood acquisitions in July. He had a 2.83 ERA to that point, but he’s had a 6.23 ERA in his three starts since returning. Overall he’s 6-4 with a 3.26 ERA in 2015. He’ll face right-hander David Hale, who’s 4-5 with a 6.32 ERA. Hale spent the year starting until September; he’s only made four appearances this month, all in relief.

Lineup when available.

Sep 24

Game 152, 2015

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Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 12:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS-A

This is another battle of lefthanders. Clayton Kershaw has won nine of his last ten starts with a 1.17 ERA during that stretch. He’s 14-7 with a 2.18 ERA overall. He’s only pitched against the D-Backs once this season, back on April 11, and they got five runs off him in 6 1/3 innings. His opponent will be Patrick Corbin, who’s 6-4 with a 2.99 ERA. He lost to the Dodgers on September 13, giving up eight hits and two runs in six innings. That was the Greinke game in which Kenley Jansen gave up a 3-run HR to Saltalamacchia in the ninth with two outs, making it a lot closer game than it had been.

Lineup when available.