Jul 10

Game 91, 2016

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Padres at Dodgers, 1:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD

Kenta Maeda (7-6, 3.07 ERA) goes for the Dodgers and Christian Friedrich (4-4, 4.42 ERA) for the Friars. Friedrich’s had a rough last month, giving up at least four earned runs in each of his past four starts. This after giving up only eight earned runs in all of his first six. Maeda had his worst start of the season his last time out against the Orioles, lasting just four innings and allowing four runs on seven hits.

Lineup when available.


Vinnie is taking the day off.

Jul 09

Game 90, 2016

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Padres at Dodgers, 4:15PM PT, TV: Fox

Brandon McCarthy makes his second start for the Dodgers after a year off recovering from surgery; he won his first start while going five scoreless innings. He’ll face the Padres’ Luis Perdomo (3-3, 7.93 ERA), whose last two starts have been quality ones.

Lineup when available.

Jul 08

Game 89, 2016

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Padres at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD

Andrew Cashner (3-6, 4.42 ERA) goes for the Padres while Scott Kazmir (7-3, 4.37 ERA) goes for the Dodgers. Here’s a bit of a surprise: Kazmir hasn’t lost in his last ten starts. Cashner pitched well in his first start last Sunday after coming off the DL, giving up just two runs in six innings against the Yankees.

A-Gon has been very successful against Cashner; he’s hit .344/.432/.750 with four homers. Likewise, Alexei Ramirez and Adam Rosales have a combined .930 OPS in 62 plate appearances against Kazmir from their days in the AL when he was there.

Lineup when available.

Jul 07

Game 88, 2016

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Padres at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD

The Dodgers’ Hyun-Jin Ryu makes his 2016 debut after sitting out the entire 2015 season recovering from shoulder surgery on May 21. In his last rehab start he threw 84 pitches, so he appears to have mended pretty well. His opponent will be Drew Pomeranz (7-7, 2.65 ERA). Pomeranz faced the Dodgers on May 1 and threw 7 innings of 3-hit ball, only to lose to a Kershaw RBI single in the third inning and a 3-hitter by the Dodgers’ pitcher as well. It was the only win the Dodgers got on that 7-game homestand.

From a column at SI comparing Kershaw’s six-year run to others in history:

my favorite stat on Kershaw: Since his debut season of 2008, he has lowered his career ERA every year without exception—eight straight years of improving upon greatness. Now that’s a special run.

Lineup when available.

Jul 06

Game 87, 2016

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Orioles at Dodgers, 12:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MASN

Kevin Gausman (1-6, 3.97 ERA) goes out for the Birds and Bud Norris (4-7, 3.89 ERA) makes his second start for the Dodgers.

Ethier might be back for the first game in August, Roberts says. Kershaw and Anderson are all on a fast track to recovery now.

Lineup:

Jul 05

Game 86, 2016

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Orioles at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MASN 2

The Os send their Opening Day starter Chris Tillman (10-2, 3.71 ERA) out to face the Dodgers’ Kenta Maeda (7-5, 2.82 ERA). Tillman has surrendered 14 earned runs in his last 14 2/3 innings, while Maeda has given up 6 earned runs in his last 17 1/3.

If you think Puig is hitting better than he has all year, well…”Yasiel Puig homered Monday and is currently hitting .381 in 13 games since returning from a DL stint due to a hamstring injury.”

Lineup:

Jul 04

Game 85, 2016 and 4th of July historical revisionism

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The guy who wrote the latest Ty Cobb biography explains why most of what we’ve been told of Cobb is a lie. For example, his family history would indicate he was no racist, despite what we’ve been told:

Ty Cobb was descended from a long line of abolitionists. His great-grandfather was a minister who preached against slavery and was run out of town for it. His grandfather refused to fight in the Confederate army because of the slavery issue. And his father was an educator and state senator who spoke up for his black constituents and is known to have once broken up a lynch mob.

[snip]

Cobb himself was never asked about segregation until 1952, when the Texas League was integrating, and Sporting News asked him what he thought. “The Negro should be accepted wholeheartedly, and not grudgingly,” he said. “The Negro has the right to play professional baseball and whose [sic] to say he has not?”

I’ve read the biography, and it’s a good one. I give it 4 stars.

On to today’s game.

Orioles at Dodgers, 6:10PM PT, TV: MLBN (out-of-market only), MASN, SPNLA

The Dodgers have won four straight and the Orioles have lost four straight. Despite that the Orioles still lead the AL East by three games. Each streak could continue after this evening’s game with its early start time (fireworks afterward!). The Dodgers ask young Julio Urias (1-2, 4.09 ERA) to keep up his good work; he’s lowered his ERA from one game to the next in each of his 7 starts. He’s thrown 33 innings so far for the big leaguers in 2016 after throwing 41 in the minors this season. The most he’s ever thrown in a season is 87 2/3 in 2014, so he’s coming close to a shutdown point.

Urias will be opposed by Yovani Gallardo (3-1, 5.77 ERA). This is his fourth start after coming off the DL, where he’d been with shoulder tendinitis. His last start was his best since his return; he went six innings against the Padres and got the win.

Note: the Orioles hit a lot of home runs. They just set a major league record by hitting 56 in June, the most ever in that calendar month. They are on pace to hit 262 for the season, just two short of the all-time record of 264 set by the A-Rod-Griffey Jr.-Jay Buhner-E. Martinez Mariners in 1997.

Update: Hyun-Jin Ryu will start Thursday’s game for the Dodgers against the Padres.

Lineup:

Jul 03

Game 84, 2016

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

Brandon McCarthy makes his first major league start since April 25, 2015 when he went on the shelf for Tommy John surgery. He insists he’s looking at this game as just another start. Right. He’ll face the Rockies’ Jon Gray (5-3, 4.83 ERA). Gray has pitched at least six innings in all but one of his last seven starts.

Corey Seager got a hit in his 15th consecutive game Saturday night and now holds the longest current hit streak in the big leagues.

Lineup when available.

The Sunday Night Baseball game between the Braves and the Marlins wouldn’t ordinarily hold my attention, but it’s being held in a ballpark which was built at Fort Bragg, NC in just four months. It replaced an overgrown golf course on the base.

It marks the first time a professional, regular-season game in any sport has been played on an active military base and is the first time the state of North Carolina has hosted a regular-season Major League Baseball game.

What’s going to happen to it after the game is played?

…the site will be converted into softball and multipurpose recreational fields following Sunday’s game. The playing surface will remain, along with the foul poles, dugouts and bullpens, as a lasting reminder of Sunday’s historic event.

Okay, Imma gonna wanna to see this.

Jul 02

Game 83, 2016

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Rockies at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, ROOTS Sports

The visitors send RHP Chad Bettis (6-5, 5.84 ERA) to the mound to face the Dodgers’ LHP Scott Kazmir (6-3, 4.67 ERA). Bettis has given up at least three runs in each of his last seven starts, but he hasn’t surrendered a dinger in his last three. Kazmir said he’s going to try a simulated inning in the bullpen before the game in hopes of avoiding a repeat of his last start’s four-run 40-pitch first inning.

Corey Seager’s riding a 14-game hitting streak which includes 11 extra-base hits. It’s the longest active streak in the major leagues right now.

There will be a two-inning Old Timers’ Game starting about 5:00PM, and the Dodgers will also honor their triumvirate of co-MVPs from the 1981 World Series team, Guerrero, Yeager and Cey.

Lineup when available.

Jul 01

Game 82, 2016

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Rockies at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, ROOT Sports

The Rockies start Jorge De La Rosa (5-4, 6.47 ERA) against the Dodgers’ newly-acquired Bud Norris (3-7, 4.22 ERA). After a hiatus De La Rosa moved back into the rotation on June 14 and has won all three starts since while posting a 2.11 ERA, but he’s not made it past the sixth inning in any one of them. Norris had a bad two months to start the year with the Braves but has gone 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA in six appearances in June.

Pitchers’ history:

De La Rosa has faced the Dodgers 25 times in his career, opposing only the Padres, Giants and D-backs more. He has historically struggled against Los Angeles, holding a 5.22 ERA over 120 2/3 innings. However, he has a 3.90 ERA at Dodger Stadium and has a 2.87 ERA in his last five starts against the Dodgers, spanning back to August 2014.

[snip]

[Norris] is 2-1 with a 6.23 ERA in 10 games (five starts) against the Rockies in his career, but 13 of the 21 earned runs came at Coors Field.

Other news of note:

  • “The Associated Press will begin using an automated writing service to cover more than 10,000 minor league baseball games annually, the news cooperative announced Thursday.”
  • Two nitwit Congresspeople (one of whom has now retracted her sponsorship) wrote legislation attempting to exclude Minor League Baseball from the Fair Labor Standards Act because the millionaires and billionaires who own MLB and pay the minor leaguers’ salaries don’t want those wages to be governed by labor law. Grant Bisbee rips the argument to shreds.

Also, Kershaw and Pederson have been placed on the 15-day disabled list and Will Venable has been brought up.

All Star Game voting ends at midnight ET. Vote often (well, up to 35 times)!

Lineup when available.