Sep 24

Game 159, 2014

Posted on by

Giants at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, ESPN, KDOC-56, CSN-BA

If the Dodgers win, they win the NL West. If the Giants win, they clinch a playoff berth. One way or the other one of these teams is going to be celebrating something after tonight’s game.

Most every sportswriter in the country and most fans as well are probably chalking up this game as a win for the Dodgers, what with Clayton Kershaw pitching for them tonight. Well, Tim Hudson is having a poor year, but he’s not chopped liver. He’s started 456 games in his 16-year career and won 214 of them (first among all active pitchers) while losing only 123, with a lifetime ERA of 3.45. However, in his last outing he went only 4 1/3 innings against the Padres, giving up four runs on seven hits. The start before that was against the Dodgers, and it was awful: six runs on eight hits in just one inning.

In personnel news, Mattingly thinks Hyun-Jin Ryu won’t be seen on the mound again until the playoffs.

Lineup when available.

Sep 23

Game 158, 2014

Posted on by

Giants at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, CSN-BA, ESPN, KDOC-56

The game should be accessible to most fans, as it’s being televised by both ESPN and KDOC-56. KDOC-56’s channel numbers for various providers are in the last post.

Zack Greinke brings his 4-0 record and 1.38 ERA in four starts against the Giants this season to the mound tonight. He’ll face Madison Bumgarner, himself 3-1 with a 1.75 ERA in four starts against the Dodgers this season.

Every game is different, but if Dodger fans are looking for encouragement, this should help:

The career numbers against Greinke in the last five seasons don’t look good for any healthy Giants, but especially not for the heart of the order: Brandon Belt is 1-for-5, Hunter Pence is 1-for-6 and Buster Posey is also 1-for-6.

The most successful Giants hitters against Greinke in the last five seasons? Morse and Pagan, who will each miss Tuesday night’s game with injuries.

Lineup:


No Gordon? No Crawford? Mattingly may just be loading the lineup with right-handed hitters to face Bumgarner. However, Gonzalez is all of 4 for 32 lifetime against the guy.

Sep 22

Game 157, 2014

Posted on by

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

Update: Whoops! Forgot that from here on out the games are also carried on KDOC. Channel numbers:

Provider HD Channel SD Channel
Charter 710 10
Cox 1012 12
AT&T U-verse 1006 6
DirecTV 56 56
Verizon FiOS 506 6
Dish Network 56 56
Over the air broadcast 56.1 56.1

Admit it. We’d be a lot more nervous about the penultimate three-game series of the season if the Dodgers hadn’t got a 4 1/2 game lead in the division. Barring absolute disaster the Dodgers should win the NL West with relative ease, since their magic number is down to three. The two teams have split the first sixteen games they’ve played this season.

Having said that, tonight’s pitching opponent is no palooka. Jake Peavy has a 7-1 record with a 2.85 ERA in 13 starts in Dodger Stadium and a career record against Los Angeles of 14-3. Dan Haren will take the mound for the Dodgers. He’s 6-6 with a 3.05 ERA in 17 career appearances (16 starts) against San Francisco.

Neither Michael Morse nor Angel Pagan will be in the lineup for the Giants in any of the three games; they both have injuries severe enough to see specialists.

Lineup:

Sep 21

Game 156, 2014

Posted on by

Dodgers at Cubs, 11:20AM PT, TV: SPNLA

The Dodgers blew a five-run lead in Saturday’s game against the Cubs but were rescued by San Diego’s Andrew Cashner, who held the Giants to 4 hits and 2 ninth-inning runs while helping his team with a single, a walk and a triple in the Padres’ 3-2 win the same night in America’s Finest City.

Today, then, they throw the parts of the bullpen who’ve shown the least wear and tear over the past week, starting with the venerable Jamie Wright. The longest outings he’s pitched all year were two three-inning stretches in May, but he’s ready:

“It’s a Sunday day game in Wrigley. What’s not exciting about that? I always love pitching here,” said Wright. “I wish I could throw 120 pitches like I used to. Clearly, that’s not going to happen.

The veteran will face the Cubs’ Jacob Turner, who’s 1-3 with a 6.93 ERA overall with Chicago after being traded from the Marlins last month.

This is interesting (at least to me): today the Cubs host their first Historically Black College and Universities (HBCU) Day at Wrigley. There’ll be a networking party at The Captain Morgan Club at the ball park and the Central State University Marching Band will perform after the game.

Lineup when available.

Giants at Padres, 1:10PM PT, TV: CSN-BA, FSSD. Vogelsong v. Kennedy

Sep 20

Game 155, 2014

Posted on by

Dodgers at Cubs, 10:05AM PT, TV: Fox

This is a battle of fourth or fifth starters. Roberto Hernandez starts for the Dodgers and Felix Doubront will start for the Cubs. Hernandez has fallen on hard times after starting out well when the Dodgers picked him up in early August. Three of his first four outings were quality starts, but he hasn’t gotten past 4 1/3 innings in any of his last three appearances. Worse, 6 of the 16 hits he’s given up in the latest starts have been home runs.

Doubront has been in the majors since 2011 but only with the Cubs since July of this year. He’s 4-5 with a 5.00 ERA in 2014, but his last start was a six-inning four-hit no-run performance against the playoff-contending Pirates.

Jon Weisman put together some statistics which show that the Dodgers have a much better offense than many of us think. It’s hard to argue with the numbers, so why do we so often feel like they aren’t very good at scoring runs? Anyway, go look at his bullet points and try to ingest them.

Lineup when available.

Sep 19

Game 154, 2014

Posted on by

Dodgers at Cubs, 11:20AM PT, TV: SPNLA

Clayton Kershaw has won five straight games and is trying to win his 20th game of the season. He’s 19-3 with a 1.70 ERA. He’ll face old friend Edwin Jackson, who’s coming off the DL, where he was nursing a right lat strain. Before he got hurt he was 6-14 with a 6.09 ERA.

Believe it or not, Jackson, who got his first start with the Dodgers back in 2003 and made it a memorable one, turned 31 years old 10 days ago and has been pitching in the major leagues for 12 years with a lifetime record of 84-103 for mostly bad teams.

Lineup when available.

Sep 18

Game 153, 2014

Posted on by

Dodgers at Cubs, 5:05PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Greinke, save us!

Okay, that’s a little heavy on the hyperbole. Nonetheless, the Dodgers’ pitching needs to improve over its results in the last two games, and the only one who can do it better than Zack is Clayton Kershaw, who pitches tomorrow. Greinke is 15-8 with a 2.64 ERA on the season, 4-2 with a 3.92 ERA in six career starts against the Cubbies.

The Cubs send Tsuyoshi Wada to the mound. Wada was 4-3 with a 3.34 ERA in his first 11 Major League starts but has struggled in his last two, going 3 1/3 and 4 1/3 innings. Those two outings ballooned his ERA; it had been 2.79 before the Pirates whacked him around twice. He pitched against the Dodgers back on August 2, going 5 2/3 innings, giving up six hits and two runs and striking out six in a game the Dodgers won on a Hanley Ramirez walk-off HR in the twelfth inning.

Speaking of Ramirez, the Dodgers “hope” to have him back for this series.

The Giants are off today. With a win the Dodgers would be up 2 1/2 games in the NL West.

Lineup when available.

Sep 17

Game 152, 2014

Posted on by

Dodgers at Rockies, 12:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Carlos Frias makes his second start for the Dodgers after being called up from Albuquerque for a second time this season on September 2. His first start was on September 3, when he pitched six innings of 3-hit ball in a game the Dodgers eventually lost to the Nationals in 14 innings. He’s 0-0 with a 3.91 ERA. His opponent will be Jorge De La Rosa, who’s 13-11 with a 4.28 ERA. Pitching at Coors Field, though, De La Rosa is 44-14 in his career.

Lineup when available.

Update: Well, in light of that eight-run disaster of a first inning, we’d better hope the Diamondbacks beat the Giants this afternoon.

Sep 16

Game 151, 2014

Posted on by

Dodgers at Rockies, 5:40PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Dan Haren goes for the Dodgers. He’s 3-0 with a 0.69 ERA in his last four starts and 13-10 with a 3.99 ERA for the season. After that mid-season slump he’s seemingly reduced the number of sinkers he’s thrown by 12 percent, says one statistical outfit, and that may have helped the turnaround. He’ll face Tyler Matzek, a rookie whose 5-10 and 4.23 ERA look bad, but may be misleading. In his last four starts he’s given up just four earned runs, including a three-hit shutout against the Padres. He’s 3-1 over those games. The loss was a four-hit 6 1/3 inning performance in which he gave up two runs but got no run support.

In other news, Ryu’s shoulder MRI on Monday showed no damage. He got a cortisone shot and will meet the team in Chicago. He’ll miss his next scheduled start but he’ll throw a little in Chicago and see how the shoulder feels.

Nobody on the Dodgers’ side is explaining what the cause of the mild flareup of tempers between Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig was during last night’s game. The press and we bloggers have therefore been free to speculate, as Steve Dilbeck of the Times notes and sneers at.

Via Twitter: “The Dodgers select the contract of LHP Daniel Coulombe from Double-A. RHP Stephen Fife was recalled from Triple-A and placed on 60-day DL.”

Lineup: