Tag Archives: Branch Rickey

Oct 16

NLCS Game Four, 2018

Posted on by

Brewers at Dodgers, 6:09 PM PDT, TV: FS1

LHP Gio Gonzalez (10-11, 4.21 ERA) goes for the Brewers and LHP Rich Hill (11-5, 3.66 ERA) for the Dodgers. Gonzalez started Game One of this series but by design went only two innings, giving up a home run to Manny Machado. He faced the Dodgers in Game Three of the 2016 NLDS while with the Nationals, going 4 1/3 innings, giving up four hits and three runs and not figuring in the decision. Hill walked five in Game Four of the NLDS against the Braves but limited the damage to two runs in 4 1/3 innings. He faced the Brewers twice in the regular season, giving up one run in six innings each time.

People are writing:

Machado on hustle.

“It was a pretty bad game for everybody calling himself a Dodger.”

‘You don’t rise to the occasion, the occasion rises to you’: The mysticism of Rich Hill.

Kiké Hernandez on Twitter.

The Brewers’ Counsell shares the Sporting News NL Manager of the Year award with the Braves’ Brian Snitker. Counsell won the award outright last season.

Matt Kemp is the Sporting News NL Comeback Player of the Year. David Price of the Red Sox won the AL award.

Today in Brewers’ history:

  • 1982 The Brewers defeat St. Louis in Game Four of the World Series with a six-run seventh-inning.
  • 2011 The Cardinals capture their 18th pennant with a 12-6 victory over the Brewers at Miller Park in Game 6 of the NLCS. The Redbird relievers toss 28 2-3 innings, accounting for three of the wins while compiling a 1.88 ERA.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1949 Brooklyn does not renew Branch Rickey’s contract as president of the Dodgers. The ‘Mahatma’ will join the Pirates as the team’s executive vice president and general manager, with his son, Branch Jr., assuming the post of Pittsburgh’s vice president and farm system director.
  • 1985 In Game 6 of the NLCS, Cardinal first baseman Jack Clark’s dramatic come-from-behind two-out, three-run home run in the ninth inning stuns a sold-out Dodger Stadium. St. Louis wins the game, 7-5, and captures the National League flag.

    • 1988 At Dodger Stadium, Don Baylor becomes the first player to participate in three consecutive World Series for three different teams when he pinch-hits in the eighth inning of the A’s 6-0 loss to L.A. in the second game of the Fall Classic. The 39 year-old veteran played with the pennant-winning Red Sox in 1986 and the World Champion Twins in 1987.

Lineups:

Brewers:


Dodgers:


Aug 28

Game 132, 2018

Posted on by

Dodgers at Rangers, 5:10 PM PDT, TV: SPNLA, FSSW

The Dodgers send RHP Walker Buehler (6-4, 2.96 ERA) to the mound at The Ballpark at Arlington this evening. He’ll face the Rangers’ rookie RHP Ariel Jurado (2-3, 6.40 ERA). Buehler got a no-decision in his last start, but it wasn’t because he pitched poorly. He went seven scoreless innings in a game the Dodgers eventually lost 3-1 on two home runs. In his last five starts his ERA is 1.11. This is Jurado’s seventh big league appearance. In his last start he went 5 2/3 innings, gave up ten hits and four earned runs. His problem seems to be control: he’s walked 10 and struck out 12 in his short career.

Stan Williams is embittered about his Dodger experiences, which date back to 1958. He thinks that his pitches to Jim Davenport in the 9th inning of Game Three of the 1962 playoff series with the Giants permanently tainted all his previous good work for the Dodgers.

“Walked him. Walked in the winning run. That’s how I’ll be remembered.”

That’s probably true. My memory of him is mostly that one inning, even though he did pitch well before and after that. He was traded to the Yankees after that season; the Dodgers got Moose Skowron in return.

This day 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.

Lineup:


Aug 18

Game 124, 2018

Posted on by

Dodgers at Mariners, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: SPNLA, ROOTNW, MLBN (out-of-market only)

Lefty Rich Hill (5-4, 3.57 ERA) takes the Safeco mound for the Dodgers this evening. He’ll face the Mariners’ RHP Erasmo Ramírez (0-2, 6.75 ERA). Hill’s been pitching very well; he’s given up two earned runs or less in each of his last five starts and gone 3-0 in that stretch. Ramírez just came off a three-month period on the DL and was given the unenviable task of replacing Felix Hernandez in the Mariner’s rotation after Hernandez lost his last six starts.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1959 Long time baseball executive Branch Rickey is named president of the newly formed Continental League. The 77 year-old former Dodger general manager is currently serving as an advisor with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
  • 1982 In the second longest game in franchise history, the Cubs lose to the Dodgers, 2-1. The Wrigley Field contest, which is played over two days, takes a Dusty Baker sacrifice fly and 21 innings to complete.

A sad note: On this day in 1967 Jack Hamilton of the Angels threw a fastball which shattered Tony Conigliaro’s left cheekbone. The 22 year-old Red Sox slugger missed the rest of 1967 and all of the following year and never came close to the Hall of Fame potential displayed during his first three seasons.

Lineup when available.


I’m sure Doc has some baseball reason for picking his cleanup hitters, but damned if I can figure out what it is.

Aug 04

Game 112, 2018

Posted on by

Astros at Dodgers, 6:10 PM PDT, TV: SPNLA, ATT SportsNet-SW

RHP Lance McCullers (10-6, 4.06 ERA) tries to snap a personal three-game losing streak in which he’s got a 9.22 ERA over 13 2/3 innings. He’ll face the Dodgers’ Kenta Maeda (7-6, 3.48 ERA), who was 2-1 for July but whose loss came in his last start of the month, when he gave up four runs in 4 2/3 innings against the Brewers.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1908 In Brooklyn, the last-place Cardinals blank the Brooklyn Superbas (Dodgers), 3-0. The entire Washington Park contest is played with just one ball.
  • 1941 Mickey Owens becomes the first catcher to handle three foul pop ups in one frame. The Brooklyn backstop’s third inning defense contributes to the Dodgers’ 11-6 victory over New York at Ebbets Field.
  • 1942 In a military relief game at the Polo Grounds, which will be the last war-time twilight game played, Pee Wee Reese’s grand slam in the top of the ninth, which puts the Dodgers up 5-1, doesn’t count, because of the 9:10 pm government curfew. The game ends up as a 1-1 tie with the Giants.
  • 1948 Ernie Harwell, filling in for Red Barber, who is recovering from a bleeding ulcer, calls his first major league game as the Dodgers beat the Cubs at Ebbets Field, 5-4. To obtain the future Hall of Fame broadcaster, Brooklyn general manager Branch Rickey trades minor league catcher Cliff Daper to the Atlanta Crackers.

Lineup when available.


Kiké at first? Bellinger off? What is Roberts thinking?

May 03

Game 31, 2018

Posted on by

Dodgers at Diamondbacks, 12:40 PM PDT, TV: Facebook-only. If you’re on FB, navigate to MLB Live.

The Dodgers send LHP Alex Wood (0-3, 4.11 ERA) in search of his first win. He hasn’t pitched as badly as his record seems to indicate, but his velocity hasn’t gotten to the heights it reached last year. He’ll face the D-Backs’ LHP Patrick Corbin (4-0, 2.25 ERA), who set the Dodgers down brilliantly on April 4, going 7 1/3 innings while giving up just one hit and no runs.

Injury updates

Roberts said he expects outfielder Yasiel Puig, currently on the disabled list with contusions on his left hip and left ankle, to be activated Tuesday.

Second baseman Logan Forsythe, on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation, is likely to begin a Minor League rehab assignment this weekend. But Roberts said he had “no idea” when Justin Turner (broken left wrist) would begin an assignment.

Reliever Tom Koehler, on the disabled list since Spring Training with a strained right shoulder, has started throwing, but he’s not close to a rehab assignment.

Roster moves:


Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1947 In a controversial move, Branch Rickey trades five Dodgers, including southerner Kirby Higbe, to the Pirates for five-foot, six-inch left-hand-hitting outfielder Al Gionfriddo and $100,000. Some believe ‘the Mahatma’ made the deal to send a message to the team about his commitment to breaking the color barrier and his support of Jackie Robinson, the first black to play in the major leagues this century. It’s a darned good move, considering that Gionfriddo made a game-saving catch of a DiMaggio fly ball in Game 6 of that fall’s World Series.

  • 2004 Similar to last season, the aging outfielder Rickey Henderson re-signs with the Atlantic League’s Bears, hoping for a shot of returning to the big leagues. The 45 year-old future Hall of Famer batted .339, hit eight home runs, drove in 33 runs, scored 52 runs, and stole nine bases for the Newark team last season before joining the Dodgers in July.
  • 2009 Defeating San Diego 2-1 in 10 innings, the Dodgers tie a franchise record, winning their ninth consecutive decision at home from the start of the season. The 1946 club also reeled off nine straight victories at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field at the beginning of the post-war campaign.

Lineup when available.


Apr 18

Game 17, 2018

Posted on by

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

The Dodgers try to sweep their first series of the year behind RHP Kenta Maeda (1-1, 2.08 ERA). He’ll be opposed by RHP Luis Perdomo (1-1, 4.91 ERA), who’s coming off a five-game suspension for his part in a brawl with the Rockies last week. Maeda had 13 days between starts his last time out, which may have been a factor in his shortest outing ever. He lasted only 2 2/3 innings against Arizona last Friday and walked two of the three leadoff guys he faced. Perdomo is ostensibly a sinker-ball pitcher, but while his strikeouts are up this season his ground-ball rate has fallen.

Roberts and Jansen are both “concerned” about his performance so far.



On this date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1925 At his Waldorf-Astoria apartment, Dodgers’ owner Charles H. Ebbets dies of a heart attack at the age of 65. Later in the day, his team opens the home season in Brooklyn losing to the Giants at Ebbets Field, 7-0.
  • 1939 In Brooklyn, Red Barber calls the action in the first broadcast of a regular-season Dodger game, a 7-3 loss to New York at Ebbets Field. The future Hall of Fame announcer was brought in from Cincinnati by the team’s new president, Larry MacPhail, who had hired the ‘Ol Redhead’ when he was in a similar post with the Reds.
  • 1947 Dodger president Branch Rickey names team scout Burt Shotton to replace Leo Durocher, who was suspended ten days ago by Commissioner Happy Chandler for acts “unbecoming to a major league manager.” Brooklyn’s new 62 year-old skipper reluctantly takes over the team two games into the season and will manage the club for one year in his street clothes along with wearing the team’s hat and jacket.
  • 1950 Vin Scully calls the first game of his illustrious 67-year career with the Dodgers, detailing Brooklyn’s 9-1 defeat to the Phillies on Opening Day at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park. The 22-year old broadcaster, who will be awarded the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award by Bud Selig in 2014, will become the team’s primary announcer just three seasons later.
  • 1950 The Phillies play their first game with name official changed back from Blue Jays, routing the Dodgers at Shibe Park, 9-1. The team wears red pinstriped uniforms designed by manager Eddie Sawyer that are reminiscent of club’s look in the early 1900s.

  • 1952 On Opening Day in Brooklyn, Willie Mays is knocked unconscious when he smashes into the Ebbets Field wall after chasing pinch hitter Bob Morgan’s seventh-inning, two-out base-loaded line drive into the gap in left field. All three Dodgers base runners cross the plate but do not score when the motionless Giants center fielder comes to his feet and jogs into the dugout, apparently unhurt, having held onto the ball after making a fantastic catch for the third out to end the inning.
  • 1958 At the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of a National League record crowd of 78,672, the Dodgers play their first game in the City of Angels. Carl Erskine gets the win, besting Al Worthington and the Giants, 6-5.
  • 1959 Branch Rickey, former general manager of the Cardinals, Dodgers, and Pirates, is appointed the president of the Continental League. The third potential major league never materializes, but helps to accelerate the expansion of the existing leagues, including putting a National League team in New York to fill the void created by the Giants’ and the Dodgers’ departure to the west coast in 1958.
  • 1964 L.A. southpaw Sandy Koufax throws the second of his two career immaculate innings when he strikes out the side on nine pitches. Although Leo Cardenas, Johnny Edwards, and Jim Maloney all strike out quickly in the top of the third inning, Cincinnati will score all of the game’s runs in the next frame, thanks to a three-run homer hit by Deron Johnson, to beat the Dodgers in the Chavez Ravine contest, 3-0.
  • 1966 Dodgers shortstop Maury Wills singles to center off future Hall of Famer Robin Roberts, becoming the first batter to hit on artificial turf in a major league game. The Astrodome’s new playing surface, called Chemgrass initially by its manufacturer, the Monsanto Company, couldn’t be made quickly enough, so the season begins with the artificial material only on the infield with the outfield remaining painted dirt until July.
  • 2008 The Dodgers announce Joe Beimel has been selected by fans, in an online poll during Spring Training, as the player whose likeness will now be used in an August 12 bobblehead promotion. The 30 year-old southpaw reliever, considered a long shot for the honor, gets the nod due to a strong internet campaign orchestrated by his parents, Ron and Marge.

    Lineup when available.


    • Apr 10

    Game Ten, 2018

    Posted on by

    Athletics at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: SPNLA, NBCSCA, MLBN (out-of-market only)

    The As send LHP Sean Manaea (1-1, 1.15 ERA) to the hill for his first road start of the season. He’s gone 15 2/3 innings in his two previous starts and given up only two runs while striking out 11. He’ll face LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu (0-0, 7.36 ERA), who went only 3 2/3 innings in his first and only appearance so far this season, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits and walking 5.

    Today in Dodgers’ history:

    • 1947 During the sixth inning of an exhibition game against their minor league team at Ebbets Field, the Montreal Royals, Dodgers’ president Branch Rickey issues a brief statement to the press. The two sentences will forever change the game when the team announces “The Brooklyn Dodgers today purchased the contract of Jackie Roosevelt Robinson from the Montreal Royals. He will report immediately.”
    • 1962 In front of 52,564 fans, Reds infielder Eddie Kasko doubles off of Johnny Podres in the first ever at-bat at Dodger Stadium, and Duke Snider’s single in the bottom of the second accounts for the home team’s first hit. After playing their first four seasons at the LA Memorial Coliseum, the team drops a 6-3 decision to the Reds in the debut of the new $22 million ballpark in Chavez Ravine, financed with a low two-percent interest loan from the Union Oil Company in exchange for exclusive rights to advertise within the stadium.
    • 1962 Wally Post hits the first home run in Dodger Stadium history, a two-out, three-run shot in the seventh inning off Johnny Podres that proves to be the difference in the Cincinnati’s 6-3 victory. The left fielder’s round-tripper to center field is a fair ball, unlike some others hit in the ballpark where the foul poles are discovered to be positioned in foul territory, requiring special permission from the National League to be recognized as fair during the first year in the team’s new home in Chavez Ravine.
    • 1976 After being granted his free agency in a landmark case which will forever change baseball, Andy Messersmith becomes one of the first major leaguers to use his new status to sign with a team of his choice. The former Dodger right-hander comes to terms with the Braves and will post a 16-15 record during his two-year tenure for his new club.
    • 2012 Vin Scully misses the Dodgers’ home opener for the first time in 35 years when doctors order the 84 year-old Hall of Fame broadcaster to rest as he recovers from a bad cold. The last time the team’s play-by-play announcer was absent from the season’s first home game he was calling the first round of the Masters in 1977.

    Lineup when available.


    Oct 29

    World Series Game Five, 2017

    Posted on by

    Dodgers at Astros, 5:00 PM PT, TV: Fox

    Lefty Clayton Kershaw goes for the Dodgers and lefty Dallas Keuchel goes for the Astros in a rematch of Game One starters. Kershaw went seven innings, struck out eleven and gave up one run on 83 pitches while getting the win in that game. Keuchel went 6 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on six hits and taking the loss.

    Odd statistical note: all eight runs Kershaw has allowed this month have been via the home run.

    Today in baseball history:

    • 1942 Branch Rickey, the innovator of the farm systems which helped to build a strong Redbird franchise, resigns as the Cardinals’ vice president. Three days later, the Dodgers will announce the Mahatma has been named president of the Brooklyn club, a move that will help to fill the void created by Brooklyn’s general manager Larry MacPhail’s enlistment in the army to serve in World War II.
    • 2008 The Phillies complete the first-ever suspended game in World Series history, playing three innings at Citizens Bank Park, beating the Rays, 4-3, in Game 5 to win the Fall Classic. The World Championship is only the team’s second in franchise history, and its first since 1980.

    Lineup when available.


    Turner’s knee must be bothering him. Fortunately Forsythe is a good replacement at 3B.

    Aug 18

    Game 120, 2017

    Posted on by

    Dodgers at Tigers, 4:10 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS-D

    On “University of Michigan” night in Detroit, it’s fitting that the Dodgers send former Michigan baseball standout lefty Rich Hill (8-4, 3.44 ERA) to the mound to face righty Jordan Zimmermann (7-9, 5.62 ERA).

    Hill was the NL Pitcher of the Month for July but has yet to get a decision in August. He went six innings in his last start against the Padres while giving up two runs on five hits. He’s pitched at Comerica park seven times while in the AL, but only once as a starter. That was last year for Oakland before the Dodgers acquired him. Zimmermann gave up seven runs on eight hits in 3 1/3 innings in his last start but somehow avoided taking a loss. The Dodgers are familiar with him from his years with the Nationals. He was 2-2 with a 4.40 ERA against them.

    The Dodgers activated Adrian Gonzalez and optioned Rob Segedin.

    From Dodgers Insider

    An entire baseball team could be fielded with the number of different Dodger players who’ve hit a walk-off this year. With Puig’s game-winning two-run double, he became the ninth different player to walk the Dodgers off with a win in their 10 walk-offs this season.

    Today in Dodgers’ history:

    • 1959 Long time baseball executive Branch Rickey is named president of the newly formed Continental League. The 77 year-old former Dodger general manager is currently serving as an advisor with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
    • 1982 In the second longest game in franchise history, the Cubs lose to the Dodgers, 2-1. The Wrigley Field contest, which is played over two days, takes a Dusty Baker sacrifice fly and 21 innings to complete.

    Lineup when available.

    Adrian’s first day off the DL and he’s in the lineup at 1B, Seager gets to sit on the bench and think about hitting, Bellinger roams left field, and Taylor moves to shortstop for the day.

    It just struck me how many guys on this team have names that begin with “C.” On days when Kershaw pitches and Utley plays 2B, the Dodgers could have 5/9 or nearly 56% of their lineup made up of them.

    Aug 04

    Game 109, 2017

    Posted on by

    Dodgers at Mets, 1:00 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, SNY

    Joe Posnanski writes for MLB.com:

    Assuming everyone stays healthy, the Dodgers’ crazy lineup features eight players with double-digit home runs and includes NL MVP Award candidates Corey Seager and Justin Turner, along with a certain NL Rookie of the Year Award winner in Bellinger. Their bullpen is so good that the Dodgers have gone into the sixth inning with 61 leads … and they have won every single one of those games. And the rotation will feature Kershaw, Alex Wood (who is 13-1 with a 2.33 ERA) and now Darvish. It doesn’t quite seem fair.

    Dylan Hernandez writes at the LA Times:

    What immediately stands out about Yu Darvish is his size.

    He’s huge. Like, really, really huge.

    The measurements of 6 feet 5 and 220 pounds don’t adequately describe the physical stature of the Dodgers’ recently acquired flamethrower. His shoulders are massive. His chest is expansive.

    Andy McCullough has team reactions as the deal was made and confirmed.

    As noted, the Dodgers send out the newly-acquired RHP Yu Darvish, who was 6-9 with a 4.01 ERA for the Rangers this season. He’ll face RHP Jacob deGrom, who’s 12-4 with a 3.29 ERA and one of the few bright spots in the Mets’ otherwise-unhappy season in which they’re eight games under .500 and only Jacob deGrom has made all 21 scheduled starts. Steven Matz, who is 2-4 with a 5.50 ERA in 10 starts, is the only other pitcher on the active roster of the seven candidates for the rotation in spring training.

    This date in Dodgers’ history:

    • 1908 In Brooklyn, the last-place Cardinals blank the Brooklyn Superbas (Dodgers), 3-0. The entire Washington Park contest is played with just one ball.
    • 1941 Mickey Owens [sic] becomes the first catcher to handle three foul pop ups in one frame. The Brooklyn backstop’s third inning defense contributes to the Dodgers’ 11-6 victory over New York at Ebbets Field.
    • 1942 In a military relief game at the Polo Grounds, which will be the last war-time twilight game played, Pee Wee Reese’s grand slam in the top of the ninth, which puts the Dodgers up 5-1, doesn’t count because of the 9:10 pm government curfew. The game ends up as a 1-1 tie with the Giants.
    • 1948 Ernie Harwell, filling in for Red Barber, who is recovering from a bleeding ulcer, calls his first major league game as the Dodgers beat the Cubs at Ebbets Field, 5-4. To obtain the future Hall of Fame broadcaster, Brooklyn general manager Branch Rickey trades minor league catcher Cliff Dapper to the Atlanta Crackers.

    In non-Dodgers history, on this date in 1985 Tom Seaver won his 300th game and Rod Carew got his 3,000th hit.

    Lineup when available.