Jul 06

Game 91, 2014

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

Josh Beckett v. Yohan Flande. We all know about the season Josh Beckett is having (5-5, 2.37 ERA, and it should have several more wins than that). Mr. Flande is a rookie whose appearance today will be his third in the major leagues. He’s 0-1 with a 6.10 ERA.

Carl Crawford is beginning a rehab assignment in Albuquerque this weekend.

Jul 01

Game 86, 2014

Indians at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Josh Beckett, who’s 5-4 with a 2.11 ERA, pitches for the Dodgers and Justin Masterson, who’s 4-5 with a 5.03 ERA, pitches for the Tribe.

“The Indians have been shut out for 21 consecutive innings, during which the offense has gone a combined 3-for-63.” You could look at that one of two ways: either the futility will last forever or the team is overdue to break out.

Ramirez is still sore but the team is hoping he can avoid going on the DL.

Jun 26

Game 81, 2014

Cardinals at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Adam Wainwright (he of the 10-3, 2.08 ERA record) goes for the Redbirds. The Dodgers send Josh Beckett (5-4, 2.28 ERA) out to meet him. Wainwright’s ERA is second in all of baseball, Beckett’s is fifth. (Kershaw’s is 2.24, but he hasn’t got the number of innings to match the one-inning-per-team’s-games requirement yet — he’s got 72.1 innings, and the Dodgers have played 80 games.)

Who’s gonna pitch for the Cards the rest of the series? Good question.

Joe Kelly, Michael Wacha and Jaime Garcia are already missing because of injury, and St. Louis had to use five relief pitchers after Miller exited. There is no official word on whether Miller will be available for his next start.

That means that Carlos Martinez (three career starts) and Marco Gonzales (moved from Double-A to the Majors on Wednesday for his first start) might need to hold down spots in the rotation.

Lineup when available.

Jun 21

Game 76, 2014

Dodgers at Padres, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLB free game

Josh Beckett deserves better than his 4-4 won-loss record. He’s got a 2.49 ERA and his last loss was his defense’s fault. He pitches for the Dodgers at Petco Park tonight. The Padres counter with Tyson Ross, who’s 6-6 with a 3.27 ERA. His last outing wasn’t good; he walked seven in 5 2/3 innings and lost.

Lineup when available. Puig is day-to-day with a sore hip, apparently a recurrence of the flexor problem he had last week. Uribe is scheduled to play infield at Rancho Cucamonga tonight.

Jun 15

Game 71, 2014

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

Josh Beckett (4-3, 2.35 ERA) takes the hill for the Dodgers against Bronson Arroyo (6-4, 4.22 ERA) of the D-Backs. Arroyo has been sneered at by some media folk for his hair and his guitar, but he’s a tough bird: apparently his arm has been hurting, but he’s never missed a start in his fifteen years in the bigs and doesn’t plan to now.

Jun 10

Game 66, 2014

Dodgers at Reds, 4:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Josh Beckett (3-3, 2.57 ERA) goes for the Dodgers against Mike Leake (3-5, 3.29 ERA) of the Reds. In five career appearances (four starts) against the Dodgers, he is 2-2 with a 4.80 ERA. Another thing: in the last eight games the two teams have played, each team has won four. Six have been one-run affairs.

Bob Welch, who won 211 games in the major leagues for the Dodgers and As, died yesterday. He was only 57. Here’s Jon Weisman’s appreciation of the former pitcher.

Gordon and Puig are both in the lineup, so hopefully their respective hips are fully recovered.

Jun 04

Game 61, 2014

White Sox at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

I think it’s safe to say the Dodgers’ starter tonight, Josh Beckett (3-2, 2.52 ERA), has been a pleasant surprise. Nobody knew what to expect from him after his thoracic surgery last year. Even aside from the no-hitter he threw in his next-to-last start, he’s done well. The White Sox send out John Danks (3-5, 4.66 ERA).

May 30

Game 56, 2014

Pirates at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

So what does Josh Beckett (3-1, 2.43 ERA) do for an encore? Pull a VanderMeer? It seems unlikely, but yaneverknow. His opponent will be Francisco Liriano, who’s 0-5 with a 5.06 ERA. That’s disconcerting to the Pirates since he had a 16-8 record with a 3.02 ERA last year. Oddly, Drew Butera caught Beckett’s no-hitter last week and he caught Liriano’s no-hitter when they were with the Twins in 2011.

Adrian Gonzalez gets the night off and Van Slyke plays first for him.

May 25

Game 51, 2014

Dodgers at Phillies, 10:35AM PT, TV: SPNLA

Two former teammates face each other in this bout: the Dodgers’ Josh Beckett and the Phillies’ A.J. Burnett. “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….” these guys were valuable members of the 2005 Marlins staff. That was then, and the Marlins either traded them away (Beckett) or lost them to free agency (Burnett). Nine years later, here they are. This year Beckett is 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA and Burnett is 3-3 with a 3.32 ERA. It should be noted that in his last three starts, Burnett has a 6.75 ERA and made it past the fifth inning just once.

Lineup when available.