Jun 17

Game 69, 2017

Dodgers at Reds, 1:10 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS-O

LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu (2-6, 4.42 ERA) pitches for the Dodgers, trying to get his first win in nearly a month. The Reds’ rookie RHP Asher Wojciechowski (1-0, 5.21 ERA) hasn’t won since May 20 himself. Ryu has given up four runs including four home runs in each of his last two starts. Wojciechowski has gone at least five innings in each of his last two starts after giving up three home runs over four innings in his first start with the Reds on May 30.

Before the game the Reds unveiled a bronze statue of Pete Rose in headlong slide, joining statues of Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez outside Great American Ballpark.

Dodgers farmhand Jair Jurrjens was suspended for 80 games by MLB for testing positive for testosterone. He’s 4-3 with a 4.64 ERA in 11 Pacific Coast League outings this season, including 10 starts.

This day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1956 Joe Adcock’s ninth-inning home run off Brooklyn right-hander Ed Roebuck, his second round-tripper of the game, proves to be the game winner in the Braves’ 5-4 victory over the Dodgers. The blast to left field, which clears an 83-foot wall at the 350-foot mark, is believed to the only homer ever to land on the roof at Ebbets Field.
  • 1956 Fred Haney, named yesterday to replace Charlie Grimm , wins two games in his managerial debut with the Braves when the team sweeps a doubleheader against the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, 5-4 and 3-1, starting a streak of 11 consecutive victories. The club’s former coach will compile a 341-231 (.596) record, guiding Milwaukee to two pennants and a world championship during his four seasons at the helm.
  • 1976 At Shea Stadium‚ Dave Kingman hits a walk-off homer to give the Mets a 1-0 victory over the Dodgers. Sky King’s game-ending blast comes off Charlie Hough in the 14th inning.
  • 1992 Dodger farmhand Mike Piazza, believing he was low balled in his contract negations, takes exception to the team giving a reported bonus of $500,00 to top draft pick Ryan Luzinski, a 220-pound catcher from Holy Cross High in Delran, New Jersey who will never play in a major league game. Next season, Piazza will be selected as the National League’s Rookie of the Year, and will hit .331 in seven seasons for LA.

Lineup:

Jun 06

Game 60, 2017

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

RHP Max Scherzer (6-1, 2.56 ERA) pitches for the Nats and Brandon McCarthy (5-2, 3.38 ERA) for the Dodgers.

Scherzer is 2-0 with a 1.02 ERA, 24 Ks and two BBs over 17 2/3 innings in his last two outings. In his career he’s 1-2 with a 3.98 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 31 2/3 innings (five starts) at Dodger Stadium. McCarthy only went four innings in his last start due to blister problems, but he says there was no recurrence of it during a long bullpen session Sunday.

Will the Dodgers add to their rotation and bullpen at the deadline?

This day in Dodgers history:

  • 1944 Baseball cancels today’s scheduled eight-game slate due to the Allied invasion of Normandy known as D-Day. The military operation has 60,000 Allied troops, including six minor leaguers who will be killed in action, landing along a heavily protected 50-mile stretch of the coastline in France to fight Germany to begin an offensive assault against Hitler and the Nazi party.
  • 1957 After an 86-minute delay, the first fog out in major league history occurs at Ebbets Field when the umpires call off the Dodgers’ game against the Cubs due to extremely poor visibility. Brooklyn has a 1-0 lead when the game is postponed with one out in the bottom of the second inning.
  • 1968 The day after Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, Maury Wills refuses to play in a 4-2 loss to the Dodgers, his former team. The 35 year-old shortstop stays in the Chavez Ravine training room, reading RFK’s book, To Seek a New World.
  • 1994 Mike Piazza hits the longest home run recorded in the history of Joe Robbie Stadium when his first career grand slam is estimated to travel 477 feet. The catcher’s Ruthian blast, one of four Dodger round-trippers during the Florida contest, isn’t enough to thwart the Marlins’ 11-10 come-from-behind victory.
  • 2006 When Eric Gagne, who will earn his first save in over a year, throws his first pitch to his receiver Russell Martin, the pair become the first All-French-Canadian battery in major league history. The pitcher and catcher both attended Polyvalente Edouard Montpetit High School, one of the few schools in Montreal which had a baseball program.
  • 2006 On the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the century, the Dodgers score six runs in the sixth inning during the sixth game of the homestand, beating the Mets, 8-5. On 05/05/05, the Twins scored five times in the fifth inning en route to a 9-0 victory over the Indians.

Lineup when available.

Feb 04

Open Thread #9

CBS Sports is running a series of features on the best and worst events in each baseball franchise’s history, and it was the Dodgers’ turn on Monday. As Dayn Perry (the author) says in his opening paragraph, “it’s impossible to hit it all.” He did a reasonable job, I’d say. He picks two best teams, one for Brooklyn (’53) and one for LA (’63). He picks best and worst trades (guess what’s worst). Anyway, it’s food for discussion.

Feb 14

Scully “slams” Piazza!

Steve Dilbeck at the LAT has dug up the incriminating KTLA interview Vin did with Mike Piazza before he was traded to Florida which Piazza has claimed permanently damaged Piazza’s reputation with the LA fans. I dunno, but I don’t hear Vin saying anything which Piazza objected to at the time, and certainly nothing which would have sent the fans into fits of outrage.

Update:

PRIME TICKET will televise games Feb. 25 against the Cubs, Feb. 28 against the Angels, March 7 against Texas and March 18 against Arizona. Scully will be at the microphone for all four games. The Dodgers previously announced that Scully would handle KCAL 9 games on March 17 against Milwaukee and March 26 against Colorado.