Jun 21

Game 66, 2022

Dodgers at Cincinnati, 3:40 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports Ohio, SPNLA

The Dodgers give the ball to RHP Tony Gonsolin (8-0, 1.42 ERA), who would be officially leading the majors in ERA if he had more than 65 innings pitched (he’s pitched 63 1/3). The Reds counter with RHP Tyler Mahle (2-5, 4.46 ERA), who pitched a masterpiece his last time out (9 innings, 3 hits, no runs) and got no decision for his trouble. The Reds started out 3-22 and have gone 20-21 since, so they’ve improved, but they’re still mired in last place in the NL Central. The Dodgers have been mediocre in June, going 7-9, and now they’ve lost Mookie Betts for several weeks.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1957 In his first major league start, Von McDaniel‚ who graduated from Oklahoma’s Hollis High School last month, two-hits the Dodgers at Busch Stadium‚ 2-0. Brooklyn does not get a hit off the 18 year-old bonus baby until the sixth inning.
  • 1998 Bill Russell is released as Dodger manager and is replaced in the dugout by Glenn Hoffmann. In the front office, Tommy Lasorda assumes the general manager duties of the third-place club from Fred Claire.
  • 2016 Dean Kremer becomes the first-ever Israeli to sign a contract with a Major League baseball team when he comes to terms with the Dodgers, after being selected in the annual amateur draft earlier this month. The 20-year-old right-hander, who won Europe’s Most Valuable Pitcher award in both 2014 and 2015, has hurled for Israel’s national baseball team for the past three seasons. (Note: Kremer was traded to the Orioles in the Manny Machado deal in 2018; he’s 1-1 in three starts with the Orioles this season)
  • 2021 Needing only 197 games, nine-year veteran Yu Darvish becomes the fastest pitcher to record 1,500 career strikeouts, easily eclipsing Randy Johnson, who needed nine more starts to reach the milestone. The Padres’ right-hander establishes the mark with the 11th and final strikeout of his six innings of work against the Dodgers.

Lineups when available.

Apr 17

Game Nine, 2022

Reds at Dodgers, 1:10 PM PDT, TV: BS Ohio, SPNLA

The Dodgers give LHP Andrew Heaney the ball for the second time this season. The Reds counter with RHP Tyler Mahle (1-0, 1.00 ERA). Heaney’s first start was successful: he gave up one unearned run on three hits in 4 1/3 innings of work while striking out five. He trotted out a new pitch he’d never used in a game situation, a sweeping curve with side-to-side movement, and it worked very well. Both he and his manager were pleased with its results. Mahle started on Opening Day and beat the Braves handily, giving up three hits and one run in five innings while striking out seven. He followed that up with a four-inning stint against the Guardians in which he gave up four hits and one run while striking out four.

Today in Dodgers history:

  • 1904 By not charging admission but requiring fans to buy a scorecard, the Superbas find a way to play their first Sunday game at home, beating the Beaneaters, 9-1, at Brooklyn’s Washington Park. The strategy attempts to circumvent legislation, known as the Blue Laws, designed to enforce religious edicts, including the observance of Sunday as a day of worship.
  • 1955 In his first major league at-bat, Roberto Clemente singles off Dodger pitcher Johnny Podres. The Pirates’ rookie, who will die in a plane crash attempting to bring relief aid to earthquake-stricken Nicaragua in 1972, will collect precisely 3,000 hits during his 18-year major league career, all with Pittsburgh.
  • 1956 White Sox shortstop Luis Aparicio, Dodger right-hander Don Drysdale, and Reds outfielder Frank Robinson play in their first major league games. The trio’s debut marks the first time three future Hall of Famers have made their initial appearance on the same day.

  • 1988 The Braves beat the Dodgers, 3-1, after breaking the National League record with ten losses to start the season. The team will drop 27 of its first 39 decisions, costing Chuck Tanner his job as the Atlanta manager.
  • 2013 Clayton Kershaw becomes the second-fastest Dodger to strike out 1,000 batters when he throws a second-inning 93-mph fastball past San Diego first baseman’s Yonder Alonso. The 25-year-old southpaw reaches the milestone in 970 career innings, 15 2/3 more than needed by Hideo Nomo, who established the team mark in 2003.

Lineups:

Apr 26

Game 23, 2021

Reds at Dodgers, 7:00 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports Ohio, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

The visiting Reds send RHP Tyler Mahle (1-1, 1.74) to the Dodger Stadium mound to face the Dodgers’ LHP Julio Urías (3-0, 2.81 ERA). Mahle has given up just nine hits and nine walks in the 20 2/3 innings he’s pitched thus far this young season. Three of Urías’s four outings this season have been excellent; overall he’s given up nine runs on 20 hits with 26 Ks and only four walks in 25 2/3 innings.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 2001 After two and a half years in the post, Kevin Malone resigns as the general manager of the Dodgers. Despite having the league’s largest payroll, Los Angeles has failed to make the playoffs during his tenure.
  • 2008 Brad Penny’s 96-mph fastball is missed by Dodger batterymate Russell Martin and knocks out umpire Kerwin Danley. After the players are asked to leave the field, the home plate arbiter, who lost consciousness briefly, is placed on a stretcher and leaves the Dodgers-Rockies game in an ambulance.
  • 2008 “We can’t tell you to survive the storms of life, we can tell you to dance in the rain, and you can do it. You really can do it. Very difficult, but possible.” – VIN SCULLY, delivering the commencement address at Pepperdine University. (Take note of the graduates’ headgear.)

    Vin Scully receives an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Pepperdine University in Malibu, the institution’s highest honor. The Dodgers’ Hall of Fame broadcaster delivers a stirring commencement address to the 2008 Class of Seaver College, telling the graduates that achieving dreams may be “very difficult, but possible”.

Lineup when available.

May 18

Game 47, 2019

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

RHP Walker Buehler (4-0, 4.15 ERA) is on the bump for the Dodgers and RHP Tyler Mahle (0-5, 3.97 ERA) pitches for the Reds. Buehler has improved in virtually every start after a shortened spring training. His last time out he went seven scoreless innings and gave up just four hits to the Nats, only to see the bullpen give up five runs in the 8th and lose the game. Mahle has pitched well at times but appears to be a victim of the dreaded “one bad inning” disease.

The Reds’ Eugenio Suarez had a little fun after chasing a pop foul to the stands yesterday:

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1929 In the doubleheader played at Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl, the teams combine to score a record fifty runs when the Dodgers outlast the Phillies, 20-16, before dropping the nightcap to the home team 8-6. In the opener, Brooklyn’s Johnny Frederick crosses the plate five times, giving him the major league mark of scoring eight runs in two consecutive games.
  • 1931 Dodgers’ outfielder Babe Herman hits for the cycle for the first of two times this season. In 1933, as a member of the Cubs, he will again hit for the cycle, making him and Bob Meusel the only major leaguers to have accomplished the feat three times since 1900.
  • 1942 Night games in New York are banned for the duration of WW II, leaving fans in the dark about the status of the All-Star Game scheduled to be played at the Polo Grounds on the evening of Monday, July 6. The prohibition of nighttime tilts, announced by NYC Police Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine, will change the starting times for 28 contests involving the Dodgers and Giants. (The first night game at Yankee Stadium will be played in 1946.)
  • 1998 With a 6-3 victory over the Orioles, the Devil Rays become only the second expansion team in major league history to sweep an away four-game series. The 1993 Colorado Rockies, who did it against the Dodgers, is the other team to accomplish this feat.

Another historical note: In 2004 At the age of 40, southpaw Randy Johnson becomes the oldest pitcher to throw a perfect game when the Diamondbacks beat the Braves, 2-0. The ‘Big Unit’ joins Cy Young, Jim Bunning, Hideo Nomo, and Nolan Ryan as the only hurlers to throw no-hitters in both leagues and creates the longest time span between no-no’s, having first accomplished the feat against the Tigers in June of 1990.

Lineup:


Apr 16

Game 19, 2019

Reds at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: FS-O, SPNLA

RHP Tyler Mahle (0-0, 0.82 ERA) goes to the mound for the Redlegs. His opposite number will be RHP Kenta Maeda (2-1, 4.76 ERA). Mahle went five innings and got no decision in his last start, a four-walk two-hit performance against the Marlins which the Reds eventually won. Maeda had a poor showing in his last start, giving up two homers and five runs overall in 5 1/3 innings. He has allowed more home runs this season than he did last year at this point, and he has fewer strikeouts now than he did then as well.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1928 Braves’ pitcher Charlie Robertson has his glove removed from the game by umpire Charley Moran after the Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers) complain the ball is acting strangely. The Boston hurler still manages to win, 3-2.
  • 1946 LOCAL NEWSPAPER AD — “An Apology to Braves Fans – The management will reimburse any of its patrons for any expense to which they might have been put for necessary cleansing of clothing as a result of paint damage.” As the result of the newly painted grandstand seats having not yet completely dried, about 5,000 fans attending the Boston’s home opener against the Dodgers left Braves Field with green paint covering much of their clothing. The team took out newspaper ads to apologize to the affected patrons, agreeing to reimburse any expense caused by the mishap, an offer that will cost the team $6,000, after it generates nearly 13,000 claims, including some from as far away as California and Nebraska.
  • 1964 Shea Stadium is christened with Holy Water from the Gowanus Canal, which passes near Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, the Dodgers’ old home, and Holy Water from the Harlem River at the location where it flows past the Polo Grounds, the once longtime ballpark of the Giants and the Mets’ home for the past two seasons. The stadium’s namesake Bill Shea, the lawyer credited with bringing the National League back to New York, pours the water from two bottles, blessing the Flushing Meadows structure on the eve of its debut.
  • 1975 After making the second of his two poor starts for the Dodgers, Juan Marichal, who signed with the team as a free agent, appears in his final major league game. The 37 year-old ‘Dominican Dandy’ finishes his 16-year Hall of Fame career with more complete games (244) than the total of his victories (243).
  • 1983 Steve Garvey appears in his 1,118th straight game, breaking the National League record established by Hall of Fame outfielder Billy Williams playing for the Cubs in 1970. The Padres’ first baseman, who spent 13 seasons with the Dodgers before signing as a free agent with San Diego in the offseason, will see his consecutive game streak end at 1,207, the third-longest span in major league history at the time, due to a dislocated thumb suffered as a result of a collision at home plate during the first game of a doubleheader in 1983.
  • 1988 The Braves establish a National League record for losses at the start of a season by losing their tenth consecutive game. With a 7-4 defeat to the Dodgers, Atlanta surpasses the mark, previously owned by four teams, including the infamous 1919 Braves and the 1962 Mets.
  • 1988 Although better known for his contributions as a Dodger, the Padres retire the uniform #6 worn by Steve Garvey, who signed a $6.6 million five-year deal as a free agent in December 1982. The All-Star first baseman, the first to be honored by the franchise, enjoyed five solid seasons, batting .275, and hit the most dramatic home run in Friar’s history, an elimination-staving walk-off homer in Game 4 of the NLCS for the eventual National League champs.

Lineups when available.