Jul 02

Game 87, 2019

Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: FS-A, SPNLA

RHP Taylor Clarke (2-3, 6.10 ERA) goes for the D-Backs and RHP Ross Stripling (3-2, 3.08 ERA) goes for the Dodgers. Clarke has started twice against the Dodgers this season and each has been nearly identical: three runs on four hits in five innings on June 4 and two runs on three hits on June 26. This will be Stripling’s eighth start of the year, but only his second in two months. The most recent was June 25 against these same Diamondbacks; he gave up two runs on four hits in three innings.

Take yourself back to 1959, when the Giants and Dodgers were recently arrived in California and the LA games were played at the Coliseum. In May there was an important series between the two, and a disputed foul/fair ball caused a 15-minute rhubarb, here called beautifully by, who else, Vin Scully.

Here’s the backstory.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1962 Johnny Podres ties a major league mark record, striking out eight consecutive batters in LA’s 5-1 victory over Philadelphia. The 29 year-old southpaw’s streak begins with the third out in the top of the fourth frame and ends after the first out in the seventh inning of the Dodger Stadium contest.
  • 1995 Dodger right-hander Hideo Nomo, who is leading the National League in strikeouts, becomes the first player from Japan to be selected for the major league All-Star game. As the starter for the Senior Circuit, the 26 year-old rookie tosses two scoreless innings in the National League’s 3-2 victory over their American League rivals at The Ballpark in Arlington.

Lineup when available.


Apr 26

Game 28, 2019

Pirates at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: SPNLA, ATTSportsNet-PIT

The visiting Buccos send RHP Chris Archer (1-1, 2.74 ERA) to the Dodger Stadium mound to face the Dodgers’ LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu (2-1, 3.10 ERA). Archer says the seven days rest he had before his last start was too much and his “stuff” wasn’t sharp, which cost him the game. Ryu made two mistakes in his last start and they both resulted in Christian Yelich home runs. The Dodgers were shut out in that game and Ryu was a hard-luck loser.

Remember the Dodgers’ four 30-HR guys in 1977? Remember that Dusty Baker had to homer on the last day of the season to reach that mark? Here’s a tidbit about that which I’d never heard before.

Entering the final weekend, Dusty Baker needed one more to join Reggie Smith, Ron Cey and Steve Garvey as the first foursome from one team to clout 30 in the same season. Houston was the opponent at Dodger Stadium. On Friday night before the first game, Reggie used the clubhouse phone, called the Astros dressing room, and asked to speak with James Rodney Richard. The 6-feet-8 Richard dominated the Dodgers more than any pitcher in the National League, beating them 13 straight times over the final 4½ years of his career. When J.R. got on the phone, Smith told him a lie, “Dusty is over here saying he’s going to hit his 30th off you Sunday.” When Reggie hung up, he went to Baker and told him what he had done, and a terrified Dusty replied, “Reggie, you are going to get me killed.”

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 arbitrator, 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.


Apr 10

Game 13, 2019

Dodgers at Cardinals, 4:45 PM PDT, TV: FS-M, SPNLA

The Dodgers’ leading winners on the pitching staff are Ryu and tonight’s starter, RHP Kenta Maeda (2-0, 3.09 ERA). Maeda is also tied with Julio Urias as the leading hitter on the team; each has a .500 BA. Maeda will try to improve both numbers when he faces the Cardinals’ RHP Jack Flaherty (0-0, 3.86 ERA) tonight at Busch Stadium. Flaherty hasn’t gotten past the fifth inning in either of his first two starts, needing 89 pitches in the first game to go 4 1/3 innings and 98 to go five in the second.

The Dodgers placed Russell Martin on the 10-day injured list with lower back inflammation and called up C Rocky Gale from OKC.

In case you missed it, here’s Ozuna’s flub of Kiké’s fly ball in yesterday game.

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:


Apr 08

Game 11, 2019

Dodgers at Cardinals, 4:45 PM PDT, TV: FS-M, SPNLA

The visiting Dodgers send their Korean ace LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu (2-0, 2.08 ERA) to the mound at Busch Stadium to face RHP Miles Mikolas (0-1, 7.20 ERA). How good has Ryu been? Barring a home run to Madison Bumgarner, Ryu would have had seven scoreless innings against the Giants in his last start, and he’s got 13 strikeouts with no walks in 13 innings so far this season. Mikolas gave up 16 HRs in 32 starts last year and he’s picked up where he left off, giving up four in ten innings this season. Ryu has a lifetime ERA of 0.69 at Busch; Mikolas was 8-4 with a 2.17 ERA there in 2018, his first season as a Cardinal.

Beware! The Cardinals now have Paul Goldschmidt, who hit .333 against Ryu in 12 ABs when he was a Diamondback.

Cody Bellinger now has more homers (7) than strikeouts (6).

Here’s Muncy’s 2-run HR in yesterday’s game:

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1966 At the Astrodome, the Astros and Dodgers play baseball’s first game on synthetic grass. Thanks to the Monsanto chemical company, who proposed using an experimental playing surface of nylon grass, the plan to play on an all-dirt field, necessitated by the need to paint the dome’s glass panes to reduce the glare which prevented natural grass from growing, was alleviated by the use of ‘AstroTurf’.
  • 1974 Braves outfielder Hank Aaron passes Babe Ruth as the all-time home run leader with his 715th, going deep in the fourth inning off Dodger hurler Al Downing in Atlanta’s home opener. ‘Hammerin’ Hank’ equaled the Bambino’s mark on Opening Day in Cincinnati.

  • 1994 Kent Mercker no-hits Los Angeles, 6-0 at Dodger Stadium. The Braves left-hander was one of the three Atlanta pitchers, along with Mark Wohlers and Alejandro Pena, in 1991 to also no-hit the Padres, but this victory is his first complete game in the major leagues.
  • 1994 Chan Ho Park becomes the first Korean to play in the major leagues when he makes his pitching debut at Chavez Ravine. In one inning of work, the 21 year-old Kongju City native gives up two runs on one hit, walking two and striking out two batters in the Dodgers’ 6-0 loss to Atlanta.
  • 2015 Adrian Gonzalez becomes the first major league player to hit five home runs in the first three games of the season when he goes deep three times in the Dodgers’ 7-4 victory over San Diego at Chavez Ravine. The Los Angeles first baseman joins Carl Furillo (1955) and Jimmy Wynn (1974) as the only players in franchise history to have homered in the first three games of a campaign.

Lineup when available.


Oct 12

NLCS Game One, 2018

Dodgers at Brewers, 5:09 PM PDT, TV: FS1. Who’s gonna do the talking on FS1?

For the National League Championship Series and World Series, Smoltz reunites with multi-Emmy Award-winning announcer Joe Buck in the booth, as well as Rosenthal and Verducci.

The Dodgers start LHP Clayton Kershaw (9-5, 2.73 ERA), who’ll be making his 21st postseason start. He’s 8-7 with a 4.08 ERA in his playoff career. The Brewers give LHP Gio Gonzalez (10-11, 4.21 ERA) the ball. This will be his 7th postseason start; the previous six were with the Nationals, from whom the Brewers acquired him in August. He was 3-0 with the Brewers in September, but his postseason record is 0-0 with a 4.78 ERA.

Today in baseball history:

  • 1916 In front of a record crowd of 43,620 fans at Braves Field, Red Sox right-hander Ernie Shore three-hits the Robins in Game 5 of the World Series, 4-1, to capture the team’s fourth World Championship in the 13-year history of the Fall Classic. Boston, as it did last season, plays its Fall Classic home games in their crosstown National League rival’s larger ballpark, which allows more fans to attend the game than if the contest had held at Fenway Park.
  • 1920 At Cleveland’s League Park, the Indians’ hurler Stan Coveleski blanks the Robins, 3-0, to win the 1920 World Series. The Tribe, en route to the franchise’s first World Championship, wins the best of nine series five games to 2.
  • 1948 The Yankees surprise their fans and a skeptical press when they name Casey Stengel to replace Bucky Harris as the team’s manager. In his previous stints as the skipper with the National League’s Braves and Dodgers, the ‘Old Perfesser’ had never finished higher than fifth place.
  • 1949 Vin Scully, working his first broadcast ever, does the play-by-play when Maryland defeats Boston University at Fenway Park, 14-13. The football assignment marks the start of a 67-year career in the broadcast booth for the Hall of Fame baseball announcer, who becomes the iconic voice of the Dodgers.

Today in Brewers’ history:

  • 1982 In Game 1, the Milwaukee Brewers’ leadoff batter Paul Molitor becomes the first player to collect five hits in a World Series game. The third baseman’s 5-for-6 Fall Classic performance helps Harvey’s Wallbangers rout the Cardinals, 10-0, the largest shutout margin since the Yankees blanked the Bucs 12-0 in 1960.

Lineups when available.

Dodgers:


Brewers:


Sep 09

Game 143, 2018

Dodgers at Rockies, 12:10 PM PDT, TV: SPNLA, ATTSportsNet- RM

The visiting Dodgers ask LHP Rich Hill (7-5, 3.73 ERA) to get them back within a half-game of first place by defeating the Rockies’ Tyler Anderson (6-7, 4.80 ERA) and his buddies. Hill and Alex Wood have flipped starting spots due to “matchups,” per Dodger manager Dave Roberts. In Hill’s one start at Coors Field this season he gave up two runs in six innings. Anderson’s last start was against the Giants; he went 5 1/3 innings and gave up three runs.

On this day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1948 At the Polo Grounds, Dodger Rex Barney no-hits the Giants, 2-0. The Brooklyn 23 year-old right-hander had to endure a one-hour rain delay, as well as showers in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings to finish his gem.
  • 1965 Sandy Koufax’s perfect game against the Cubs bests Bob Hendley’s one hit effort, 1-0. The Dodger Stadium gem is the southpaw’s record fourth no-hitter.

    “And there’s 29,000 people in the ballpark and a million butterflies.” – Vin Scully’s description Of Koufax’s masterpiece.

  • 2013 Juan Uribe homers in each of his first three trips to the plate in the Dodgers’ 8-1 victory over Arizona. Los Angeles goes yard six times in the Chavez Ravine contest, falling two shy of the franchise record established in 2002.

Lineup when available.

Aug 28

Game 132, 2018

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 24

Game 129, 2018

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

Clayton Richard (7-10, 5.11 ERA) goes for the visiting Padres; he’ll face Rich Hill (5-4, 3.73 ERA) of the Dodgers. Richard’s second-half ERA is a whopping 7.84. Hill’s last start featured a horrid first inning (4 of the first 5 hitters scored) but he only gave up one run in the remaining six innings he pitched.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1941 During a double-header against the Cardinals, a rag tag group of five ‘musicians’, dubbed the Dodger SymPhony by announcer Red Barber, makes their Ebbets Field’s debut. This band, in which none of the members can read music, performs their zany antics at all evening and weekend games.
  • 1955 A telegram sent to Brooklyn president Walter O’Malley by the Patchogue Chamber of Commerce offers the team “thirty acres or more of dry flat land in open country in the heart of Long Island’s densest Dodger fan concentration.” The village’s attempt to attract the fleeing franchise to the south shore of Suffolk County will not materialize, and the club, after exploring many different venues as an alternative to Ebbets Field, will leave the East Coast in 1958 to play in Los Angeles.
  • 1957 The Dodgers, in a 13-3 loss to Milwaukee at Ebbets Field, use eight pitchers in one game, tying a major league record. Johnny Podres gives up three home runs in the fourth frame when Nippy Jones, Hank Aaron, and Andy Pafko all go deep off the Brooklyn starter.
  • 1960 During a dull game, Vin Scully, the play-by-play voice of the Dodgers, knowing that many fans in the stands follow the game on transistor radios, asks his listeners to help him surprise third base umpire Frank Secory. His ballpark audience responds when the veteran broadcaster tells them, “Let’s have some fun. As soon as the inning is over I’ll count to three, and on three everybody yell, ‘Happy birthday, Frank!'”
  • 1974 Davey Lopes steals five bases, tying a National League record established in 1904 by Giants first baseman Dan McGann. The Dodger second baseman’s quintet of stolen bags adds to the team’s franchise mark of eight stolen bases in their 3-0 victory over the Redbirds at Chavez Ravine.
  • 1975 Davey Lopes steals his major league record 38th consecutive base, but the streak will be stopped by Montreal backstop Gary Carter when he attempts to swipe another base in the Dodger Stadium contest. The second baseman will be thrown out in the 12th inning of the team’s 5-3 loss in fourteen innings.
  • 2014 Joc Pederson becomes the fourth player in the history of the Pacific Coast League to have a 30-30 season, and the first to accomplish the feat in 80 years, when he steals his 30th base for the Isotopes. The 22 year-old Albuquerque slugger, who has 32 home runs and a .432 slugging percentage in 116 games this season, will join the Dodgers when rosters expand next week.

Lineup when available.


Aug 13

Game 120, 2018

Giants at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: SPNLA, NBC Bay Area

Book plug: I have this on my Kindle and dip into it during baseball season — “The Giants and the Dodgers: Four Cities, Two Teams, One Rivalry”

Tonight’s episode of that rivalry pits two of the best pitchers in the game against one another. Their respective won-loss records are highly unusual. Madison Bumgarner of the Giants is 4-4 with a 2.69 ERA, while Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers is 5-5 with a 2.58 ERA. Each pitcher has spent a lot of time on the disabled list this season; Bumgarner didn’t make his debut until June, while Kershaw lost seven weeks in May and June. In MadBum’s last start he went seven innings, gave up five hits and no runs to the Astros and got no decision. Kershaw’s last start was against the Athletics; he went six innings, gave up six hits and two runs and also got no decision.

In his 30-game pitching career against the Dodgers, Bumgarner has gone 15-10 with a 2.60 ERA. In his 43-game pitching career against the Giants, Kershaw has gone 22-10 with a 1.60 ERA.

You know it’s National Lefthanders Day, right? Not only does the game feature two of the best lefties the NL has to offer, the Dodgers found a pair on their dugout bench.

The Dodgers activated RHP Eric Goeddel from the DL and optioned Pat Venditte to Oklahoma City.

This date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1910 In a game which features each team having 38 at-bats, 13 hits, 12 assists, 2 errors, 5 strikeouts, 3 walks, 1 hit batsman, and 1 passed ball, the Pirates and the Superbas (later to be known as the Dodgers) play to what else – an 8-8 tie.
  • 1951 Any fan who shows up with a musical instrument during the Dodgers’ Musical Depreciation Night is admitted free to the Ebbets Field contest against Boston. With an assortment of trumpets, trombones, zithers, tubas, accordions, bugles, flutes, various type of drums, violins, mandolins, assorted horns, a glockenspiel, a washboard, and a piano, 2,426 fans, which is about 10% of the total crowd, take advantage of the team’s unusual promotion.
  • 1965 Dean Chance establishes an American League record when he fans to extend his streak to 11 consecutive plate appearances with a strikeout. The Angels’ right-hander falls one shy of the major league mark set by Sandy Koufax, who whiffed in 12 consecutive plate appearances in 1955.
  • 1982 At Chavez Ravine, Dodger second baseman Steve Sax steals his 41st base to set a franchise record for rookies when he swipes second base in LA’s 6-1 victory over San Francisco. The eventual National League Rookie of the Year, the fourth consecutive Dodger to win the award, will extend the record to 49.
  • 2006 LA’s Greg Maddux and SF’s Jason Schmidt hook up in a classic West Coast pitcher’s duel, reminiscent of match-ups of Koufax and Marichal, as the Dodgers beat the Giants, 1-0, thanks to Russell Martin’s 10th inning walk-off home run. When Giants slugger Barry Bonds lines into a double play in the first inning, it marks the only time in baseball history a 300 game winner pitches to a batter with over 700 homers.
  • 2007 For the first time in 1,303 games, Nomar Garciaparra of the Dodgers is ejected from a game. The 12-year veteran infielder, who is tossed by home plate umpire Tom Hallion for arguing a called third strike in the fourth inning, is restrained by first base coach Mariano Duncan when he continues to shout and points his bat toward the umpire.

Lineup:


Jul 06

Game 87, 2018

Dodgers at Angels, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: SPNLA, FS-W

The Dodgers take the 40-mile drive southeast to Angels Stadium for Game One of the Freeway Series. They’ll send RHP Kenta Maeda (5-5, 3.36 ERA) to the mound for his third career start against the Halos. He pitched well enough to win in his last start against the Rockies, but German Marquez was better, holding the Dodgers to two hits and one run over eight innings. The Angels counter with Felix Peña (1-0, 3.71 ERA), who will be making just his fourth big league start tonight. He got his first win as a starter a week ago when he pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings against the Orioles while giving up just five hits. He’s still learning: he’s only pitched 60 1/3 innings in the major leagues since his debut in 2016.

Down on the farm: Verdugo and Toles are hot at OKC, AAA All-Stars include four OKC players and two Dodger prospects lead their respective leagues (Texas and California) in home runs.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1938 At Crosley Field, Yankees’ hurler Lefty Gomez is defeated for the first time in four All-Star starts as the NL wins the All-Star game 4-1. National League shortstop Leo Durocher becomes the first Dodger to start in an All-Star Game and gets a ‘bunt’ home run.
  • 1953 In his first major league start, 24 year-old right-hander Al Worthington throws a two-hitter, blanking the Pirates, 6-0. The Giants’ rookie, known as ‘Red’, will become the first National League freshman to throw consecutive shutouts at the start of a career, when he repeats the feat in his next outing, also blanking the Dodgers, 6-0.
  • 2000 Vin Scully, 72, is voted the No. 1 sportscaster of the 20th century by members of the American Sportscasters Association. The Dodger veteran broadcaster’s 51-year career has included play-by-play of 25 Fall Classics and a dozen All-Star Games.

Lineup when available.