Dodgers at Royals, 5:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN (free game, possibly subject to blackout)
This will be Kershaw’s first outing since his no-hitter. He’s 7-2 with a 2.52 ERA. He’ll face Danny Duffy, who’s had four straight starts in which he’s given up fewer than three runs and two of them none. He’s 4-6 with a 2.80 ERA. Kershaw has never faced the Royals and Duffy has never faced the Dodgers.
In news of the Dodgers’ minor leaguers, Corey Seager and Julio Urias have been selected for the MLB Futures Game to be played on July 13 at Target Field in Minneapolis as part of the All-Star Game festivities.
Lineup when available.
#Dodgers lineup at Kansas City:
Turner 3B
Kemp LF
Puig DH
Gonzalez 1B
Van Slyke CF
Ellis C
Romak RF
Triunfel SS
Rojas 2B
Kershaw P
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 24, 2014
In personnel news via Twitter: “Don Mattingly confirmed Hanley Ramirez is out of lineup because of the right AC Joint irritation that forced a cortisone shot in Cincy.”
NPUT
with any luck, (and a continuing Gnats implosion) we may be leading by the all star break
Any time you give Koufax, um, Kershaw a run to work with you should be OK. Why worry?
Interesting game in SF.
What a great day it will be if it ends interesting!
not as interesting, but still a 2 run lead
Well, that was a good win.
But tiresome for WBBA.
Clayton would prefer eight runs every time out, I’m sure.
Well, on average it is 5 runs support.
KK-enley!
I’ve never been happier to be proven wrong!
Get the K, KJ!
I think with a 2 run lead, we should now go to Kenley
Donnie agrees . . . but I would still feel better with the Kid out there.
Kenley actually has a FIP of 2.02. His Babip is around .425. Not a lucky camper.
I feel a bit better now
Andre!
After AJ!
Dre!
He may well go the distance again
I’d send him out there.
This is a much tougher game than his no-no, from a team perspective . . . anything less than great = an L.
That would seem a bit panicky with Kenley available.
But which KJ will show up? Sunday’s . . . or Friday’s? Or even the one from games past where he got the save, but gave up at least a run and had the tying and/or winning run on base?
2 outs on 4 pitches is great
3 on 6 is even better
Offensive futility.
hopefully 1 will do
Kershaw, doesn’t have enough innings yet, but jumps to third best ERA in the NL.
I guess that’s it for the Kid. We now enter the Twilight Zone that is our pen.
Probably, at only 102, it would be very tempting to try to get 2 more outs, then jump straight to Kenley for the 4 out save
He did wrap his arm when he went into the dugout.
With these batters and this bullpen, we come by our anxiety honestly.
DM shares the anxiety it seems.
No, it looks as if the real Kenley is back.
Nice D, guys!
trouble brewing
Now the announcers are lauding Kershaw’s approach as a batter!
KC feed just showed a graph that has BA against Kershaw 1st, 2nd and 3rd time through the lineup: .208, .210, and .214
Regarding who might replace Romak, In scanning the rosters and stats of our Triple-A franchise in Albuquerque and Double-A franchise in Chattanooga, there are a total of only four outfielders who bat right-handed. In looking at their stats, the only one worth considering is Trayvon Robinson, who is now in his second tour of duty with the Dodger franchise. He is hitting. 258 with virtually no power. He spent parts of 2011 and 2012 seasons with Seattle and batted .215 with five homers and 104 strikeouts.
I’d say go out, find and bring back Aussie Trent, but he’s left-handed too 🙁
By the way, Trayvon Robinson compiled those stats cited above in only 288 at bats with Seattle.
Maybe worth seeing if he step it up a notch
That’s a maybe a 35% K rate in the minors with not many dingers to show for it in the High Desert.
Guy can play OF, 1st and 3rd, which is good for 25th guy. Of course, that means that DM probably uses him more than he should.
I have complete faith in Clayton, but for the bullpens sake we need more
Their guy has just about had it pitchwise, but they seem to have a strong pen on paper.
Have the KC announcers, who are thoroughly intrigued by Kershaw and analyzing his every move.
With Steiner, listening to the other team’s announcers is always a temptation.
Agogo?
I’m tired of close, low-scoring games. I wanna see a laugher.
The last time we had a potential laugher, everyone was pretty tense.
That’s quite a play by Clayton.
What’s the latest on Crawford?
Ken Gurnick tweets:
Ken GurnickVerified account
@kengurnick
Crawford got back to running inside. Sounds almost like his rehab is starting over.
12:34 PM – 23 Jun 2014
Fear Yasiel’s slides! He really really needs to work on technique. Guys have broken their legs sliding.
Reminiscent of that disastrous spring training slide by Pedro Guerrero about 30 years go.
Fear SVS!
Do we trust Clayton so much that we wheel out our B team? (our 2,3,4 slots better hit well and hit often)
Could be a challenge for our bats. A lefty that has been pitching quite well.
Just about anybody’s a challenge for Dodger batters lately.
The past two games? You are one of those offense bemoaners? The Bums are tied for first in the NL (Rox) in OPS+.
I mean, Eric Stults? (despite his old friend status).
Count me as one of those bemoaners. Stats are great — and they HAVE shown flashes of what we expected from them — but we all know how frustrating and ineffective/inconsistent they have been . . . and I’m hoping that the condition remains in the past tense!
Yeah, would have hoped coming into the season that we might have been able to generate more runs with our bats than we have.
Then it doesn’t help when the bullpen gives up those preciously-earned runs!
But at least in this recent stretch of frustrating games, the Giants are having their own frustrations!