Game 85, 2014

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

The Dodgers put their trust in Dan Haren, 7-4 with a 3.83 ERA. He’s given up 14 home runs in his last nine starts, which isn’t good. The Indians counter with Corey Kluber, a right-hander who is 7-5 with a 3.09 ERA.

“Monday’s series opener marks just the seventh time the Tribe has played the Dodgers. Cleveland is 2-4 in the overall series but went 2-1 in Dodger Stadium in 2008.” Well, I don’t want to remember that 1920 World Series either.

The Dodgers put Justin Turner on the 15-day DL with a hamstring injury and called up Carlos Triunfel from Albuquerque. This is Triunfel’s second trip to the big club this season; he was 2-for-7 in seven games with the Dodgers earlier in June. He was hitting .210 for the Isotopes.

Lineup when available.

48 thoughts on “Game 85, 2014”

  2. Picked up from either TBLA or DD this morning;

    Wilson as of last night hasn’t allowed a run in his last 8 appearances (7 IP). Three hits and 2 walks in that time period, six strikeouts.

    Maybe he finally getteth his act together.

        • Optimistically, we could say the same for his bad stretch this year.

        • Double it and go back 16 games, he has an ERA of 0.66. Triple the sample to 24 and his ERA is 1.69. He seems to be on the right track.

  3. Some buzz around the Dodgers mentions Josh Beckett’s “general soreness.”

    Anyone know if he’s related to Mike Marshall?

  4. You could say Haren’s masterpiece was a good example of “adjusting to adjustments” as needed in MLB:

    “… he adjusted his pitch sequence by throwing more breaking balls early in the count and cutters late.

    “I was working on stuff between starts,” he said. “I’ve been feeling good, but the results are not where I wanted to be. This was the best I’ve thrown the ball all year.”

    Nominated for Dodger pitcher understatement of the year.

    The “feeling good” comment contradicts what he told a reporter not long ago–or, at least the reporter wrote–that he was in constant back pain. Whatever, great results.

  5. Sounds like some online commenters read Haren’s mind? Nah…pure coincidence.

    “”It’s nice to bounce back after my worst start of the year,” Haren said.
    “I’ve been on good staffs, but it’s tough to hold my weight here. Every
    time out, the guys are dealing. I try to maintain the momentum and
    haven’t done it until today.”

    He’s highly unlikely to maintain anything like last night–be great if he could–but if he can be effective it might help lower the price asked of the Dodgers for David Price, should they be in negotiations, maybe make it unlikely the team makes any SP move.

    Saw where a reporter asked Haren if he thought the Dodgers would trade for Price.
    Way over the top, out of line. Reporter should be embarrassed, tho he probably wasn’t.

  7. Gee the pitching is really bailing out our horrible/patchy/inconsistent/ordinary offence (but a win is a win, especially when it deliverers first place)

  8. Also from Jon’s Insider at dodgers.com…

    “Dodger pitchers have …

    a 0.33 ERA in their past three games with 32 strikeouts in 27 innings.

    a 1.14 ERA in their past seven games with 67 strikeouts in 63 innings.

    a 1.81 ERA in their past 14 games with 124 strikeouts in 124 2/3 innings.

    And the Dodgers have won 16 of their past 22 games, gaining 10 games on San Francisco in 22 days.’

  9. First one-hitter ever where the sole hit came courtesy of an appeal to New York?

    • Jon, from Insider:

      “… there but for the grace of replay went the Dodgers’ third no-hitter in six weeks. Really.”

      • Well-stated by Jon. I was hoping he’d make a comment on the quirkiness of the situation.

        • Tough call to make from the outside. I’d look to Honeycutt for insight on Haren’s fitness and whether the additional pitches would risk injury and to Ellis for information on how Haren’s pitches looked in his last inning. But given the pitch count, it seemed unlikely that Haren would have completed the game regardless, so lifting him for a pinch-hitter in the seventh was probably a good call.

        • I certainly don’t. But in a tight game like that likely would lift him immediately after first hit allowed either of the remaining 2 innings. Absent any reason more than IP and # pitches, no way. Any pitcher who gets to the 7th deserves a chance to finish a no-no, probably to the 6th or even 5th.

          I’d be reluctant even to pull a pitcher working on a shutout, thinking the same. CGs aren’t common these days, let alone shutouts.

          But that wouldn’t be as firm. I agree with things like DM pulling Beckett after 6 or 7 shutout innings recently, IIRC because he was visibly tired and even said so. May have happened with Ryu too a while back.

          But if a pitcher is still dealing visibly and hasn’t run up some absolutely outrageous pitch count or something else extraordinary happening, he’s good to go for a shutout for me.

          Somehow I think pitchers might like me as a manager. However, fans would not. Without a tremendous amount of good fortune, I’d last about 2 games. Even then I would be deferring muchly to the bench and pitching coaches.

          My postgame media conferences would be, um, interesting.

          • Both you and Dave focus entirely on the pitcher. Given the score, I think you have to go with the PH, though I would have chosen Hotfoot.

          • I was responding more to what-if he still had a non-no rather than to this game situation.

            This game the no-no went by the wayside back in the 3rd, so, yeah, you’d have to consider what would offer the best chance to win a scoreless game. A potential shutout is a different animal from a potential no-no.

          • Sure, but I understood from your post that for you a potential no-no trumps the score. You also seem to value individual pitcher achievements such as CG and shutouts. Maybe that’s the way to go, keep guys happy, as there are always 161 other games, and they will perform better over the long run.

          • Yeah, since pitching is so much of the game. I’d want to ride great mound performances as far as possible. But conventional wisdom holds that in a pitcher’s duel you play percentages and PH for pitchers with RISP. A lot of managing seems to involve percentages, and that may work out a good bit of the time.

            But a legitimate chance at a no-no is rare, and sometimes offense seems to come from unexpected sources at unexpected times. Because baseball, as they say. So I’d get to answer about 25 straight questions about why I didn’t go with conventional wisdom if things later went south.

            Interesting variant on the question…what if good-hitting Greinke were the one working on the no-no and the only bench options were banjo hitters like some we have now? Would you PH for him? Or another pitcher who hits reasonably well, say Kershaw? Don’t know that Beckett would fit the ” hits reasonably well” tag. But he chimed in with 2 doubles last night, IIRC.

  12. Welcome Haren into the exclusive pitching neighborhood, at least for the night.

    Let’s hope he likes it and wants to stay.

  21. Imagine what Dan Haren must feel like in his extremely high rent neighborhood of Dodger starting pitching, doing his best but struggling to keep pace.

    There’re not even any Joneses to try to keep up with. Instead the names are Kershaw, Greinke, Ryu, and Beckett. Haren might feel better if there actually were a couple Joneses.

    • all said and done he hasn’t done too bad, he wiggled out of trouble nicely in the third

    • Then again, he signed up to be the fifth (even if at a hefty $10m) and he must be one of the best in terms of contributions in the NL.

  22. SI’s Cliff Corcoran on the three-week turnaround in the respective fortunes of the Giants and the Dodgers.

    “the Dodgers’ pitching is what has allowed them to take advantage of the Giants’ collapse. . . Their offense, however, isn’t keeping up.”

    • True, the offense is underachieving, so watch out when and if it gets going, but IIRC we have lost only two games since June 4 when the pitching has allowed 4 or less runs.

  23. This should be the night to take over first place permanently. No more virtual ties.