Game 103, 2014

Dodgers at Pirates, 4:05PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLB.TV free game

Dan Haren tries once again to reverse his recent trend toward short bad outings:

Haren’s allowed at least three earned runs in eight of his last 10 starts, and his last three July outings have been particularly rough.

He’s coming off his third straight loss, a 3-2 defeat against the Cardinals on Friday. Haren gave up three runs in 4 2/3 innings.

Before that, he took losses on July 11 against the Padres (four innings, four runs) and on July 5 at Colorado (5 1/3 innings, eight runs).

Haren will face Francisco Liriano, who is 1-7 with a 4.43 ERA and just got off a month-long trip to the DL where he’d been recovering from a strained left oblique.

Lineup when available.

62 thoughts on “Game 103, 2014

  1. Gnats contribute to a pleasant off-day by falling to the Fillies on two unearned runs, thanks to the Busted Poseur’s passed ball and Morse’s two-base error in LF.

  2. Twins Designate Matt Guerrier For Assignment, says Mlbtr.

    Please monitor Ned Colletti very closely and permit no incoming or outgoing calls from MN area codes. Surely he wouldn’t….surely…

  3. Hi all. Took a break to get married this past weekend! Looks like I didn’t miss much. Okay, Dodgers, time to buckle down against SF. And as for tomorrow, go Phillies!

  4. Silver Lining Dept. #2: no frustrating Blue pitching or batting tomorrow to make us blue . . .

  5. From the Silver Lining Department: at least they were equally bad: offense and pitching.

  6. Starting the “2nd half” with two 1-2 series against teams with winning records.
    Now going to the park of the team ahead . . . LA better win at least one in SF . . .

  7. Since Donnie likes to frequently rest the players, how about scheduling all of them whenever Haren’s pitching, since it seems to be a scheduled “L” anyway.

  8. Regarding who might be brought up from Albuquerque to improve the starting rotation:
    –Carlos Frias 7-4, 4.71 ERA
    –Zach Lee, 6-8, 4.98
    –Matt Magill, 6-5, 5.10
    –Red Patterson, 3-7, 5.40
    –Stephen Fife, 2-2, 7.01 (He was out for a while but is back in the rotation)
    The ERAs are high, but the Pacific Coast League is a high ERA league.

    • With Beckett’s health and recent performance Ned is probably shopping, but not much out there beyond Lee and Price.

    • Hasn’t Magill pretty much been made a reliever?

      As for Fife, who actually has been surprisingly decent most every time out as a Dodger:

      “RotoWire News:
      Fife left Friday’s game for Triple-A Albuquerque with forearm tightness
      after allowing seven runs in just 3.2 innings, True Blue LA’s Eric
      Stephen reports. (7/18/2014)Injury: Forearm, Day-To-Day”

        • Once again they have the remarkable ability to take an average (at best) pitcher and making them look like an ace.

          The Dodger batters could easily — and ironically — win on America’s Got Talent — they make others look great by submerging their own talent.

  9. In 1954 Al Campanis wrote “The Dodger Way to Play Baseball.” It was the club’s bible for decades. Among other things, it covered fundamentals. It should be brought back. We have had four base runners. One, Crawford, tried to steal second base and got picked off with no outs when we were four runs down. Another, Rojas, forgot the axiom “Freeze on a line drive” when there are fewer than two outs, and got doubled off second.

  10. The two things dreaded did happen:

    The offense hasn’t shown up yet (Rojas just got the first hit)
    Haren did show up.

  11. Haren’s ERA is now 4.60. It has gone up from 3.57 in his last four starts, including today.

  12. Haren has proven he has what it takes to be a Dodger reliever — the ability to walk. He should not start again.

      • Call up Fife or Patterson from Albuquerque. Seriously, how can we continue to start Haren?

        • Think Fife is out with forearm issues. But there are others in the minors who can at least match Haren right now. Haren had a good start to the season but it’s been steadily downhill. Seems to be in free fall now.

      • Yes. Or the next best thing from the minors — could they really be worse?

        I had a bad feeling about this road trip and it could be even worse than that.

      • League should start and go two innings and then bring in Haren to pitch 5. And, don’t tell Haren he isn’t starting so that he warms up as if starting. That way he should be ready for the third.

  13. Failed opportunity in the top of the 1st, another predictably miserable start by Haren — were we expecting anything else? — and Crawford not throwing the ball anywhere that offered a chance for an out. This is pretty sickening.

    • If Crawford had any kind of an arm I would be okay with him as the 4th outfielder. He needs to move to the American League and mostly DH.

  14. I think any thoughts of trading for position players is now out the window, with one starter and one relief player a more pressing concern

    • The Mets need outfielders. They might be the best chance to swap bad salaries with regarding Colon and Ethier/Crawford. The Dodgers would still have to send money.

  15. This marks the fourth straight game that Dee Gordon has begun things by striking out.

      • Agreed. But it sets a bad tone. And when I wrote that it was scoreless. At this point it looks like a slightly leaky rainspout in the middle of a hurricane.

  16. From an Associated Press story: “Haren is second in the NL with 20 homers allowed and has given up two in each of his last three starts against Pittsburgh, going 0-2 with a 6.62 ERA.”

    • “past performance is no guarantee of future results,” as every investment prospectus I’ve ever read has taken great pains to point out. 😉

      • And a REALLY good thing for Ned to keep in mind on trades.

        I get the idea that if Ned were buying stocks, he’d likely do it right after they peaked and started to decline.

        • I wonder just how much of the final say or even the plan does Ned have. Once the group agrees on the who and the how much then and only then might Ned be asked to make it happen. Scouts and statisticians get their input as does Donnie and ownership and executives.

    • Trade him to San Diego and let him pitch in an even more pitcher friendly park.

  17. Looks like a battle of true #5 starters . . . hopefully the Blue offense can continue their run-scoring streak.