Game 113, 2014

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

I hadn’t realized this, but the Angels have the second-best record in the major leagues. Unfortunately for them, the team with the best record is also in the AL West, so the Angels are in a dogfight.

The Halos send Garrett Richards out to face the Dodgers’ Zack Greinke. Richards is in his third full year as a big leaguer and it’s his best by far: he’s 11-4 with a 2.74 ERA. His last two starts were stumbles, however: he lost to Detroit and Baltimore and gave up eight runs in 13 innings in the process.

Greinke’s last two starts, on the other hand, were excellent. He pitched 15 innings, gave up one run, lowered his ERA to 2.65 and raised his record to 12-6.

Lineup when available.


Update: From Twitter:

The Dodgers placed RHP Chris Perez on 15-day DL (bone spurs, right ankle) and selected contract of RHP Carlos Frias from AAA Albuquerque. To create room on the 40-man roster for Carlos Frias, the Dodgers transferred LHP Paul Maholm (right ACL tear) to the 60-day disabled list.

27 thoughts on “Game 113, 2014

  1. Kemp, Ethier, Crawford, and Beckett all cleared waivers so they could (legally) be traded to any willing team. But don’t hold your breath…. Hanley, on the other hand, was claimed. A trade could be worked out or the Dodgers could just let him go to the claiming team. And I would be sorely tempted to do that. Look at his defense. What defense? His offense is terrific…. once a week, the rest of the time he is injured or merely unproductive. I’d be willing to bet that Guerrero can match his results right now. And next year Hanley is only going to be worse. Extending him should be the farthest thing from Ned’s mind, if he has one… Opportunity is knocking, please answer the door…

    • Really hard to imagine doing a salary dump in the middle of a pennant race that we are winning. Hanley has the second highest OPS+ among the starters. Guerrero looks like he might be a good performer, but why would you take such a risk?

    • Hanley will get a qualifying offer from the Dodgers, but will probably sign with an AL team where he can DH. Dodgers will have a high draft pick to show for it.

  2. When we failed to score with two on and no one out in the second, my confidence in our ability to win sharply diminished. Greinke seems to have had many rough first innings lately….We need to get Kershaw some early run support tomorrow night.

  3. Who knows what would’ve happened if Zack had a scoreless first . . . but in these last two games, the Dodgers have proven to be more effective than a visit to Lourdes for ailing opposing pitchers.

  4. gee, especially when you are down by 4, you just have to get something out of 2 on and none out

  5. Nice recovery, Zack. Now it’s a matter of corralling the horse that was let out . . .

  6. The Dodgers look terrible . . . but they looked terrible vs. a last place team with a terrible record.

  7. Factoids seen yesterday in different places, assuming they’re correct…

    Ryu – 13-8, Kershaw – 14-3, Greinke – 13-9 —> Dodgers are 40-20 in the big 3 starts. 23-29 otherwise.

    Hanley saw only around 5 pitches Sunday in all ABs. Not hard to pitch someone that overeager after Friday’s 3 run game winning shot. Overeager and not the smartest approach, evidently.

    Juan Pierre never had a season as a Dodger as bad as Carl Crawford is currently having.

    • Juan Pierre isn’t on the team now . . . but Andre surely is, as well as SVS. How do the PA and stats stack up for the three of them? . . . Puig has proven he’s the real thing all year and Matt is now on fire (good call on Player of the Week for whoever said it last post) — so who should be given the consistent chance in LF?

  8. As is most often the case, it’s all up to the offense . . . can they score? If not, a Zack shutout is just a tie.
    (It doesn’t matter who the opposing pitcher is — they can make journeymen/rookies/debuting pitchers look like aces.)

    • You do know that we haven’t lost a game since July 19, when our pitching has given up 4 runs or less?

      • That’s consolation and I know you have other stats on how “effective” the offense is, but I agree with the other poster who said it still doesn’t FEEL that they are that effective. Guess I’m more Clint Eastwood in “Trouble With The Curve” than Brad Pitt in “Moneyball.”

        Kersh, Zack, and Ryu ARE great . . . but they shouldn’t HAVE to give up no more than 2 runs to get the win . . . but that’s what’s happened in this recent stretch. (Saturday’s game proves the point, even tho LA scored 5 — it took regulation + 3 to get above 2 runs.)

        An ERA of 3 is considered fairly good for a starter — but in these last 5 games, if Dodger pitching only gave up 3 runs, the record would be 0-3, with 2 ties. (Look at how well Kersh and Zack pitched in those first two games of the LCS last year . . . and LA was 0-2.)

        Yes, five games is a small sample size . . . but no matter what the stats say, as a whole I feel they rank only a little above the bullpen in the disappointing department.

        • I am certainly not going to change the way that you feel with stats, its just that your statement “its all up to the offense” is not supported by facts (or stats as you call them).

          • Of course it’s up to the offense — it always is, in any sport. If you don’t score, you can’t win. The onus is even more on the offense in baseball because you can’t score points when on defense. Zack can pitch a shutout, but if the offense doesn’t score, it’s still a tie.

            So I meant that somewhat facetiously . . . but only somewhat.

          • You have certainly changed the nature of this discussion, but the fact remains that we haven’t lost since July 19 when the pitching has allowed 4 runs or less. I feel, as you do that the offense in underachieving this year. That said, last year’s second half performance was because of the improvement in the pitching. We went from RA of 4. per game to 3.0, whereas the offense improved from 3.8 to 4.2. Our best offensive month this year was May, when we scored 4.6 runs per game, but we only broke even as our pitching was at 4.3 per game. We started winning in June, when RA dropped to 2.5 (and offense to 3.9).