Game 14, 2015

Dodgers at Giants, 7:15PM PT, TV: SPNLA, NBC Bay Area

This game pits last year’s regular season MVP Kershaw against last year’s World Series MVP Bumgarner. How about that? Apparently this is the first time in MLB history that’s ever happened.

This marks the fourth time in their careers that Bumgarner and Kershaw have faced off and the first since Sept. 13, 2013. The Giants are 2-1 in those contests, but Kershaw has better numbers (2.08 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings) compared to Bumgarner, who has a 3.32 ERA and 19 punchouts in 19 innings.

Not only that, but they hit against each other. Kershaw’s 3 for 5 against Bumgarner, while Bumgarner is only 1 for 7 with 4 Ks, but that’s partly because Kershaw bears down against him: “He’s country strong, as they say.”

Neither guy has started off his season as well as he pitched last year, but that can’t last.

In other news, the Dodgers optioned LHP Adam Liberatore to OKC and recalled OF Chris Heisey from there.

Lineup when available.

160 thoughts on “Game 14, 2015

  1. 1. I would have liked to see Joc Pederson start that game last night.
    – You never know – With virtually no history between the two, Joc could possibly ‘have Mad’s
    number’… Lefty/Lefty match up or not… Why take the kid out right when he gets the chance
    to have kind ‘measuring stick’ game vs. a great pitcher? Bad message to send to Joc. IMHO
    2. Calling the kid CF up from AAA???? – Pederson would have caught that sinking ball… and,
    just because he’s right handed ??? -really? From AAA to Bumgarner.? Poor lineup-game 2.
    3. Justin Turner – Dumb play the other night when he got hurt @ 3B on the steal… poor footwork.
    – Dumber play last night on the pick off when he allowed the runner to get back
    to the bag safely. Bad ‘baseball sense’ … He’s competent offensively, but you
    lose something defensively with him out there for sure. It doesn’t have to be
    scored an “E” in order to be a poor play. He had the ball & the bag.
    4. AJ Ellis needs to have his hand behind his back…. and not leave it exposed to injury.
    5. Series so far… Rollins – O-fer…. Kendrick – 1/7 …. C position 1/8 – Can’t happen vs. Giants.

    • Heisey is a major league veteran – 543 games with the Reds – and a plus-outfielder who just missed hitting a dinger off BadGums. Whether a one-day call-up makes sense is open to question.

      Turner did make a bad play there – limited 1B experience – but I can’t argue with sitting AGon for a night. SVS might have been a better choice, but he was in the OF.

      With a runner on base, the catcher can’t keep his hand behind his back.

      • Sitting AGon … Fine.
        Then how about VanSlyke @ 1B and Crawford (even though he’s a lefty) in LF?

        My bad on Heisey… ( in terms of his age…. )

  2. DM used to talk about prospects telling the team they’re ready by beating down the door.

    Um, don’t those footprints on what’s left of the door belong to Alex Guerrero?

    Maybe he could start every other day and see how his defense goes. No question Uribe’s D is better, but AG’s bat may tip the scales. Especially since Uribe isn’t exactly tearing it up.

  3. Just like Link’s write up said: Giants get the win, even though Kershaw pitched better than Bumgarner.

    Honestly, the last two games are the Diamondbacks games in reverse (4-3 loss in 10, then 6-0 loss). At which point we go on a 7 game scoring spree + winning streak.

    Or maybe the Dodgers are a bad road team, and don’t win a single series away from home all year long. (Ok, I will call both rule 6 and rule 7 on myself for that last part.)

    Don’t like losing to the Giants, but it feels like the Singer will destroy the Song in today’s pitching matchup.

  4. Out-classed.

    A bit premature… all that talk last week about how good this club is….

    The records mean nothing.
    The World Series rings and wins tell the story.

    • Actually, out-umped – Blanco should have been out immediately. This Gnatclub will be sub-.500 all year. Dodgers still the division favorite, but the Pads may not go easily.

    • Not sure how much class had to do with anything tonight. Luck played more of a hand than anything. Now I know how much citing luck can sound like sour grapes from the losing team. I think tonight however, for one game, and at in key moments, luck is not an inaccurate description. True the giants won, but they lay no claim to being a better team than the Dodgers this year.

    • Thanks for showing up! (which is more than I did – had a prior commitment).

  5. Need a ground ball from Howell. Don’t like how this inning is going. Could be a very costly one indeed.

  6. Hope Hatcher doesn’t run out of steam this inning because we got big guns up next inning.

  7. Good. I think I would rather have Rollins bat in this inning than potentially start the next.

  8. Apparently that chat AJ had with Paco worked. Crawford left looking at an 87mph fastball.

  9. Jets are done. 5-2 Ducks. The better team certainly won the game and the series.

  10. If nothing else – no win for MadBum and even better – no loss for Kershaw.

  11. Kershaw and Bumgarner with almost identical linescores, yet we are behind 2-0. Kersh with one more strikeout and one less hit in fact.

  12. Next inning: Turner, Puig and Kendrick. That will be the time to get those runs back.

  13. Alright – enough negative stuff. Uribe with the lead off hit to get something going here.

    • Not that we can’t be negative. I meant enough negative stuff for the Dodgers.

  14. Seems like both Vin and Steiner can’t stop taking about Bruce Bochy and how amazing he is. I haven’t heard anything yet this series about Mattingly.

  15. Not being able to prevent Bumgarner from putting down a bunt really set this inning up.

    • Puig almost hit one down the line and then got jammed on the last pitch. Still, Bumgarner a bit more than half way to 100 pitches thus far.

  16. Two baserunners in two innings for the Dodgers and almost 40 pitches already for MadBum. Hopefully that will pay off later in the game.

      • Yeah – just listening. I should have said excited to hear Kershaw.
        Although tomorrow the Dodger game will be the free GameDay tv game. I will be able to watch them then!

  17. Two sport night. Have the Dodger game playing over Gameday Audio and the Winnipeg Jets game playing on the radio.

    • Dave,

      I think you were at Dodger Thoughts. Do you remember CanuckDodger from there? If so, do you know where in Canada he lives? Think he now comments some at TBLA.

      • I was at DT and do remember CanuckDodgers. I think he lives in Ontario and was one smart cookie as I recall. It would be great to have his comments and insights here but I can see him fitting in at TBLA as well.

        • It would be interesting to know where some of the other regulars from DT have gone. I wish Bob Timmermann was still chipping in here for example.

          • Yeah, Bob T would be great to have. Think quite a few DTers settled in at TBLA, some before Dodger Thoughts went dark.

            Bob T.’s Portable Griddle listed at right on this site is all I know of that he does online now.

          • I love reading Eric, but can’t quite keep up with the commenting community at TBLA.

          • Lost interest? Wow, that surprises me. I thought he loved baseball in general and the Dodgers specifically. Both the history and the current happenings. I always think of him whenever there is a catcher’s interference or a chance for a cycle in a game.

          • I still feel so fortunate to be able listen on GameDay Audio. Growing up it was tough, just checking the boxscores in the paper a day or two after the game happened.

          • What’s not to love about the Dodgers. Ha.

            In some ways it is easy to explain – my dad is a Dodgers fan and his dad before him was as well. I guess my grandfather came to love baseball after growing up in Scotland and then coming to Canada. And at that time the teams to follow were the New York based teams (the 1940’s) and he loved the one that got so close so often but always fell short in the World Series.

  18. Don’t want to trample on Link as he usually posts lineup, but it’s at dodgers.com. All RHB or switch hitters, as some speculated.

    http://dodgers.mlblogs.com/

    Below that Jon also has a short post on the team’s use of the 25-man.

    • I don’t feel trampled, except by shoppers at the store I was just wandering through looking for supplies. 😉

      As John_from_Aus would say, “no worries, mate.”

    • No matter what, you can’t say they don’t realize it was a problem last year.