Game 49, 2015

Dodgers at Cardinals, 11:15AM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN, FS-M

Brett Anderson brings his 2-2 record and his 3.47 ERA to the hill in the rubber game of the three-game series. He’ll face Carlos Martinez, who’s 4-2 with a 3.54 ERA. Sunday is Oscar Taveras Day at Busch Stadium, honoring the Cardinal rookie who died in a car crash in October of last year; Martinez and Taveras were good friends.

Little-known fact: Anderson has yet to allow more than four runs in a start this season; this will be his 10th. Good sign: only two of the Cards’ players have even faced him before, and Peralta and Bourjos are a combined .150 in 20 lifetime ABs. On the other side, five Dodgers have faced Martinez, and they’re hitting a whopping .167 against him.

Lineup when available.

The only change from yesterday is Callaspo at third.

48 thoughts on “Game 49, 2015

  1. Meanwhile, the other division leaders, Nats, got swept by the lowly Reds over the weekend.

  2. From the Painfully Obvious Dept:
    If you don’t score, you can’t win.
    If you don’t get hits, you won’t win (that freak no-hitter aside).
    If the Dodgers can’t beat winning teams (3-9 now, I believe), they won’t go far IF they make the playoffs.

    • Interestingly enough the Cards only outscored the Dodgers by 1 run in the series 7-6. The Dodgers scored enough runs to win 2 out of 3 games if they had spread them out differently.

      I know it is breaking bad right now, but I believe it will turn good soon enough.

      • That’s where #s can be misleading.
        Yes, they “almost” scored as many as the Cards, but they WEREN’T spread out.
        When it comes down to it, the only # that counts is how many more wins you have than your next closest opponent. (Or in a series come playoff time.)

        As to your final comment, from your keyboard . . .

        • I don’t disagree and it is frustrating to score a bunch of runs one game and very few or none the next 2 or 3 games. As for the # that counts – I guess the Dodgers is +0.5, since they lead the Giants by half a game in the standings.
          My prediction is that the Dodgers win 20+ games in June and August. July is a bit shorter in terms of number of games they play, so they might not get to 20. As for May, it seemed brutal for at least half of it with the lack of hitting and the losses to SF and St. Louis, but they did finish 16-12.

          • True, all of the above.
            But the poor showing vs. “quality” (above .500) teams is what bothers me the most, especially when I think we (fandom and FO) are taking for granted it’s a given that this team should make it to postseason.

          • Just did a quick check through BR at the Dodgers 50 games. Of their now 20 losses, 8 of them have come against teams that were in 5th (last) place in their division on the day the game was played.

            While it is true that the Dodgers have a poor showing against “quality” teams, they are (only?) 11-8 against last place teams. On the other end of things, they are 2-2 against teams that resided in first place when the game was played.

            Not trying to argue or pick a fight. Just playing with stats and seeing what I can make them say!

          • Just for fun I will add that the Dodgers went through a stretch where they played a 5th place team 11 out of 12 games – which was part of a longer stretch where they played a 5th place team 18 out of 25 games. Their record during the 12 games was 9-3, and their record during the 25 games was 15-10.

          • Very early in the season to use standings in this way. Discounting the games played against the Dodgers, the Padres, Snakes and Rox would all be hovering around .500 right now.

          • The season is young (and long!). Normally, one finds that over an entire season that playoff bound teams beat up on “poor” teams and break even with “quality” teams. How a team does against specific “quality” teams that make the playoffs has not been shown to be a strong indicator of how they fare against them in the playoffs.

    • Ha! You make me recall Matty scoring in that no-hitter by the Angels.

  3. Braves overcame deficits of 2-0 and 5-3 to beat the Giants, 7-5, today. Crawford booted a potential game-ending DP grounder in the top of the 9th with the Giants ahead 5-4. Peterson cleared the bases with a triple. Uribe hit another two-run homer earlier. Bumgarner started for the Giants.

  4. I see the Giants lost as well today, so the Dodgers remain in first place for the end of May.

  5. Saw bits and pieces, including Turner’s game-ending AB. He argued with the ump, taking a borderline outside strike call, then turned right around and took one again for strike 3, instead of protecting the plate in a key situation.

    Ump already had shown he’d likely call borderline outside stuff strikes. With the game on the line, Turner looked more interested in being “right” and making the ump look bad than in doing what was best for the team.

    Hope but doubt DM got in his grill about it. Players have to make good strategic decisions and keep emotions out of it. He may have struck out anyhow, but to end the game in a huff with his bat on his shoulder after the ump had shown he’d call pitches there strikes and not protect the plate is not defensible.

    • Absolutely right. Players today have lots of money and lots of talent but no way are they as smart as players in the last century. Knowing how inaccurately umpires call pitches, you have to be really dumb to take a borderline pitch.

      • Later saw a screen grab showing the ump’s atrocious strike zone. Doesn’t matter.

        His opinion is the only one that counts and can cost you any chance at a comeback if you don’t acknowledge that.

  6. On the road this year the Dodgers are generally not very good, but they are also rather boring.

  7. Donnie got one scoreless inning out of Hatcher; he shouldn’t have tried for a second.

    • He does seem to hit much better with nobody on, OPS of 1.013 (126 PA), versus with men on, OPS .725 (70 PA).

  8. The difference between a traveling salesman and the Dodgers is that the salesman knows how to score on the road.

  9. Dodgers just kinda hanging around in this one. Need to do something this inning to get some vibe back in their bats.

  10. Go figure: After Anderson walks Kozma and the pitcher Martinez on five pitches each, Bourjos swings at the first pitch, and grounds out.

  11. I am beginning to understand more why so many folks feel what they do about Steiner.
    He said that Pederson’s and Guerrero’s combined 21 homers are the most by a pair of rookie teammates through May since 2001 when Pujols and (we don’t know who else as he didn’t mention his teammate). I don’t think he mentioned the number either.
    Steiner, commenting on Molina and Grandal, said there were two fine catchers (or excellent or splendid, can’t remember the word) on display today. I will agree with Package on that one.

    • Charlie means well, but he really ought to take notes while listening to Vinnie. On long fly balls pay attention to the outfielder. Don’t try to pick up the ball.

        • Link: You are being gracious re Steiner, but this is his 11th season broadcasting for the Dodgers and I don’t think he will ever take your apt suggestion re listening to Scully. It will be interesting to see if the new Dodgers braintrust keeps Steiner and also who will be selected to replace Vinnie when that inevitable (and lamented) day arrives.

          • They did get rid of Collins and Lyons, which was a good start but didn’t go nearly far enough.

  12. The game is on MLB.TV with the Dodgers announcers. I seldom hear them. On Peralta’s homer, I now understand the expression “Steinered.” He called it like it was a routine fly ball.

    • It was surprising he didn’t say it was fouled straight back.

      I’m surprised you don’t hear them often – do you listen to other team’s feed?

      • I don’t have the MLB package and I live in Central California, so I don’t get the Dodgers games on air.

  13. Paco has gone on the DL and returned to LA for a consultation with Dr. El Attrache. This is not good news.

  14. Callaspo is starting at third and batting second. Turner is on the bench.