Cubs at Dodgers, 5:08PM PT, TV: ESPN
The Cubs send Jake Arrieta to the mound to try to salvage one game of the series. He seems to be the guy to do it, since he’s 16-6 with a 2.22 ERA on the season and an even better 5-0 with a 0.54 ERA for August. Facing him will be the Dodgers’ Alex Wood, who’s 2-2 with a 4.34 ERA for the Dodgers and 9-8 with a 3.70 ERA for his overall 2015. MLB has determined that
Alex Wood will be making his sixth start since joining the Dodgers and he’s looking to last longer in games. He’s exited four straight starts without throwing more than 91 pitches or lasting longer than 6 1/3 innings. He’s had just one quality start in five outings with Los Angeles.
Carl Crawford has done pretty well against Arrieta, but he’s one of only two Dodger regulars who have had more than ten at-bats against him. None of the Cubs have had more than five at-bats against Wood.
Lineup when available.
Tonight's #Dodgers lineup:
Rollins SS
Utley 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Ethier RF
Crawford LF
Grandal C
Pederson CF
Hernandez 3B
Wood P #whiff
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 30, 2015
Here’s some “Awwww” for a Sunday: The Greensboro Grasshoppers held a retirement ceremony for their balldog.
NPUT
Package, Happy Anniversary! Have a Nice Day=http://dodgersdigest.com/2015/08/31/a-j-ellis-picking-up-the-slack-for-yasmani-grandal/
What year was it we had the streaky team? Pardon my memory but I seem to remember 10 game losing streaks followed by 10 game winning streaks, followed by… Good runs like 18 out of 20 etc. I think we ended up making the playoffs…
1951?
No, last 5 or 6 years. Kemp was here. Don’t remember if it was Torre or Torre Jr.
2006. Coming out of the all star break the team lost 13 out of 14 and then won 17 out of 18. Finished tied with the Padres 88-74, but ended in second and got swept by the Mets in NLDS.
In 2008 starting in mid August they lost 8 in a row and 10 out of 11 and then won 8 in a row and 14 out of 16. Finished in first, 84-78 and ended up losing to the Phillies in the NSLC.
I am guessing that he is remembering 2013.
I believe they’re capable of the hat trick. Probably by a Giant…
Except for the overrated BadGums – he’d only be a No. 4 starter on the Dodgers if Ryu were not injured – the Gnats have a weak rotation.
The Dodgers have shown they can be very weak hitters.
The NL is weak this year in offense, with an average OPS+ of 94. The Dodgers are tied for first with 105.
But they’re not scoring runs, as the story Link cites below points out.
Sure, but we were discussing the issue of the hat trick.
And still possible no matter their past performance or performance rest of league. Actually very likely considering recent woes…
Performance fluctuates and anything can happen, but not sure what you mean by recent woes. We averaged 8.5 H/G (and never less than 6) in between the no-nos.
You want to quote statistics, how many no-hitters have we suffered in the last 8 games? What does that average out? Statistics can be meaningless. I think a better judgement might be on what odds Vegas is posting against the Dodgers being no-hit in the next month versus the odds against the Giants or some other team.
To quote you “very likely”.
Oh, now, you’re letting your heart get ahead of your head. He’s an excellent pitcher who had a spectacular hot streak (kinda like Orel in ’88, really).
When BadGums comes close to matching Orel’s sustained excellence and durability, we can talk. He’s a very good pitcher, but not in the class of Kershaw, Greinke, Price, Cueto, Félix etc.
https://twitter.com/Ned2point0/status/638392981423177728
An upsetting trend for Package: https://twitter.com/truebluela/status/638352568394063872
…
He already does that to himself.
I reluctantly agree.
Eric Stephen reports hamstring tightness: http://www.truebluela.com/2015/8/30/9230429/kike-hernandez-hamstring-tightness-dodgers
Guessing we will see Barney tomorrow.
Quique’s versatility is irreplaceable.
For Package, on his big day: https://twitter.com/Ned2point0/status/638206727226191872
I think that scorers like to make sure that the first hit in a game is clearly one. Too awkward to go back and change it the other way, In any other circumstance, I think it is scored as a hit.
In the early innings, I’m not so sure that’s the case.
I think that once there is a clean hit, they might be more open to reviewing.
Bad news is that Quique came out the game with an injury. Hopefully it is not DL serious, but even then we will be short handed, with Peraza as our only infielder on the bench (well, other than Alex) and carrying only 12 pitchers.
Dodgers set NL Record with two no-hitters in 9 days, old record 20 days by 2 teams. ML Record, Chicago White Sox consecutive days, May 5 and 6, 1917. Info courtesy Dodger Digest. There’s always a certain amount of luck involved in no-hitters, but the “offense” should be ashamed to take their grossly overpaid paychecks this year.
Well, we do lead the NL in OPS+ at 105. League average is only 94, so NL “hitters” should pass their salaries to the pitchers.
Anthony Witrado at ESPN:
I didn’t realize it was that low. This is a bad sign.
Seasons have there ups and downs. Not sure this is a sign, unless you think that our offense is as bad as the Marlin offense. The good news is that despite this we have put up a .531 winning percentage during this period (which is the giants (sic) percentage for the whole season).
The bad news is that winning percentage makes them only the 5th best NL team, record-wise.
Not sure what you are looking at, but out overall .558 makes us the fourth best. In any event, seasons are full of ups and downs. During this particular downside for the offense, we have still managed to play <.500 ball.
I’m basing on your .531 % . . . that’s the team they are now; the hot beginning weeks were the anomaly (and tease).
If they make the postseason, those early weeks don’t come into play at all — it’s literally and seriously ‘What have you done for me lately?’
That said, “lately” DID include 5 wins in a row. Even tho they’ve still lost 6 of the last 11, a winning streak can start at any time . . . tho the postseason is guaranteed not to have any teams 20 games under .500.
No team wins 107 games (which was the early season pace of .666), but not sure why you would subtract those games from our overall record and project us as a .531 team? Seasons are full of ups and downs and you are projecting the down, but if it makes you happy.
Vin often makes the same point I’m making — since May 13, they are basically a .500 team.
Way back when this slump began, we were asking in this forum which was the real team — the hot one or the erratic one. Now that we’ve seen the latter for almost three times the length we saw the hot one, the answer seems to be clear.
No, it doesn’t make me happy and each game I’m hoping for a win. But I think it makes me more realistic of what to expect from them — NOT that team where all areas were clicking at the same time and there was a different hero each night.
You claim to be realistic, yet you use the .666 as some sort of standard and have finally realized that wasn’t sustainable?
.666 to .500 is night and day — great and average.
I would be happy splitting the difference.
I would even be happIER if they managed .500 against winning teams.
They just took 2 out of 3 from the Cubs, yet you don’t seem very happy. 😉
The good news is LA will still be in 1st after this upcoming series, no matter what happens.
The other good news is a quality start for Woods and another non-inflammatory bullpen outing.
So nine nights from now the Dodgers play LAA. Wonder who will pitch a no hitter for them that night? Another 9 nights brings us to a off day for the Dodgers so I’m guessing that will break streak right there.
Last time that team from Anaheim threw a no-no against us we beat them. So there is that.
Arrieta’s just a journeyman. The Dodgers only won five of the last six and increased their lead to 3-1/2. It’s all Joc’s fault.
Arrieta is second in the NL, to Zach, in H/9.
Try convincing Package of that.
Well, it took a no-no to beat us.
Well fudge. Twice in two weeks. If you’d told me that was possible for this team I’d have said no way.
Yes, two no-hitters in two weeks is strange.
But it’s not surprising that this offense can turn itself off soo quickly — I would venture to say this is closing in on 10 times this season they have come up with 5 or less hits in a game. (That being said, Arrieta is apparently the real deal, giving Zack a run for the CYA.)
Lost in all of this is the fact that Wood actually pitched pretty well. He made one regrettable pitch.
True. Shaky first two innings and then settled down very well.
Seeing how Arrieta’s pitched to this point, I’m reminded of Yogi after seeing Koufax pitch in the ’63 WS: “I can see how he won 25 games. What I don’t understand is how he lost five…”
Dodgers were probably shut out.
But for Joc, the Dodgers would be winning by a blowout.
Cubs stranding a lot of base runners. Dodgers still in this.
Jim Fallows of The Atlantic on Vin Scully’s endurance.
Mentions the Perfecto, which my brother took me to see.
So helpful!
Nice recovery, Nicasio!
Um, this is quite an interesting game Mr. Arrieta is throwing so far. In case the bickering with package has distracted everyone. It has me. 😉
With all his struggles this month, Joc still has a .403 OBP
Joc with the catch. 1 down.
I hope Wood makes it through this inning. That would be a good outing.
Utley always big on blocking the base.
Quique having a tough time at 3rd.
CC with a great catch!
Joc who is struggling has the third highest WAR for position players with the Dodgers at 2.5. Matt Kemp has a WAR of 0.7
WAR. What is it good for?
Quite a lot in baseball, I would say.
The pitch count’s high but, since the dinger, Wood’s been very effective.
Especially this inning. Will at least pitch into the 5th which wasn’t a given in the 2nd inning.
I’m not writing this game off, but the Gnatloss is letting me be more philosophical about it. Still, I’d like to see Wood show greater command and efficiency.
Cubs already have a nice full game line score: 2/7/0. Dodgers are 0/0/0.
Wood is not long for this game. 53 pitches through 2 innings. Hoping he can do 40 pitches for the next 3.
Last time, Mattingly took him out when he was cruising and could have gone deeper into the game. Tonight he’ll probably let him throw 150 pitches.
So the 5th or 6th inning then.
Wood’s thrown 52 pitches and there are only two outs in the 2nd inning? Holy cow!
Addendum: 53 to get through two innings. Good grief. I hope the bullpen is well-rested.
Came up big there. We will get to see the pen tonight.
We used a bunch of them yesterday, too.
Avilan – 18 pitches yesterday
Hatcher – 18
Howell – 5
Johnson – 23
Jansen – 16
That’s a lot.
Baez!
He and Nicasio are the only non-starters who didn’t pitch yesterday.
I think we are only carrying 12 pitchers right now. We might see Quique ptich.
I think that dumb white box ESPN have up on their tv feed as the strike zone is really going to annoy me this evening.
Actually, it is annoying me already.
Dodgers are going to need to score some runs tonight against a very tough pitcher.
Same was true last night.
True.
Tonight starts a stretch of four straight blackouts.
Cards beat the Giants, 7-5.
The Giants broadcasters were frustrated that the 3-4-5 guys went 10 for 12 in that game and they still didn’t win.
Funny. I’d feel the same way if it happened to the Dodgers.
It couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch.
Cards 5, Giants 2 after 4 innings. Heston lasted 3 2/3 for S.F.