Giants at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: ESPN, SPNLA, CS-BA
The Dodgers ask Kenta Maeda (15-9, 3.24 ERA) to make a start on four days rest for the second time in a row. He’s only done that three times all season and is 1-2 when he does. Maeda hasn’t allowed more than three runs in a game since his first start after the All Star break. He’ll face the Giants’ Matt Moore (11-11, 4.06 ERA), who’s 4-1 with a 3.45 ERA in his last five starts for the team. He started off 0-3 after his acquisition from Tampa Bay at the trade deadline and held the Dodgers hitless for 8 2/3 innings until Corey Seager singled in the ninth August 25.
Lineup:
Tonight’s Dodger lineup:
Kendrick LF
Seager SS
Turner 3B
González 1B
Puig RF
Ruiz C
Hernández CF
Culberson 2B
Maeda P— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 21, 2016
NPUT
Is Puig the new Arlo Guthrie? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b467d8c927d1f275b678b14c4a69a022c4b979c6ce42dbd0c4cc40d5924efd8.png
Has the Dodgers’ bench been renamed The Group W Bench?
In summary:
Giants have an unstable jerk in their rotation.
Giant outfielder arms remind me of Juan Pierre.
Puig looks at (judges) fly balls better than Pence.
Giants don’t have much of a bullpen.
Giants are not the sluggers they once were.
I agree about Pence. He sure made catchable fly balls into multi base hits and looked silly doing it.
In fairness, Pence looks silly even when he’s making the plays.
Here’s Pence’s route on Kendrick’s double. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e8eebf2d12ab14600d63e39863a5c5ac13e6702326ebccbff8371105ef1fb519.png
Woke up this morning to another great Dodger win!
Yee-haw!
Dodgers magic number at 5. If they split with Colorado it goes down to 3. Win one vs SD, it’s down to 2. Then they only need to win 1 vs SF, the division is won.
And that’s without factoring in any other Giant losses.
The President has spoken . . . and that’s not even pie-in-the-sky, which makes it even better!
You make it seem hard. The giants could win out and all the Dodgers would have to do is win half of the rest of their games.
And I thought I was trying to show how easy it was and how little remained to be done for the Dodgers. 🙂
Worked for me — and the Dodgers have a habit of turning me into Eeyore, when I consider myself optimistic in the other phases of my life!
Woo-HOO ! ! ! ! !
We win!
Take 5 everybody…
Howell may not make the playoff roster.
He looks pretty sharp tonight.
I’d think Dayton and probably Lipitor are ahead of him.
Rats. Infield single. Still need the third out.
What happened to Pence? I had to leave for a few minutes.
Don’t know. I feel asleep for a few minutes.
Just think that he was replaced along with a number of the other position players.
Okay. Vinnie said something about hoping he was all right.
Oh, didn’t catch that.
Great strike three pitch Howell.
So, Anderson tomorrow and Kazmir Friday? I’m going Friday, for Vin’s ceremony. Tears will be shed.
Are they broadcasting it?
If nothing else, hopefully a YouTube clip after.
Anyone else find it weird that Wood is slotted into the pen while Anderson and Kazmir get to start? I like Wood (as a starter) as much as the other two.
Hasn’t gotten the work yet that the others have.
Also has some experience coming out of the pen over several years.
Wood in to pitch.
Just back from the Padres game. AZ beat them 3-2 . . . all scoring on HRs, two by Goldschmidt, to give Zack the win (I was rooting for SD).
Everything changed at 7:10, when I went to MLB Audio to listen to Vin (they started at 6:10 here). With that mess of a top of the 1st, I wasn’t happy — but that turned around with the bottom of the 1st . . . and then on.
What a difference a day makes! Puig is definitely making his case to be in Dodger Blue “now and forever,” as the old poster for “Cats” said. (As pointed out here before, it’s definitely boosting his trade value if his attitude hasn’t changed.)
Hopefully the night continues to be encouraging . .. the only bitterness (EDITED: sadness) being one game closer to Vin’s finale.
6 outs left with a 6 run lead to get to 6 games up.
And a magic number of 5.
That’s the number of a different kind of beast — the determined Dodgers.
Its 7 right now, so split the difference and you get your 6.
Good work, Julio.
I’m waiting for the pickoff.
Another inning for Urias? The are really pushing on the limits of a typical yearly inning increase.
But he threw almost 90 inning back in 2014.
Like this ump.
If the Dodgers maintain or increase the lead, they might go this whole series without using Jansen.
They might let him do an inning to stave off the rust.
Yes. That could happen. Also with the pen getting 4 innings tonight, he might be a fresh arm out there.
Plate ump trying to hurry the players along with claps of encouragement. He might also want to expand the strike zone while he is at it.
Good point.
Wondering why they kept Howie in at 2nd at this point. Guessing that Doc wants to get him some work there.
I’m curious to see how Urias does out of the bullpen.
Not great right now. I wish they would just shut him down for the year actually.
The squib was just unlucky. The Belt belt was solidly hit.
Unless Brandi B gets really hot, the Gnats will gnot have a 20-homer guy this season.
I love that the Ump nodded his head and then called the runner out.
Nice to see Ethier every time, even though he hasn’t found his stroke yet.
Easy on the eyes?
Easy on the heart.
I think it’s because he just screams “Dodger” to me.
Toles has tools.
Toles is toolsy.
Even better.
You inspire me.
You find me a-muse-ing?
It’s like a class reunion for the Giants.
Cain.
Peavy.
Zito.
Well maybe not Zito.
Classless reunion, in reality.
Howie!!!
Steiner said it hit the wall, and then said he caught it. I’m not sure whether he’s visually challenged, or prematurely senile.
Oh Charlie!
We really do think weirdly alike at times.
Yes. But apparently I’m more informal than you.
Oh, Steiner.
I just the replay of Kendrick’s double, and it seems Pence took up where he left off last night.
If Dodgers win, they will be tied record-wise vs the Giants, 8-8.
just saw vision of Puig’s great catch
nice aggressive move to steal the base
Seager has a slight chance of getting to 200 hits. Needs to average about 1.5 hits per game the rest of the way.
Oh my, Yasiel!
Puig might be a better right fielder than Pence.
What a catch!
Tonight he is the Human Highlight Reel. (Nod to Dominique Wilkins)
Always fun to see the names on the backs of SF outfielders. Especially when chasing after fly balls.
another out at third, never mind
howie!
bunt was a good call, just poor execution
Love seeing Posey strike out!
Good start. Keep it rolling.
We seem to have woken up tonight.
Lets put some cane on the ball
And how!
more chances here
Span’s arm is well known as well.
Sent you an email, Bob.
Wasn’t there a movie about them? “Amputees in the Outfield.”
Do you suppose hitting Howie was on purpose?
Not very likely to put on the lead off hitter, given his troubles already.
Surprised Moore batted for himself. Giants pen has not added any confidence from their manager.
Probably still better than any other option.
Probably gets pulled if he gets into trouble again. Two outs nobody on in the second is an unlikely time to use a PH.
Okay, boys, let’s get some more now. Keep adding on.
Ack. No homers to the rook!
His other one was off of Klayton.
Actually, not as young as he looks. He hit one before that in 2013 against Pettitte.
Baseballs be flying tonight.
Should never make the third out at third however. At least it keeps Maeda off the bases.
Making sure that Cooch was able to chug home.
Agree, it forced the ball to be cutoff
That was sooo fun. I had just finished telling my son that the Dodgers had only scored on one inning so far this series.
Imagine if they only score in 2 innings over 3 games – but win 2 of them?
5!!
Maeda!
Gee, I’ve missed a lot in the last 20 minutes!
Bochy already getting the pen up. Can’t let this game get away.
Desperate enough to consider Gnatt Cain, even.
And I thought Maeda had a rough first inning.
So far not Moore’s night.
Woot!
Rout!
Puig!!!!
Is BadGums looking?
Hope so
OK, but don’t stop now!
Good Puig!
Let’s keep Puig around for a while please.
Solve those lefties Puig
A good throw and some hustle from Pagan might have resulted in an out at the plate
He knows his own arm.
And so does the Dodgers third base coach
Pagan showing off his arm.
Ha!
Not bad for somebody who relies on telekinesis, though,
Is that from Brisbee?
I confess…but he was talking about Span. Still, they do have two amputees in the outfield.
Sounds like the name of a sick movie.
AGon!
The video of Puig’s throw is up at Gameday.
Phenomenal throw, but Span must have been blind not be going on contact. AGon coulda scored on that.
I have never been as happy conceding 1 run in the first inning.
Could have been worse.
Should have been better
sounds like glass half empty vs glass half full
Or looking through ruiz colored glasses
Nice.
Maeda with ten balls, six strikes so far.
Let’s keep it at 1. Runs might be hard to come by for LA tonight.
walk on 4 pitches, passed ball, error (anything else)
Pitcher or catcher might have crossed each other up. Ruiz didn’t look like he was looking for a curve ball.
Ruiz is not impressing so far tonight. Passed ball leads to the first run, error leads to another man on second.
I miss AJ
Cooch must feel pretty terrible at this point.
Looked like the throw was there on time but the tag would have been late regardless.
Sure, but two runners have advanced into scoring position where he had a central role.
Vin keeps saying how good a throw Puig made and that it was there in time.
Would have been close, but Ruiz had to catch it and turn toward the runner.
The throw yes. But Ruiz was swinging around behind to try and tag Span, who was already across the plate by that time.
Kazmir and Anderson in rotation against Rockies tomorrow and Friday.
A win tonight will make those games less scary.
Whoopee.
Hmm. Rather do it after we clinched but maybe not enough time then.
I’d stick with the rookies, myself.
More Tim Brown on Bumgarner:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/madison-bumgarners-wannabe-bully-act-is-getting-old-173043996.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw
“a thin-skinned wannabe bully whose efforts to police the game are tiresome.”
I thought that Brown nailed it in this column.
Dodgers starting lineup tonight vs. Moore is 12-for-63 (.190). Kendrick is 6-for-18 (.333). Without him the rest of the lineup is 6-for-45 (.133). Pederson, not starting, has the only HR of any current Dodger against Moore.
Dodgers hit him hard in Tampa, though.
May that be repeated tonight.
I would much rather have Toles in LF and Joc in CF with Kendrick at second.
Columnist Tim Brown on Madison Bumgarner:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/madison-bumgarners-meltdown-with-yasiel-puig-leads-to-another-giants-collapse-073215628.html
A gentle takedown…
This was well written, but he still implied that Puig had something to do with setting Bumgarner off, which, in this case, is simply not true.
Puig did violate the servant / master eye contact law that Bumbarner apparently believes in.
Huge Canadian crowd at Blue Jays-Mariners game in Seattle today. Just went wild when Bautista tied game in top of ninth.
LAT’d photo of the week: https://twitter.com/LiveBreatheLA/status/778091829552115712