Epitaph for the Cubs series from the LA Times:
On 24 occasions during these 27 innings, a Dodger came to bat with a runner in scoring position. Only once did a Dodger supply a hit. The team stranded 26 runners and managed only four runs in all.
Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS-A
Today it will be a treat: Clayton Kershaw v. Zack Greinke, two guys who were 1-2 in the Dodgers’ rotation in 2013-2015.
The duo went 104-34 during their three seasons together. Greinke finished second in National League Cy Young award voting in 2015, while Kershaw finished third. Kershaw won the award in 2013 and 2014.
Other info:
Kershaw has started 24 games in his career against Arizona and is 12-8 with a 2.75 ERA in those contests. Last season, he faced the D-backs once and struck out 11 in 7 1/3 innings.
Greinke has started seven games against the Dodgers and is 3-2 with a 3.80 ERA.
Lineup when available.
Tonight's Dodger lineup vs. D-backs:
Toles LF
Seager SS
Turner 3B
González 1B
Forsythe 2B
Grandal C
Pederson CF
Puig RF
Kershaw P pic.twitter.com/305jUFfk5d— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 14, 2017
I believe Toles is a keeper.
NPUT @ 0900HST, 1200PST
1500EST
That’s game time. The POST will be up at noon PST. 🙂
Well done, Kershaw, Toles, Turner and you all.
What a fun game.
Night all. Chat again tomorrow.
Woo-HOO!!!
We win!
Game comes screeching to a halt.
Baez. Hold the fireworks!
Slow as always.
Too bad. Such a close play at home.
On the other hand, we got to see the real Pedro Báez.
There’s a slider for a K.
I often think back to Jon Weisman’s new definition of a “perfect game”: a team only using the 9 players in the game’s starting line up.
Dodgers could accomplish this relatively rare event tonight.
You and Jon are weird.
This has been a good night for me. First an invite to watch a Dodger game with RBI. And now I have been compared favourable to Jon Weisman.
Oh and the Dodgers are winning.
Nice power display by Toles.
Toles was an absolute steal.
Stolen from a supermarket, no?
Shoplifted.
Kershaw batting. So likely to pitch the 9th. Which makes sense since his game score (89) is currently higher than his pitch count (87).
Must admit, I love it when the strikeouts at least equal the innings pitched for Kershaw.
9.8 per 9 for his career, so you must be a happy fellow.
Well yes, I suppose I am now that you mention it.
Klayton not using the slider as his K pitch as much as I am used to.
Yep. They just said 5 of the 6 K’s have been of the looking variety.
Good observation Bob.
Puig with the professional at bat.
Apparently Greinke’s curve is more hitable than Kershaw’s tonight.
Kershaw dealing right now. Must be fun to see. Am I right, RBI? 🙂
So smooth.
Where are you seated?
Reserve section 7 row U just to the left of home.
Pretty nice view of the action.
So, you’re quite a ways up there…
Closer than it looks. Great view.
Glove or no glove? 🙂
No glove. But last game I was further down and just missed a foul ball.
How steep are the steps up there?
Not steep at all.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1a75348aff3be9e68146f62bd4d111976e28137154389dbcbd6f486b72ad683b.jpg
cool, it looks not far from where I saw one of my games in 91, I was a bit more central, but I think I was about that high
I love it here. Great fans.
Woohoo!
This is not the Greinke of old.
JT!
How is the Snakes pen?
Can’t be as good as the Dodgers, I would guess.
I see that Fernando Rodney is their closer at 40 years old.
Got out of it!
nice!
DP would be great right here.
Klayton doing his Charlie Brown imitation.
Did Schroeder come out from behind the plate to give him some encouraging words?
Practically undressed by a shot up the middle.
That’s what I pictured. 🙂
was Joc trying to squeeze Adrian home on that second pitch?
Sounded like it to me.
Just trying to get a hit facing the shift.
Ah thanks, I couldn’t imagine Adrian hustling home any other way
Just trying to take advantage of the shift.
Ooph that was a bad swing by Grandal.
And that changes Greinke’s ERA from 1.90 to 3.20…
happy with more singles
Reminding me of that country song “Drinking Doubles and Acting Single”
That in turn reminds me of an old Navy toast: Here’s to living single, drinking double, and sleeping triple. One hopes this only skirts the rules!
One might plead the 5th after that sequence – especially depending on what happens with the number 4!
The other classic toast at Navy officer formal functions is: To our wives and girlfriends, may they never meet! Now back to this one…
Lifting the curse!
Yes you are! 😉
If the name fits…
Eggs and butter!
Here we go again!
Toles thinks he has found a new offensive weapon.
I think that made 3 times in a row.
Nice to see Kershaw’s ERA starting with the number 2 again.
Now to get Greinke’s back to that number.
Greinke’s could jump to more than that If I get my way.
Greinke probably even money to get the first hit.
Waves hello from Mammoth Lakes, a SNLA desert.
Kershaw leading the pitch count battle if nothing else.
I actually think we could have scored on the double.
Even with Grandal running?
Bobbled in outfield and then again on the throw.
Darn sequencing.
Rats rats rats.
“Come on, Kershaw, whaddya think we pay you $33M a year for?”
Sez some drunk in the stands.
Update: contractions getting stronger! ( A granddaughter for those wondering.)
Exciting!
I should ask if this will be your first grandchild or not.
Fifth!
Oh haha! Now that you say that – I think I recall you previously mentioning a few visits from other grandkids in previous threads last year.
Viewing and babysitting as I recall.
RISP
Hopefully RISP doesn’t mean RIP for hits and runs tonight.
That away Joc. I didn’t want to jinx him by saying Greinke said Joc was an easy out.
Joc saw plenty of pitches.
Both big hits looked like they might leave the stadium.
Seager’s yips on throws to 1st almost continue.
Nomar says it shows he did not get enough reps in ST because of the injury.
That seems logical.
Sounds like Gonzo just missed one.
Is that what Steiner said?
Said it was caught with the fielder right up against the wall.
I think he gave everything he had but not yet enough given the cooler temps. Hopefully his elbow will heal and he will get more power in his swing.
Looked like it hit the wall on slo-mo!
Ugliest uniforms in baseball?
Didn’t realize that Kershaw is traditionally a slow starter and that April is his least successful month. 11-12 win loss record, ERA over 3 and most HR’s given up.
Knew he was great late in the season, but didn’t realize either that he had such trouble in April.
My info is curtousy of Charles Steiner.
Ok, just don’t trust him on fly balls. (how did he play those last two?)
Sounded underwhelmed on the Gonzo fly ball and more excited about Turner’s.
Turner’s was a monster, but to the deepest part of the field.
Steiner = Doggett.
AGon’s nearly went out, Turner’s deep but routine.
I have not been to Dodger Stadium since the ’90’s when my parents were still in Norwalk. Then when they moved into the Inland Empire it was too far to go for a game.. It would be nice to go sometime and see all the improvements.
Where are you now? I hadn’t gone since the late 1990s until two years ago, when I saw Kershaw lose to the Cerveceros. I’ve gone to The Phone Booth to see Dodgers play the Gnats there, but won’t ever go back – I much preferred Candlestick. I did go to an interleague series v. the Atléticos, though.
Haven’t been to DS since 1976, but have seen the Dodgers play in RFK, Foro Sol, National Stadium and Wrigley.
I saw the Dodgers play two games (well one and a half) at Nationals Stadium a few years ago. One of the games was the night the lights failed.
I remember it well.
Come to think of it, I also saw them in Camden Yards.
I was at Jack Murphy Stadium the night that Hershiser broke the scoreless innings record, the only game I’ve ever seen in SD. I’d like to go to a game at the Litterbox, though.
In ’94, I saw three games at Mile High Stadium just before the strike, and a couple years ago a similar series at Coors. My other major league stadia have been in Seattle (Sicks Stadium, Kingdome, Safeco), Fenway, Baltimore (Memorial Stadium) and DC (RFK, a pre-season exhibition), and SF (Candlestick, The Phone Booth).
Reminds me, of course, that I used to see the Dodgers regularly at Jack Murphy, when I lived in San Cali Ding Dong, including the Toy Cannon’s three dinger night.
I saw them maybe half-a-dozen times in the 80s at Dodger Stadium but not since.
Had plans last year to see them in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati but those fell through. My buddy in DC, who is also a Dodgers fan, saw them in Philly once but had a bad experience and I can’t get him to return.
I am still looking forward to my first visit to Dodger Stadium. In fact, I have not seen the Dodgers play anywhere.
Well, you do have RBI’s eyes.
True enough!
Is she at the game tonight, I wonder?
She better be, we need a win!
Ha! We shall see.
I am indeed.
So – no granddaughter then.
Still waiting.
You chose a nice spot to wait. 🙂
Come join me one day!
That would be awesome! At this point, I believe I would be equally excited to see friends from here as I would the Dodger game.
Milwaukee’s relatively close, isn’t it? One-day drive…
Minneapolis is the closest – but my family is not too interested and I don’t have a lot of baseball buddies with whom I could travel.
Dodgers play every year in Milwaukee, but not in Minneapolis.
Yep.
Part of this contrasts Puig with a former teammate (though the author could just as easily have used BadGums): http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2017/04/seventy_years_after_jackie_robinson_mlb_is_still_a_white_man_s_sport.html
This reminds me that I just finished reading Michael Leahy’s “The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers”. Highly recommend it for anyone who grew up with the Dodgers of that era with Maury Wills, Tommy D, Three Dog, Koufax, Drysdale, etc.
I saw Willie D play in the minors with Spokane when they visited with Tacoma, and was once on a plane with Peter O’Malley from Spokane to Seattle.
His father and Buzzie don’t come off too well in the book. Of course all owners and GMs in those days were pretty tough on players, shielded by the Reserve Clause. But the book shows some of the beginnings of the players revolt with Koufax and Drysdale.
There was a lot more Wes Parker in it than I anticipated.
Same here. Guess he was particularly talkative.
All these “keepers of tradition” ought to retire, be they players or sportwriters. It’s a game, and joy should be a part of it..
Start with BadGums.
It’s actually impressive that we had RISP in 24 of the 27 innngs. The other part, not so much.
And tomorrow the Dodgers will unveil their first-ever statue at Dodger Stadium. It’ll be of Jackie Robinson, of course.
It’s a weekend for ball park statuary: the Mariners just unveiled this one of The Kid.
The greatest player of his era.