Padres at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD
The visiting Padres send lefty Clayton Richard to the mound in hopes he’ll continue pitching as well as he did over the last two months of last season, when he induced ground balls at a 64 percent clip. The Dodgers hope Kenta Maeda does as well in his first start of 2017 as he did in his major league debut in Game Three of last season; he shut out the Padres for six innings and hit a home run. The Dodgers say he’s added a cutter to his repertoire this year.
A couple of interesting things about the Dodgers pitcher:
Maeda tossed three perfect frames and struck out four Angels in his Spring Training finale on Thursday. He needed just 29 pitches. In five spring starts, Maeda posted a 3.00 ERA and a .182 batting average against.
Among pitchers who gave up at least 300 batted balls last season, Maeda led the way by allowing just 28.2 percent to be hit with an exit velocity of 95 mph or harder. Teammate Clayton Kershaw was fourth in that category, at 31.0 percent.
Lineup when available.
Forsythe 2B
Seager SS
Turner 3B
Gutierrez LF
Puig RF
Gonzalez 1B
Grandal C
Hernandez CF
Maeda P— Alanna Rizzo (@alannarizzo) April 4, 2017
Let the platooning begin. Joc sits against a lefty, Kiké plays. Toles sits against lefties too? I dunno. Certainly against this one.
NPUT
Stupid southpaws!
Pedro Guerrero suffered a stroke yesterday and is on a ventilator in an NYC hospital.
Said to be improving, gracias a dios. https://dodgers.mlblogs.com/mota-guerrero-is-improving-after-stroke-d19d8de46b2e
Can’t win them all! 160 games to go! (Snort.)
Ho hum
That sums it up so exactly. Maybe just add a shrug emoticon or a little sigh…
https://www.tenor.co/view/alonzo-mourning-heat-gif-4933735
Beautiful night out here, but we can’t solve Richard.
If I recall correctly, your early season visits to Dodger Stadium last year – didn’t produce great team results…
Which I mention only because… Actually, I have no idea why I mention that.
Getting a jump on finding scapegoats?
Well, I realized that is what it sounded like I was going for – but was not what I wanted to suggest when I started the comment.
What I should have said was – “Hi RBI. Nice you are here again this season and hope you enjoy being at the game.”
Hi back. Baseball!!!
Believe me, the thought crossed my mind.
Foul ball bounced right in front of me. Biggest excitement of the game!
Turner clearly HBP’d, and NYC blows it.
Lots of GIDP tonight.
Our turn.
These 3 runs seem more troubling than the 3 the Padres scored yesterday.
Especially when you’re doing nothing v. a mediocrity like Clayton Richard.
A mediocre pitcher over much of his career, he has resurrected his career since coming back from injury in 2015 and most recently put up an ERA+ of 162 over 9 starts with the Pads in 2016.
He is pitching very very well.
I remain unconvinced.
Ok. Talk to Doc and the boys.
Fine play by Puig.
The old humdrum 1-5 DP. Yawn.
Reminded of this one against the Pads. (Ah, the voice of Vin) http://m.mlb.com/news/article/28774198/
This inning is starting to be the death by 1000 paper cuts.
and continuing as such.
Not an edifying inning, but it’s still early.
Happy New Year
Jon comes out of limbo, posts at Dodger Thoughts.
http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/
More surprised by Joc that Toles, afterall that is why they acquired Franklin. As regards Joc, they will probably pick and choose which southpaws he starts against to get him going. A lefty that induces ground balls at that rate probably not optimal for Joc.
Toles sits against lefties too?
I know this is why they got Gutierrez, but clean-up? Really? Not really a fan of Toles leading off yesterday, either. He’s not what one would call a patient hitter. A good hitter, yes, but not a patient one.
SSS, but Toles and Seager led the team in OBP last year, so being a good hitter made up for a low BB rate (Seager was below average BB rate as well). Logan had a like BB rate (and a lower AVE) last year. It’s what we got.
Hard to say what the real thought was here. It is just game 2, so we can’t establish patterns yet. Perhaps it was to just get some guys into their first game before semi-regular lineups begin. That said, I’d agree that a reserve outfielder hitting fourth doesn’t seem optimal.
As for Toles leading off, I’m impressed with Forsythe enough to feel his bat may well be better suited in the 3-6 range, which really does leave Toles as the best option.
All told, it was one game. If it continues though, I’m against it.
To quote Bob Barker, “You asked for it!” https://twitter.com/alannarizzo/status/849380285963800576
Thanks! I moved it up above.