Game 37, 2017

Dodgers at Rockies, 5:00 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, ROOTRM

Lefty Alex Wood (3-0, 2.73 ERA) pitches for the Dodgers against lefty Tyler Anderson (2-3, 6.69 ERA). Anderson was scheduled to pitch the opening game of the series on Thursday but was pushed back because of leg soreness. Coors Field is not Wood’s favorite place to pitch: he’s 0-2 with an 11.25 ERA in four starts and he’s allowed 20 earned runs in 16 innings there. Anderson is 0-2 with a 6.30 ERA in two starts spanning 10 innings against the Dodgers this season.

What do pitching coaches do? Well:

“He’d gotten in a bad habit,” Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said of Wood’s time in Atlanta, when his velocity was about 4 mph slower than it is now. “His arm slot had really dropped. Didn’t have the angle with the fastball. We revamped his delivery more to what it was when he first got to the big leagues out of college, and he’s really been able to stay on that.”

Today in Dodgers history:

  • 1947 During the pre-game infield practice, a barrage of racial slurs is directed at Jackie Robinson by the Cincinnati fans during the Dodgers’ first visit to Crosley Field this season. Brooklyn shortstop Pee Wee Reese, a Southerner from Kentucky with friends attending the game and captain of the team, engages the black infielder in conversation, and then put his arm around his teammate’s shoulder, a gesture that stuns and silences the crowd.
  • 1952 Larry Miggins hits the first of his two major league home runs, going deep off Preacher Roe in the fourth inning of the Cardinals’ 14-8 loss to the Dodgers at Ebbets Field. The round-tripper hit by the Bronx-born outfielder, who had once shared his dream of playing in big leagues during a prep school assembly with a buddy with aspirations to be a baseball broadcaster, is called by an overwhelmed Vin Scully, Brooklyn’s play-by-play announcer who had wondered that day with his friend “what the odds against that would be.”

Lineup when available.

111 thoughts on “Game 37, 2017

  1. I got juggling clubs today as a gift. I can already juggle three balls, so I guess I am ready to try the next level. Anyone have club juggling experience?

  2. Tomorrow’s game – which will be a battle for first place and feature Urias vs Senatela – is MLB.tv’s free Game of the Day!

  3. Bucs behead the Snakes 4-3, so the Dodgers have a chance to gain on everybody except the Gnats today.

  4. Is it even possible to throw a shut out at Coors? How often had it been accomplished?

  5. Chopped onions and peppers and potatoes and only two more comments in 20 minutes? Class, you’re not rowdy enough! Where’s RBI?

    • It’s Coors, so starting to sweat quietly, aware that good things can be dashed by bad things happening quickly.

    • I was reading with my son – and watching the end of the Ottawa-Pittsburgh hockey game.

      • Sorry. I had to go off and actually cook it. Mom had a root canal Thursday and her mouth has been hurting, so instead of Saturday night steaks or burgers I made a hamburger hash. I figured that would be easy enough to chew. Diced russet potato, chopped red, green and yellow peppers, a lot of white onion and a pound of ground beef. Brown the beef, drain it, throw in the potatoes to soften and then add the beef and the veggies. S&P as needed/desired. Cook until it tastes done.

        She liked it and could eat it. I liked it too.

    • I have been working with one eye on the iPad… Back in time for the ninth. Go Kenley!

      • Putting kids to bed for daytime sleep, I have the other eye on the ipad

  6. Ump squeezed Wood there – at least acorrding to MLB pitch tracker.

    • 105 MPH is about 10 MPH over league average on balls-in-play. Its very good but not super good. Good launch angle. Joc’s ground ball that ws turned into a double play last night was 114 MPH. Glad it wasn’t me getting in front of that one.

  7. Eibner utterly crushed that pitch. Even by Coors standards, a monster dinger.

  8. WinnipegDave:
    From last night: I saw Bad Day at Black Rock decades ago and then watched it again a few years ago. Thought it was an excellent and important film, ahead of its time on social issues. What did you think? Had you seen it before?

  9. Including the first three innings tonight, Wood has 26 Ks, two BBs in last 13 innings.

      • Let’s not. Send Hill to the pen or put Ryu on the DL or something.

      • Agreed. We have had many trips to the DL by starting pitchers — Hill (twice), Maeda, Ryu, Kazmir and McCarthy — but the FO has done a good job in stocking up on starters.

  10. Seager, Pederson, Bellinger, Grandal, Kershaw, Hill, Wood, Urias, Verdugo. Lots of lefties plus Puig and Turner hit righties better than lefties as well.

  11. Barnes forces the hand with the steal. Maybe get more than lineup turning.

  12. While acknowledging the worthiness of the cause, I hate the pink details on the uniforms. At least the Dodgers refrained from altering their caps.

  13. I thought tonight’s game was a 5 o’clock start our time. Was I wrong or is there some sort of a delay?

  14. PeeWee’s embrance of Jackie was all the more stunning because he was from the Louisville area – part of Cincy’s fan base in redneck Kentucky.

    • There is a serious question about whether the embrace ever happened. No reporting of it at the time. No eyewitnesses that I know of who noted it at the time. It may be more apocryphal than real, but, hey, I choose to believe it.

      • Perhaps the sportswriters were still at the bar, or an editor later didn’t think it appropriate for a game report on the sports page. 😉

        • Ken Burns examines it in his excellent two-part, four-hour documentary on Robinson. It is well worth watching, as is everything Burns has done, in my opinion.