Game 88, 2017

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Royals at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSKC

The Royals send RHP Jason Hammel (4-7, 5.08 ERA) to the mound to face the Dodgers’ Kenta Maeda (6-4, 4.56 ERA).

Hammel hasn’t gotten past the sixth inning in either of his last two starts. In his most recent one he gave up seven runs (six earned) on nine hits and two walks in 5 1/3 innings in a loss to the Twins. He is 2-7 with a 5.00 ERA in 18 career games (14 starts) against the Dodgers. Maeda had a rough time in his last start when he gave up five runs on eight hits in 3 2/3 innings in a loss to the Padres. In his previous four appearances he had a 1.06 ERA. Maeda has never faced the Royals before.

In case you missed it, Scott Van Slyke was recalled from OKC to replace Grant Dayton, who went on the 10-day DL with a stiff neck. Also, as expected, Alex Wood will replace Clayton Kershaw at the All Star Game.

Another thing you might have missed: yesterday was Dave Roberts Bobblehead night, and his kids had a big part in it. Daughter Emme sang the National Anthem and his son, Cole, threw out the ceremonial first pitch — a strike. Then the two kids teamed up to say “It’s Time for Dodger Baseball!”

This date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1953 The Dodgers set a major league mark for the most consecutive games with a home run by a team with a least one round tripper in their 24 contests. Brooklyn starter Preacher Roe hits the record-breaking homer with a third-inning blast in the team’s 9-5 victory over Pittsburgh at Forbes Field.
  • 1998 Jeff Shaw becomes the first player to participate in an All-Star game wearing a uniform for a team he hasn’t yet played for when he works an inning, allowing three hits and a run pitching for the National League squad before appearing in a regular season game for the Dodgers. The 32 year-old closer, who posted a 1.81 ERA along with 23 saves in the first half of the season for the Reds, was traded three days by Cincinnati to Los Angeles for Paul Konerko and Dennys Reyes.
  • 2004 Kazuhisa Ishii tosses a one-hitter in the Dodgers’ 11-0 defeat of Arizona. The 30 year-old Japanese southpaw retires the first 12 batters he faces before issuing a leadoff walk to Luis Gonzalez, which is followed with a single by Shea Hillenbrand, but then the left-hander proceeds to mow down 15 consecutive D-Backs to finish his masterpiece.

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125 thoughts on “Game 88, 2017”

  2. I’ve always liked what Preacher Roe said to Roger Kahn about that home run in The Boys of the Summer.

    Kahn: “The book also says that you came to bat 620 times, and that was your only home run.”

    Roe: “Yep. You got a secret weapon like that, you don’t want to go showing it around.”

  3. Good win for the Dodgers. I guess Mc Carthy will come off the DL and pitch. At some point they are going to have to decide what to do with Brock. This up and down stuff drives me (and probably him) crazy.

    • He was certainly in the running for the fifth spot coming into ST. Very good pitcher who was mentioned in trade speculation then and now.

  21. Joe and Orel had an interesting conversation about Maeda working out this off season and gained 15 pounds of muscle. Their hypothesis was that the extra muscle messed up their control.

    • I heard that as well. I was dubious until Orel said the same thing happened to him.

  26. Can Maeda dance his way out of this without giving up the run? Just need one more out!

    • Apparently he was dancing on the basepath — Kennedy noticed his secondary lead.

  27. Shoot, another lead-off double, this one by their number 8. They have a strong line-up.

    • I like all runs, but when several pull together to bring in the run, it seems more effective than an HR (of course, if they all got on with hits, that’s the same thing!).

  32. Hope this doesn’t hurt Kenta back on the mound. . . . Keep the inning going and give him a rest!

  41. Full confusion: Started watching Transformers. Never seen it before.

  44. Anyone know why Mo isn’t on the radio?
    When I heard Kennedy, I thought that meant Mo was doing play-by-play, but I was Steinered.

      • Wonder if “the adrenaline has left the building” after playing the contender . . . and the manner in which they were victorious.

    • I agree with what Orel said, that Grandal should not have tried to catch the ball with the tips of his glove to try to get a strike on a ball that was that far outside.

  52. Okay people, get out of the kitchen, step away from the dinner table, give up that beautiful evening, and let’s do the Dodgers.

  53. Learn something every day. LaMonte McLemore, the bass in The 5th Dimension, was also for 50 years the photographer for Jet Magazine’s “Beauty of the Week.” He has stories to tell in a memoir which might be fun to read.

  57. Thinking about last night’s futile 6th inning led me to a question for fans of sabermetrics:
    How has the immediate intentional walk affected the pitcher on the mound at that time? Is their control sharper?

    • Interesting question. So far this year there have been 298 IBB in the NL, as compared to 600 last year. Of course, some number of those involve a pitching change. One would need to define “control”. Easiest would be whether they walk the next guy unintentionally. That said, this is beyond my crunching skills, but someone else is surely up to the challenge.

      • I know the control effect was a question on whether to have your current pitcher throw 4 wide ones or the incoming reliever.

        • Yep, that’s always been the notion and seems more reasonable than not, so yours is an interesting question.

    • It was a terrible trade, but the Dodgers had Karros at the time so Konerko seemed expendable. Karros was a decent player, but Konerko turned out to be far superior. Shaw was mediocre.

      • He’s third on the list of career saves by a Dodger, behind Kenley and Gagne. Granted some saves are gimmes, but still. 129 is not a small number in only four years with the team.

        • Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have had Konerko for 15 years than Shaw for four, but they didn’t know how Konerko would turn out and Shaw was a proven reliever, and they thought they needed one.

          • Are we about to repeat history and make a trade for a lefty reliever? Verdugo could be the Konerko of 2017.

        • Shaw was replaced by Danny Graves, whose 182 saves for the Reds remains tops.

      • The Reds thought he was expendable as well and gave the first base job to Sean Casey. Konerko was traded the next year for Mike Cameron, who himself lasted only a year before he became part of the package for Ken Griffey Jr.

    • I made my first visit to Vero Beach in 1996 and I remember seeing a board on the outside of a building, maybe a gift shop, that had a projected Dodger lineup . I was a Karros fan so I didn’t appreciate that Konerko was listed as the first baseman instead of Karros. I wonder who made the decision to keep Karros and trade Konerko.

  59. I despise interleague play on principle but, at least for tonight, legitimate baseball rules are in force.