Game 126, 2017

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Dodgers at Pirates, 1:05 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, ATT SportsNet-PIT

Dodger lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu (4-6, 3.45 ERA) will face the Pirates’ RHP Chad Kuhl (6-8, 4.52 ERA) in a day game at PNC Park. Ryu seems to have gotten on track after his two-year recovery from injuries: he’s 2-0 with a 2.22 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 44 2/3 innings in his last eight starts. Kuhl has pitched much better since July 1, posting a 3.21 ERA. In his first 15 starts of the season before that he had a 5.58 ERA.

Yu Darvish and Kenta Maeda will meet and greet the Japanese Little League team before the game.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1941 During a double-header against the Cardinals, a rag tag group of five ‘musicians’, dubbed the Dodger SymPhony by announcer Red Barber, makes their Ebbets Field’s debut. This band, in which none of the members can read music, performs their zany antics at all evening and weekend games.
  • 1955 A telegram sent to Brooklyn president Walter O’Malley by the Patchogue Chamber of Commerce offers the team “thirty acres or more of dry flat land in open country in the heart of Long Island’s densest Dodger fan concentration.” The village’s attempt to attract the fleeing franchise to the south shore of Suffolk County will not materialize, and the club, after exploring many different venues as an alternative to Ebbets Field, will leave the East Coast in 1958 to play in Los Angeles.
  • 1957 The Dodgers, in a 13-3 loss to Milwaukee at Ebbets Field, use eight pitchers in one game, tying a major league record. Johnny Podres gives up three home runs in the fourth frame when Nippy Jones, Hank Aaron, and Andy Pafko all go deep off the Brooklyn starter.
  • 1960 During a dull game, Vin Scully, the play-by-play voice of the Dodgers, knowing that many fans in the stands follow the game on transistor radios, asks his listeners to help him surprise third base umpire Frank Secory. His ballpark audience responds when the veteran broadcaster tells them, “Let’s have some fun. As soon as the inning is over I’ll count to three, and on three everybody yell, ‘Happy birthday, Frank!'”
  • 1974 Davey Lopes steals five bases, tying a National League record established in 1904 by Giants first baseman Dan McGann. The Dodger second baseman’s quintet of stolen bags adds to the team’s franchise mark of eight stolen bases in their 3-0 victory over the Redbirds at Chavez Ravine.
  • 1975 Davey Lopes steals his major league record 38th consecutive base, but the streak will be stopped by Montreal backstop Gary Carter when he attempts to swipe another base in the Dodger Stadium contest. The second baseman will be thrown out in the 12th inning of the team’s 5-3 loss in fourteen innings.
  • 2014 Joc Pederson becomes the fourth player in the history of the Pacific Coast League to have a 30-30 season, and the first to accomplish the feat in 80 years, when he steals his 30th base for the Isotopes. The 22 year-old Albuquerque slugger, who has 32 home runs and a .432 slugging percentage in 116 games this season, will join the Dodgers when rosters expand next week.

Lineup when available.

Yes, that is a birthday cake for Kiké. No, I did not add it. The Dodgers’ Twitter person did.

157 thoughts on “Game 126, 2017”

  2. Just read the SI article you posted yesterday, Link — thanks!
    I knew about JT’s impact on the field, I didn’t realize it’s equally important off it.

  3. I expect there to be a grand welcome for Curtis in Dodger Stadium tomorrow — what a debut week!

      • That low of a BA?
        He seemed to have had an impact on every game I heard.
        I’m also impressed with his hustle.

        • A walk’s as good as a hit – unless that hit goes for extra bases, preferably four of them.

  6. Last night’s game exhausted me, so I decided to just check in periodically tonight. It still seems as though we struggled to score tonight, looking at the number of hits we had. Just one of those runs from today’s game, last night would have been helpful

    • Agree re both points — LOB and “if only.”
      As Vin taught me (amongst sooo many other things): “Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.”

  7. Road trip was 5-2. The only loss to Pittsburgh was our best-pitched game of the season. Ironic.

    • Nice way to bounce back after that heart-breaking game last night.

      But sounds like they have been leaving A LOT of runners on base.
      Winning is winning (+ an historic loss), but is there any concern about all those LOB?
      We know that LOB can become RBI . . . right RBI?

      • Percentage of base runners scoring doesn’t vary much over any significant amount of time among teams. The average in the NL is 15%. Rox are at 17% and Nats at 16% and Dodgers are 14%. Most teams are clustered around 13-14%. The Rox are a bit of an outlier (Coors), but even then we are talking about the Rox scoring 3 more runs our of 100 base runners more than the Dodgers this season Even then the Rox have only scored 19 more runs than the Dodgers, because the Dodgers have had 92 more base runners and have hit more solo dingers (29 more dingers in total – too lazy to do the math)..

  12. Utley (.228) and Hernandez (.220) have both been very valuable despite their low averages.

  16. Granderson and Grandal have combined for six homers n the last six games, including today’s, and Grandal has played in only four of them.

  22. Got to go back to my houseguests. Hopefully I will get to have my own belated woo-hoo later!

  24. Short relievers are not allowed to mix several bad outings in with several good outings. I’d rather see Avilan than Watson or Cingrani.

    • It’s tough work where failings are magnified by the short duration and intensity of their appearances.

      • So true. We expect relievers to get the job done every time, which is way too high a bar. But when they fail frequently, it is difficult to digest.

        • Again, Dodgers have the luxury of a big division lead to experiment with their relievers.

        • As well, the common way that they are measured, saves, halts and ERA often hides more than it gleans.

      • A starter with an ERA of 3.00 is generally considered good, a reliever at that same number is mediocre. Magnified situations lead to magnified expectations.

  29. Many chances to put this game away have been frittered away. Let’s hope that they don’t come back to haunt us.

    • Ugh. A whole lot of nothing.
      But I’m not going to complain about this small sample size when:
      A. They are actually leading this game.
      B. They have about a million wins this season.

    • Averaged 7 runs in first two games of the series. Hit the ball well yesterday. Today’s game still being played.

  36. To my fellow Dodger fans on this site, I am taking my daughter and sister to the Saturday night game against the Brewers. Our seats on the reserve level between home and third: 7RS, Row K, Seats 11, 14 and 15 (they are separated). If any of you are there and want to say hello, that would be great.

    • If the first baseman, for example. drops a throw for an error allowing the runner to be safe, the infielder who made the throw gets an assist. So, conceivably, that play could continue to be repeated — someone dropping a throw for an error on what should have been an out — and there could be an infinite number of assists. Haven’t said that, I still haven’t answered your question.

  50. Since both the Rox and Snakes have already won, Dodgers will have to win to maintain their lead.

  62. Believe that was Joc’s OBP. He slugged .582. Never showed much ability at stealing bases in the Bigs. While he did steal 33 at AAA, he was also caught 13 times (72%). I am reminded that Wills also got caught 13 times in 1962, but he stole 104!