Game 152, 2017

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Dodgers at Phillies, 4:05 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, CSN-P

If the Dodgers win and the D-Backs lose the Dodgers clinch the NL West.

LHP Alex Wood (15-3, 2.69 ERA) goes for the Dodgers and RHP Jake Thompson (2-2, 4.46 ERA) goes for the Phillies.

Wood seems to be mostly recovered from the sternum problem which sent him to the DL. In his last start he pitched six scoreless innings and gave up just three hits to the Nats. Thompson is making only his seventh start of the year and has given up one or no runs in two of his last three starts. In that other one, however, he gave up seven runs, five earned, in five innings.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1907 At Exposition Park in Pittsburgh, Nick Maddox no-hits the Dodgers, 2-1. At the age of 20 years and ten months, the Pirates hurler becomes the youngest pitcher and the second rookie to throw a no-hitter.
  • 1911 Bill Bergen ends his major league career with the lowest lifetime batting average for a position player in major league history by hitting an anemic .170 during his 11-year tenure with the Reds and Superbas. The 33 year-old backstop, who had only one year of batting above .200, also holds the records for lowest season batting average for a regular season (.139 in 1909) and the longest streak of at-bats without a hit (46 in 1909).
  • 1954 The Giants clinch the pennant when they beat the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, 7-1. The National League champs, finishing the season five games ahead of second-place Brooklyn, will go on to sweep Cleveland in the Fall Classic.
  • 1959 The San Francisco Giants, bowing to the Dodgers, 8-2, play their last game at Seals Stadium. The transplanted New York team, who compiled a 163-145 record in their two-year stay in the former PCL park, will move to the newly constructed Candlestick Park next season.
  • 1961 In a 13-inning contest, Sandy Koufax goes the distance, beating the Cubs, 3-2, in the last regular season game to be played at the LA Memorial Coliseum, which was originally built for the 1932 Olympics. The Dodgers are leaving the only home they have known since moving from Brooklyn four seasons ago to play in a brand new stadium in Chavez Ravine, located a few miles from downtown Los Angeles.
  • 2011 Clayton Kershaw becomes the Dodgers’ first 20-game winner since Ramon Martinez accomplished the feat in 1990. Allowing just one run in 7 1/3 innings, the southpaw gets the victory when LA beats the visiting Giants, 2-1.
  • 2012 Washington secures a playoff spot when they beat the Dodgers at Nationals Park, 4-1. The last time there was postseason baseball in the nation’s capital occurred 79 years ago, when player-skipper Joe Cronin and the Senators lost to the Giants in five games in the 1933 World Series.

Lineup:

234 thoughts on “Game 152, 2017”

  2. Dodgers 5-15 (.250) in Sept. The worst Sept/Oct record by a playoff team is the Pads in 1998 at 9-15 (.375). That team did make it all the way to the WS, before being swept by the Yanks. The 2000 Yanks, meanwhile were 5-15 over there last twenty, including 7 losses to end the season before going on to win the WS.

  4. RBI: I would have gotten back to you much sooner but the Jewish New Year began at sundown tonight and I went to services. No, I didn’t pray for the Dodgers to win.

  5. RBI: Yes, yes. I would like to buy the two tickets from you for the Saturday, October 7, game, if they are still available. Much appreciated. How do I best get in touch with you and pay you?
    Marvelous.

  8. We are Pollyannas here, compared to commenters to the story of today’s game on the Dodger site . . . they are talking about firing Doc if LA doesn’t win more than one postseason game — and even fire him right now!

  9. If this is postseason and the Dodgers have a lead, should Doc keep Wood in longer?
    Based on what I heard, he was doing fine. I guess it depends on how he’s feeling about the bullpen. Lately, in Kenley we trust and that’s about it.

    • The score at the time and the need to PH for Wood seemed to dictate pulling him at only 82 pitches.

      • The PH was needed tonight because they were trailing.

        But IF they have the lead in the playoffs and there is no auditioning and the only goal is to win, will Doc let the starters go further in the game? Guess it depends on how he truly feels about the bullpen.

        I admire Doc for always putting on a positive front and taking the long view by trying to bolster the confidence of his players and not throwing them under the bus. But when you’re faced with a season as short as 3 and a maximum of 19 games, you can’t be looking too much further ahead than the last out of the current game (unless you’re Joe Maddon and bring in your closer with a 5-run lead so that he’s wasted for Game 7 — except that was probably indicative of the level of confidence — none — that he had in his other relievers).

  10. When I first became a baseball and Dodger fan, I read everything I could on the team.
    When I read about a terrible year — or terrible ending to a year — all I needed to do was turn the page to start another year.
    It’s a lot different actually living through it!

  11. 10 games to go, now I’m just hoping they can make 100 wins.
    It’s hard to take at the moment, but if at the start of the season we could have said our record will be 100-62 (or around about that) and we have made the playoffs, we would all have been thrilled.

  12. People… I have four tix available for the Saturday NLDS home game October 6th. Infield Reserve, Section 32 Row T seats 5-8. $62.00 each (including fees). Scoop, Bob et al, any takers?

  16. Top of the long list of worries for me right now is the bullpen performance. Walks and dingers and bad throws and a general sense of collapse.

  17. Ironic that a great play is made vs. Puig, who couldn’t catch the winning hit.
    The presumed postseason SP started these three games.
    Bats were absent for two of them, collapse by the ace in one of them, collapse by bullpen in all three of them.
    Epic fail?

    • I sure hope they do it with a win of their own.
      I believe you said it before, they are limping to the finish line. Actually, they aren’t moving at all, they’re hoping the line comes to them.

        • Not what I mean. And I’m sure not what they want.
          Postseason doesn’t care what you did for three great months. It’s what’ve you done lately.
          And they’ve done diddly.

    • Der ist Berliner! (JFK’s famous quote – “Ich bin ein Berliner” – actually meant, “I’m a jelly donut.”

  24. On the bright side, Robbie Ray really struggling at The Litter Box, gave up first MLB dinger to scrub catcher and has high pitch count. Pads lead 4-2 in third.

        • IF this is all auditioning vs. trying to win, I can accept that, to an extent (and that expiration date is probably today).
          But I really can’t accept this continual losing. I do not believe they can wake up and say “We are going to do everything we can to win today” and that will guarantee the W.

  28. 2nd & 3rd without a hit, nor an out. Dodgers are trying to be even more generous than the Phils were the top of this inning.

  29. If they perform like this vs. the Phillies — with the second-worst record in the league — how will they manage in the postseason?

    • We don’t mind when the Blue receive it.
      But when they give it, totally agree . . . COME ON!

  34. Two minute wait at the DMV. I got into the car just in time to hear the Dodgers lead, then drove into the Safeway parking lot just as that lead disappeared on the HR by what’s-his-name. Swore mightily. Then got home in time to see Barnes score.

  45. I simply don’t believe this. Why Stripling and not Morrow? This is the fourth straight appearance in which Stripling has been scored upon. Morrow has been scored upon once in his last 14 appearances. Does Roberts understand his personnel? Does he pay attention to what they have been doing?

  47. Baseball proves you are only as good as your weakest link.
    In defense of Stripling, there have been an awful lot of weak links this past month.

  52. Shaking my head . . .
    If they don’t lose one way, they find another way . . .
    (Tho they haven’t lost yet.)

  69. Alex pitched a better game than Kersh thru 6.
    Don’t make no difference when you don’t get no offensive support.

  71. ah, remember the days when a runner in scoring position was RBI’ed home more often than not?

  72. just saw vision of Puig’s great catch, I assume PR and Mex as his black eye shadow is in support of the natural disasters occurring in those countries at the moment. If that is the case, that is fantastic

  74. RBI: Do you have tix for the second NLDS game involving the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, October 6, that you would be willing to sell? I’d be happy for one and would drive down from the Monterey Peninsula. Thanks for your consideration.

  81. A big part of the problem: 0-for-4 with RISP tonight, 0-for-9 in this series, 3-for-32 in the last four-and-a-half games, including tonight’s.

  83. I like how Puig is upping his batting average seemingly game after game. He has been a hero of this season both at bat and in the field.

        • No, not with a man on first and none out. But with first and second and no outs, and Barnes the batter, I would have called for the bunt. If successful, we would have had two runners in scoring position with none out. If everything else had followed as it did, we would have scored a run on a fly ball. Outside of our pitchers, we have had only four successful sacrifice bunts this season.

          • No, they don’t, which is odd considering the aggressive base runner Roberts was. In his career he had 243 steals and was thrown out 58 times. Roberts’ SB as a Red Sox vs. the Yankees in the post-season in 2004 may have been the biggest SB in Boston’s history.

          • Dodgers seem aggressive running, just not SB. Cody was on his way to third before he slipped.

          • Back when things were going well, they played small ball successfully.
            These are the same players (+ some), but not the same team. They need to get runs any way they can.

  88. Link: The information above (1961) about the Coliseum history is a common mistake, but I know that the error was not yours. From Wikipedia:
    “The Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a memorial to L.A. veterans of World War I
    (rededicated to all United States veterans of World War I in 1968). The official ground breaking ceremony took place on December 21, 1921 with work being completed in just over 16 months, on May 1, 1923. Designed by John and Donald Parkinson, The original bowl’s initial construction costs were $954,873. When the Coliseum opened in 1923, it was the largest stadium in Los Angeles with a capacity of 75,144. In 1930, however, with the Olympics due in two years, the stadium was extended upward to seventy-nine rows with two tiers of tunnels, expanding the seating to 101,574. The now-signature torch was added.”

    Much to my chagrin, Wikipedia fails to note that my parents allowed my sister and me to play hooky and took us to the first Dodgers game there on April 18, 1958. Carl Erskine beat the Giants, 6-5.

    • Huh. Well, it’s not the first error I’ve seen at the nationalpastime.com site I get the history from. This is a little more egregious than most, though. Nice catch.

      • Yes, that site does make periodic errors. However, I truly appreciate the historical context you provide on this site day after day. It enlivens things. However, for the record, I was not at the game on this date in 1907 when Nick Maddox no-hit the Dodgers.

  89. From ESPN:

    Roberts said Kenta Maeda and Hyun-Jin Ryu will pitch out of the bullpen in the playoffs. The rotation figures to include Clayton Kershaw, Darvish, Rich Hill and Alex Wood. Roberts also said both likely will see bullpen time in the final days of the regular season. Maeda is scheduled to start Thursday in Philadelphia.