Game 20, 2019

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Reds at Dodgers, 12:10 PM PDT, TV: FS-O, SPNLA

The Reds ask RHP Sonny Gray (0-2, 2.03 ERA) to salvage one game of this three-game set. He’ll face RHP Walker Buehler (1-0, 8.25 ERA), who’s been alternating good and bad games so far; if the pattern holds today he should be good.

Here’s Verdugo’s 2-run double in the 7th inning of Tuesday’s game:

On this date in Dodgers history:

  • 1955 Roberto Clemente singles off Dodger pitcher Johnny Podres in his first major league at-bat. The Pirates’ rookie, who will die in a plane crash attempting to bring relief aid to earthquake-stricken Nicaragua in 1972, will collect exactly 3,000 hits during his 18-year major league career, all with Pittsburgh.
  • 1956 Luis Aparicio, Don Drysdale, and Frank Robinson play in their first major league games, respectively, for the White Sox, Dodgers, and Reds. The trio of debuts marks the first time that three future Hall of Famers have made their initial appearance on the same day.
  • 1988 The Braves beat the Dodgers, 3-1, after breaking the National League record with ten losses to start the season. The team will drop 27 of its first 39 decisions, costing Chuck Tanner his job as the Atlanta manager.
  • 2013 Clayton Kershaw becomes the second fastest Dodger to strike out 1,000 batters when he throws a second-inning 93-mph fastball past San Diego first baseman Yonder Alonso. The 25 year-old southpaw reaches the milestone in 970 career innings, 15.2 more than needed by Hideo Nomo, who established the team mark in 2003.

Also in baseball history on this day: in 1969 Bill Stoneman pitched a no-hitter for the Expos in the ninth game of their existence, and in 1976 Mike Schmidt hit four consecutive home runs in a ten-inning 18-16 Phillies’ win over the Cubs.

Lineup when available.


69 thoughts on “Game 20, 2019”

  3. Of the eight position players in the Gnats’ starting lineup today, four are hitting below the Mendoza line. The others are at .212, .238, .244 and .267.

  4. Dodgers hitting a HR in 32 consecutive home games is impressive. Votto fouling out to a first baseman for the (apparently) very first time in his 12 year career is crazy!

  5. Buehler is pitching very well today. Gray – interestingly enough – is better.

  6. At the end of the day, the Dodgers will be all alone in first place. Order restored in the universe.

      • I think the logic of that in interesting. If a foul pop is dropped the hitter gets a do-over but if a pop up is dropped in fair territory the player is out as far as his average goes.

  19. Shifting v. Verdugo makes no sense. As he’s shown, he can execute anywhere on the field.

  22. Bellinger has reached base in 12 of his last 19 plate appearances, via hits, walks and one hit-by-pitch.

  28. There was item on Monday night in this day in Dodgers history about Jim Baxes of the Dodgers being the first batter ever faced by Bob Gibson and hitting a homer off him in 1959. That took me back to my remembrances of Baxes, which I refreshed by looking at the great site baseball-reference.com. Dimitrios Speros Baxes, a native of San Francisco, was signed as a teen-ager by the Brooklyn Dodgers prior to the 1947 season. He finally made it to the majors, as a Dodger, in 1959, and was their Opening Day starter. He batted .303 with two HRs in only in 11 games and was traded to the Indians on May 22 for Fred Hatfield. It was a trade that disappointed me. Baxes finished the year with Cleveland, for whom he batted. .239 with 15 HR. He never made it back to the major leagues. He died in 1996 at the age of 68, Hatfield never played in the majors after 1958. During their first nine years in L.A., the Dodgers started nine different third basemen on Opening Day. It was not until Ron Cey arrived that the revolving door closed. And know you know (some of) the Rest of the Story on a thus far quiet Wednesday afternoon.

    • I recall seeing Baxes play (on TV) in the PCL. I saw Cey play for the first time in eighth grade, when he crushed a ball over our LF’s head for easy inside-the-parker. The next time up, we moved LF back another 50 feet and Ron did it again. I got to know him a bit better later, and he was a very modest guy – nothing like the stereotypical entitled jock.

  30. I’ve been doing spring cleanup in my wooded area. We had an early snow that put everybody behind in their Fall cleanup. I’m tired. Doesn’t take as much to get tired anymore.

      • New Hampshire. We are probably will move West this year. We are going to look at Mesquite NV in a Del Webb community or the Portland/Vancover area.

  33. Gray looks surprisingly good for somebody who’s been so awful the past couple years.

          • Favorite trick of Joe Torre was to put a guy struggling into a pressure slot. Also, he kept Kemp in the eighth spot for an awful long time.

  38. Game 20 means that 12.345679% of the season will be in the books at the conclusion of the game.

  39. If you’ve got access to The Athletic there’s a long article there about our former Exec Zaidi entertaining the thought of modifying the dimensions of the Giants’ ballpark, shortening the fences in right-center field and perhaps more importantly moving the bullpens out of foul territory along the lines.

    • It’s an awful place to watch a ballgame, and the current bullpen location is dangerous to outfielders, but I do appreciate the irregularity of “Triples Alley.”