Dodgers at Braves, 10:20 AM PDT, TV: FSSO, SPNLA
RHP Tony Gonsolin (1-1, 3.21 ERA) is back from OKC to make his third big league start. His first was forgettable: he went four innings and gave up six hits and six runs to the Diamondbacks on June 28. His second start was much better: he went six innings and gave up just two hits to the Cardinals on August 5. Dustin May is scheduled to make his first relief appearance of the season when Gonsolin reaches his pitch count. The Braves send LHP ace Max Fried (14-4, 3.78 ERA) out to try to clinch the series. He was a first-round pick of the Padres in 2012 and came over to the Braves in 2014 as part of the deal which sent Justin Upton to San Diego.
Here’s Bellinger’s amazing catch in center field in Saturday’s game:
Today in Dodgers’ history:
- 1959 Long time baseball executive Branch Rickey is named president of the newly formed Continental League. The 77 year-old former Dodger general manager is currently serving as an advisor with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
- 1982 In the second longest game in franchise history, the Cubs lose to the Dodgers, 2-1. The Wrigley Field contest, which is played over two days, takes a Dusty Baker sacrifice fly and 21 innings to complete.
A sad note: On this day in 1967 Jack Hamilton of the Angels threw a fastball which shattered Tony Conigliaro’s left cheekbone. The 22 year-old Red Sox slugger missed the rest of 1967 and all of the following year and never came close to the Hall of Fame potential displayed during his first three seasons.
Lineup when available.
Today’s Dodger lineup at Braves:
Pollock CF
Turner 3B
Smith C
Bellinger RF
Gyorko 1B
Seager SS
Garlick LF
Negrón 2B
Gonsolin P#Dodgers | @Biofreeze pic.twitter.com/xHdD2jbxSK— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 18, 2019
Tuesday Topics – It was a quiet Monday in baseball. Dodgers still lead Gnats by 18.5, Snakes by 19, Pads by 22 and Rox by 24.5. The magic number remains 19.
For best in NL, Dodgers still lead Barves by eight. Dodgers and Yanquis both idle last night, so Dodgers continue to trail NY by one. The Minute Maids held on against Detroit, and now trail NY by three and LA by two.
While the Dodgers didn’t look their best against Atlanta, I’d say the most worrisome team in the NL is Washington. The Nats (gnot the Gnats) would seem a likely mild card finalist, and can boast a rotation of Scherzer (assuming he’s healthy), Strasburg (ditto) and Corbin. That’s formidable in a short series. Washington, though, is only four games behind Atlanta in the loss column, and might well overtake them for the division championship.
NPUT
https://twitter.com/BaseballAmerica/status/1163455703790567424?s=20
May was ineffectively wild…
Ken Gurnick reported that Kiké Hernández and Chris Taylor will likely be activated on Tuesday. I guess Garlick goes back to OKC and Negron gets a tight quad or something that will put him on the IL until September.
Can see them trying to keep hold of Negron, who has no more options, to the extent they may send down Beatty, who still has some. IL would do the trick.
A whole bunch will be back on September 1st.
I’m getting really tired of Hechavarría, a .215 hitter with a .649 OPS.
Annoying.
There was some concern that Belli might need to change his approach since he was not getting much by the shift. Well, since he went with high socks he is 10-26 (.384 BA), with 5 dingers.
If you don’t want to change your approach, just change your socks. That has always been one of my rules in life.
I had the concern but not the solution!
Will there be a second helping? https://twitter.com/Dodgers_UK/status/1163150129043582976?s=20
The Nationals hit eight home runs today against Milwaukee. Dozier hit two of the eight.
Revenge for last night’s calamity in extra innings.
Dodgers now 24-16 when a lefty starts.
So .600 as opposed to overall .659.
Yup, and it’s a small sample, so it does vary up and down a bit. Still way better than in years past.
Yeah, so much better that if their overall record was .600, they would still be better than the two other division leaders.
1 for 22 after the second inning? Did I hear that correctly?
The Braves are leading their division. It’s not unlikely we’ll see them in October. We’d better do a better job then than we did this weekend against them.
Yes, I prefer when we swept them in LA.
Nope… Didn’t get it done.
A Joc Pop would be tasty right now
After a great first inning, Dodgers now need to score at least one more time after snoozing through 2 – 8th
Snoozing to suggest they fell asleep? ( FD: I did, a little bit).
Maybe it was me
Finally got Hechavarría!
That’s how ya do it, May…
Time to break their hearts right back…
Ortega: 2nd HR in 114 games.
Rub it in…
Sorry, not my intent.
I didn’t mean that the way it came out!
Perhaps May should have remained a starter, particularly after his last start. What’s up, Doc?
He’s gotta find out how May reacts to coming out of the bullpen. He knows Gonsolin can do it. May won’t be starting in the playoffs. We’ll probably see him do it again.+
Well, Doc has the luxury of finding out. Didn’t Walker give up a salami in last year’s NLCS to these same Braves?
Painful, nonetheless.
Jim Palmer never gave up a Grand Salami in his entire career! Hard to imagine.
Teething is painful!
Welp, live and learn
Disaster.
Oh fine.
I am so so sick of Hechavarría.
He’s your bète noire.
He should never even get on base against the Dodgers.
Come ON, Dustin!
Not sharp.
Indians leading the Yankees, 6-0, in the 6th.
Gonsolin had thrown just 72 pitches. Roberts must have known something I don’t, ’cause seemed to me he earned a shot at five innings and a chance at the win.
Limit was 85. So not that far off the initial plan.
Ah. I missed that.
Here comes May…
I am not sure about the way they are using May. Look at what happened to Brock Stewart.
Prescient.
Petey due up third. In 51 games yet to have a plate appearance.
And the wait continues.
Funny the Barves let Fried lead off last inning and then replace him on the mound.
He is not a bad hitter, for a pitcher.
Career batting average of .175 before today, but only 15 Ks in 57 ABs.
Hitting .214 this season in 49PA with .283 OBP
Higher now after that double.
He can hit!
Good Petey!
We will need five innings from a bullpen that didn’t get help by the trading deadline.
And which has provided scoreless relief in this series.
True.
We got a LOOGY and apparently May as well.
Quick hook for Gonsolin after 72 pitches? He had 90 in his last MLB start on August 5.
I’d say he looked to be laboring.
You mean labouring?
That’s a Rule No. 5 violation.
I was talking about Patrick Corbin, not Jeremy Corbyn. But I like your sense of humour.
Third time through with a pitcher that was on thin ice.
Doc said goin in that 85 would be a limit due to heat and humidity.
Fried is pretty good…
Gyorko watched two cookies down the middle go by.
Acuña out??? Why?
Lack of hustle? (though that was a few innings ago). https://twitter.com/jorgecastillo/status/1163165463960072192?s=20
Nice catch, Negrón!
Gonsolin seems to be bobbing and weaving but doing so pretty successfully.
He’s got a lot of pitches in his pocket!
I can see why Fried has been so successful.
This is quite the matchup.
Fine comeback by Gonsolin (with more than a little help from Acuña).
Gonsolin hanging tough!
Tightrope walker.
I like his pulse.
Acuña doesn’t win any baserunning awards today.
What was that I said a short while ago about Gonsolin’s pickoff attempt? Please disregard.
I am having an off-day. It was a caught stealing, not a pickoff there.
I hope this won’t be one of those games where our wasted opportunities prove fatal.
As I recall BA RISP is above .300 and second best in the NL. Hate it when it happens, but nowhere near the same amount of misery as last year.
We fail to get runners home in the third, then their pitcher hits a double.
I hate seeing those two errors.
In the end, they meant a few extra pitches, and Gonsolin probably won’t go that deep in the game anyway.
Good point.
67 pitches for Fried.
Somewhat lost in the nature of this fine season is the fact that Seager is just having an OK year by his standards, although he has shown flashes of being red-hot, including recently. But I wonder if he is not fully recovered from all his injuries.
His hot May and June suggests that he had a big bounce back from his off-season surgeries, so they probably shouldn’t be include in “all”. Now seems to be on upswing after his in-season injury.
Good point. I remain hopeful.
Can’t stop remembering what Grant said when the Dodgers picked up Jedd: now the Dodgers will have 25 Gyorko’s on the roster.
Then, of course, there’s Bochy’s batting order for the Gnats… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e38d66912efd2e41ec58ebf79d7618c84a4415bb944c2ec4a04b2c5777463350.png
Gyorko is two for LA
He’s also failed to stop two throws in the dirt (though the errors weren’t his).
The Dodgers have five singles, a double, a homer and two walks, yet only three runs. Fried has retired only four of the first 13 batters he has faced.
Four out of 14.
Two outs, runner on first, Hechavarria has only three steals for the season, and the pitcher is on deck. Just concentrate on the batter. Eschew the pickoff attempt.
Sloppy baseball. Two errors before the third inning?
Bad throw but, nevertheless, Gyorko does not look good at 1B.
I am watching the game on TBS. Ron Darling is perceptive. On the hard grounder by Smith to Donaldson at third, Darling criticized Donaldson for not going around-the-horn to try for a DP and said he was playing too deep to try to do the third-to-first DP. “You’ve got to be perfect if you’re going to play the Dodgers,” he said. Of course, the Braves got the DP a batter later.
Acuna’s quite a player, but our own Max has a higher WAR at this point, 5.3 to 5.2. Acuna rates a bit higher on oWAR, but surprisingly Max gets his advantage on the defensive side!
Smith gets down the line pretty well.
If Pollack’s hurt his hitting doesn’t show it.
His defensive range shows it, and his baserunning.
Fine job by Gonsolin to work out of it.
Rats. Bad Seager.
Bad Gyorko, too.
I will take three runs in the first inning anytime. However, had Pollock not been picked off and if Gyorko had more speed, we might still be batting. I wonder why Ebel didn’t send Gyorko in on Garlick’s double, given that the intentional walk to Negron was likely to follow with the pitcher, Gonsolin, on deck.
It looked to me as if Gyorko stumbled between second and third, and grabbed his leg.
Gotcha. I didn’t see it.
Already chopping and chanting. Gonna be a long game.
Their chopping and chanting makes me feel like chucking.
Can Gonsolin shut them down?
At this rate, Fried isn’t long for this game.
That would be unfortunate.
Silly me, as Fried has righted the ship. Now I want him out!
It will be hard for Hernandez to find playing time with the rookies playing well.
Don’t think that either Garlick or Negron will be around for long.
Did that hit Acuna’s glove or the top of the wall?
It was in the pocket, but popped out when his glove hit the top of the wall.
Fried hasn’t gotten any batter out yet.
Too bad Pollock was picked off.
Counter-factual history…
I’ll take three!
What a start!
Cody!!!!!!!!!!’
If Pollock is hurting in any way, he shouldn’t be in the lineup.
I read the details of what Urias did to his female friend, pushing her down, which was witnessed. I think the 20-game suspension is appropriate. Organized sports, which have been slow to take such actions, have awakened in the last few years. Such behavior cannot be tolerated. Perhaps Urias, and others, both inside and outside of sports, will learn a lesson about the ramifications of inappropriate, violent behavior. Sadly, such behavior in our society by men to women is all too frequent.
Sunday Supplement – Yesterday was disappointing, as Dodgers now lead second-place Gnats by just 18.5 games. The Snakes trail by 20.5, the Pads 23.5, the Rox by 25. For best in NL, Dodgers’ lead over Barves has shriveled to just nine games.
For best in baseball, Dodgers now trail Yanquis by one, but remain 3-1/2 ahead of the Minute Maids, who lost their third straight in Oakland yesterday. If the A’s can finish the sweep today, they’ll trail Houston by just five in the loss column.
Meanwhile, down on the farm… https://twitter.com/BaseballAmerica/status/1163118531367641090?s=20