Game 154, 2019

Posted on by

In pre-expansion era baseball this would be the last game of the season.

Rockies at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: ATT Sportsnet-RM, ESPN, SPNLA

RHP Peter Lambert (3-6, 6.98 ERA) takes a slightly less elevated hill than the one in Denver for the Rockies. He’ll face LHP Clayton Kershaw (14-5, 3.05 ERA) of the Dodgers. Lambert has had a rough first season, walking 35 and giving up 113 hits in 86 innings while striking out 54. He’s faced the Dodgers twice this year, Kershaw has been nearly as good as ever, although he uncharacteristically lost three games in a row before winning his last one.

The Dodgers named Gavin Lux and Josiah Gray prospects of the year for 2019. Lux we are familiar with; Gray was acquired in the trade which sent Puig, Kemp, Wood and Farmer to the Reds last off-season.

Food for thought: the Dodgers hit high-velocity fastballs better than any other team. Will that matter? Does it even mean anything? Sam Miller asks and attempts to answer those questions.

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 (45 in 1909; since surpassed by the Orioles Chris Davis, who went 0 for 54 over 2018-2019).
  • 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:

105 thoughts on “Game 154, 2019”

  2. The Cubbies must really regret signing Kimbrel. Entrusted with a one-run lead, he serves up gopher balls on consecutive pitches leading off the ninth.

  4. Saturday Sundries – Most things went well yesterday. Dodgers (projected 104.1 wins) are still two games behind Minute Maids (106.7), but only half a game behind the losing Yanquis (104.3). That said, I think Houston will roll over NYY in any playoff series.

    In the NL, Dodgers remain 4-1/2 ahead of Barves (98.9), as gnobody expected Gnats to beat Atlanta. Collapsing Cubbies seem unlikely to make the mild card, so Dodgers could end up facing winner of playoff between Nats and Cerveceros. Until this afternoon, at least, magic number remains Glenn Burke.

  5. Moura has a nice article on Russell Martin in The Athletic praising his leadership and on-field skills. Didn’t expect much from him with the bat, but he is maintaining an OBP of around .340, pretty good for a backup catcher. He is in the last year of a 5-year contract that is paying him $20m (Toronto footing $16m of that). He signed that at age 32 in 2015! You don’t see those sorts of contracts floating around these days. Meanwhile, old friend Grande is having his best offensive season ever at age 31, fueled by a higher walk rate with OBP of .381. Him, or anyone like him, getting a five-year contract these days at age 32 is a thing of the past.

    • I’d like to see Martin go out with a ring, especially since it seems unlikely he’ll be back next year.

  6. Moura has a nice article on Russell Martin in The Athletic praising his leadership and on-field skills. Didn’t expect much from him with the bat, but he is maintaining an OBP of around .340, pretty good for a backup catcher. He is in the last year of a 5-year contract that is paying him $20m (Toronto footing $16m of that). He signed that at age 32 in 2015! You don’t see those sorts of contracts floating around these days. Meanwhile, old friend Grande is having his best offensive season ever at age 31, fueled by a higher walk rate with OBP of .381. Him, or anyone like him, getting a five-year contract these days at age 32 is a thing of the past.

  7. Since it’s only 4.30 pm over here I’ll volunteer to do the. …..WOO-HOO (in Rbi’s Absence)

  8. Let’s flip-flop the rotation.

    With an eye on the postseason, the Dodgers switched starting pitchers for this weekend’s series against the Rockies to allow them to open the best-of-five National League Division Series with Walker Buehler and Hyun-Jin Ryu pitching at home, Clayton Kershaw in Game 3 on the road and Buehler available for a Game 5, if necessary.

    All of that is speculation, which the Dodgers encourage when they are as vague with their plans as manager Dave Roberts was.

    “Things can change,” Roberts said repeatedly.

    [snip]

    Roberts announced that left-hander Rich Hill will start Tuesday night at San Diego after the veteran southpaw threw 17 pitches to hitters on Friday and experienced no left knee pain.

    Hill pitched with a brace on the knee, which prevented him from completing the first inning in a game last week in Baltimore. He said doctors have concluded that the pain he felt in Baltimore was scar tissue from an earlier injury tearing, and not a re-injury.

  9. I know Nomar was complaining, but that looked like a good step-around by Lux. Had he slide he might have been out (well, if Wolters had hung on to the ball).

  10. Makes sense to bring Maeda in here. He has now fallen behind Kershaw for sacrifice bunts and so it’s only fair to give him a chance to catch up.

  11. Okay, guys, gotta hit the hay. Another big day on the campus tomorrow. If we hold the lead, I need a volunteer to woo-you-know-what.

  19. Love Maeda’s smile coming of the field after the double play. It was like – I’m glad I was able to snag that comebacker so easily.

  20. I wonder how many scoreless innings it would take for Kershaw to drop his era down to a number beginning with 2? Probably more than he will pitch the remainder of the regular season?

  23. These Dodgers have still scored fewer runs that the 1962 Dodgers. Hard to wrap my head around that one.

  36. Have been at the ER with my 91 year old mother-in-law. When she got up to go to bed I heard a snap and she fell. X Rays (not Devil Rays) were negative for broken bones, just a bad ankle sprain. She is back home with us but sore. Paramedics were nice and said I did the right thing calling them.

  45. On the bright side, Scrub Jays have beaten the Yanquis, so Dodgers can gain a game on them. Minute Maids lead Angles 6-4 in the seventh.

  46. I hope that Roberts will no longer TINKER with our pitching. Who’s to say we might EVER[s] get another CHANCE to win the World Series.

    • Nice. (But he hasn’t been messing with our three starters, just auditioning the bullpen and swing guys. He can continue doing that all he wants as far as I am concerned).

      • Actually, the only audition that didn’t sit well with me Wednesday night was using Sborz for a second inning. Sborz has/had no chance of making the post-season roster and had gotten through one inning already, thanks chiefly to a DP. But, arguing against myself, each of the other five potential relievers Wednesday night — Baez, Ferguson, Kolarek, Maeda and Stripling — had been used on Tuesday night, although Kolarek faced only one batter and made just three pitches. In any event, I am pleased that Kershaw, Ryu and Buehler are all starting this weekend and the post-season rotation is shaping up.. With a day off on Monday, I am intrigued if Tuesday night will be another bullpen game or if Roberts will try to get five innings out of a starter.