Game 160, 2021

Brewers at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports Wisconsin, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

LHP Eric Lauer (7-5, 2.93 ERA) pitches for the Brewers while LHP Clayton Kershaw (10-8, 3.38 ERA) takes the mound for the Dodgers.

Because the Dodgers have been in more tie-breaking series than any other team in baseball, they’ve had a lot of activity on the first day of October over the years. On this date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1944 Dixie Walker, an outfielder on the seventh-place Dodgers, wins the National League batting crown with a .357 batting average, finishing ten points higher than runner-up Stan Musial. In 1947, the ‘People’s Cherce’s younger brother, Harry ‘the Hat’, will also lead the Senior Circuit, hitting .363 in the year when he is traded, after playing ten games for St. Louis, to Philadelphia.
  • 1946 The Dodgers and Cardinals, who both finished the season with a 96-58 record, play the first game of a best-of-three series to determine the National League’s championship, marking the first time in major league history a playoff is needed to send a team to the World Series. St. Louis wins today’s Sportsman’s Park contest, 4-2, and will clinch the pennant in Game 2, beating the Brooklyn at Ebbets Field, 8-4.
  • 1950 On the last day of the season, Pee Wee Reese, ignoring second base ump Frank Dascoli’s directive to slow down when his high outfield fly becomes stuck between the screen and the right field wall, continues sprinting around the bases at full speed, crossing home plate with the tying run in a game the team needs to win to finish tied with Philadelphia for the NL flag. The Dodgers shortstop’s unusual inside-the-park homer, due to an odd ground rule, will be the only run Robin Roberts allows in the Phillies’ pennant clinching 4-1 victory at Ebbets Field.
  • 1950 After they retire today, Burt Shotton of the Dodgers and the A’s Connie Mack will become the last managers to wear street clothes. Although no edict specifically mandates a skipper must wear a uniform, there is now a rule that states that a person not wearing a uniform, except medical personnel, isn’t allowed on the field of play during a game.
  • 1950 In the season finale, Robin Roberts, in the first of his six consecutive 20-win seasons, becomes the first Phillies right-hander to win twenty games for the team since Grover Cleveland Alexander accomplished the feat with a total of 30 victories in 1917. The complete-game, ten-inning 4-1 Ebbets Field victory over the Dodgers hurled by the Whiz Kid from Springfield (IL) clinches Philadelphia’s first NL pennant since 1915.
  • 1951 The Giants’ 3-1 victory over the Dodgers in the first game of the National League playoffs is the first major league contest to be televised coast-to-coast. CBS, who obtained rights to the game, transmits the picture from Ebbets Field, but has to get the signal from ABC, who had made previous arrangements with WOR-TV, the New York station which carried Brooklyn’s regular season games.
  • 1955 After losing the first two contests in the Bronx, the Dodgers even the World Series at a pair of games apiece when they defeat the Yankees at Ebbets Field, 8-5. Brooklyn will make it three victories in a row tomorrow with a 5-3 victory over the Bronx Bombers, but it will take a dramatic Game 7 for the ‘Bums’ to capture their first World Championship.
  • 1961 The Wrigley Field on the West Coast hosts its last professional baseball game when the Angels, who will play at Dodger Stadium next season, are defeated by Cleveland, 8-5, in front of 9,868 fans at the 36 year-old ballpark, which will be torn down in five years to make room for an eventual public playground and senior center. In addition to being the home for the American League expansion team, the venue housed the PCL’s Angels from 1925 through 1957 and served as the location for the 1960 television series Home Run Derby.
  • 1974 At the Astrodome, Mike Marshall establishes the major league mark for the most appearances by a pitcher when he throws two innings in the Dodgers’ 8-5 victory over Houston. With his 106 appearances, the right-handed reliever appears in 65% of the games that his team played this season.
  • 1993 Mike Piazza plates Jose Offerman with a first-inning single to set a new team mark for runs driven in by a rookie with 107. The 24 year-old Dodgers catcher breaks the franchise record for rookie RBIs established by Del Bissonette, a freshman first baseman who played with Brooklyn in 1928.
  • 2009 The Rockies’ 9-2 win over Milwaukee assures the team of a wild card berth in the postseason, and puts the team in position to still win the NL West by sweeping the Dodgers this weekend in L.A. Although the team was 12 games under .500 on June 3, today’s victory, their 91st – a club record – puts Colorado 23 games over .500, another first in the 17 year history of franchise.

Lineup when available.

191 thoughts on “Game 160, 2021

  1. Although the issue may become moot, I would rather that we tie the Giants for first than finish behind them. A tie would provide the Dodgers two chances to advance to the NLDS: either by beating the Giants or, if we were to lose that game, beating the Cardinals in the Wild Card contest.

  2. At this point, I’m not sure it’s to the Dodgers advantage to win the division. To do so means they would have to win a tie-breaker Game 163 in San Fran.

    Pro – win the tie breaker and go right to the NLDS. So, win one game to make it to the NLDS.
    Con – lose the tie-breaker and go to the Wild Card game, having played an extra game. Plus, additional travel and less rested than St. Louis.

    Finish second by the end of play Sunday.
    Neither pro nor con – play WC game. So, win one game to make it to the NLDS.
    Pro – have more time to prep for WC game.
    Con – snap streak of division titles at 8 and finish behind San Fran.

    Shorter version: The best case scenario is definitely win the division and avoid the WC game. But that scenario comes with the added risk of losing the tie-breaker and setting yourself up to be further disadvantaged in the winner take all WC game.

    • Probably a moot point as the odds of the Putz winning the next 2 games are slim to none. I am OK with taking the first wild card and playing the one game play in at home. Playing a one game playoff in SF and losing would definately put us at a disadvantage going into the one game WC playoff.

  3. Best part of Friday’s game? When the Gnats game ended, their fans stuck around to watch the Beerguys clobbering the Dodgers in order to celebrate their division championship. Then Trea hit his slam and they quickly filed out.

  4. Man, I saw the score at 5-1 in the 4th and wrote this game off. I was astonished to see it at 8-5 an hour or so later. Nice work, team!

  5. I was reminded of the 1971 season today. The Dodgers were in 2nd place from June 2 until the end of the season, finishing one lousy game behind San Fran.

    This year seems similar, except for the (sad?) fact that this years edition has played way better than the 1971 version of the team.

    • The Dodgers remained one game back of the Giants for the final six days of the season. On the final day, Sutton beat Houston’s Billingham, 2-1, and scored the winning run. Meanwhile, Marichal beat San Diego’s Dave Roberts (another Dave Roberts), 5-1.

  6. So, will we be able to take the blindfold off for one more day and smoke another cigarette?

  7. What a fitting end to their seasons: Colorado ends the year with a three-game series at Arizona.

  8. Link: Great collection of this day in Dodger history. Regarding it being 60 years (60 years!) since a game was played at L.A. Wrigley Field, when I was a kid my dad used to take me to see games there, before the Dodgers moved west, although it was a long drive from East L.A., where we lived. The Pacific Coast League Angels (a farm team of the Cubs) had many talented players and a great rivalry with the Hollywood Stars (farm club of the Pirates). Wrigley, who owned the Angels, had them train on Santa Catalina Island — “26 miles across the sea” — so his players wouldn’t get into trouble at L.A.’s hot spots.

  9. Gustave is a Dominican of Haitian descent. Only other Haitians in MLB are Touki Toussaint of the Barves and Estevan Florial of the Yanquis.

  10. I can never recall a team that was supposedly so good — and played so well for three months — totally collapse as the Padres have this season.

  11. I’ve lost track a bit, if it goes the way we fear to the wildcard game, who is lined up to start for us, scherzer?

  12. I saw a report somewhere that San Diego will have a new skipper next yeat. That would certainly be no surprise.

  13. Over the last 60 games, Dodgers are 44-16, better than last year’s MLB best of 43-17.