Game 23, 2022

Giants at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: NBCBS Bay Area, SPNLA

Old friend LHP Alex Wood (2-1, 4.19 ERA) faces RHP Tony Gonsolin (1-0, 1.59 ERA). Wood had two good outings before his last one, which he lost while giving up five runs on six hits. He has yet to go longer than five innings this season. Gonsolin got his lone win in his next-to-last start when he went six innings and gave up no runs on just one hit to the Braves. That was his longest start of the year thus far.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1919 A SRO crowd attends the first-ever major league game played on a Sunday in Brooklyn. The Ebbets Field contest, in which the Dodgers beat the Braves, 6-2, was made possible when the New York Legislature passed the Sunday Baseball Bill into law.
  • 1966 In a 6-1 victory over L.A. at Candlestick Park, Willie Mays becomes the all-time National League home run leader when he strokes his 512th career round-tripper off Dodger starter Claude Osteen. The San Francisco center fielder passes another Giant, breaking the mark established by Mel Ott in 1946.
  • 1976 Illinois state Rep. Eugene F. Schlickman, co-author of the House of Representative Resolution 747 declaring today as Rick Monday Day, will be in attendance when Los Angeles vice president and GM Al Campanis presents the Cub outfielder with the flag he saved that was about to burned on the field at Dodger Stadium. Last month, the former Marine reservist, in a game played in Los Angeles, ran in from his position, swiping the ‘Stars and Stripes’ away from a father and a son, who were intent on setting it afire.
  • 2009 In the bottom of the second inning, with two runners aboard at Dodger Stadium, the Diamondbacks pull off their second triple play in franchise history. The 6-4-3 triple killing starts with shortstop Josh Wilson’s backhanded grab of Casey Blake’s scorching line drive (1), with his throw to Felipe Lopez doubling off Russell Marin at second (2), and Matt Kemp becoming the third out when the relay easily beats him back to first base (3).

  • 2009 In the same game the Dodgers establish a National League record for consecutive victories to open a season at home. Their 11-0 start surpasses the NL mark shared by the 1918 Giants, 1970 Cubs, and 1983 Atlanta Braves, and is one shy of the major-league record set by the Tigers in 1911.

Lineups when available.

126 thoughts on “Game 23, 2022

  1. Game postponed. Make up tomorrow in an afternoon(1:05pm EDT), evening(7:40pm EDT) double header.

  2. Dodgers have 31 games scheduled in the next 31 days (one off-day but also a DH). However, it seems likely tomorrow will be a rainout, so another DH on Saturday?

    • The Gnats are gnow in fourth place, closer to the basement than the penthouse.

  3. Gnats getting another can opened on them 7-1 top of the 8th. Go Cards.

  4. Looks like rain in the forecast for Chicago tomorrow. May be playing a double header on Saturday.

  5. Excerpt from an article about the effect of the deader baseball on MLB hitters. Kind of explains part of JT and Muncys struggles. Votto is also struggling mightily.

    So we have two big factors: Reliance upon higher fly balls for production and the tendency to hit them toward the middle of the field.

    I took the last three seasons and looked for the players who have most frequently hit fly balls between 21 and 40 degrees to the middle of the field. Those balls made up more than 15% of batted balls for sluggers like Cincinnati Reds star Joey Votto (20.3%) and a duo from the middle of the Los Angeles Dodgers order — Justin Turner (18.4%) and Max Muncy (18.3%).

    Of Muncy’s 83 homers from 2019 to 2021, 42 came on these sorts of balls that are now dramatically more difficult to hit out. So far in 2022, he has limped out to a .190/.310/.261 start. And yet, buoyed by an excellent walk rate and strong average exit velocities, he’s probably in better shape to overcome the change than Turner. The stalwart 37-year-old third baseman was one of the most prominent hitters who revitalized his career by leaning into the so-called fly ball revolution, yet at this stage of his career, his declining exit velocities may not be enough to maintain the power that has made him such a threat.

  6. Surely I posted something about this before. From The Athletic back on April 8:

    [Trea] Turner, playing his first Opening Day with the Dodgers, is playing his way into a big payday himself.

    It just won’t come from the Dodgers just yet. The 28-year-old expressed a willingness to discuss a contract extension with the club this spring after the Dodgers reached out prior to the lockout to broadly discuss the subject. Those talks didn’t come to fruition; Turner said Friday the Dodgers’ brass approached him in recent days to tell him no extension offer was coming before the season, all but securing he will hit free agency this winter — potentially as the top available shortstop. Turner told The Athletic he wasn’t frustrated by the decision.

    “I told them from the second I got traded over, me and Andrew (Friedman) had a phone call, and I said, ‘Just be honest with me,’” Turner said. “I’m here to play baseball. It’s what I focus on. It’s what I’m worried about.

    • Trea Turner will be turning 30 next year. He will probably be looking for a 6 to 8 year contract at $30M+ per year. If I were AF, I would respectfully decline. Especially with Buehler and Urias contracts on the horizon. I would be fine with Lux and/or CT3 playing shortstop until Amaya or one of the kids is ready.

  7. The LA Times:

    While the Dodgers moved into sole possession of first place Wednesday, going one game up on the San Diego Padres and 2½ clear of the Giants, they still have yet to create much breathing room in what’s shaping up to be a difficult NL West.

    The Giants have been without several key members of their lineup over the opening month — including Evan Longoria, Tommy La Stella, LaMonte Wade Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski, the latter of whom only returned Wednesday from the COVID-19 list — yet have gotten off to a strong start behind their deep and talented pitching staff, which ranks in the top 10 in MLB in team ERA.

    The Padres have been missing star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. and several important parts of their starting rotation — including Blake Snell and Mike Clevinger, who returned from Tommy John surgery on Wednesday — but continue to win games with a balanced lineup at the plate, helping them rank in the top five in scoring.

    Even the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks have begun the season well. The Rockies are 14-10, thanks in large part to a 10-5 mark at Coors Field that includes a series win over the Dodgers. The Diamondbacks are 13-13, surging of late with a recent 7-3 run that began with their own series win against the Dodgers.

    The NL West is currently the only division in baseball without a team below .500.

    “It wouldn’t be fun if we just run away with the division,” Betts joked prior to this week’s series.

    Even with the Dodgers’ strong start to the season, there doesn’t appear to be any worry of that right now.

  8. Cardinal fans will be Dodger fans as the Dodgers play the Cubs – and Dodger fans will be Cards fans as they play the Giants.

  9. Who is Steiner’s partner tonight? Not Rick Monday that much I know.

  10. Why is it generally called a “brief two-game series” or a “short two-game series”? Is there such a thing as a “long two-game series”?

  11. We’ve been waiting for this for quite acwhile, and for it to come against the Giants makes it so much sweeter.

      • I listened away and something good happen?

        Oh – I stopped listening… that’s better.

        • Do you have T-Mobile cell service in Canadia? They include MLBTV at the start of the season.

          • They only offer it for a few days at the start of the season, so it’s too late for this year. We also get Netflix with them at no extra charge (full disclosure: I’m a customer, not a shill).

  12. The way that so many Dodgers are performing at the plate through 1 1/2 games of a five-game week, we have plenty of candidates for player of the WEAK.

  13. JT not right yet. How much longer can we go with those two not producing?

    • That delayed shipment of BALCO™ Flaxseed Oil finally arrived, it appears.

    • The Pads blew it big time, ensuring that the Dodgers will remain in first place no matter what tonight’s result is.

  14. I would start Hanser at 3rd and sit Muncy against the lefty Wood.

    • I agree, but you are going to have to speak more loudly to Roberts.