Monthly Archives: July 2022

Jul 21

Game 91, 2022

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Giants at Dodgers, 7:09 PM PDT, TV: ESPN

LHP Carlos Rodón (8-5, 2.66 ERA) takes the mound for the visiting Giants and RHP Mitch White (1-2, 4.20 ERA) goes for the Dodgers. Rodón was picked to replace Josh Hader of the Brewers in the All Star Game but then decided the split nail and blood blister on the middle finger of his left hand needed rest, so he declined the opportunity to play (and was replaced by the Dodgers’ Tyler Anderson). This will be White’s ninth start this season; he’s gotten past the fifth inning just once.

On this date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1930 Harvey Henrick’s ninth-inning three-run round-tripper off the bench gives the Dodgers a dramatic 9-8 come-from-behind victory over the Redbirds at Ebbets Field in the first game of a twin bill. Redbirds George Puccinelli and Jim Bottomley and Brooklyn’s Hal Lee also homer appearing as pinch-hitters in the game.
  • 1956 In a 13-6 defeat to the Cubs, Dodgers’ shortstop Pee Wee Reese becomes one of five active players to collect 2000 hits, and teammate Junior Gilliam sets a major league record by handling 12 assists at second base.
  • 1963 The usually mild-mannered Dodger manager Walter Alston is thrown out of both games of a doubleheader when the Braves sweep a twin bill from Los Angeles for the first and only time in Milwaukee, 7-2 and 13-7. To make matters worse, the manager has beer thrown in his face by a hometown fan as he leaves the second game. (My thanks to Lee for sharing this entry. He attended the game at County Stadium as a ten year-old. -LP)
  • 2003 At Dodger Stadium, Vladimir Guerrero hit his 226th career home run, breaking Andre Dawson’s club record. The Expos’ right fielder hits his milestone round-tripper off Odalis Perez, a 454-foot blast over the left field wall.

Lineups when available.

Jul 18

All Star Game and HR Derby, 2022

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The best of news: Clayton Kershaw has been named to start the game in his home park. MLB made the announcement in a Monday news conference.

Kershaw had come close to being the All-Star Game starter several times before.

During Kershaw’s first All-Star-caliber and Cy Young-winning season in 2011, Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies got the nod. For the 2013 game hosted by the New York Mets, the host team’s ace, Matt Harvey, was picked over him.

In his 2014 MVP season, Kershaw was second in line again, following Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals. And since then, he’s twice seen teammates get the honor, with Zach Greinke starting in 2015 and Hyun-Jin Ryu in 2019.

The honor, however, had always eluded the best pitcher of the club’s generation.

Until this year, that is, with Kershaw now set to achieve one more milestone at the mound in Dodger Stadium.

The Home Run Derby can take a toll on its participants. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen to this year’s group. It’s televised on ESPN beginning at 8:00 PM EDT, 5:00 PM PDT, 2:00 HST.

In case you’re paying attention to the MLB Draft, “The Dodgers were the one team without a first-round pick in 2022. Their top pick fell 10 spots due to exceeding the competitive balance tax threshold, and their first selection is No. 40 overall.” They used that pick on a catcher: Dalton Rushing of Louisville. He just completed his junior year there, and he did pretty well: he batted .310 with 62 RBIs, 23 home runs, 68 runs scored and four stolen bases.

Mookie Betts has bouts of self-doubt, just like the rest of us.

Just in time for the ASG, screenwriter/director Ron Shelton has published a book detailing the making of Bull Durham, one of the most beloved of baseball movies. It’s called “The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham: Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings, and a Hit.”

Jul 16

Game 90, 2022

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Dodgers at Angels, 7:07 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports West, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

LHP Julio Urías (7-6, 3.01 ERA) takes the mound at the Big A (is it still called that?); he’ll face LHP José Suarez (1-3, 4.79 ERA). This will be Urías’s third start in July. His first was a six-inning five-hitter which he won. His second was a two-inning outing in which he hit two guys in the first inning and then gave up a grand slam home run. After all that, he was taken off the hook as the Dodgers wound up winning the game after a six-run third inning. Suarez has also had two starts this month but rather than winning one he lost one. In neither game did he go more than 4 2/3 innings.

Anderson replaces the Giants’ Carlos Rodón. The Giants may want to let him rest as their bullpen is overworked and if he can pitch deeper into games that will help.

This day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1913 In a game against the Cubs, Superbas’ second baseman George Cutshaw handles 14 chances without an error. The infielder’s defensive prowess helps Brooklyn beat Chicago at Ebbets Field, 4-2.
  • 1948 Brooklyn’s Branch Rickey agrees on a deal with Giants owner Horace Stoneham that releases his manager Leo Durocher to become the Giants’ skipper, replacing the popular Mel Ott. Burt Shotton will take the ‘Lip’s’ place in the Dodger dugout.

On this date in 1990 Steve Lyons embarrassed himself dreadfully by dropping his uniform pants while standing at first base after sliding into the bag to beat out a bunt.


Lineups when available.

Jul 15

Game 89, 2022

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Dodgers at Angels, 6:38 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports West, SPNLA

All Star LHP Clayton Kershaw (6-2, 2.40 ERA) takes the hill for the Dodgers in Anaheim against LHP Patrick Sandoval (3-4, 2.95 ERA) of the host Angels. In Kershaw’s last start he went 7 2/3 innings, gave up five hits and two runs and got the win. Sandoval’s last start was unfortunate. He went 6 1/3 innings, gave up five hits and just one run and took the loss.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1960 Home plate umpire Frank Dascoli stops play for 24 minutes when Willie McCovey hits a pitch into shallow left field that no one can see because of the dense fog. The Giants first baseman’s second inning “invisible triple” doesn’t deter the Dodgers when they go on to win the Candlestick Park contest, 5-3.
  • 2003 At the All-Star Game played in Chicago’s U.S. Cellular Field, Angels outfielder Garret Anderson goes 3-for-4, including a two-run homer and a double, helping the American League to beat the NL, 7-6. Pinch-hitting in the eighth inning, Rangers third baseman Hank Blalock hits a go-ahead two-run homer off the usually untouchable reliever of the Dodgers, Eric Gagne.
  • 2004 Eric Gagne surpasses Jeff Shaw for the most career saves in franchise history, collecting his 130th save in a Dodger uniform. The 28 year-old right-handed closer pitches a perfect ninth, striking out the side, in the team’s 5-2 victory over Arizona at Bank One Ballpark.
  • 2017 Cody Bellinger becomes the first Dodger rookie to hit for the cycle when he collects a seventh-inning triple in the team’s 7-1 victory over the Marlins in Miami. The 22-year old freshman goes 4-for-5, driving in three runs en route to his historic accomplishment.

Also: in 1939 National League president Ford Frick orders two-foot screens affixed inside all foul poles after Billy Jurges of the Giants and umpire George Magerkurth spit at each other after a foul ball call down the left field line is disputed at the Polo Grounds. The American League will soon follow the Senior Circuit lead and will also install foul ball screens.

And: in 1994 after being confiscated in the first inning of the Indians-White Sox contest at Comiskey Park, Albert Belle’s bat, suspected of being corked, is placed in umpire Dave Phillips’ locker for further examination. The attempt to take and replace the suspected bat by a bungling burglar, who gains access to the umpire’s room by squirming through the stadium’s overhead crawl space, a thievery Jason Grimsley will confess to five-years later, is immediately uncovered with the discovery of pieces of broken ceiling tile on the floor, and a new name on the “clean” bat which now reads Paul Sorrento.

Lineups when available.

Jul 14

Game 88, 2022

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Dodgers at Cardinals, 4:15 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports Midwest, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

LHP Tyler Anderson (9-1, 3.15 ERA) pitches for the Dodgers this evening and RHP Dakota Hudson (6-5, 4.00 ERA) pitches for the Redbirds. In his last start Anderson went seven innings, gave up five hits and three runs and got no decision. Hudson went six innings, gave up two hits and no runs; he too got no decision.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1968 In the nightcap of a twin bill, Don Wilson strikes out eighteen batters in a nine-inning game to tie the then major league record, shared by Bob Feller (Indians, 1938) and Sandy Koufax (Dodgers, 1959 and 1962). The Astros right-hander fans future Hall of Famer Johnny Bench for the last out of his 6-1 victory over the Reds on a wind-swept night at Crosley Field.


    Courtesy of the Houston Astros network
    via Astrosdaily.com

  • 1995 Ramon Martinez throws the 22nd no-hitter in franchise history when he beats the Marlins at Dodger Stadium, 7-0. The Dodger right-hander, who was booed by the home crowd in his last outing, was perfect before walking Tommy Gregg on a 3-2 pitch after getting the first out in the seventh inning.
  • 2005 Defeating their historical arch rivals, the Giants become the first team to win 10,000 games as a franchise by edging the Dodgers in LA, 4-3. The Giants, who started as the New York Gothams in 1899, have posted a 10,000-8,511 record during the club’s 123 seasons in the National League.

Lineups when available.

Jul 13

Game 87, 2022

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Dodgers at Cardinals, 4:45 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports Midwest, SPNLA

RHP Tony Gonsolin (11-0, 1.62 ERA) brings his unblemished record to the hill to face the Cardinals’ long-time ace Adam Wainwright (6-7, 3.15 ERA). In his last start Gonsolin went seven innings, gave up two runs on four hits and saw his ERA go up for his trouble. Wainwright is 40 years old; he and Kershaw each have 191 career wins (Kershaw has 26 fewer losses). In Wainwright’s last start he gave up two runs on five hits, pitched a complete game and lost 2-0.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 2019 The Dodgers got four home runs from Muncy, Turner, Bellinger and Pollock and Ross Stripling got the win as the Dodgers defeated Chris Sale and the Boston Red Sox 11-2.

Lineups when available.

Jul 12

Game 86, 2022

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Dodgers at Cardinals, 4:45 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports Midwest, SPNLA, TBS

The visiting Dodgers send RHP Mitch White (1-1, 3.38 ERA) to the Busch Stadium mound to face the Cardinals’ LHP Matthew Liberatore (2-1, 4.74 ERA). White’s last seven appearances have all been starts, and his ERA has dropped fairly consistently since he left the reliever role. Liberatore is a 22-year-old rookie who made his debut on May 21 of this season; this will be his seventh MLB appearance.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1949 The first All-Star Game which includes black players is played at Ebbets Field. The Dodgers’ Roy Campanella, Jackie Robinson, and Don Newcombe represent the National League in an 11-7 loss to Larry Doby and his AL teammates.
  • 1966 The National League All-Stars edge the AL, 2-1, in a game played at the newly-built Busch Stadium when hometown favorite Tim McCarver scores the winning run on Dodger shortstop Maury Wills’s tenth-inning walk-off single, with Giants hurler Gaylord Perry getting the victory by tossing a scoreless ninth and tenth inning. The 105-degree weather, 113 degrees on the playing surface, results in nearly 150 people needing treatment for heat exhaustion.

This is notable: In 1949 the major league owners agree to install warning tracks made of cinder in front of outfield fences before the start of next season. The origin of the concept began at Yankee Stadium, where an actual running track, used in the ballpark’s track and field events, helped fielders know their proximity to the outfield fence when attempting to make a play. One wonders if that might have saved Pete Reiser’s career. Reiser “was taken off the field on a stretcher a record 11 times.”

Lineups when available.

Jul 10

Game 85, 2022

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Cubs at Dodgers, 1:10 PM PDT, TV: Marquee Sports Network, SPNLA

LHP Drew Smyly (2-5, 3.80 ERA) goes for the Cubs in this final game of the series and LHP Julio Urías (7-6, 2.57 ERA) pitches for the Dodgers. Smyly is making his first big league start after six weeks on the IL with a left oblique injury. he went four innings and threw 52 pitches in a minor league rehab start on Monday. Urías has won his last four starts and his ERA is seventh-best in the league, which his manager thinks makes him a good candidate for the All Star Game.

On this date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1943 Some of the Dodgers, led by infielder Arky Vaughan, threaten not to play in today’s game to protest the suspension of their teammate Bobo Newsome by manager Leo Durocher. The Ebbets Field contest begins ten minutes late. Brooklyn plundered the Pirates, 23-6, and in a few days, Newsome, who had argued with his skipper over a pitch selection in a previous game, is traded to the Browns for Archie McKain and Fritz Ostermueller.
  • 1953 With Roy Campanella’s home run off Giants hurler Sal Maglie, the Dodgers establish a National League record, homering in their 24th consecutive game. Campy’s homer is the only run Brooklyn scores as the Giants extend their winning streak to seven with the 6-1 victory. Six teams have surpassed 24 consecutive games with at least one HR since; the record is now 31 games in a row by the 2019 NY Yankees.
  • 1979 With his team trailing the Padres 5-3 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs at Veterans Stadium, Phillies pinch hitter Del Unser hits a three-run walk-off home run, giving the team a 6-5 comeback victory. The dramatic dinger makes Del Unser only the second player in major league history to hit a homer in three consecutive at bats as a pinch hitter, a feat also accomplished by Lee Lacy of the Dodgers last season.
  • 1984 At San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, Dodger southpaw Fernando Valenzuela and Mets rookie Dwight Gooden combine to strike out six consecutive American League All-Stars on the 50th anniversary of Carl Hubbell’s memorable 1934 Midsummer Classic performance of setting down five future Hall of Famers on strikes (see below). Dwight Gooden, at the age of 19, becomes the youngest player ever to participate in an All-Star Game.

In one of the most famous events in baseball history, at the All Star Game in 1934 in New York’s Polo Grounds, Giants pitcher Carl Hubbell faces a starting lineup comprised of nine eventual Hall of Famers. ‘King Carl’ is up to the unique occurrence in baseball history when he fans five batters in a row after letting the first two hitters reach base: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin.

Lineups when available.

Jul 09

Game 84, 2022

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Cubs at Dodgers, Marquee Sports Network, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

It’ll be the Cubs’ RHP Marcus Stroman (2-5, 5.32 ERA) vs the Dodgers’ LHP Clayton Kershaw (5-2, 2.57 ERA) this evening at Chavez Ravine. Stroman had his worst outing of the year in his last start; he gave up nine runs on ten hits in just four innings. That pushed his ERA up nearly 1 1/2 points from 3.95 to 5.32. Kershaw deserved a win in his last start: he went seven shutout innings and gave up just one hit to the Padres, but the Dodgers only scored one run for him and the bullpen gave up four runs in the ninth and lost the game.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1956 The BBWAA, by a narrow margin of 14-12, votes to establish the Cy Young Award to honor the major leagues’ most outstanding pitcher. Commissioner Ford Frick initiated the idea because he felt hurlers were not recognized in the MVP voting, but ironically the first recipient of the Cy Young Award, Dodger Don Newcombe, also won the Most Valuable Player Award.
  • 1996 In Philadelphia, Dodger backstop Mike Piazza hits a moon shot into the upper-deck at Veterans Stadium and also bangs a RBI double, helping the NL to blank the AL, 6-0, in All-Star action.

In non-Dodger history, it seems fitting that in 1968, the Year of the Pitcher, the All Star Game would play out this way: in the first All-Star game played indoors, American Leaguers are held to just three hits in the Astrodome, with the National League winning the first Mid-Summer Classic to end with a score of 1-0. The contest’s lone tally comes in the bottom of the first frame when Willie Mays, who had been picked off but stayed on the bases due to Luis Tiant’s throwing error, scores an unearned run on a double play ball.

In 2002 despite chants of “Let them play!” from the sellout crowd of 41,871 at Milwaukee’s Miller Park, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig declares the 73rd All-Star Game a 7-7 tie after 11 innings. No player is selected to receive the first Ted Williams Most Valuable Player award, an honor named for the late Red Sox legend who died five days ago. This would be the nadir of Selig’s term as Commissioner of Baseball on the anniversary of his selection to the job seven years earlier.

Lineups when available.

Jul 08

Game 83, 2022

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Cubs at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: Marquee Sports Network, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

RHP Keegan Thompson (7-3, 3.41 ERA) pitches for the Cubs tonight and LHP Tyler Anderson (9-1, 3.09 ERA) pitches for the Dodgers. Thompson was a reliever until May of this year when the Cubs turned him into a starter. He’s now made ten starts; only two of them have extended into the 6th inning. In his last start his defense made some errors behind him and he threw 86 pitches in just four innings. After losing his previous start in Colorado Anderson went 6 1/3 innings, gave up one run on six hits and got the win in his next one last Friday.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1949 Hank Thompson, who broke into the majors as a member of the St. Louis Browns twelve days after Larry Doby’s American League debut with the Indians in 1947, becomes the first African-American to play for the Giants. When the former Kansas City Monarchs’ standout faces Dodger right-hander Don Newcombe, it marks the first time a pitcher-batter confrontation takes place between black players in the major leagues.

In the “Dubious Moments in Baseball History” column comes this item: in 1979 the Mets announce the selection of Mettle as the name for the team’s new mascot mule. Dolores Mapps of Mercerville, N.J., who submitted the winning entry, believes the moniker captures the team’s “spirit, ardor, stamina, and courage, all of which the Mets have in abundance.”

In a slightly more aesthetic moment, back in 1994 Red Sox shortstop John Valentin snares Marc Newfield’s sixth-inning line drive, steps on second to retire Mike Blowers, and then tags the runner coming from first, Kevin Mitchell, to turn an unassisted triple play. After completing the rare feat, accomplishing a play that has occurred only ten times in major league history, the infielder begins a three-homer outburst by Boston in the bottom of the frame, helping the team defeat the Mariners at Fenway Park, 4-3.

Lineups when available.