Game 49, 2023

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Dodgers at Braves, 4:20 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports South, SPNLA

The Dodgers’ rookie RHP Gavin Stone (0-0, 9.00 ERA) makes his second big league appearance this evening. He’ll face the Braves’ wily veteran RHP Charlie Morton (5-3, 2.85 ERA).

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1998 The Mets trade Preston Wilson, Geoff Goetz, and Ed Yarnell to the Marlins for Mike Piazza. Florida had acquired the All-Star catcher last week from the Dodgers, along with Todd Zeile in exchange for Gary Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla, Charles Johnson, Jim Eisenreich, and Manuel Barrios.
  • 1999 Mark McGwire becomes the third player to launch a ball out of Dodger Stadium when one of his two home runs travels 483 feet in the Cardinals’ 10-7 victory at Chavez Ravine. The slugging first baseman joins Willie Stargell, who accomplished the feat twice in 1969 and 1973, and Mike Piazza, whose Ruthian blast cleared the ballpark two seasons ago.

Lineups when available.

161 thoughts on “Game 49, 2023”

  2. They definitely don’t want to pitch to JD. Rather face CT3 I’m sure.

    Annnnd I’m totally wrong.

  42. Bringing in EP (Phillips) here is definitely not old school baseball.

  44. Will Smith’s incredible value to the Dodgers underscores the urgent need, in my opinion, to replace Barnes with a good defensive catcher who can spell him and can hit above the Mendoza line. They are not easily found, but they can be located. Besides hitting under .100, Barnes has thrown out only 4 of 40 runners attempting to steal this season. That’s 10 percent. His rate was 30 percent last season. Moreover, he is no longer Kershaw’s catcher of choice.

      • And an acceptable batter, until this year, which is now close to one-third over.

        • Hard to explain, because he’s not so old that you’d expect a rapid decline.

    • I haven’t been living and die with LA quite as much this year. I hadn’t realized that about Barnes no longer being Kershaw’s catcher of choice.

    • Don’t share the sense of urgency with less than two months of ball. Barnes has shown what he can do as a backup and with the bat. It’s not as if the Dodgers are offensively challenged to the extent that such a change would likely to be meaningful. On defense, he continues to have a good glove. Everyone is having a tough time adjusting to the new rules that give base runners an advantage. Close to 80% are successfully stolen, such that 10% for Barnes is not all that atrocious.

        • Regardless of Will’s previous concussions anhy6jm7uy catcher is going to bark at a hitter that does that. Orel talking about a brushback pitch for Ozuna next time up.

          • That makes no sense. It couldn’t have been intentional, and retaliation has almost disappeared from baseball.

  59. 58 pitches now over 3 full innings. About 10 pitches each for 2nd and 3rd.

      • Seeing it in daylight in the middle of an otherwise nondescript city block was quite different from having seen it depicted on tense foggy nights in black and white movies.

        • As a long-haired college kid I went through Checkpoint Charlie on a Sunday in the summer of 1968. East Berlin was strangely quiet. Few people on the streets. I visited the stadium where the 1936 Olympics were held and the performances of U.S. African-American athletes were too much for Hitler et. al to bear.

  67. OK, we have eight innings left to score a bunch of runs. In our last five games, starting backwards from yesterday, we have scored 5, 5, 5, 8 and 7 runs.

  76. You can’t make a mistake pitch like that in the big leagues, as Orel points out. And now we have to tolerate that horrible Chop.

  90. Tonight’s starting lineup for the Dodgers does not include, for the first time in quite a while, anyone batting under .200, if my memory is correct.