Dodgers at Phillies, 4:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, CSN
Jimmie Rollins returns to the town where he holds records for most hits, most doubles, and third-most runs in Phillie history. He did that while playing 1,047 games for them.
The Dodgers’ new acquisition Alex Wood makes his first start for the team after going 7-6 with a 3.54 ERA for the Braves. He last pitched on July 27 against the Orioles, giving up no runs, three hits, no walks and seven strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings. His opponent will be Hawai’i-born Jerome Williams, who’s 3-8 with a 6.36 ERA and who had a horrible last outing, giving up ten hits and four runs in only 4 2/3 innings.
Lineup when available.
Tonight's #Dodgers lineup vs. PHI:
Rollins SS
Kendrick 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Ethier LF
Grandal C
Puig RF
Pederson CF
Guerrero 3B
Wood P #whiff
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 4, 2015
NPUT
2 out of 3 is still very possible for the Dodgers. (Trying to stay positive.)
As long as Matt Stairs doesn’t come out of retirement. 😉
Well, even if it got out, would have still been down by a run.
Down by 1 is still better odds with one out left than down by 4.
Need 2 more walks and then a home run to tie this game up.
Oh good. The offense inches closer and then you give up yet another run, bullpen.
I guess not as embarrassing losing to the Phillies these days. Still highly frustrating though.
The Fillies have won something like 12 of their last 15.
At least Matt Stairs hasn’t hit a home run in this game.
The fillies have the luxury of knowing that when they win it is always against a better team. And when they lose, well, they lost to a better team than they are.
Talk about a loser’s dividend scenario.
Here’s something: it’s good to be a middle reliever. Peralta has never thrown more than 87 innings in a single season and has averaged 72. A million or two bucks a year for that amount of work seems like a good deal.
Would think that closer provides more buck per inning.
Senor Rivera would know.
DH’ing could be fairly lucrative as well for minimal effort I suppose.
It seems to me the bullpen this year has been less than scintillating.
If the Dodgers lose, I’m blaming this one on Turner. I think his bat would have made the difference (sorry perhaps I should type differense for WBB) to some of those Dodger rallies.
I blame Peralta, thanks. A hanging curve ball down the middle with the bases loaded? Poor Wood, he deserved better.
Peralta has not been effective since he came back. I can see DFA in his near future.
Dang!
¡Mier…coles¡
Need one more hit here – by Rollins!
How are you “feeling”? 😉
Feeling like the ump is called some tough strikes against the Dodgers.
CC rides one!
Bringing Callaspo to pinch hit/defensive purposes for Guerrero when trailing by 4 – and batting – speaks to how off Guerrero has been at bat recently.
The 2015 Dodger bullpen speciality: Giving up home runs.
So many home runs.
Feels like a game that the Dodgers are not going to win.
Seeing as we are four runs behind, that feeling would seem to have some basis in fact. 😉
Yah. I try not to let facts prevent me from stating obvious interpretations of the story line.
Well, that didn’t work out.
And to make matters worse, the midges are leading in their game now too.
What the heck was that?!
Ugly, but it should be a balk.
I hope so, but it seemed just like a wild pitch.
Ball fell out of his hand, that’s a balk.
Ruiz to his credit never stopped running.
I dunno. I’ve been to 6 county fairs and 3 goat ropings, but I’ve never seen anything like that.
San Fran currently losing.
You misspelled “Gnats” (don’t give me that Canada excuse).
Ha! I changed it to San Fran just to mess with you.
And in Canada gnats are sometimes called midges.
That works too.
I think Uribe would have had that grounder.
Alberto as well.
That’s right. I forgot about him for a second and was just thinking Turner might not have gotten it either.
Fortunately, no lasting harm done.
Mechanically, Wood looks awkward, but he’s been effective.
There’s a discussion of those mechanics in the article foul tip linked to here.
I saw that.
Wow. I thought that shot was gone of the bat of Franco.
How many leadoff guys have been left on base in this game? Sheesh!
2. As in 2 many.
Joc seemingly has decided if he can’t hit he’ll just walk every time up.
Not good defence this inning. Bobbles by both Rollins and Guerrero.
You misspelled “defense.”
You slighted Canada.
I’ll leave it to others to decide who committed the greater error.
(Not really angry.)
I love Canada, but you need to escape the imperial legacy (although you should https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOJjqeVmxrE
Americans shouldn’t talk about needing to escape imperial legacy.
#metric
Ha!
Dodgers playing constipated baseball tonight. Bases jammed but having a hard time getting runners home.
Williams up to 90 pitches and Dodgers still haven’t scored.
Have to score against this guy before they pull him!
There’s one.
59 pitches in four innings. 41 strikes, 18 balls. His control’s pretty good.
Yah, but he got his base hit at the wrong time tonight. Otherwise he would be winning.
Ruff looks like Chris Pratt.
Three guys in the fillies booth, who have nothing better to do than talk to each other. I guess when your team is in last place they are trying to provide entertainment.
Surprisingly, the Phillies are 12-3 since the All Star break. How’d that happen?
They have some young players with potential now, could talk about them.
Phew. He just stopped short of swinging through on that last pitch. Bases loaded – no one out. Time to score some runs.
Gaaah. So inept at scoring tonight. Strike out. Then first pitch 5-3 double play.
Joc laid off all but one of the pitches off the plate in that PA.
Let’s go Joc!
How was Joc’s BB. Good eye or pitcher far off the plate?
I missed it. Maybe somebody else was watching.
He laid off a couple low pitches.
Nuts. 2nd and 3rd with no one out followed by two ground balls and a strikeout.
A reminder that players are people too; they have families: it wasn’t just Mets shortstop Flores who was stunned by a trade.
A couple additional folk at TBLA. Here one examines mechanical issues for Kenley of late:
http://www.truebluela.com/2015/8/4/9094909/kenley-jansen-mechanics-slump-dodgers
Via Jon W., a good look at tonight’s new Dodger starter:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/wood-675716-dodgers-one.html
Over the weekend, Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt watched Wood’s first bullpen session in awe.
“Some of his changeups were almost like splits that went almost straight down,” Honeycutt said. “I said to him, ‘Geez, that’s filthy.’”
“He goes, ‘Yeah.’”
Stats aren’t everything, but this sentence from that article is eye-opening:
Well, we have sen him twice ourselves this year, both QS that he won.
Joc could well have a big game against right-hander Jerome Williams and his high ERA. By the time Pederson comes to bat for the first time, we could well have put three or four runs on the board. Here’s hoping.
Next topic: Is (has) Alex Guerrero shown enough with his hitting to justify keeping him in LA in spite of his fielding? (To be honest, his defense hasn’t looked that bad to me, but what do I know???) Should we send him down to learn to field and get regular at bats, risking him demanding his release? Suggestions?
Can’t send him down without his permission. His contract makes him virtually untradeable. His offense has some value, I think, but Ned put handcuffs on his successors in this case.
No. We are responsible for his contract but we can release him if we choose. I was speaking of giving him that choice, release or go to OKC. I think he, like most of us, would take the release, with the money, and take his chances on finding happiness with another club which would only have to pay the legal minimum of his salary. Not good for us but the alternative is having a player of limited usage on the 25 man roster for several more years. If he hits, we can stand it; If he doesn’t, they will have to consider eating the money. Best thing is to trade him for whatever they can get, maybe just some salary relief… After all, we just dumped $28 MM with Olivera…
He’s had some value, so I wouldn’t cut him loose. Olivera had more value, partly because of his contract flexibility, and brought back a great deal more in trade, so they didn’t “dump” any money for him.
Certainly not something to do in the short term, with Justin out, Let’s see how he does over the next week or so. After that we start getting close to roster expansion in any event, so maybe we wait to off season?
LAT’D: I wonder if Hamels or Price would have been possible if Pederson had been available?
Different front office team, but I remember how long they hung on to Greg Brock thinking he’d blossom as a hitter. It never quite happened. Brock wasn’t close to Joc’s talent defensively, so I suspect they’ll give him quite a bit of rope. He’s still a kid with only 1,641 minor league plate appearances in all, only 445 of them at the AAA level.
As a first baseman you are supposed to hit a ton. Great fielding CF, like SS, can get away with something less, which is part of the problem. Sending him down as an approach to help him with his hitting would be a blow to our defense. Unless Tony Gwynn Jr is available so would trading him.