Category Archives: Game Threads

For discussion of today’s game

Jul 25

Game 99, 2015

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Dodgers at Mets, 4:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Righty Zach Lee, Los Angeles’ first-round pick in the 2010 Draft out of McKinney High School in Texas, will start for the Dodgers in his major league debut. He’s 7-3 with a 2.36 ERA in 12 starts this season for Triple-A Oklahoma City. Matt Harvey (8-7, 3.19 ERA) will start for the Mets. He’s walked at least four batters in each of his past three starts, two of them losses.

Scott Van Slyke made a heckuva play in the ninth inning of last night’s game:

Lineup when available.

A-Gon sits, Crawford gets his first start since his return from an extended stay on the DL this season, and Puig gets the day off. Puig’s about seven years younger than Ethier, so you’d think Andre would get the day off instead, but no. Mattingly works in mysterious ways.

Whoops. Updated lineup:

A-Gon says his neck is well enough to allow him to play, I guess, so Turner shifts to third base and Callaspo sits.

Jul 24

Game 98, 2015

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Dodgers at Mets, 4:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN

In Zack Greinke’s absence (no official word yet from the Dodgers about any newborn child) rookie Ian Thomas starts for the Dodgers against Jon Niese of the Mets. Thomas came over from the Braves with Callaspo in return for Juan Uribe in a six-player deal at the end of May of this year. This will be his first major league start after 23 relief appearances. Niese has been excellent over the past two months; he’s gone at least seven innings in five of his last seven starts while compiling a 2.00 ERA. Overall he’s 5-8 with a 3.36 ERA.

Update: Congrats to Mrs. Greinke and her husband Zack: 19″, 6 pounds, 5 ounces baby boy!

Lineup when available.

Jul 23

Game 97, 2015

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Dodgers at Mets, 4:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN

This game has two of the most recognizable pitchers in baseball: Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers, who is 7-6 with a 2.68 ERA and a 20-inning scoreless streak, versus Bartolo Colon of the Mets, who’s 9-8 with a 4.68 ERA and a couple of really bad outings recently in which he gave up seven runs in two of his last five starts. Interestingly, Kershaw hasn’t had a decision against the Mets since July of 2012, but he’s 5-0 with a 1.58 ERA against them for his career.

Lineup when available.

Jul 22

Game 96, 2015

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Dodgers at Braves, 9:10AM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN, SportsSouth

The Braves are looking for a sweep.

Mike Bolsinger only pitched four innings in his last start for the Dodgers. That was the game that was eventually postponed by power outages in Washington. He’s 4-3 with a 3.04 ERA in his 14 starts this season. Julio Teheran only went 4 2/3 innings in his last start for the Braves, giving up 5 hits and 2 runs against the Cubs and not figuring in the decision.

Lineup when available.

Jul 21

Game 95, 2015

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Dodgers at Braves, 4:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, SportsSouth

Brett Anderson is 5-5 with a 3.17 ERA and he’s making his 19th start of the season for the Dodgers. He hasn’t made that many in a year since he made exactly that number for the As five years ago. He’s been on a pretty good run in his last six starts: he’s allowed three runs or fewer in each of them.

Anderson’s opponent will be fellow lefty Alex Wood, who’s 6-6 with a 3.76 ERA and coming off a horrible last start. He gave up seven earned runs and ten hits in 5 2/3 innings against the Rockies. This is Wood’s third year in the big leagues, all with the Braves. Lifetime he’s 20-20 with a 3.15 ERA.

Carl Crawford comes off the DL today and will be a fourth or fifth outfielder, and he says he’s okay with that.

Lineup when available.

Barnes starts at catcher for the second day in a row. Grandal’s jaw must still be hurting.

Jul 20

Game 94, 2015

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Dodgers at Braves, 4:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, Sports South

Right-hander Brandon Beachy makes his second start of the year for the Dodgers after missing all of 2014 with Tommy John surgery and rehabilitation. He went 4 innings and gave up 3 runs in his first outing on July 11, walking 3 and striking out 2. He wasn’t very pleased with his performance:

“I’d like to tell you I feel really accomplished, but in this moment, I didn’t accomplish what I set out to do. I didn’t set out to pitch in a big league game. I set out to dominate a big league game,” he said.

Beachy will face Matt Wisler, who’s pitched well in 4 of 5 starts this season and compiled a 3-1, 3.10 ERA while doing so.

Tidbits: Carl Crawford is expected to be reinstated sometime during the series, which means somebody has to go down to Oklahoma City or get released or designated for assignment.

The Braves are 22nd in MLB in runs scored and 27th in slugging percentage. The Dodgers have a best-in-MLB team fielding percentage of .989 and only 38 errors, fewest in the big leagues.

Lineup when available.

Jul 19

Game 93, 2015

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Dodgers at Nationals, 10:35AM PT, TV: SPNLA, TBS, MASN

Two of the best pitchers in the game this season have at it: Zack Greinke (8-2 with a microscopic 1.39 ERA) for the Dodgers versus Max Scherzer (10-7 with a 2.11 ERA) for the Nats. Greinke has a 35 2/3-inning scoreless streak (the HR in the All Star Game doesn’t count). Scherzer has a different kind of streak: he hasn’t walked a batter since June 14.

Some interesting things about these teams:

Over the past two seasons, the Dodgers and Nationals have been two of baseball’s best teams after the All-Star break. In 2013 and ’14, the Dodgers were a league-best 85-48 (.639) from the Midsummer Classic forward. The Nationals were 83-53 (.610), third-best.

Another thing we Dodger fans might not have realized: since Adrian Gonzalez came to the Dodgers in mid-2012 no one in the NL has knocked in more runners than he has. How many? 296.

Lineup when available.

Jul 18

Game 92, 2015

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Well, let’s call this the rest of Game 91 as well as Game 92. The Dodgers are still at the Nats at 1:05PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS1 and MASN. But Friday night’s game, suspended due to electrical power failure (not home run power failure, since it featured four-baggers from Adrian Gonzalez of the Dodgers and Yunel Escobar of the Nats), will be resumed at 11:05AM PT. It’s anybody’s guess who’ll be pitching for either team.

In the regularly scheduled game the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw makes his first start of the second half, hoping to improve on his 6-6 record and 2.85 ERA. His opponent will be Doug Fister, who’s 3-4 with a 4.08 ERA and a long layoff: he hasn’t pitched since July 6. He spent the latter part of May and the first half of June on the DL with a tight forearm.

Below the fold, some evidence that current players know how to use social media.
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Jul 17

Game 91, 2015

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Dodgers at Nationals, 4:05PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN

Mike Bolsinger (4-3, 3.08 ERA) goes for the Dodgers against Jordan Zimmermann (8-5, 3.22 ERA) of the Nats. Bolsinger pitched his first quality start in a month in his last outing before the break, while Zimmermann struggled for five innings against the Orioles but got the win anyway.

The Nats are 48-39 and lead the NL East by 2 games over the Mets. The Dodgers are 51-39 and lead the NL West by 4 1/2 games over the Giants.

Lineup when available.

Jul 12

Game 90, 2015

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Brewers at Dodgers, 1:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

The biggest surprise about Brett Anderson for the Dodgers this season might be that he’s remained healthy throughout. He’s 3-3 with a 3.12 ERA, coming off a loss which snapped a three-start winning streak. The biggest surprise about Kyle Lohse for the Brewers might be how poorly he’s pitched. He’s 5-10 with a 6.29 ERA, his highest since 2010 when he underwent forearm surgery in June and couldn’t come back till mid-August.

Lineup:

Ethier may still have hamstring tightness, which kept him out of Friday’s lineup. Maybe the shakeup of the order has some logic to Mattingly, but it has none to me.