Apr 21

Game 20, 2014

Phillies at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

It’s the Fightin’ Phils’ Cliff Lee (2-2, 4.00 ERA) against the Dodgers’ Paul Maholm (0-1, 4.97 ERA).

If we’re to take MLB’s Preview as gospel, the Dodgers should just forfeit.

Of his four big-name outfielders, Carl Crawford’s .212 (7-for-33) lifetime mark against Lee is the best of the bunch. Yasiel Puig is 1-for-7 vs. the lefty; Andre Ethier is 0-for-11 with five strikeouts; Matt Kemp, who generally wears out lefties, is 1-for-18 with 11 whiffs.

How’s Scott Van Slyke? He’s 0-for-5 with three strikeouts against Lee.

Jeff Passan wrote a good editorial column exhorting MLB to take action to better control the way Cuban athletes are allowed into this country when defecting. He rightly calls the current system a form of human trafficking.

Dodger Insider has a fascinating little story about the Dodgers’ franchise official win total: Elias Sports Bureau has it at 9,997 including the twelve wins this year, while the official Dodgers’ records have it at 9,984 including those wins. The discrepancy is owed to wins achieved with the help of an ineligible player in 1899 (!).

Lineup when available.

Apr 17

Game 16, 2014

Dodgers at Giants, 12:45PM PST, TV: SPNLA.

One of the two de facto aces on the Dodgers staff while Kershaw’s out, Hyun-Jin Ryu brings his 2 – 1 record and his 2.57 ERA to this game. He’ll face Madison Bumgarner, who has a 2 – 0 record with a 3.31 ERA as well as a hot bat. He hit a grand slam and drove in five runs in his last outing.

Mattingly is going with an all right-handed outfield against Bumgarner, saving Ethier and Crawford for pinch-hitting duty.

Apr 12

Game 12, 2014

Dodgers at Diamondbacks, 5:10 PM PST, TV: SPNLA and MLBTV (free game today). The D-Backs send out Wade Miley, who’s 2-1 with a 4.05 ERA, and the Dodgers counter with Zack Greinke, who’s 2-0 with a 3.27 ERA.

Miley faced the Dodgers in the opening game in Sydney when he gave up three runs in five innings. With him pitching, Mattingly sits Ethier and Crawford and generally loads up the lineup with right-handers.

Lineup:

Apr 02

Game Two, 2013

Giants at Dodgers, 7:10 PT, Prime Ticket and MLBN. The Dodgers send out Hyun-Jin Ryu to make his major league debut against Madison Bumgarner.

The Dodgers of the Seventies were noted for the constancy of their infield, running the same four guys out there for years and years. By contrast,

Monday was Andre Ethier’s sixth Opening Day start in right field for the Dodgers, the most in Los Angeles history. His 959 games played in the outfield also are the third-most as a Los Angeles Dodger, trailing only Willie Davis (1,906) and Dusty Baker (1,092).

I had forgotten the outfield has been somewhat of a revolviing door. It may end up that Kemp and Ethier (if the latter isn’t traded at some point in his current five-year contract) set a similar standard for Dodgers’ outfielders as the Cey, Russell, Lopes and Garvey foursome did for the infield.

This amused me when I read it in the preview: “Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was impressed with Ryu’s camp and said the youngster pitched his way behind ace Clayton Kershaw.”

The “youngster” is a year older than Kershaw.

This will be the Game Thread. Lineups will be posted when they’re available.

LF: Jerry Hairston
2B: Mark Ellis
CF: Matt Kemp
1B: Adrian Gonzalez
3B: Luis Cruz
RF: Andre Ethier
C: A.J. Ellis
SS: Justin Sellers
SP: Hyun-Jin Ryu

Cruz hitting fifth has to be a rare thing in his career, I’d think. Crawford’s absence is a bit of a puzzle, although these lifetime stats for Jerry Hairston Jr. may explain it (Crawford has no record against Bumgarner):

PITCHER AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS
Madison Bumgarner 7 3 1 0 0 1 0 1 .429 .429 .571 1.000
Mar 18

Dodgers – D-Backs on Prime Ticket

I just realized it. The game started 45 minutes ago, and the D-Backs lead 3 – 0 in the third. Josh Wall started, went two innings and was relieved by Peter Moylan. Crawford is hitting leadoff and singled in the third.

In personnel news, the team reassigned Tony Gwynn and Wilkin Castillo to Albuquerque and released Ramon Castro.

Josh Beckett and Chad Billingsley both were relieved of their starting assignments today and tomorrow respectively, Beckett with the flu and Billingsley with a bruised right index finger. Greinke is set to start on Wednesday.

Update: Chad Moriyama has injury updates on Hanley Ramirez, Greinke, Billingsley, Crawford, Beckett, Withrow and Gordon. The most serious of these may be Ramirez’s thumb, which he jammed playing in the title game of the WBC yesterday. He dove for a ground ball while playing third. He stayed in for another at-bat and even got a hit, but he came out after that. He’ll have an MRI today at Camelback Ranch.

Mar 16

Dodgers – Brewers Sunday

And Carl Crawford expects to play.

The Dodgers play the Rangers today in Surprise (yes, that’s the name of the town). Kershaw is starting and has a pitch limit of 90. Here’s today’s lineup:

Alfredo Amezaga CF
Nick Punto 3B
Jerry Hairston 1B
Yasiel Puig RF
Skip Schumaker 2B
Alex Castellanos LF
Matt Wallach C
Dee Gordon SS
Clayton Kershaw P

Oct 26

Mid-Series Dodger news

Roberto at Vin Scully is My Homeboy has some news and photos of a press conference the Dodgers held today to introduce Carl Crawford as the team’s new left fielder.

New news items will be added here until the next WS travel day, if one’s necessary.

Update: Eric Stephen of True Blue LA updated his payroll worksheet to include all the trades which occurred in August of 2012.