Tag Archives: Clayton Kershaw

Aug 14

Game 21, 2020

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Dodgers at Angels, 6:40 PM PDT, TV: FS-W, SPNLA

LHP Clayton Kershaw (1-1, 3.60 ERA) pitches for the visiting Dodgers against the Angels’ LHP Patrick Sandoval (0-1, 2.70 ERA). Kershaw gave up three homers to the Giants (the Giants!) and lasted only 4 1/3 innings. Sandoval’s last start was pretty good: he went six innings against the Rangers and gave up just two runs.

The LA Times has a whole bevy of interesting Dodgers stories today:

In Houston Mitchell’s Dodgers Dugout he lists all the Dodgers (Brooklyn and LA) who have hit three homers in a game; I was surprised to see that Adrian Gonzalez had done it twice while in a Dodgers uniform, and of the current players, Pollock, Turner, Seager and Hernandez have all done it in the last three years.

The LA Times’s game story recapping Mookie Betts’ 3-HR game is full of quotes from the happy guy.

The LA Times’s Bill Plaschke writes about his experience with COVID-19 in his column today.

Yesterday’s game had so many highlights that it takes five minutes of video to show them all:

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1919 In a total of two hours and seventeen minutes, the Dodgers and Cubs split a doubleheader. In the opener, the Cubs blank Brooklyn 2-0, in one hour and ten minutes, and in the nightcap, it takes the Dodgers one hour and seven minutes to shut out Chicago, 1-0.
  • 1932 Brooklyn’s 10-inning, 2-1 victory over the Giants at the Polo Grounds makes reliever John Quinn, at the age of 49, the oldest player to win a major league game. Johnny Frederick, who will have a total of only six home runs during the entire season, hits a ninth inning game-tying homer off Carl Hubbell, his fourth round-tripper as a pinch hitter, establishing a new major-league record.

Also, in 2015 the Padres’ Matt Kemp hits a ninth-inning triple to complete the cycle, making him the first player in the 35-year history of the franchise to accomplish the feat. The San Diego outfielder’s home run in the first, single in the third, and double in the seventh contribute to the team’s 9-5 victory over Colorado at Coors Field.

Lineup:

Aug 10

Game 17, 2020

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Padres at Dodgers, 6:40 PM PDT, TV: FSSD, SPNLA

The Dodgers send RHP Dustin May (1-0, 2.63 ERA) to the mound to host the Padres’ RHP Luis Perdomo (0-0, 5.40 ERA). May went six innings and struck out eight in his last start, which was against these same Padres. Perdomo was a starter for the first three years of his big league career, but he strained his right shoulder in 2018 and has been used mostly in relief since his return in 2019.

Here are the Dodgers’ two three-run homers from yesterday’s game by Pollock and Betts:

This date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1979 Dodger hurler Don Sutton sets a franchise record with his 50th shutout, blanking San Francisco at Candlestick Park, 9-0. The 34 year-old right-hander has previously shared the mark with Don Drysdale. (Ed. note: 50! In his eleventh year Clayton Kershaw has a career total of 15!)
  • 1995 The first forfeit in the majors in sixteen years occurs when the fans for the third time during the night throw promotional souvenir baseballs onto the Dodger Stadium field. At the time of the decision to halt the game, Los Angeles is trailing the Cardinals, 2-1 with one out in the bottom of the ninth.

August 10 is a good day for pitchers: in 1971 at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, Juan Marichal records his 50th career shutout as the Giants blank the Expos, 1-0. The Dominican hurler’s ninth inning double helps to build the winning run.

Lineup:

Aug 09

Game 16, 2020

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Giants at Dodgers, 1:10 PM PDT, TV: MLBN (out-of-market only), NBCS-BA, SPNLA

RHP Kevin Gausman (0-1, 5.27 ERA) goes for the visitors and RHP Walker Buehler (0-0, 5.19 ERA) takes the hill for the Dodgers. Gausman gave up four runs in 5 1/3 innings in his last start. Buehler hasn’t yet hit his stride this year, and one symptom is the four HRs he’s given up in his 8 2/3 innings of work; last year he averaged 1 HR every nine innings.

Mookie Betts, water boy? Yep. When he went to high school in Nashville his mother wouldn’t allow him to play football, so he volunteered to be an assistant to the coaches, helping out with water, equipment, etc.

This date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1975 At Shea Stadium, Davey Lopes steals his 32nd consecutive base without being caught, breaking Max Carey’s 1922 record in the Dodgers’ 2-0 victory over New York. The Dodger second baseman’s mark will be broken by Vince Coleman in 1989.
  • 1976 John Candelaria becomes the first Pirate since 1907 to throw a no-hitter in Pittsburgh. Nick Maddox threw the first and only Buc home no-hitter until the ‘Candyman’ beat the Dodgers at Three Rivers Stadium. (There was never a no-hitter pitched in the 61-year history of spacious Forbes Field.)
  • 2001 Mike Hampton ties the National League record for pitchers with his seventh homer when he goes deep off Felix Heredia in the Rockies’ 14-5 victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field. The Colorado southpaw equals the mark established by Dodger hurlers Don Drysdale (1958, 1965) and Don Newcombe (1955), and two shy of the major league standard set by Wes Ferrell, playing for the Indians in 1931.
  • 2013 The Dodgers rally for four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, overcoming a six-run, seventh-inning deficit, for their fifth walk-off victory of the season. The team’s 7-6 victory over Tampa Bay is their 11th consecutive win in a one-run games, a span in which they have defeated ten different clubs.

Also on this date, in 2013 Dan Haren becomes the thirteenth pitcher in history to record a victory over all 30 major league franchises when he hurls seven solid innings in the Nationals’ 9-2 win over Philadelphia. The 32 year-old right-hander joins Al Leiter, Randy Johnson, Barry Zito, A.J. Burnett, Kevin Brown, Terry Mulholland, Curt Schilling, Woody Williams, Jamie Moyer, Javier Vazquez, Vicente Padilla, and Derek Lowe in accomplishing the feat.

Lineup:

Aug 08

Game 15, 2020

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Giants at Dodgers, 6:10 PM PDT, TV: MLBN, NBCS-BA, SPNLA

RHP Johnny Cueto (0-0, 4.97 ERA) goes for the Giants; LHP Clayton Kershaw (1-0, 0.00 ERA) pitches for the Dodgers. Cueto started Opening Day against the Dodgers and went four innings while giving up one run. In his subsequent two starts he was much less effective, going 3 2/3 innings against the Padres and 5 innings against the Rockies. Kershaw’s first start of the year was delayed by back trouble but was worth waiting for: he went 5 2/3 scoreless innings against the D-Backs. In his career he’s 23-12 against the Giants.

Roberts says “Seager is day to day. He’s getting tests on his back and will likely not play tomorrow.”

Here are the Dodgers’ four home runs in last night’s game.

On this day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1903 In the third inning of the 4-3 nightcap loss to New York at the Polo Grounds, Dodger starter Henry Schmidt is thrown out of the game after he throws the baseball out of the park. The Brooklyn hurler became very angry when opposing pitcher Joe McGinnity dashed home from third base while his infielders were arguing the close call at the bag.
  • 1954 Gil Hodges comes to bat three times in the eighth inning when the Dodgers score 13 runs en route to a 20-7 rout of the Reds at Ebbets Field. The first baseman will go 1-for-3 in the frame with a leadoff triple, but will be responsible for all three outs when he hits into a double play and flies out to centerfield to end the Brooklyn barrage.
  • 1957 Club President Walter O’Malley makes it official, announcing the Dodgers will play in Los Angeles next season. The club’s departure from Brooklyn corresponds with the massive social shift taking place in the borough that finds many of its former residents leaving for the suburbs of Long Island.
  • 2000 Cubs hurler Phil Norton becomes the 18th pitcher in major league history to give up four homers in one inning in the Dodgers’ 7-5 victory at Chavez Ravine. Kevin Elster, Darren Dreifort, Gary Sheffield, and Shawn Green all take the 24 year-old southpaw deep in the bottom of the fourth inning.
  • 2000 Darren Dreifort hits two home runs and gets the win in the Dodgers’ 7-5 victory over the Cubs. The starting pitcher, who hurls 6.2 innings, goes deep in the bottom of the fourth and fifth frames.
  • 2000 After kissing one another in the seventh inning, a female couple is abruptly asked to leave Dodger Stadium immediately and are told never to “set foot back on the premises” for “lewd behavior”. The pair had planned to sue the organization, but ended up not doing so after the team apologized, promising to contribute 5,000 tickets to LGBT organizations and continue sensitivity training for all its employees.

Lineup:

Aug 02

Game 10, 2020

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Dodgers at Diamondbacks, 1:10 PM PDT, TV: FS-A, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

Today is the first start of the year for the Dodgers’ LHP Clayton Kershaw, who scratched from Opening Day with back soreness. This will be his 34th career start against the Arizona team. He’ll face the D-Backs’ RHP Merrill Kelly (1-0, 1.17 ERA). Kelly took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of his last start against the Rangers.

Game highlights from yesterday:

On this day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1938 Bright yellow baseballs designed by Frederick Rah, who believes the visibility of the dandelion-hue sphere will help players avoid getting hit by a pitch, are used in the first game of a doubleheader. The one-game experiment draws mixed reactions and the Dodgers complete their sweep of the twin bill from the Cardinals, 6-2 and 9-3, using the traditional white ball in the nightcap.
  • 1982 During a ceremony held in Cooperstown, NY, the United States Postal Service unveils a 20-cent stamp commemorating baseball great Jackie Robinson as part of its annual Black Heritage series. The Dodger infielder becomes the first individual baseball player to be depicted on a U.S postage stamp.

  • 2002 Reds general manager Jim Bowden is fined by commissioner Bud Selig for the comments he made to reporters prior to yesterday’s game against the Dodgers comparing a baseball strike with the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Quickly realizing the use of such analogy was inappropriate and insensitive, the Cincinnati GM issues an immediate apology after the game.
  • 2008 In the first game after the Manny Ramirez trade to the Dodgers, the Fenway Faithful enthusiastically welcome Jason Bay, the player replacing the Boston icon. The former Pirates outfielder doesn’t disappoint, tripling and scoring the winning run in the 12th inning of the Red Sox’s 2-1 victory over the A’s.
  • 2017 The Dodgers lost to the Braves, ending their nine-game winning streak. Had they won it would have been the third time that season they’d have won ten straight. The bullpen gave up the go-ahead runs in the eighth inning at Sun Trust Park in Atlanta.

Lineup when available.

Aug 01

Game 9, 2020

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Dodgers at Diamondbacks, 5:10 PM PDT, TV: FS-A, SPNLA

LHP Julio Urias (0-0, 1.80 ERA) takes the hill for the Dodgers. He walked three and struck out three in five innings in his first start. He’ll face the D-Backs’ RHP Luke Weaver (0-1, 16.20 ERA), who gave up six runs on seven hits in his first start, walking two and striking out six.

Mookie Betts’ throw may make us forget Yasiel Puig:

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1906 After pitching 10.2 innings of no-hit ball, Harry McIntire yields a single to Pirates second baseman Claude Ritchey. The Dodgers and McIntire lose the game in the 13th on an unearned run, 1-0.
  • 1924 Dazzy Vance strikes out seven consecutive batters to establish a major league record when the Brooklyn Robins defeat the Cubs at Ebbets Field, 4-0. The future Hall of Famer, who will compile a 28-6 record for the Brooks this season, will lead the National League in strikeouts with 262.
  • 1957 Gil Hodges, in a 12-3 win over the Cubs, hits his 13th and last career grand slam in Brooklyn Dodger history. The first baseman’s bases-loaded shot off Dick Littlefield establishes a new National League record, previously shared by Rogers Hornsby and Ralph Kiner.
  • 2011 After popping out in a pinch-hitting appearance, Craig Counsell remains without a hit in his last 45 at-bats, tying the longest single-season hitless streak by a position player in history, established by Brooklyn backstop Bill Bergen in 1909. The major league record is 0-for-70, established in 1970 by Bob Buhl, a pitcher who toiled with the Braves and Cubs that season. Counsell and Bergen’s record for position players has since been surpassed by the Orioles’ Chris Davis, who got it up to 54 straight hitless ABs in 2019 before getting a hit on April 13.
  • 2015 Clayton Kershaw strikes out Mike Trout looking with a wicked curveball, marking the first time that reigning MVPs have faced one another in a major league game. The interleague contest between the two LA teams ends with Dodger southpaw keeping the Angel outfielder 0-for-3 while hurling eight innings in the team’s 3-1 victory over the Halos at Chavez Ravine.

Lineup when available.

Jul 23

Opening Day, 2020

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It’s the first game of this bizarre 60-game season, in which each win and each loss has much more weight than in most seasons. Lose ten straight in a 162-game season and you’ve got a chance to make it up; do so in a 60-game season and you’re probably dead. If last year had been a 60-game season, the World Series Champion Nationals would not have made the playoffs. They were 27-33 in their first 60 games.

Giants at Dodgers, 7:00 PM PDT. TV: ESPN

The Dodgers send LHP Clayton Kershaw to the mound for his ninth Opening Day start in ten years. The 32-year-old was 16-5 last season with the highest ERA of his career, a whopping 3.03. He’ll face the Giants’ RHP Johnny Cueto, who was 1-2 with a 5.06 ERA last year in four September starts after undergoing Tommy John surgery in August of 2018.

Here’s the Dodgers’ official 30-man roster to start the season:

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1939 Using yellow dyed balls, the Cardinals beat the Dodgers 5-2 at Sportsman’s Park. The experimenting with the use of the colored sphere, which is designed to make the ball easier to see for the players and the fans, started in Brooklyn last week and will be tested once more, in a September game played at Wrigley Field.
  • 1962 Jackie Robinson becomes the first black player inducted into the Hall of Fame. Joining the Dodger infielder in the Cooperstown ceremony are fireballer Bob Feller, veteran manager Bill McKechnie, and outfielder Edd Roush.

  • 1965 Dick Stuart homers in the first inning in the Phillies’ 5-1 win over New York at Shea Stadium. ‘Dr. Strangeglove’, who played in Boston for the previous two seasons, becomes the first player to have gone deep in each of the 19 major league ballparks now in use. (Ed. note – Nineteen ballparks because both Los Angeles teams, the Angels and Dodgers, share the ballpark in Chavez Ravine. – LP)
  • 1974 At Three Rivers Stadium, Dodger first baseman Steve Garvey, a write-in All-Star starter, singles and doubles to help the National League beat the Junior circuit, 7-2. Mike Schmidt, also a write-in, plays in his first Midsummer Classic thanks to radio intern Howard Eskin’s on-air campaign which urged Phillies fans to stuff the ballot box for their young third baseman.

Also, Nomah! In 2002 Nomar Garciaparra establishes the record for consecutive home runs in the shortest time in terms of innings. In a 22-4 rout of the Devil Rays at Fenway Park, the Red Sox shortstop homers three times in two frames – two two-run homers in the second and a grand slam in the third.

Lineup when available.

Kershaw is a late scratch due to back pain and has been replaced as the Dodgers’ starting pitcher by Dustin May, the first rookie to start an Opening Day game for the team since Fernando Valenzuela in 1981.

Jul 18

Opening day roster speculation

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Who’s gonna be on it?

Pitchers: Pedro Báez, Walker Buehler, Kenley Jansen, Joe Kelly, Clayton Kershaw, Ross Stripling, Blake Treinen, Julio Urías, Alex Wood, Brusdar Graterol and Dustin May

Starting depth could be an issue. After losing Hyun-Jin Ryu, Kenta Maeda and Rich Hill (68 starts combined last year) over the offseason, the only veteran starters the Dodgers added were Price and Jimmy Nelson, but both are out for the season. That leaves Urías, Wood and youngsters May, Gonzalez and White to pick up those 68 starts.

Will Smith and Austin Barnes are the catchers. Infielders are Enrique Hernández, Max Muncy, Gavin Lux, Corey Seager, Justin Turner, Matt Beaty and Edwin Rios. Cody Bellinger, Mookie Betts, Joc Pederson, A. J. Pollack and Chris Taylor are the outfielders.

Subject to change at any moment, of course.

Mar 10

Kershaw named Opening Day starter

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For the ninth time in ten years. He started last season on the injured list. Buehler will start Game Two and Price Game Three of the first series against the Giants at Dodger Stadium.

That assumes that MLB starts its season on time, of course. The coronavirus is moving quite quickly around the country; some events (SXSW!) have been canceled altogether, others (Coachella) have been postponed. Some events have turned away spectators, playing games in empty arenas.

In an abundance of caution all of the major sports leagues (MLB, NHL, MLS and NBA) have closed their locker rooms to the press. One wonders how quickly they’ll rescind that order once the virus is controlled (assuming it is).

In other Dodgers’ news, Corey Seager says he’s feeling better than he has since his Rookie of the Year season of 2016.

Oct 04

NLDS Games Two, 2019

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The early game will be the Cardinals at Braves, 1:37 PM PDT, TV: TBS

This game features the hottest pitcher of the second half, the Cardinals’ RHP Jack Flaherty. He’ll face the Braves’ RHP Mike Foltynewicz. Flaherty made 15 starts in the second half and posted a 0.91 ERA for all of them. Foltynewicz struggled early, went to the minors, and came back up in the second half rejuvenated. He went 6-1 with a 2.65 ERA in his ten starts after August 5.

Cardinals lineup:

Braves lineup:

The late game will be Nationals at Dodgers, 6:37 PM PDT, TV: TBS

The Nats send RHP Stephen Strasburg to the mound to face the Dodgers’ LHP Clayton Kershaw. Strasburg threw only 34 pitches while dispatching the Brewers handily for three innings in the Wild Card Game Tuesday. Strasburg’s been in four postseason games in his career, going 2-2 with an 0.41 ERA over 22 innings. Kershaw has been in thirty postseason games with a 9-10 record and a 4.32 ERA over 152 innings.

Jon W. presents an updated edition of his Clayton Kershaw Postseason Chart, which recounts the pitcher’s exploits once the regular season is done.

Nationals lineup:

Dodgers lineup: