Tag Archives: Dazzy Vance

Sep 13

Game 145, 2021

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Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports Arizona, SPNLA

RHP Zac Gallen (2-9, 4.32 ERA) pitches for the D-Backs against the freshly-off-the-IL LHP Clayton Kershaw (9-7, 3.39 ERA). I expect that Kershaw will pitch no more than four innings unless the Dodgers are leading, in which case I suspect he’ll try to talk Roberts into letting him go one more to become eligible for the win.

On this day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1925 In the first game of a twin bill, Robins’ (Dodgers) starter Dazzy Vance no-hits the Phillies at Ebbets Field, 10-1. The Brooklyn hurler had one-hit the team from the City of Brotherly Love five days earlier.
  • 2005 During the six-run second inning uprising by San Diego, each Dodger outfielder commits an error. The fielding of Ricky Ledee (lf), Jose Cruz Jr. (right field), and Jayson Werth (cf) contributes to the 6-4 loss to the first place Padres.

Lineup when available.

Sep 27

Game 60, 2020

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Angels at Dodgers, 12:10 PM PDT, TV: FS-W, SPNLA

In this, the final game of this extraordinary and extraordinarily weird season, it seems fitting the Dodgers have not yet decided who’s gonna start the game. (Update: It’s Victor Gonzalez, 3-0, 1.40 ERA.)The Angels ask LHP Patrick Sandoval (1-4, 5.56 ERA) to start after three straight good relief appearances. The 23-year-old has only made 18 appearances in the big leagues, 14 of them starts.

Here’s what the playoff picture looks like right now:

…the AL postseason field [is] complete, but with all but two seeds (Rays at No. 1 and Astros at No. 6) unresolved heading into today’s action. And in the NL, the top four seeds have been claimed by the Dodgers, Braves, Cubs and Padres, but No. 5 through No. 8 are all up for grabs. The Brewers blanked the Cardinals in St. Louis and by the end of Saturday found themselves holding the eighth and final NL seed. The Giants and Phillies are on the outside looking in, but with hopes of sneaking into the playoffs still alive.

On this date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1936 Replacing Johnny Mize, tossed by an ump for arguing, Cardinal rookie first baseman Walter Alston makes an error in handling two chances and strikes out in his only major league at-bat. ‘Smokey’ will, however, win seven pennants and four World Series in his 23-year Hall of Fame career as Dodger manager from 1954 to 1976.
  • 1951 Bill Sharman, recently called up from Fort Worth, is one of 15 Dodgers who are ejected by umpire Frank Dascoli for bench jockeying after a close call at home plate. The future basketball Hall of Famer will never play in the big leagues, and thus he will become the only player to be ejected from a major league game without ever appearing in one.
  • 1960 Ryne Duren makes his first start in two years memorable when he strikes out the first five batters he faces in the Yankees’ 5-1 victory over Washington. The feat ties a modern major league record shared by Lefty Gomez (Yankees), Dazzy Vance (Dodgers), and Walter Johnson (Senators).
  • 1961 Sandy Koufax breaks the National League mark for strikeouts in a season, surpassing Christy Mathewson’s mark of 267 established in 1903. Unlike the turmoil caused by commissioner Ford Frick’s edict of having to hit 61 homers by the 154th game in the extended 162-game schedule to break Babe Ruth’s single season home run record, little is made that the Dodgers southpaw’s 268th punch-out occurs in the 151st game of the season, compared to the 142-game sked played early in the century.
  • 1964 The Houston Colt .45’s play their final game in Colt Stadium, the team’s home ballpark since joining the National League in 1962. The future Astros beat the Dodgers in the 12th inning, 1-0, when Jimmy Wynn’s single plates Bob Aspromonte.
  • 1993 In a 7-3 victory over the Dodgers, Cubs’ reliever Randy Myers becomes the first National League pitcher to record 50 saves in a season.
  • 1993 Mike Piazza, who broke the major league rookie record for home runs by a catcher earlier in the month, sets another mark for round-trippers when he hits his 34th, surpassing the previous L.A. Dodger mark shared by Steve Garvey (1977) and Pedro Guerrero (1985). Duke Snider established the franchise record with 43 homers playing with Brooklyn in 1956.
  • 2000 The United States Olympic team, managed by former Dodger skipper Tommy Lasorda, stuns the world, beating the much-favored Cuban team to win the country’s first gold medal in its national pastime. Ben Sheets ends Cuba’s 21-game Olympic winning streak with a 4-0 shutout.
  • 2011 After giving up five runs in the top of the tenth inning, the Diamondbacks score six times in the bottom of the frame in an amazing 7-6 come-from-behind victory over the Dodgers. Arizona infielder Ryan Roberts delivers the decisive blow in the Chase Field contest, a walk-off grand slam with two outs.

Lineup when available.

Sep 13

Game 47, 2020

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Astros at Dodgers, 5:00 PM PDT, TV: ESPN

RHP Zack Greinke (3-1, 3.27 ERA) goes for the visiting Astros, while the Dodgers have designated this a bullpen game and haven’t yet named their opening pitcher. Greinke’s been up and down: “After going 1-0 with a 1.84 ERA and 0.89 WHIP in his first five starts, Greinke is 2-1 with a 5.09 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in his past four starts.”

Finding a bright spot in last night’s game wasn’t easy:

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1925 In the first game of a twin bill, Robins’ (Dodgers) starter Dazzy Vance no-hits the Phillies at Ebbets Field, 10-1. The Brooklyn hurler had one-hit the team from the City of Brotherly Love five days earlier.
  • 2005 During the six-run second inning uprising by Colorado, each Dodger outfielder commits an error. The fielding of Ricky Ledee (lf), Jose Cruz Jr. (right field), and Jayson Werth (cf) contributes to the 6-4 loss to the Rockies. (The Dodgers finished 71-91 that year, in fourth place in the division. The Rockies finished last.

Also, in 1902, Johnny Evers, acquired to replace second baseman Bobby Lowe, who broke his ankle, joins shortstop Joe Tinker and first baseman Frank Chance on the Chicago infield, marking the first time the three Cubs’ infielders have played together. The legendary double play trio will be immortalized in Franklin Pierce Adams’ baseball poem, “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon,” better known as “Tinker to Evers to Chance”. (And only one of the three really had any business even being considered for induction into the Hall of Fame, as far as I’m concerned. There were a bunch of romantics or cronies on the Veterans Committee in 1946.)

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.

Sep 27

Game 160, 2019

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Dodgers at Giants, 7:15 PM PDT, TV: NBCS BA, SPNLA

RHP Walker Buehler (13-4, 3.25 ERA) goes for the Dodgers. He’ll face RHP Johnny Cueto (1-1, 2.57 ERA), who is making his fourth and last start of the season after recuperating from Tommy John surgery. In his first two starts he was surprisingly good, going ten scoreless innings. His third start was less so: he gave up four runs in four innings against the Braves. Buehler went six innings in his last start, gave up four runs to the Rockies and took the loss.

How yesterday’s shutout was pitched:

Check out the photos up and down the Dodgers’ Twitter feed. They look a lot like these:

On this date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1936 Replacing Johnny Mize, tossed by an ump for arguing, Cardinal rookie first baseman Walter Alston makes an error in handling two chances and strikes out in his only major league at-bat. ‘Smokey’ will, however, win seven pennants and four World Series in his 23-year Hall of Fame career as Dodger manager from 1954 to 1976.
  • 1951 Bill Sharman, recently called up from Fort Worth, is one of 15 Dodgers who are ejected by umpire Frank Dascoli for bench jockeying after a close call at home plate. The future basketball Hall of Famer will never play in the big leagues, and thus he will become the only player to be ejected from a major league game without ever appearing in one.
  • 1960 Ryne Duren makes his first start in two years memorable when he strikes out the first five batters he faces in the Yankees’ 5-1 victory over Washington. The feat ties a modern major league record shared by Lefty Gomez (Yankees), Dazzy Vance (Dodgers), and Walter Johnson (Senators).
  • 1961 Sandy Koufax breaks the National League mark for strikeouts in a season, surpassing Christy Mathewson’s mark of 267 established in 1903. Unlike the turmoil caused by commissioner Ford Frick’s edict of having to hit 61 homers by the 154th game in the extended 162-game schedule to break Babe Ruth’s single season home run record, little is made that the Dodgers southpaw’s 268th punch-out occurs in the 151st game of the season, compared to the 142-game sked played early in the century.
  • 1964 The Houston Colt .45’s play their final game in Colt Stadium, the team’s home ballpark since joining the National League in 1962. The future Astros beat the Dodgers in the 12th inning, 1-0, when Jimmy Wynn’s single plates Bob Aspromonte.
  • 1993 In a 7-3 victory over the Dodgers, Cubs’ reliever Randy Myers becomes the first National League pitcher to record 50 saves in a season.
  • 1993 Mike Piazza, who broke the major league rookie record for home runs by a catcher earlier in the month, sets another mark for round-trippers when he hits his 34th, surpassing the previous L.A. Dodger mark shared by Steve Garvey (1977) and Pedro Guerrero (1985). Duke Snider established the franchise record with 43 homers playing with Brooklyn in 1956.
  • 2000 The United States Olympic team, managed by former Dodger skipper Tommy Lasorda, stuns the world, beating the much-favored Cuban team to win the country’s first gold medal in its national pastime. Ben Sheets ends Cuba’s 21-game Olympic winning streak with a 4-0 shutout.
  • 2011 After giving up five runs in the top of the tenth inning, the Diamondbacks score six times in the bottom of the frame in an amazing 7-6 come-from-behind victory over the Dodgers. Arizona infielder Ryan Roberts delivers the decisive blow in the Chase Field contest, a walk-off grand slam with two outs.

Lineup when available.

Sep 13

Game 149, 2019

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Dodgers at Mets, 4:10 PM PDT, TV: SNY, SPNLA

LHP Clayton Kershaw (13-5, 3.06 ERA) tries to get back on track for the Dodgers. After completing at least six innings in each of his first 23 starts, he’s failed to get past the fifth in any of his last three. He’ll face the Mets’ RHP Noah Syndergaard (10-7, 4.06 ERA), who appears to be unhappy with Wilson Ramos as his catcher. Last weekend he asked the Mets to put Rene Rivera or Tomas Nido in the lineup when he pitches.

Rich Hill’s injury is a recurrence of the one which delayed his start this season: a balky MCL. In spring training it was a full-on sprain; he says yesterday’s injury is not as painful.

Here’s the Orioles’ pitcher completely forgetting he’s supposed to cover home plate after a passed ball, allowing Seager and Bellinger to score in yesterday’s game:

On this day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1925 In the first game of a twin bill, Robins’ (Dodgers) starter Dazzy Vance no-hits the Phillies at Ebbets Field, 10-1. The Brooklyn hurler had one-hit the team from the City of Brotherly Love five days earlier.
  • 2005 During the six-run second inning uprising by San Diego, each Dodger outfielder commits an error. The fielding of Ricky Ledee (lf), Jose Cruz Jr. (right field), and Jayson Werth (cf) contributes to the 6-4 loss to the first place Padres.

Lineup:

Aug 01

Game 111, 2019

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Padres at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: FSSD, SPNLA

LHP Joey Lucchesi (7-5, 4.12 ERA) pitches for the Friars tonight against LHP Clayton Kershaw (9-2, 2.85 ERA). Lucchesi had a good outing his last time out against the Giants on Friday, but he’s still averaging three walks per game over his last three starts. Kershaw remains Kershaw; he’s got the sixth-lowest ERA in the league and is trying to reach the double-digit mark in wins for the ninth time in his 12-year career.

Smith and Negron hit home runs in the ninth inning yesterday to give the Dodgers the win:

The Dodgers added LHP Adam Kolarek to the roster and optioned LHP Caleb Ferguson to AAA OKC.

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:

May 05

Game 36, 2019

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Dodgers at Padres, 1:10 PM PDT, TV: FSSD, SPNLA

RHP Kenta Maeda (3-2, 4.41 ERA) goes for the Dodgers and rookie LHP Nick Margevicius (2-3, 3.23 ERA) goes for the Friars. I’m sure Maeda’s start has not been what he or the Dodgers had hoped, but he’s improving. His last time out he threw five scoreless innings against the Giants despite allowing seven hits and two walks. Margevicius walked eight men in his last two starts (10 2/3 innings), but he allowed only four hits in each game. He’s struck out 7.6 men per nine innings, too.

In case you missed it, Kevin Pillar made an amazing high jump of a catch against the Reds Saturday:

Muncy’s home run in the sixth on Saturday was a no-doubter:

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1953 In the second game of a twin bill at Milwaukee’s County Stadium, Braves’ hurler Max Surkont strikes out the hitter for the third out of the second inning, and will continue to fan batters until there is one out in the fifth inning en route to a 10-3 victory over the Reds. The eight consecutive strikeouts establish a new major league record, surpassing the mark of seven straight strikeouts shared by Dazzy Vance (Robins aka Dodgers, 1924) and Van Mungo (Dodgers, 1936).
  • 1955 In his first major league start, Dodger rookie starter Tommy Lasorda ties a record, throwing three wild pitches in the first inning of the team’s 4-3 victory over St. Louis at Ebbets Field. The future Dodgers’ Hall of Fame skipper, during his one inning of work, will be spiked by Wally Moon, covering a play at home plate after uncorking on of his errant pitches.
  • 1962 In just his fourth big league start, Bo Belinsky throws the first hitless game in Angels history and the first one ever tossed at Dodger Stadium, beating the Orioles, 2-0. The 25 year-old southpaw is only the tenth rookie to throw a no-hitter.
  • 2000 Former Dodger skipper Tommy Lasorda is named manager of the United States’ Olympic baseball team. The Hall of Fame pilot won four National League pennants and two World Series titles with Los Angeles.
  • 2008 At Coors Field, Derek Lowe throws 43 pitches before he retires the first Rockies batter of the game. The Dodgers starting pitcher never recovers from the 50-pitch, three-run first inning, leaving after the fifth of a 7-2 eventual loss to Colorado.
  • 2008 In the 4,000th game played at Dodger Stadium, Joe Torre’s Dodgers beat the Mets, 5-1. The Los Angeles skipper also managed in the 1,000th game at the Astrodome (Mets – 1977) and Coors Field (Yankees – 2007), the 2,000th at Busch Stadium (Cardinals – 1991), the 3,000th at Angel Stadium (Yankees – 2003), and the 6,000th at Yankee Stadium (Yankees -2001).
  • 2009 The Dodgers tie the major league record of 12 consecutive wins at home to start the season with their 3-1 victory over Arizona. L.A.’s 12-0 start at home equals the mark set by the Tigers in 1911.

Lineup when available.


Mar 29

Game 2, 2019

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Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: FS-A, SPNLA

It’ll be Robbie Ray for the visitors versus Ross (Chicken Strip) Stripling for the Dodgers. Stripling has had all winter to fix his pitch-tipping problem, which kept him off postseason rosters for all three series the Dodgers played last year. Ray struggled for the first four months of last year and didn’t throw consecutive quality starts until September, but over his last eight starts he had a 2.09 ERA with 61 strikeouts in 43 innings.

MLB is all-in on technology these days, says Tom Verducci at Sports Illustrated. Here’s the opening paragraph:

Cold and clear as verity, a new dawn broke over Camelback Ranch, spring home of the Dodgers. So did morning. In one batting cage at the Glendale, Ariz., complex last month—not the cage with ground force measurement plates—rookie outfielder Alex Verdugo, 22, took batting practice while tethered to a laptop computer by two dozen thick white wires sprouting like vines from a harness around his hips and torso. Behind him, also in the cage, two technicians monitored the 3D motion images of Verdugo and his swing.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1935 The reigning National League champion Cardinals release 44 year-old right-hander Dazzy Vance, who appeared in his first and only World Series during his one season with the team. The future Hall of Fame hurler will return to the Dodgers, where he spent the most productive years of his career, finishing his major league 16-year tenure in the major leagues with a 197-140 (.585) record along with an ERA of 3.24.
  • 2008 In an exhibition game celebrating the club’s 50th anniversary of their move west from Brooklyn, the Dodgers lose to the Red Sox in front of 115,300 fans at the LA Coliseum. The crowd is the largest ever to watch a baseball game, surpassing the previous record when approximately 114,000 patrons attended an exhibition contest between the Australian national team and an American services team during the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.
  • 2017 The Dodgers commemorate Kirk Gibson’s historic pinch-hit, walk-off home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series by offering a special ticket package to sit in the right-field pavilion seat, recently painted blue and autographed by him, where the ball landed. The team is donating two-thirds of the $300 price of the ducats, which includes a companion seat, two commemorative T-shirts and food and drink, to the Kirk Gibson Foundation to raise money and awareness for Parkinson’s research, the neurological disease which affects the Fall Classic hero.

Lineup when available.


Sep 13

Game 147, 2018

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Dodgers at Cardinals, 4:15 PM PDT, TV: SPNLA, FS-M, MLBN (out-of-market only)

LHP Clayton Kershaw (7-5, 2.42 ERA) goes for the Dodgers at Busch Stadium this evening against the home teams’ LHP Austin Gomber (5-0, 2.93 ERA). Kershaw has given up no more than two earned runs in a game since July 15 and hasn’t lost since April 25 (okay, that sounds better than his record indicates; he was on the DL for nearly two months). Gomber made his MLB debut in June of this season; the Cardinals have won eight of his nine starts, including one against the Dodgers on August 20. That was Kenley Jansen’s first game back from his heart-related stint on the DL, the one in which he gave up two home runs in the ninth inning.

Houston Mitchell of the LA Times has a cold-eyed look at the Dodgers, their 2018 record and its splits, and its players WAR relative to prior seasons. For example:

They are 12-4 against San Diego and 4-0 against Texas, meaning they are 63-63 against everyone else.

There’s an “Ask Ross Porter” segment to Mitchell’s column, and I found this interesting:

Bill Russell, who played in a Los Angeles Dodger record 2,181 games, has been an MLB umpire supervisor since 2002 and sees all Angels and Dodgers home games. Bill tells me the umpiring is as good today as when he played.

Read the rest.

On this day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1925 In the first game of a twin bill, Robins’ (Dodgers) starter Dazzy Vance no-hits the Phillies at Ebbets Field, 10-1. The Brooklyn hurler had one-hit the team from the City of Brotherly Love five days earlier.
  • 2005 During the six-run second inning uprising by San Diego, each Dodger outfielder commits an error. The fielding of Ricky Ledee (lf), Jose Cruz Jr. (right field), and Jayson Werth (cf) contributes to the 6-4 loss to the first place Padres.

Lineup: