Sep 26

Game 159, 2019

Dodgers at Padres, 12:40 PM PDT, TV: FSSD, SPNLA

LHP Clayton Kershaw (15-5, 3.15 ERA) tunes up for the playoffs and tries to get his ERA below 3.00. He’ll face LHP Joey Lucchesi (10-9, 4.28 ERA). Kershaw gave up three HRs and four runs in six innings to the Rockies his last time out but still got the win thanks to the Dodgers’ prolific offense. Lucchesi has had two bad outings in a row (11 runs in 7 2/3 innings), but his sophomore season has been otherwise acceptable.

Here’s Rios’s 473-foot HR:

On this day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1908 Cubs right-hander Ed Reulbach pitches two shutouts in the same day, whitewashing the Brooklyn Superbas in the opener 5-0 on a five-hitter and 3-0 on three hits in the nightcap. The entire Washington Park doubleheader takes less than three hours to complete.
  • 1954 Willie Mays, with three hits in the season finale, wins the batting title, finishing the campaign with a .345 average. The ‘Say Hey Kid’ goes third to first in batting average with his performance passing teammate Don Mueller (.342) and Dodger center fielder Duke Snider (.341).
  • 1975 Burt Hooton sets a Dodger record for starting pitchers by winning his twelfth consecutive game. The 25 year-old right-hander, who was traded to LA in May for Eddie Solomon and Geoff Zahn, accomplishes the feat by beating J.R. Richard and the Astros at Dodger Stadium, 3-2.
  • 1981 Nolan Ryan becomes the first pitcher to throw five no-hitters when the Astros defeat the Dodgers at the Astrodome, 5-0. The Ryan Express, who will finish his 27-year major league career with a record seven no-hitters, previously has thrown hitless gems against the Royals (1973), Tigers (1973), Twins (1974), and Orioles (1975).

  • 1997 Dodger catcher Mike Piazza, in a 10-4 win over the Rockies, hits the longest home run in the history of Coors Field. The 28 year-old backstop’s sixth-inning blast travels 496 feet and hits the left-center field billboard between the scoreboard and the Rockpile.

Lineup when available.

Aug 01

Game 111, 2019

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:

Jul 07

Game 92, 2019

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

The Cosa Nostra Padres send LHP Joey Lucchesi (6-4, 3.91) to the hill to face Tyson’s the Dodgers’ RHP Ross Stripling (3-2, 3.45 ERA) in a day game at Dodger Stadium. Lucchesi has averaged about 5 2/3 innings per outing in this, his second year in the big leagues. He’s gotten into the sixth inning in each of his last two starts, giving up six runs and getting no decision in either of them. Stripling is making his third start replacing the injured Rich Hill. In his last outing he got into the fifth inning, giving up 4 runs on seven hits while striking out seven.

Here’s Maeda’s 6K performance in yesterday’s 7 2/3-inning effort:

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1953 The Dodgers set a major league mark for the most consecutive games with a home run by a team with at least one round-tripper in their 24 contests. Brooklyn starter Preacher Roe hits the record-breaking homer with a third-inning blast in the team’s 9-5 victory over Pittsburgh at Forbes Field. (Note: this record has been broken by seven teams since then, most recently in 2019 by the NY Yankees, who did it in 31 straight games ending July 1)
  • 1998 Jeff Shaw becomes the first player to participate in an All-Star Game wearing a uniform for a team he hasn’t yet played for when he works an inning, allowing three hits and a run pitching for the National League squad before appearing in a regular season game for the Dodgers. The 32 year-old closer, who posted a 1.81 ERA along with 23 saves in the first half of the season for the Reds, was traded three days ago by Cincinnati to Los Angeles for Paul Konerko and Dennys Reyes.
  • 2004 Kazuhisa Ishii tosses a one-hitter in the Dodgers’ 11-0 defeat of Arizona. The 30 year-old Japanese southpaw retires the first 12 batters he faces before issuing a leadoff walk to Luis Gonzalez, which is followed with a single by Shea Hillenbrand, but then the left-hander proceeds to mow down 15 consecutive D-Backs to finish his masterpiece.

Lineup:


May 04

Game 35, 2019

Dodgers at Padres, 5:40 PM PDT, TV: FSSD, SPNLA

LHP Rich Hill (0-0, 1.50 ERA) makes his second start of the season for the Dodgers, while LHP Joey Lucchesi (3-2, 4.94 ERA) goes for the Padres. In Hill’s first start he went six innings, struck out six, walked none and gave up one earned run. This season Lucchesi has had outings in which he’s given up seven, five and five runs in a total of fifteen innings. Last year he gave up 13 runs in 12 2/3 innings while making three starts against the Dodgers. Oddly, one of his starts against them was last year on this date when the two teams met in Monterrey, Mexico.

Sad news about The Bison: The Reds released him today. He was hitting .200 with one HR and five RBI for Cincinnati and was on the 10-day IL. I suspect he’ll get picked up by an AL team looking for a DH at some point this year.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1919 A SRO crowd attends the first-ever major league game played on a Sunday in Brooklyn. The Ebbets Field contest, in which the Dodgers beat the Braves, 6-2, was made possible when the New York Legislature passed the Sunday Baseball Bill into law.
  • 1966 In a 6-1 victory over L.A. at Candlestick Park, Willie Mays becomes the all-time National League home run leader when he strokes his 512th career round-tripper off Dodger starter Claude Osteen. The San Francisco center fielder passes another Giant, breaking the mark established by Mel Ott in 1946.
  • 1976 Illinois state Rep. Eugene F. Schlickman, co-author of the House of Representative Resolution 747 declaring today as Rick Monday Day, will be in attendance when Los Angeles vice president and GM Al Campanis presents the Cub outfielder with the flag he saved that was about to burned on the field at Dodger Stadium. Last month, the former Marine reservist, in a game played in Los Angeles, ran in from his position, swiping the ‘Stars and Stripes’ away from a father and a son, who were intent on setting it afire.
  • 2009 With their 7-2 win over Arizona, the Dodgers establish a National League record for consecutive victories to open a season at home. Their 11-0 start surpasses the NL mark shared by the 1918 Giants, 1970 Cubs, and 1983 Atlanta Braves, and is one shy of the major-league record set by the Tigers in 1911.

Lineup when available.


Bellinger separated his shoulder in last night’s game and is day-to-day.

Jul 11

Game 92, 2018

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

The Dodgers send RHP Kenta Maeda (5-5, 3.24 ERA) to the mound to face the Padres’ LHP Joey Lucchesi (4-4, 3.27 ERA). Maeda went 5 2/3 innings against the Angels in his last start, giving up just one run. He went on paternity leave the following day. Lucchesi is a rookie; he went down with a hip strain but has come back and pitched well in three of his four starts since then.

On this day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1953 Giant rookie Al Worthington throws a four-hitter, blanking the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, 6-0. The whitewashing, which halts Brooklyn’s record NL streak of homering in 24 consecutive games and marks the only game this season the team will not a score, makes the 24 year-old right-hander the first National League freshman this century to throw consecutive shutouts at the start of a career, a feat that Karl Spooner will also match next season.
  • 1958 The Los Angeles city council declares today ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game Day’ to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the iconic baseball song. In a pregame ceremony at the LA Memorial Coliseum, the Dodgers honor lyricist Jack Norworth, presenting him with a lifetime pass to any American or National League game.
  • 1978 At Jack Murphy Stadium, Steve Garvey becomes the first two-time MVP in All-Star history. The Dodger first baseman’s game-tying, two-run single and a triple help the National League to beat the AL, 7-3.
  • 1980 The Dodgers sell Charlie Hough to the Rangers. The 32 year-old knuckleballer will spend 11 seasons with Texas, posting a 139-123 record along with an ERA of 3.68.
  • 1998 Padre reliever Trevor Hoffman, brother of opposing manager Glenn Hoffman, saves the Padres’ 4-1 victory over the Dodgers. It’s the first time in major league history a player has faced his brother as the skipper of the opposing team.

Also, in 1976 At Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium thirty-four couples marry at home plate and a wrestling championship match takes place in a promotion billed as Headlocks and Wedlocks. The Braves take down the Mets, 9-8.

Lineup:


May 04

Game 32, 2018

Dodgers at Padres 6:10 PM PDT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD, MLBN (out-of-market only)

The Dodgers and Padres open a three-game series in Monterrey, Mexico this evening. The Dodgers’ #1 pitching prospect RHP Walker Buehler (1-0, 1.80 ERA) will climb the Mexican hill to face the Padres’ LHP Joey Lucchesi (3-1, 2.78 ERA). Buehler got his second big league win in his last start against the Giants, giving up two runs on six hits in five innings, walking one while striking out six. Lucchesi’s six starts into his big league career and has a 3.5 – 1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in addition to his excellent ERA.


Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1919 A SRO crowd attends the first-ever major league game played on a Sunday in Brooklyn. The Ebbets Field contest, in which the Dodgers beat the Braves, 6-2, was made possible when the New York Legislature passed the Sunday Baseball Bill into law.
  • 1966 In a 6-1 victory over L.A. at Candlestick Park, Willie Mays becomes the all-time National League home run leader when he strokes his 512th career round-tripper off Dodger starter Claude Osteen. The San Francisco center fielder passes another Giant, breaking the mark established by Mel Ott in 1946.
  • 1976 Illinois state Rep. Eugene F. Schlickman, co-author of the House of Representative Resolution 747 declaring today as Rick Monday Day, will be in attendance when the Cub outfielder is presented by Los Angeles vice president and GM Al Campanis with the flag he saved that was about to burned on the field at Dodger Stadium. Last month, the former Marine reservist, in a game played in Los Angeles, ran in from his position, swiping the ‘Stars and Stripes’ away from a father and a son, who were intent on setting it afire.
  • 2009 With their 7-2 win over Arizona, the Dodgers establish a National League record for consecutive victories to open a season at home. Their 11-0 start surpasses the NL mark shared by the 1918 Giants, 1970 Cubs, and 1983 Atlanta Braves, and is one shy of the major-league record set by the Tigers in 1911.

Lineup when available.