Tag Archives: Max Fried

Sep 01

Game 134, 2021

Posted on by

Braves at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: Bally Sports South, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

It’s a battle of the Maxes as the Braves send LHP Max Fried (11-7, 3.54 ERA) to the mound to face the Dodgers’ RHP Max Scherzer (12-4, 2.51 ERA).

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1890 On Labor Day at Brooklyn’s Washington Park, the Bridegrooms, later to be known as the Dodgers, win all three games against Pittsburgh in the first tripleheader ever played. The home team sweeps the visiting Alleghenys, who will be renamed the Pirates next season, 10-9, 3-2, and 8-4.
  • 1953 The Cardinals tie a major league mark, hitting five homers in a 12-5 loss to Brooklyn at Ebbets Field. The solo shots hit by Stan Musial, Harry Elliot, Rip Repulski, and Steve Bilko (2), all off starter Preacher Roe, aren’t enough to offset the Dodgers’ 17-hit attack, which includes six doubles but no round-trippers.
  • 1969 At Dodger Stadium, Willie Davis ties the franchise record by hitting in 29 consecutive games with his second-inning single in LA’s 10-6 victory over New York. The mark was established by Zack Wheat in 1916.

Lineup when available.

Jun 06

Game 59, 2021

Posted on by

Dodgers at Braves, 10:20 AM PDT, TV: Bally Sports Southeast, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

The visiting Dodgers hand the ball to RHP Trevor Bauer (6-3, 2.24 ERA) and ask him to win the rubber match. The Braves counter with LHP Max Fried (2-3, 5.12 ERA), whom the Dodgers last saw in Game Six of the 2020 NLCS. They got three runs off him in the first inning but nothing in the remainder of his 6 2/3 inning effort.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1941 The Giants join the Dodgers and Senators in requiring their players wear protective headgear. The durable plastic liners, which are sewn into the hat, don’t provide a defense against defeats when the team drops both ends of a doubleheader to Pittsburgh at the Polo Grounds, 5-4 and 4-3.
  • 1957 After an 86-minute delay, the first fog out in major league history occurs at Ebbets Field when the umpires call off the Dodgers’ game against the Cubs due to extremely poor visibility. Brooklyn has a 1-0 lead when the game is postponed with one out in the bottom of the second inning.
  • 1968 The day after Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, Maury Wills refuses to play in a 4-2 loss to the Dodgers, his former team. The 35 year-old shortstop stays in the Chavez Ravine training room, reading RFK’s book, To Seek a New World.
  • 1994 Mike Piazza hits the longest home run recorded in the history of Joe Robbie Stadium when his first career grand slam is estimated to travel 477 feet. The catcher’s Ruthian blast, one of four Dodger round-trippers during the Florida contest, isn’t enough to thwart the Marlins’ 11-10 come-from-behind victory.
  • 2006 On the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the century, the Dodgers score six runs in the sixth inning during the sixth game of the homestand, beating the Mets, 8-5. On 05/05/05, the Twins scored five times in the fifth inning en route to a 9-0 victory over the Indians.
  • 2007 At Petco Park, Trevor Hoffman becomes the first reliever to save 500 games. It takes the all-time saves leader 10 ninth inning pitches, including an 87 mph fastball thrown past Russell Martin for the final out, to reach the milestone in the Padres’ 5-3 victory over the Dodgers.

Another event of note: in 1944 Baseball canceled its scheduled eight-game slate due to the Allied invasion of Normandy known as D-Day. The military operation has 60,000 Allied troops, including six minor leaguers who will be killed in action, landing along a heavily protected 50-mile stretch of the coastline in France to begin an offensive assault against Hitler and the Nazi party. Of less momentous note, in 2000, thanks to the Angels’ video crew playing a clip from the 1994 movie “Ace Ventura, Pet Detective” on the JumboTron, the Rally Monkey is born. With the words “Rally Monkey” superimposed over a monkey jumping up and down in the Jim Carrey movie, the crowd goes wild when Anaheim scores two runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Giants, 6-5.

Lineup when available.

Oct 17

NLCS Game Six, 2020

Posted on by

Braves vs Dodgers, 1:30 PM PDT, TV: FS1

RHP Walker Buehler goes for the Dodgers, LHP Max Fried for the Braves. This is a replay of the Game One matchup, in which Buehler went five innings, giving up one run on three hits. Unfortunately for him and the Dodgers, Fried went six innings, giving up only one run on four hits. The Dodgers lost that game when Blake Treinen and Jake McGee gave up four runs on two HRs in the ninth inning.

Here’s Will Smith’s AB against Will Smith, which the Dodgers’ Smith ultimately won:

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1978 The Yankees capture their twenty-second and second consecutive World Championship, beating Los Angeles with a 7-2 victory at Dodger Stadium. Playoff hero Bucky Dent, who collects ten hits in the six-game series, is named the Fall Classic’s Most Valuable Player.
  • 2000 David Justice’s three-run homer propels the Yankees to their record 37th American League pennant in a come-from-behind victory over the Mariners, 9-7. The Bronx Bombers’ will face the Mets in the Fall Classic, setting up the first Subway Series in New York in 44 years when they faced the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956.

Lineups:

Braves:

Dodgers:

Oct 12

NLCS Game One, 2020

Posted on by

Braves vs Dodgers, 5:08 PM PDT, TV:Fox. All this Series’ games will be played at Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX.

MLB has a position-by-position preview and analysis of the two teams.

The Dodgers give RHP Walker Buehler the ball for Game One, just as they’ve done for the previous two series. He hasn’t gone past four innings in either of his previous two starts and hasn’t thrown more than 95 pitches in a game since 2019. He’ll face LHP Max Fried, who won Game One of the Wild Card Series for the Braves, beating the Reds, but gave up four runs in four innings against the Marlins in the NLDS. The Braves win behind him, though: they’re 12-1 in his starts this year.

Edwin Ríos and Alex Wood have been added to the 28-man roster for the NLCS. Gavin Lux and Terrance Gore were dropped to make room.

This day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1916 In front of record crowd of 43,620 fans at Braves Field, Red Sox right-hander Ernie Shore three-hits the Robins in Game 5 of the World Series, 4-1, to capture the team’s fourth World Championship in the 13-year history of the Fall Classic. Boston, as it did last season, plays its Fall Classic home games in their crosstown National League rival’s larger ballpark, which allows more fans to attend the game than if the contest had held at Fenway Park.
  • 1920 At Cleveland’s League Park, the Indians’ hurler Stan Coveleski blanks the Robins, 3-0, to win the 1920 World Series. The Tribe, en route to the franchise’s first World Championship, wins the best of nine series five games to 2.
  • 1948 The Yankees surprise their fans and a skeptical press when they name Casey Stengel to replace Bucky Harris as the team’s manager. In his previous stints as the skipper with the National League’s Braves and Dodgers, the ‘Old Perfesser’ had never finished higher than fifth place.
  • 1949 Vin Scully, working his first broadcast ever, does the play-by-play when Maryland defeats Boston University at Fenway Park, 14-13. The football assignment marks the start of a 67-year career in the broadcast booth for the Hall of Fame baseball announcer, who becomes the iconic voice of the Dodgers.

Lineups when available.

Braves’ lineup:

Dodgers’ lineup:

Oct 06

NLDS Game One, 2020

Posted on by

In an attempt to eliminate any possible home field advantage, the National League is playing its Divisional and Championship Series in American League parks (Minute Maid in Houston and Globe Life in Arlington, TX) and the American League is playing its series at National League Parks (Petco Park and Dodger Stadium).

Marlins vs Braves, 11:08 AM PDT, TV: FS1

The Marlins send RHP Sandy Alcantara to the hill to face the Braves’ LHP Max Fried. Alcantara threw 6 2/3 innings in Game One of their Wild Card Series against the Cubs, giving up just one run. Fried started Game One of the Braves’ Wild Card Series against the Reds and pitched seven scoreless innings.

Padres vs. Dodgers, 6:38 PM PDT, TV: FS1

The Padres have not yet named a starting pitcher as of 11:00 PM PDT Monday. The Dodgers will give the ball to Walker Buehler, who’s had blister troubles and whose innings have therefore been limited. He may go no more than four innings in this game.

Update: The Padres have selected Mike Clevinger, whose elbow injury has apparently healed enough to pitch.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1941 In Game 5 of the Fall Classic, Tiny Bonham goes the distance, limiting the Dodgers to just four hits to give the Yankees their 12th World Championship in franchise history. In one inning during the Bronx Bombers’ 3-1 victory at Ebbets Field, the New York fireballing right-hander will need just three pitches to retire the side.
  • 1949 In Game 2 of the World Series, only one run is scored again, but Preacher Roe and the Dodgers win this contest at Yankee Stadium, 1-0. Gil Hodges’ second inning single drives in Jackie Robinson to even up the Fall Classic at a game apiece.
  • 1959 The largest crowd ever to attend a major league game, 92,706 fans, watches a nail biter as White Sox hurler Bob Shaw beats Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers, 1-0, in Game 5 of the Fall Classic.
  • 1963 The Dodgers complete a four-game World Series sweep of the Yankees as Sandy Koufax wins his second game, 2-1. Frank Howard leads the offense with a home run and a single, the only two hits Whitey Ford gives up, and New York’s first baseman Joe Pepitone’s error (loses a thrown ball in the white-shirted crowd) leads to the decisive run in the seventh inning.
  • 1965“Hey, skip, bet you wish I was Jewish today, too.” – Don Drysdale, commenting after the game about his poor performance on the mound with manager Walt Alston. Sandy Koufax declines to pitch the first game of the World Series against the Twins because the game is scheduled on Yom Kippur, the most sacred of the Jewish holidays. As the Dodger southpaw attends shul and fasts on the Day of Atonement, Don Drysdale gives up seven runs in three innings in the team’s 8-2 loss at Minnesota’s Metropolitan Stadium.
  • 1966 Jim Palmer becomes the youngest player to pitch a shutout in the World Series when the 20 year-old Oriole right-hander blanks Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers, 6-0. The contest will become more memorable next month when Koufax surprises the baseball world by announcing his retirement, making this game his last major league appearance.
  • 1966 In the same Game Two loss to the Orioles at Dodger Stadium, Willie Davis establishes a World Series record by committing three errors in one game. The center fielder’s blunders come on two consecutive plays in the fifth inning, the first by losing a fly ball in the sun, then by dropping the next fly ball, followed by overthrowing third base.
  • 1980 In the 163rd game of the season, 35 year-old knuckleballer Joe Niekro earns his 20th victory, going the distance to defeat the Dodgers, 7-1, in the winner-take-all contest for the NL West. With the win, the Astros hold on to capture their first title in the 19-year history of the franchise after losing a season-ending three game series to LA, (3-2, 2-1, and 4-3) that forced the one-game playoff.

Lineups when available.

Padres lineup:

Dodgers lineup:

Sep 30

NL Wild Card Series Game One, 2020

Posted on by

Reds at Braves, 9:08 AM PDT, TV: ESPN

The Reds send Cy Young candidate RHP Trevor Bauer to the mound to face the Braves’ LHP Max Fried. Bauer was 5-4 but had a sparkling 1.73 ERA for the season. All Fried did was go 7-0 with a 2.25 ERA this year.

Marlins at Cubs, 11:08 AM PDT, ABC

RHP Sandy Alcantara takes the mound for the Marlins while RHP Kyle Hendricks does so for the Cubs. Alcantara missed a months with the COVID-19 virus but posted a 3-2, 3.00 ERA in the seven starts he made. Hendricks has a scintillating postseason ERA: 2.98 in 11 appearances. He went 3-1 with a 1.45 ERA in September.

Cardinals at Padres, 2:08 PM PDT, TV: ESPN2

The Cards give the ball to LHP Kwang Hyun Kim, who started out the year as the team’s closer but was quickly moved into the rotation, where he went 3-0 with a 1.62 ERA. He’ll face the Padres’ RHP Chris Paddack, who was their Opening Day starter but was inconsistent, posting a 4-5 record with a 4.73 ERA in twelve starts. He’s starting mostly because starters Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet are questionable with elbow impingement and biceps tightness respectively.

Brewers at Dodgers, 7:08 PM PDT, TV: ESPN

The Brewers’ Corbin Burnes would have started this game but he hurt his oblique on Friday and is probably out for the year. This will be a bullpen game and LHP Brent Suter will serve as the “opener.” The Dodgers send a rested RHP Walker Buehler to face him, trusting that the blister problem which has allowed him to pitch just four innings in three weeks has healed.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1923 It’s Zack Wheat Day at Ebbets Field, and the retiring Dodger outfielder collects two hits and is given an automobile. Cy Williams of the Phillies spoils the special day as he ties the score in the seventh inning with his 39th homer and his 40th in the 12th frame gives Philadelphia the victory, 6-4.
  • 1933 At Sportsman’s Park in a 12-2 Cubs rout of the Cardinals, Babe Herman hits for the cycle, becoming the first player in baseball history to do it three times. The Chicago outfielder, playing for the Dodgers, also accomplished the feat on two other occasions in 1931.
  • 1947 Ralph Branca becomes the youngest player to start a World Series opener. At Yankee Stadium, the 21-year and 9 months old right hander and the Dodgers lose to the Bronx Bombers, 5-1.
  • 1951 Knowing the Giants have won their game in Boston, the Dodgers rally from a five-run deficit to beat Philadelphia in 14 innings, 9-8, forcing a three-game playoff for the National League pennant. After Jackie Robinson makes a game-saving catch in the thirteenth to preserve an 8-8 tie, he hits a home run in the next frame that proves to be the difference in Brooklyn’s victory at Shibe Park.
  • 1953 George Shuba, best known as the Montreal Royal teammate who shook Jackie Robinson’s hand after the rookie had homered, becomes the third major leaguer and the first National League player to pinch hit a home run in the World Series when he goes deep off Allie Reynolds in the Dodgers’ 9-5 Game 1 loss at Yankee Stadium. ‘Shotgun’ joins Yogi Berra (1947) and Johnny Mize (1952), who both accomplished the feat playing for the Bronx Bombers.
  • 1956 Don Newcombe, a three-time twenty-game winner, goes the distance to earn his major-league leading 27th victory when the Dodgers beat Pittsburgh at Forbes Field, 8-6, on the last day of the campaign. Newk’s win is the most ever in a season by an African-American pitcher.
  • 1962 On the last day of the season, Gene Oliver’s eighth-inning homer off Johnny Podres proves to be the difference in St. Louis’ 1-0 victory over the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine. The loss to the Cardinals forces Los Angeles into a best-of-three-game playoff with the Giants for the National League pennant, a series the team will lose to San Francisco.
  • 1999 The largest regular-season crowd in Candlestick Park history, 61,389 fans, watches the Dodgers beat the home team, 9-4 in the last baseball game to ever be played at the ‘Stick’. Giant greats help mark the occasion with Juan Marichal tossing out the ceremonial first pitch before the game and Willie Mays throwing out the ballpark’s final pitch after the game.

For other notable events on this day in baseball, see here.

Brewers’ lineup:

Dodgers’ lineup:

Aug 18

Game 126, 2019

Posted on by

Dodgers at Braves, 10:20 AM PDT, TV: FSSO, SPNLA

RHP Tony Gonsolin (1-1, 3.21 ERA) is back from OKC to make his third big league start. His first was forgettable: he went four innings and gave up six hits and six runs to the Diamondbacks on June 28. His second start was much better: he went six innings and gave up just two hits to the Cardinals on August 5. Dustin May is scheduled to make his first relief appearance of the season when Gonsolin reaches his pitch count. The Braves send LHP ace Max Fried (14-4, 3.78 ERA) out to try to clinch the series. He was a first-round pick of the Padres in 2012 and came over to the Braves in 2014 as part of the deal which sent Justin Upton to San Diego.

Here’s Bellinger’s amazing catch in center field in Saturday’s game:

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1959 Long time baseball executive Branch Rickey is named president of the newly formed Continental League. The 77 year-old former Dodger general manager is currently serving as an advisor with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
  • 1982 In the second longest game in franchise history, the Cubs lose to the Dodgers, 2-1. The Wrigley Field contest, which is played over two days, takes a Dusty Baker sacrifice fly and 21 innings to complete.

A sad note: On this day in 1967 Jack Hamilton of the Angels threw a fastball which shattered Tony Conigliaro’s left cheekbone. The 22 year-old Red Sox slugger missed the rest of 1967 and all of the following year and never came close to the Hall of Fame potential displayed during his first three seasons.

Lineup when available.

May 07

Game 38, 2019

Posted on by

Braves at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: FSSE, SPNLA

The Braves give the ball to LHP Max Fried (4-1, 2.11 ERA) and the Dodgers do the same to LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu (3-1, 2.55 ERA). Fried limited the Padres to one run on four hits with seven strikeouts over seven innings in his best start of the season last time out. Ryu went eight innings against the Giants his last time out, giving up one run on four hits, no walks and six strikeouts. He leads the majors with 0.5 walks per nine innings.

From Monday’s game wrapup:

Buehler is 12-5 in his 30 career starts. No drafted Dodgers pitcher has won that many games in that few starts, including fellow first-rounders Clayton Kershaw, Bob Welch or Chad Billingsley.

In franchise history, only Kenta Maeda, Don Newcombe, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Kaz Ishii and Hideo Nomo rank ahead of Buehler for wins in the first 30 Major League starts, and each played professionally previously in Asia or, in Newcombe’s case, the Negro Leagues.

Additionally, Buehler has limited the opposition to a .195 batting average in those 30 starts, sixth in MLB all-time behind Jose Fernandez (.181), Vida Blue (.181), Nomo (.185), Juan Guzman (.192) and Matt Harvey (.195).

Bellinger won’t play first base for the forseeable future due to the potential for injury when diving for balls. (What, he won’t dive for balls in right field?) Pollock won’t play for six more weeks; he has a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line in his left arm to transmit antibiotics and cannot play baseball until it’s removed. The antibiotics are to fight the staph infection in his elbow which took him into surgery last week. This particular problem is bizarre; read the whole story.

Buehler struck out eight in Monday’s game:

On this date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1959 At the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Yankees defeat the Dodgers, 6-2, in an exhibition game played to benefit Roy Campanella, who was paralyzed in an auto accident prior to the team moving to the West Coast in 1958. The game, which draws the largest crowd ever for a baseball game, 93,103 fans with another estimated 15,000 turned away from the sellout, begins with an emotional ceremony in which Pee Wee Reese pushes the wheelchair-bound catcher into the darkened stadium that is totally illuminated by fans holding candles or matches.
  • 1960 The Sherry boys become the tenth pair of siblings to appear as batterymates in a major league game when Norm replaces John Roseboro behind the plate in the top of the eighth to catch Larry, who is starting his first inning in relief. The backstop will hit a two-out home run in the bottom of the 11th inning, assuring his brother of a victory in the Dodgers’ 3-2 walk-off win over Philadelphia.
  • 1969 Willie Davis, furious with the Wrigley Field Bleacher Bums because of their continual verbal abuse of him, tells his Dodgers teammates that he wants to hit a home run in the middle of the group, which he does in the sixth inning to tie the score. The LA center fielder exacts a bit more revenge on the heckling horde when his 12th-inning two-run round-tripper proves to be the difference in the 4-2 defeat of the Cubs.
  • 1970 At Shea Stadium, Wes Parker hits a triple off Jim McAndrew to beat the Mets in the tenth inning, 7-4. The three-bagger completes the cycle for the Dodger first baseman.
  • 1991 Darryl Strawberry returns to New York as a Dodger with mixed results. A crowd of 49,118 mostly booing fans watches him hit a two-run home run, and they cheer when he makes the last out of the game with the potential tying and winning runs on base in the 6-5 Mets victory.
  • 2009 The Dodgers fail to improve upon their 13-game winning streak at home to open the season–the victorious span surpassed the 1911 Tigers to set a new major league mark. The 11-9 loss to Washington comes on the same day the team learns about Manny Ramirez, the club’s most productive hitter, being suspended for 50 games after testing positive for a banned substance.
  • 2009 Major League Baseball suspends Manny Ramirez for fifty games after he tests positive for the use of a banned substance. The 36 year-old Dodgers outfielder, who will not be eligible to return to the team until July 3, apologizes to the fans, explaining he did not take steroids, but was given a medication which a doctor thought was okay to be prescribed.
  • 2011 After a first-inning walk in the Dodgers’ 4-2 loss to the Mets, Andre Ethier goes 0-for-4, ending his 30-game hitting streak. The L.A. outfielder falls one game short of the franchise record set in 1969 by Willie Davis, who enjoyed a 31-game hitting streak that season.
  • 2014 Adrian Beltre becomes the fifth player in major league history to hit 100 home runs for three different teams when he goes deep in the Rangers’ 9-2 loss to Colorado at Globe Life Park in Arlington. The 35 year-old third baseman, who joins Alex Rodriguez, Jim Thome, Darrell Evans, and Reggie Jackson in accomplishing the feat, hit 147 homers for the Dodgers (1998-2004) and 103 with the Mariners (2005-09).

Lineup when available.


Jul 28

Game 105, 2018

Posted on by

Dodgers at Braves, 4:10 PM PDT, TV: SPNLA, FSSO MLBN (out-of-market only)

Lefty Alex Wood (6-5, 3.87 ERA) pitches for the Dodgers this evening. He’ll face another lefty, Max Fried (1-3, 3.92 ERA). Wood dodged serious trouble his last time out, giving up just two runs even though he allowed five of the first six Brewers he faced to get on base. He got the win in that game, and he’s 5-1 since the first of June. Fried is freshly off the 10-day DL where he’d been placed in early July with a blister on his middle finger.

Peter Gammons has a column at The Athletic extolling people who aren’t in the Hall of Fame and should be:

I started thinking of one more large room in the museum. It would be called “For the Love of the Game,” and set up so people with unique contributions to baseball would seem to be in this room together, talking about how they had made the real life of the game better.

What follows is a list of 20 people in his first class of inductees. I’m pretty sure WBBsAs won’t like two of them.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1991 Expos right-hander Dennis Martinez pitches a perfect game, defeating Los Angeles 2-0 at Dodger Stadium. Ron Hassey becomes the first backstop to ever catch two perfect games, as he also was behind the plate on May 15, 1981 when Indian hurler Len Barker faced 27 batters, beating the Blue Jays, 3-0.
  • 2017 Alex Wood won his twelfth game against just one loss, going seven innings while giving up eight hits and four runs to the Giants. The Dodgers came from behind with four runs in the seventh and won 6-4.

Lineup: