Tag Archives: Paul Lo Duca

May 28

Game 55, 2019

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Mets at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: SNY, SPNLA

It’ll be LHP Steven Matz (3-3, 3.63 ERA) for the Mets and LHP Rich Hill (1-1, 2.67 ERA) for the Dodgers. Matz had a horrific outing against the Phillies in which he gave up eight runs. Take that away and he’s been the Mets’ most consistent pitcher. He’s 2-2 with a 2.86 ERA over his last five starts. In Hill’s last two starts he’s given up one run and struck out 17 over 12 innings.

Here are Bellinger’s highlights from yesterday’s game:

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1957 Walter O’Malley and Horace Stoneham are given permission by the National League to negotiate deals with cities on the West Coast, with the proviso that the future location of their respective clubs, the Dodgers and the Giants, be known by October 1. The Brooklyn and New York owners both deny there is any significance to the unanimous vote other than being given an opportunity to explore all the available options for their possible relocation of their clubs.
  • 1969 The day after he becomes a father, Randy Hundley hits a grand slam and a double, driving in five runs in Chicago’s 9-8 victory over San Francisco at Candlestick Park. The eight-pound, four-ounce baby boy named Todd will follow in his dad’s footsteps, becoming a major league catcher, receiving for the Mets, Dodgers, and the Cubs.
  • 1989 With runners on second and third, no outs, and the Mets and Dodgers tied at 3-3 in the 12th inning, home plate umpire Bob Davidson calls a balk against Roger McDowell which scores the winning run in the Chavez Ravine contest. Dave Anderson is waved home when the New York reliever fails to pause and make a discernible stop.
  • 2001 In an 11-inning slugfest with Colorado, LA catcher Paul Lo Duca goes 6-for-6 in the team’s 11-10 victory at Dodger Stadium. The backstop’s five singles and a three-run homer tie a National League record for hits in an extra-inning game.
  • 2011 The game between Los Angeles and Florida continues as fans in a section of the upper deck seats at Dodger Stadium are evacuated due to a small fire in a nearby storage area. With plumes of smoke visible coming from the top level of the ballpark on the first base side, the crowd is informed by the public address announcer that it will not be necessary to evacuate the entire stadium.

Here are a whole mess of links to stories about Bill Buckner, many of which try to go beyond the events of 1986. Looking at the play-by-play, that game shouldn’t have gotten to the point it did. Schiraldi got two quick outs with the Sox ahead 5-3 and couldn’t get the third, allowing a pinch-hit single by Gary Carter, another single by Kevin Mitchell, and still another by Ray Knight. Then, with the Sox still leading 5-4, Stanley came in and wild-pitched Mitchell in to tie the game. It was at that point that Mookie Wilson hit the ground ball Buckner muffed.

Lineup when available.


Jul 30

Game 107, 2018

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Brewers at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: SPNLA, ESPN (out-of-market only), FSWI, Dish455

Tonight’s matchup is the Dodgers’ Kenta Maeda (7-5, 3.27 ERA) versus the Brewers’ Freddy Peralta (4-2, 3.74 ERA). Peralta is a rookie who has control issues. Last time out he walked four and hit a batter and all five of those men scored. His ERA for July is 6.10. Maeda was cruising along in his last start until he gave up three runs in the seventh inning. That was the 16-inning game won by the Phillies when Plouffe hit a walk-off three-run dinger off Kiké Hernandez.

Here’s an oddity: with Jack Morris’s and Alan Trammel’s induction into the Hall of Fame Sunday, the ’84 Tigers are now represented. That means the 1981 Dodgers

are now the only championship team before 1997 that did not have a player who became a Hall of Famer. That Dodgers team included many players with long and successful careers — Steve Garvey, Fernando Valenzuela, Jerry Reuss, Dusty Baker and so on — but only Manager Tommy Lasorda has reached the Hall of Fame.

I’m wracking my brain trying to figure out any Hall of Fame member on the 1988 champs and the only one I can come up with is Don Sutton in the last season of his career. He was released in August before the season ended.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 2004 In a blockbuster trade, the Marlins deal Brad Penny, the winner of two World Series games last season, first baseman Hee Seop Choi, and southpaw prospect Bill Murphy (will be traded to the Diamondbacks tomorrow) to the Dodgers for backstop Paul Lo Duca, relief pitcher Guillermo Mota, and much-traveled outfielder Juan Encarnacion.
  • 2017 Texas third baseman Adrian Beltre collects his 3000th hit when he doubles in the fourth inning in the Rangers’ 10-6 loss to the Orioles at Globe Life Park in Arlington. The twenty-year veteran, who has also spent time with the Dodgers, Mariners, and the Red Sox, is the first-ever Dominican-born player to reach the coveted milestone.

Lineup when available.

May 28

Game 53, 2018

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Phillies at Dodgers, 5:10 PM PDT, TV: SPNLA, NBCSP

The Fightin’ Phils make their only 2018 appearances at Dodger Stadium beginning tonight. It’s a four-game series, and the first pitcher they start will be RHP Vince Velasquez (4-5, 4.18 ERA). He won his first three starts in May before losing his last outing thanks to sloppy defense behind him. The Dodgers counter with RHP Brock Stewart (0-0, 3.72 ERA), who’s been on an elevator between OKC and the big club in April and May and is making just his second start of the season. He gave up two runs on five hits in four innings in his first one last Tuesday against the Rockies.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1957 Walter O’Malley and Horace Stoneham are given permission by the National League to negotiate deals with cities on the West Coast, with the proviso that the future location of their respective clubs, the Dodgers and the Giants, be known by October 1. The Brooklyn and New York owners both deny there is any significance to the unanimous vote other than being given an opportunity to explore all the available options for their possible relocation of their clubs.
  • 1969 The day after he becomes a father, Randy Hundley hits a grand slam and a double, driving in five runs in Chicago’s 9-8 victory over San Francisco at Candlestick Park. The eight-pound, four-ounce baby boy named Todd will follow in his dad’s footsteps, becoming a major league catcher, receiving for the Mets, Dodgers, and the Cubs.
  • 1989 With runners on second and third, no outs, and the Mets and Dodgers tied at 3-3 in the 12th inning, home plate umpire Bob Davidson calls a balk against Roger McDowell which scores the winning run in the Chavez Ravine contest. Dave Anderson is waved home when the New York reliever fails to pause and make a discernible stop.
  • 2001 In an 11-inning slugfest with Colorado, LA catcher Paul Lo Duca goes 6-for-6 in the team’s 11-10 victory at Dodger Stadium. The backstop’s five singles and a three-run homer tie a National League record for hits in an extra-inning game.
  • 2011 The game between Los Angeles and Florida continues as fans in a section of the upper deck seats at Dodger Stadium are evacuated due to a small fire in a nearby storage area. With plumes of smoke visible coming from the top level of the ballpark on the first base side, the crowd is informed by the public address announcer that it will not be necessary to evacuate the entire stadium.

Lineup when available.


Jul 30

Game 105, 2017

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Giants at Dodgers, 5:00 PM PT, TV: ESPN

The Giants try to salvage the final game of the series on national TV by sending LHP Madison Bumgarner (1-4, 3.38 ERA) to the mound. He’ll face the Dodgers’ LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu (3-6, 4.17 ERA).

Neither pitcher has had the year he hoped or expected to have. Bumgarner missed months after famously injuring himself in a dirt-bike accident and just got his first win of the year last Tuesday. In his career he’s 8-6 with a 2.56 ERA at Dodger Stadium. Ryu has had trouble getting past the fifth inning, doing so in only 4 of 14 starts, and he hasn’t won since June 17. He’s made ten starts in his career against the Giants and gone 4-5 with a 3.79 ERA.

This date in Dodgers’ history:

  • 2004 In a blockbuster trade, the Marlins deal Brad Penny, the winner of two World Series games last season, first baseman Hee Seop Choi, and southpaw prospect Bill Murphy (will be traded to the Diamondbacks tomorrow) to the Dodgers for backstop Paul Lo Duca, relief pitcher Guillermo Mota, and much-traveled outfielder Juan Encarnacion.
  • 1987 Although the Bulova company had promised a free watch to any player who hit their clock located high above the Ebbets Field scoreboard, Bama Rowell didn’t receive the timepiece after his 1946 blast. The injustice is corrected more than 40 years later when the former Braves’ outfielder receives his wristwatch from Bulova on ‘Bama Rowell’ Day in Citronelle, Alabama, the honoree’s hometown. The home run is said to be the inspiration for Roy Hobbs smashing a glass-shattering homer off the light tower in Bernard Malamud’s novel “The Natural.”

Lineup when available.

May 28

Game 51, 2017

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Cubs at Dodgers, 1:10 PM PT, TV: SPNLA, CSN-C, MLBN (out-of-market only)

Two lefties go at one another in a Sunday afternoon game: Jon Lester (3-2, 3.19 ERA) of the Cubs faces Clayton Kershaw (7-2, 2.01 ERA) of the Dodgers. The last six times the Dodgers have beaten the Cubs they’ve shut them out.

Lester pitched a four-hit complete game against the Giants his last time on the mound, giving up one run, striking out ten and still keeping his pitch count at 99. Kershaw didn’t get a decision in his last outing against the Cardinals despite going nine innings and giving up only one run and three hits with a pitch count of 104.

Numerology: “Kershaw has a 2.18 ERA vs. the Cubs and has limited Chicago batters to a .218 batting average.”

This day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1957 Walter O’Malley and Horace Stoneham are given permission by the National League to negotiate deals with cities on the West Coast, with the proviso that the future location of their respective clubs, the Dodgers and the Giants, be known by October 1. The Brooklyn and New York owners both deny there is any significance to the unanimous vote other than being given an opportunity to explore all the available options for their possible relocation of their clubs.
  • 1988 The Expos scored a run in the 10th off Jay Howell in Montreal as the Dodgers wasted a nine-inning five-hitter from Fernando Valenzuela.
  • 2001 In an 11-inning slugfest with Colorado, LA catcher Paul Lo Duca goes 6-for-6 in the team’s 11-10 victory at Dodger Stadium. The backstop’s five singles and a three-run homer tie a National League record for hits in an extra-inning game.

Lineup when available.