Oct 20

World Series Game One, 2020

Rays vs Dodgers, 5:00PM PDT, TV: Fox

By virtue of the better season record the Dodgers earned “home field advantage” for this neutral-site series; they’ll have last ups in games 1,2,6 and 7.

Here’s MLB’s position-by-position analysis. (Spoiler: In their estimation the Dodgers have large or small edges everywhere except the rotation and the bullpen.)

The Rays give the ball to their very tall (he’s 6′ 8″ and his nickname is “Baby Giraffe,” MLB says) RHP Tyler Glasnow, who’s 2-1 in the playoffs with 25 Ks. His last appearance was in Game Four of the ALCS and it didn’t go particularly well: he gave up four runs to the Astros in six innings of work. He’ll face the Dodgers’ LHP Clayton Kershaw, who’ll be making his fifth World Series start. We all know the stories of his postseason woes; Roberts does too, one assumes, and he should be ready to replace Kershaw at the first moment he looks to be in trouble.

Now this is startling:

Six years and six days before Game 1 of the 2020 World Series, Andrew Friedman left his longtime post running the Tampa Bay Rays’ front office to become the Los Angeles Dodgers’ president of baseball operations.

He departed with a promise disguised as friendly banter, one that will be fulfilled when his current team lines up against his former club on Tuesday night in Game 1 of the World Series at Globe Life Field in Arlington.

“We joked when I left the team that we were going to meet up in the World Series one day,” Friedman said, “and for it actually to happen is surreal.”

Oh my. I like Jeff Passan of ESPN, and he wrote a good book, but I dunno. Here he is on Pablo Torre’s podcast earlier today:

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1988 The Dodgers become World Champions when Orel Hershiser limits the opposition to four singles in Game 5 of the World Series and beats the A’s, 5-1. The right-hander, who also won Game 2, is named the Most Valuable Player of the Fall Classic.

  • 1994 Receiving all 28 first-place votes, Raul Mondesi (.306, 16, 56) is named the National League’s Rookie of the Year. The Los Angeles right fielder, who easily outdistanced Astros’ hurler John Hudek and Braves’ outfielder Ryan Klesko, is the third consecutive Dodger to win the award.
  • 2010 Ted Lilly signs a three-year, $33 million deal to remain with the Dodgers. The 34 year-old southpaw, obtained from the Cubs in early August, compiled a 7-4 record with a 3.52 ERA in 12 starts for LA, including victories in the first five starts for his new team.

Lineups:

Rays:

Dodgers:

Oct 20

NLCS Game Seven, 2018

I love the whole concept of Game Seven unless my team is in it.

Dodgers at Brewers, 5:09 PM PDT, TV: FS1

The Dodgers ask RHP Walker Buehler and the entire pitching staff to save their World Series hopes for them. Buehler had a great outing in the tiebreaker game against the Rockies but has struggled in his NLDS and NLCS appearances thus far, giving up nine runs in 12 innings of work in those two series. He’ll face RHP Jhoulys Chacín, who’s thrown 10 1/3 scoreless innings in his NLDS and NLCS appearances.

Four keys to the game, according to MLB correspondents.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1988 The Dodgers become World Champions when Orel Hershiser limits the opposition to four singles in Game 5 of the World Series and beats the A’s, 5-1. The right-hander, who also won Game 2, is named the Most Valuable Player of the Fall Classic.
  • 1994 Receiving all 28 first place votes, Raul Mondesi (.306, 16, 56) is named the National League’s Rookie of the Year. The Los Angeles rightfielder, who easily outdistanced Astros’ hurler John Hudek and Braves’ outfielder Ryan Klesko, is the third consecutive Dodger to win the award.
  • 2010 Ted Lilly signs a three-year, $33 million deal to remain with the Dodgers. The 34 year-old southpaw, obtained from the Cubs in early August, compiled a 7-4 record with a 3.52 ERA in 12 starts for LA, including victories in the first five starts for his new team.

Today in Brewers’ history:

  • 1982 On his 29th birthday, Keith Hernandez hits a game-tying two-run single off Bob McClure in Game 7 of the Fall Classic, in the Redbirds’ eventual 6-3 victory over the Brewers at Busch Stadium. The batter and pitcher, who lived in homes 100 feet from one another growing up in Pacifica, California, were teammates in Little League and Terra Nova High School baseball team.
  • 1982 The Brewers, playing in their first World Series, are unable to hold on to a 3-1 lead in Game 7 when the Cardinals beat Milwaukee, 6-3 with the help of Hernandez’s sixth-inning single. It’s the Redbirds’ first world championship since 1967.
  • 2009 The Brewers hire Rick Peterson as their pitching coach to improve the club’s woeful starting pitching, which posted a 5.37 ERA last season. The 54 year-old pitching guru, known for his focus on motion analysis, is reunited with bench coach Willie Randolph and skipper Ken Macha, who were his former managers with the Mets and the A’s, teams he toiled for in a similar role.

Lineups when available.

Dodgers’ lineup:


Brewers’ lineup:


Apr 05

Game Four, 2013

Pirates at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PT, Prime Ticket.

The Dodgers send out their new (used) $147M man Greinke to face Jonathan Sanchez, an ex-Giant who had an absolutely horrible season last year, 1 – 9 with an 8.07 ERA split between the Royals and the Rockies.

In rehab news, Right-hander Chad Billingsley was scheduled to start for Class A Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday night and lefty Ted Lilly will start there on Friday.

Lineups will be posted soon after they’re announced.

Lineup:

LF: Carl Crawford
2B: Mark Ellis
CF: Matt Kemp
1B: Adrian Gonzalez
3B: Luis Cruz
RF: Andre Ethier
C: A.J. Ellis
SS: Justin Sellers
SP: Zack Greinke

Mar 31

Opening Day Roster finalized (for now)

Ken Gurnick reports that the Dodgers made several roster moves today to set their 25-man roster as the season begins tomorrow. They placed Chad Billingsley and Ted Lilly on the 15-day disabled list and moved Chris Capuano and Aaron Harang to the bullpen. Hanley Ramirez and Scott Elbert are also on the DL. Billingsley’s placement on the list was backdated to March 22, so he’s eligible to come off no later than April 13. As Gurnick says, that means they’ll have to make another personnel decison on that date.

It looks as though Justin Sellers will start at shortstop for the start of the season, meaning Luis Cruz will likely be the starting third baseman. The two of them may rotate with Punto and Uribe (Yes, Uribe is still on the major league roster. The only reason I can think of is that he’s under contract and the team sees enough value in him not to release him outright and eat the last year of his deal).

The roster:

Pitchers — Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Josh Beckett, Zack Greinke, Brandon League, Kenley Jansen, Ronald Belisario, J.P. Howell, Paco Rodriguez, Matt Guerrier, Capuano, Harang

Catchers — A.J. Ellis, Tim Federowicz

Infielders — Adrian Gonzalez, Mark Ellis, Sellers, Cruz, Juan Uribe, Nick Punto

Outfielders — Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Carl Crawford, Skip Schumaker, Jerry Hairston