Aug 06

Game 107, 2022

Padres at Dodgers, 6:10 PM PDT, TV: BSSD, SPNLA

The Padres send RHP Mike Clevinger (3-3, 3.13) to the hill to face the Dodgers’ LHP Andrew Heaney (1-0, 0.77 ERA). In Clevinger’s last start he went seven innings, gave up five hits and one run and got the win. That was pleasant for him and his team, since in July he was 0-3 with a 4.07 ERA. Heaney’s been working his way back up to full strength after several months on the IL; in his first two starts since coming off it he’s gone four innings each time, holding the Nats scoreless and then surrendering one run on four hits to the Giants.

This day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1981 The players approved a split-season format necessitated by the seven-week strike. The Yankees, A’s, Phillies, and Dodgers are declared the first-half champions and will be automatically qualified for the divisional series.

Great moments in labor-management relations: In 1908 Detroit outfielder Ty Cobb gets married, having departed the Tigers three days ago to participate in the ceremony without the team’s permission. The 21 year-old Georgia Peach’s six-day defection during a pennant race will be described by club co-owner Frank Navin as the most arrogant act he had ever heard of in baseball. (Note: The Tigers got to the World Series anyway. They lost to the Cubs, the last time the Chicago team would win a World Series until 2016.)

Lineups when available.

Aug 06

Game 110, 2021

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

LHP Patrick Sandoval (3-5, 3.38 ERA) pitches for the visiting Angels and LHP David Price (4-1, 3.55 ERA)) takes the mound for the Dodgers.

This day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1981 The players approved a split-season format necessitated by the seven-week strike. The Yankees, A’s, Phillies, and Dodgers are declared the first-half champions and will be automatically qualified for the divisional series.
  • 2016 Giancarlo Stanton drives a pitch thrown by Rockies starter Chad Bettis deep into the Rockpile seats, a 504-foot blast that becomes the longest round-tripper in the 21-year-old history of Coors Field. The Miami Marlins slugger’s fifth-inning solo shot in the team’s 12-6 loss surpasses the 496-footer hit in 1997 by Dodger catcher Mike Piazza off current Colorado bullpen coach Darren Holmes.

Great moments in labor-management relations: In 1908 Detroit outfielder Ty Cobb gets married, having departed the Tigers three days ago to participate in the ceremony without the team’s permission. The 21 year-old Georgia Peach’s six-day defection during a pennant race will be described by club co-owner Frank Navin as the most arrogant act he had ever heard of in baseball. (Note: The Tigers got to the World Series anyway. They lost to the Cubs, the last time the Chicago team would win a World Series until 2016.)

Lineup when available.

Aug 06

Game 116, 2019

Cardinals at Dodgers, 7:10 PM PDT, TV: FS-M, SPNLA

RHP Miles Mikolas (4-6, 4.54 ERA) goes for the Cardinals against the Dodgers’ LHP Clayton Kershaw (10-2, 2.85 ERA). Mikolas has pitched against the Dodgers once in his career; he beat them on April 8 of this year. Kershaw criticized his last start, in which he walked five men, gave up two runs and went just six innings, but he did get the win. He’s 7-0 with a 2.35 ERA at home this year.

Notable praise from San Diego’s Wil Myers, speaking of the Dodgers’ redheaded rookie Dustin May: “Usually,” Myers said, “guys like that, who throw 98 with sink, end up being pretty good.”

Here’s Muncy’s stellar defensive play on Monday:

This day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1981 The players approved a split-season format necessitated by the seven-week strike. The Yankees, A’s, Phillies, and Dodgers are declared the first-half champions and will be automatically qualified for the divisional series.

Great moments in labor-management relations: In 1908 Detroit outfielder Ty Cobb gets married, having departed the Tigers three days ago to participate in the ceremony without the team’s permission. The 21 year-old Georgia Peach’s six-day defection during a pennant race will be described by club co-owner Frank Navin as the most arrogant act he had ever heard of in baseball. (Note: The Tigers got to the World Series anyway. They lost to the Cubs, the last time the Chicago team would win a World Series until 2016.)

Lineup when available.

Aug 06

Game 111, 2017

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

If the Dodgers win they’ll sweep the season series with the Metropolitans.

A win on Sunday would also give the Dodgers their first sweep in New York since July 20-22, 2012, and would give them their first season sweep of the Mets ever. The Dodgers took five of six games from New York in 1981, 2009, and 2013, and won 16 of 18 in 1962 and 1963, but have never dropped a seasonal bagel on the Big Apple.

The Dodgers send LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu (3-6, 3.83 ERA) to the mound to face LHP Steven Matz (2-4, 5.30 ERA). Ryu has been very good in his last four starts, giving up just six runs and striking out 23. He has been far better at home than on the road, however; he’s got a 4.25 ERA and opponents are hitting .295 against him in their own parks. Matz is 0-2 with a 12.21 ERA in four starts after the All-Star break.

This day in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1981 The players approved a split-season format necessitated by the seven-week strike. The Yankees, A’s, Phillies, and Dodgers are declared the first-half champions and will be automatically qualified for the divisional series.

Great moments in labor-management relations: In 1908 Detroit outfielder Ty Cobb gets married, having departed the Tigers three days ago to participate in the ceremony without the team’s permission. The 21 year-old Georgia Peach’s six-day defection during a pennant race will be described by club co-owner Frank Navin as the most arrogant act he had ever heard of in baseball. (Note: The Tigers got to the World Series anyway. They lost to the Cubs, the last time the Chicago team would win a World Series until 2016.)

Lineup:

Jul 04

Game 85, 2016 and 4th of July historical revisionism

The guy who wrote the latest Ty Cobb biography explains why most of what we’ve been told of Cobb is a lie. For example, his family history would indicate he was no racist, despite what we’ve been told:

Ty Cobb was descended from a long line of abolitionists. His great-grandfather was a minister who preached against slavery and was run out of town for it. His grandfather refused to fight in the Confederate army because of the slavery issue. And his father was an educator and state senator who spoke up for his black constituents and is known to have once broken up a lynch mob.

[snip]

Cobb himself was never asked about segregation until 1952, when the Texas League was integrating, and Sporting News asked him what he thought. “The Negro should be accepted wholeheartedly, and not grudgingly,” he said. “The Negro has the right to play professional baseball and whose [sic] to say he has not?”

I’ve read the biography, and it’s a good one. I give it 4 stars.

On to today’s game.

Orioles at Dodgers, 6:10PM PT, TV: MLBN (out-of-market only), MASN, SPNLA

The Dodgers have won four straight and the Orioles have lost four straight. Despite that the Orioles still lead the AL East by three games. Each streak could continue after this evening’s game with its early start time (fireworks afterward!). The Dodgers ask young Julio Urias (1-2, 4.09 ERA) to keep up his good work; he’s lowered his ERA from one game to the next in each of his 7 starts. He’s thrown 33 innings so far for the big leaguers in 2016 after throwing 41 in the minors this season. The most he’s ever thrown in a season is 87 2/3 in 2014, so he’s coming close to a shutdown point.

Urias will be opposed by Yovani Gallardo (3-1, 5.77 ERA). This is his fourth start after coming off the DL, where he’d been with shoulder tendinitis. His last start was his best since his return; he went six innings against the Padres and got the win.

Note: the Orioles hit a lot of home runs. They just set a major league record by hitting 56 in June, the most ever in that calendar month. They are on pace to hit 262 for the season, just two short of the all-time record of 264 set by the A-Rod-Griffey Jr.-Jay Buhner-E. Martinez Mariners in 1997.

Update: Hyun-Jin Ryu will start Thursday’s game for the Dodgers against the Padres.

Lineup: