Clayton Kershaw (8-7, 2.96) vs. Jason Hammel (8-7, 4.54).
COMMENTS: 48 hours of hemming and hawing about this game comes to a merciful end today with our Minotaur on the mound. Despite the Dodgers' 10-2 record against the Rockies this year, including a sweep at Coors Field in May, everyone is forecasting the imminent downfall of the Dodgers. Accuscore gives the Rockies a 54% chance of winning (58% as of WSJ's press run last night, so at least our trajectory is improving), the LATimes' Helene Elliott takes a break from following the Kings and Galaxy to slash the tires of the Dodgers' bandwagon, and the only guy we seem to have on our side is Steve Phillips, an omen which portends doom like a circling vulture.
Tonight, we put this yippin' and yappin' to rest. Kershaw hasn't had a win since July 18 but is 1-1 with 1 ND against Colorado this year. Hammel is 0-1 against the Dodgers with 1 ND, and has gotten three wins in his last four starts (reflecting the Rockies' recent streak). Assuming Clayton can come out strong and our rested bullpen can hold up, what I'm really hoping to see tonight is a breakout performance by James Loney (he is 2-for-5 lifetime against Hammel with a 1.600 OPS, and his OPS+ of 143 against the Rockies is the highest among all NL West opponents), assuming Loney has recovered from the flu. It would also be nice to see Manny Ramirez get his OPS back up over 1.000 (Ramirez is 0-for-5 lifetime against Hammel). Heck, Coors Field is the place for all of the Dodgers to get out of their offensive funk.
And we need to play a full nine, or even 14, innings here guys. It is Coors Field, after all. Let's not pull a Merkin. {In the meantime, we're going back to two GT superstitions, rather than the overloaded three that didn't seem to work out so well on Sunday.)
461 comments:
1 – 200 of 461 Newer› Newest»Nice minotaur!
Drink suggestions for an anti-Coors that I can partake in during the game?
Clearly, anything union-made...
I think you need to go with a craft brew Dusty! I say the more local the better. If you have some homemade stuff the time to drink it is now.
If you just want to go the opposite of the "banquet" beer, I would go for a breakfest beer and get a Hefeweizen.
@ Paul
HAH! I hadn't thought of the breakfast vs banquet, time of day dichotomy. Nicely played.
On the craft beer front, maybe I can break into Craftsman (http://www.craftsmanbrewing.com/) up the road, bring a radio (and a laptop with wifi so I can post my masterful insight) and just tap a keg of their stuff on the spot. Truly the anti-Coors.
I was a little worried about clicking on that "let's not pull a merkin" link.
Here's a beer that will show your true colors, though someone might have to pull your man card. Everyone knows that the opposite of Banquet Beer is the champagne of beers.
Senor Dusty, can I have your watch when you are dead?
Time to put these losers back in their place.
Furcal SS
Kemp CF
Ethier RF
Ramirez LF
Loney 1B
Blake 3B
Martin C
Hudson 2B
Kershaw P
HLACK-
Blueberry? Jesus, god. I feel like I need to go change my oil or throw a football for just knowing such a sissy swill exists. I mean, I'm a renaissance man for the most part, but shhhheyat, that sounds bad.
The 2-3-4 of that lineup has me giddy with anticipation.
Please live up to your potential, fellas!
Dexter Fowler to DL; Eric Young, Jr. to take his place.
Fowler to the DL, Eric Young Jr. Called up from AAA.
best looking lineup of the year?
Dusty you beat me by a minute.
Free Mark Loretta!
"We've got to go out and play hard and if not, we come back next year and play again," Ramirez said. "We're not going to go and kill ourselves, you know." Manny said the same thing in 2007 and was CRUCIFIED by the Boston media. He broke out of his slump and found his form in leading the Sox to another World Series title.
La Fin Du Monde is about as opposite from Coors as you can get. Plus, it's French-Canadian, like Russell Martin!
(And you could take the name to mean "the end of the world" for the Rockies.)
Is there a brewery located in death valley? That would probably be the anti-coors.
@Dusty,
To be fair to HLACK, he did lead in with a High Life recommendation. I would think that its blue-collar chops are more than adequate to cancel out any fancy-pants-fruit-infused-faux-pas he may have committed.
If we really want to get into some beer snobbery, I'll be happy to join in.
@ Mr C: says the man dressed in full on victorian era regalia
The mountains in the back of my house are on fire. Is that a good or bad sign?
Philly is up on the Pirates 2-1 in the third
NicJ: where are you? That's not a good sign.
I didn't know you lived in Greece!
Haha east San Gabriel Valley. To be fair they are still quite a ways away. I feel pretty good about my decision to not wash the car yesterday now.
@Sax
Point taken.
For the record, though, my regal bearing and impeccable sense of style does not preclude me from being a man of the people.
the blueberry was simply and aesthetic choice based on color. tell you what, you can feed your girlfriend some blueberry so she's drinking the Blue, and you can have a High Life/Guiness black and tan. Or if you want to go nuts, have one of those shakes that are all the rage.
Oh no! I wasn't directing any snobbery at HLACK, jsutat the beer itself. HLACK was simply a messenger of poufty beer, not a target!
@Mr C: You're sartorially excellent, dude. Fine by me.
"Let them drink wine!"
the blue will win tonight.
I'm liking the La Fin Du Monde angle, though it is hard to pound 5 or 6 of those 22oz, high alcohol content jugs.
HLACK may well be onto something with the Miller High Life suggestion.
But if I feed some of that blueberry to Mrs. Dusty, will it turn into some Willie Wonka situation?
[Strangely ironic, she was actually born on the original release date of that movie.]
EK just made the point that ive been saying about that manny play on sunday. Saying to myself that is.
pray for first pitch balls!
at least he took a few pitches.
i have faith tonight nic, no prayers necessary
Furcal grounds to second for the first out. Five pitches. Seemed quick.
look at that we already have a 3rd of the hits we had on sunday!
Kempian Single!
whew, that was close!
Kemp steals second, (27)
there we go, hungry for runs
WOOOHOOO!!!! DOdgers up!
Kemp scores on an Ethier double!
1-0 Dodgers!
come on manny
wow, if kemp hat batted 2nd all year...
Thanks for the double clutch Ianetta
Who's this guy in the cleanup spot? Is he new?
damn, one pitch?
agreed sax
Bison Speed!
Thanks a lot, Manny
first pitch out, doesn't even advance Andre
oh great, "threatening skies"
let's go Loney
clap clap, clap clap clap
iannetta trying to fool ethier at second into thinking its a breaking ball by tapping the ground
20 pitches and 1 run. not too bad. Keep it going Kersh
Loney ground out. Glad Kemp stole second!
1-0 Dodgers after a half-inning
if kershaw is on tonight
i dont care if they are playing at coors
its gonna be lovely for us
Umps appear to be, shall we say, blue-eyed. I likes it.
kershaw getting in play outs, thats good.
Giambi to Rockies, just posted up top
solid inning
i love these in play outs.
1-2-3 inning for Minotaur on 13 pitches. 1-0 Dodgers.
time to blow these rocks out
I just have a good feeling tonight.
So good, I may just bring Mrs. Neeebs some flowers.
DB Hint: This always works.
first pitch hit!!
bats are showing signs of life in the early going
Blake leadoff single in the second
sorry colorado
our 8 and 7 guys is better than ur 8 and 7 guy
we got some dodger blue front row. way to represent!
at least it was productive
im sure russ was trying to sacrifice right there.
damn, a base hit stolen.
Hudson ground out means it's up to Minotaur (.103 avg) to knock home the Beard...
To be fair, Kershaw's got a .269 OPS
Clay's looking to go yard.
wtf, let's just put on the squeeze just for the hell of it. what say you, torre?
i never see the squeeze anymore
makes me sad
at least we are hitting.
rockies announcers say houston street not available tonight
Oh well. 1-0 Dodgers through one and a half
"what say you, torre?"
Torre says: "It's a long season. Bigelow!"
Kershaw's average drops to a buck even. That's 4-for-40 for those of you scoring at home.
Clayton doesn't have a hit in August.
Wow, breaking out the Bigelow comeback. I'm flummoxed.
clayton needs hitting lessons from randy
Eat that Tulo!
Ha! Vin made a pun.
Tulo K! one out
haha thought it was TU LO. vin is hilarious
large zone tonight
straight dealing early on
clay has got it tonight.
Those two K's were SICK.
SQUEEZED, are u kiding me
settle down clay
looks like the Nurples were instructed specifically to make Clayton throw strikes
he got squeezed on that last one
Two Ks, then a walk to Garrett Atkins the UCLA guy, and now Barmes.
Barmes looks an awful lot like MSB in his Yahoo picture
alright lets get some more runs.
Raffy's killing me. Where are the zany slap doubles?
eff, that 2 outs in 4 pitches
ethier, dialed in.
Nice Dre. Time for Manny to take 4-5 pitches and hit a double
i guess i cant complain about first pitch swinging when it works.
Cut that hair, hippy!
thats right baby.
turn em into runs.
Manny lives...kinda!
alright loney, coors field.
Loney didn't ground out!
sorry James. I didnt mean that
first pitch swinging only looks good when it results in a hit.
but you still should have taken a pitch
five batters, ten pitches.
we really cant be doing the LOB thing tonight.
Vin says the Dodgers are almost refusing to add on to their lead.
young eric young is pretty fast.
curveball is working
goodbye!
BLAKE!!!!
CASEY AT THE BAT! 2-0 Dodgers
Even more amazing was that Charley Steiner got the call right on a home run ball
BEARD MODE!
Vin has been saying blake is from Indiana for like the past two weeks now.
Completely agree Saxy.
haha, nic
Steiner's voice started elevating and I was sure it was a popout to Hammel
we need to take advantage of runs now. The rockies score runs in the later innings. Technically so do we but the way our offense has been who knows what we are going to do.
the rockies ball boys wear khaki's?
the rox bullpen is taxed after last night and hammel has thrown a lot of pitches, we should take advantage
hopefully we do, add that to the fact that they have a long reliever starting tomorrow we could really work their pen this series.
it would be nice
damn
That hit was my fault, as I had just asked myself the question, "Has Kershaw given up a hit yet?"
alright clay, dont let that rattle you.
just one more.
well
that seems like the first HR clay has given up in a long time.
gotta get those loney.
WTF, SoSGers? I leave to the loo for a second, and the game is tied? Crap.
come on guys
lets not let the inning get away now.
@Sax if the game is tied, it's my fault. I just got online :(
Clay's pitch count is higher than hamel's now.
new ballgame, 0-0
@Neeebs "So good, I may just bring Mrs. Neeebs some flowers.
DB Hint: This always works."
You know WAY too much.
at least our bullpen is "rested"
@Sax ""Let them drink wine!""
Wise words.
i would put Juan Pierre at shortstop and have him lead off if i thought that he could make the throw to first.
we're hitting the ball hard this inning
keep taking pitches
ethier, wow!
just missed that one.
Come on manny.
hitting over the Ethier shift!
three hard hit balls so far this inning.
take some pitches, Manny
alright then, come on loney.
like 4 pitches :)
that's twice loney.
Loney has probably had too many people telling him he'll break out of this slump in Colorado, so now that's all he can think about, and he's failing.
must still be that swine flu....
Time to eat dinner. I'll be watching, but the computer is going away. When I come back, I expect a Dodger lead.
why is the rockies crowd so dead?
you got it, Erin! enjoy your din-din
nic, i went to college in colorado, everytime the dodgers were in town, there were equal amount dodger fans to colorado fans, they are not the loudest fans in the world
haha it's so quiet there you could hear Hammel say a naughty word
oh come on clayton, that guy had a zero batting average.
i like EY Sr
FB i heard the F-bomb as well
Congrats EY jr on your first major league hit.
Now don't score.
hard fastball inside now
heh heh sorry Junior
1st hit, 1st caught stealing
kersh already at 89 pitches, let see if he goes one more or gets pulled for a hitter.
keep taking, guys. this guy's gonna wear down
I hope we get to Kershaw's spot this inning
you have got to be kidding me.
we're hitting him hard - gotta stay after him and not get frustrated and we'll get some runs
we are getting robbed of so many hits its insane.
hudson gets a hit, and kershaw bats for himself.
Why are we letting Hammel go deep when we know their pen is gassed?
heh the liners get caught and the dribbler gets through
Clayton's getting a hit this time up
cant help but feel like we have left too many out there
the most pitches hamel has made is 111 so he should be done for the most part.
i guess no hit for Clayton
this better not be one of those times where Joe lets the pitcher hit and then yanks him when he gives up a leadoff hit or walk the next inning
We had better have a damn good reason why we let Kershaw bat there with Hudson on.
Koufax, i cant help but feel that loney has done that all by himself, 5 LOB.
I was hoping kersh got on so at least we can have our real lead off hitter up next inning.
it feels like Loney has left them all
haha "clearing the leadoff hitter"
ya nic, i wasnt too happy to see him in the 5 hole, feel like that should be blake's spot especially with loney stttttrrrrrruuuuggggggllllliinnggg so much
stay after them, CK
haha, helton can still move for an old man
wow,how did that now hit him.
*not
follow through on those curves, Clayton
dont make him angry clay.
Why are we letting Hammel go deep when we know their pen is gassed?
made him look poor there, nice pitch
dont we always seem to do that sax?
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