Friday, April 14, 2023

Series Thread (Games 14-16): Apr 14-16 vs. Cubs

Still wearing blue. Still batting .238.

Fri 4.14 7p: Noah Syndergaard vs. Steele
Sat 4.15 6p: Michael Grove vs. Taillon
Sun 4.16 1p: Julio Urias vs. Smyly

Welcome back to Dodger Stadium, Cody Bellinger! Let's hope the former Dodger MVP enjoys the trip back to the Stadium, in a year where he's seeing a little bit of a resurgence (.703 OPS), up from last year (.654) but still well below his career average or those great first four years of his Dodger career. That career went careening off the tracks with a shoulder injury from celebrating with Kiké Hernandez in the 2020 World Series championship run.

After that fateful blow, two long years of waiting for a non-existent rebound finally came to an end with Bellinger's off-season departure. As Jack Harris of the LAT quoted Dave Roberts, "sometimes, you just don't have any answers." (Harris did a great job of chronicling Bellinger's imability to make batting swing changes permanent--even when they were starting to yield positive results.) I'm glad to see Cody is performing a bit better for Chicago, who is surprisingly in third place in its division, two games behind the Brewers.

They may have moved beyond Bellinger, but the Dodgers' front office will be drooling during this series watching Cubs SS Dansby Swanson, who left the Braves this offseason and is batting .400 with a .917 OPS this season. That's a heck of a lot better than Miguel Rojas (.182 BA, .477 OPS) or Chris Taylor (.091 BA, .435 OPS).

Kinda sucks not having a real shortstop on the squad. Oh, and we're feeling it. Believe me.

23 comments:

QuadSevens said...

I hope we get a goofy Cody look some time in this series. I miss those.

QuadSevens said...

GAME 1

Betts RF
Freeman 1B
Martinez DH
Muncy 3B
Thompson CF
Vargas 2B
Rojas SS
Taylor LF
Barnes C

Syndergaard P

Steve Sax said...

Quad again with the lineup assist! Thank you Quad!!!

Steve Sax said...

Barnes back in the lineup. Dodgers are 1-3 this year when Barnes plays, 6-3 when he doesn't.

Steve Sax said...

Just turned on the Giants at Tigers game, to see JD Davis hit a three-run bomb on the first pitch of a new reliever, tying the game at 4.

Great.

Steve Sax said...

Mason Englert was not good.

Steve Sax said...

Giants were up 5-4 in the 11th, but the Tigers ended up winning 7-5 in the bottom of the 11th.

Steve Sax said...

Chris Taylor tied the game at 1 in B3, but the Cubs went ahead again in the top of the 4th. It's 2-1 Chicago.

spank said...

Syndegaard is about to fuck it all up

spank said...

the fucker pitched out of it

3-1 Cubs

Steve Sax said...

Max Muncy got us back to a one-run deficit, but Andre Jackson has just served back-to-back HRs to gift wrap the Cubs a 5-2 lead.

Steve Sax said...

Andre Jackson, you are awful.

Third HR he's given up here, it's now 6-2. And Cody almost hit one out as well.

What the fuck.

Steve Sax said...

Jackson's ERA is now 7.71. I thought it would be a lot worse.

Steve Sax said...

Jackson comes out in the ninth inning...and gives up ANOTHER home run. It's now 7-2. Jackson's ERA has now ballooned to 8.59.

Pull him, Dave!

Steve Sax said...

Jackson gives up a run-scoring double. Roberts has no action in the bullpen, so Jackson is being hung out there to dry.

He has a 9.39 ERA now. And he's tied the record for most HR yielded by a Dodgers reliever (4).

Steve Sax said...

Man, that was uggggggly.

Steve Sax said...

GAME 2

Betts RF .250
Freeman 1B .309
Muncy 3B .239
Martinez DH .259
Outman LF .282
Vargas 2B .179
Heyward CF .222
Rojas SS .160
Barnes C .000

Grove P

Steve Sax said...

Oh, weird. MLB GameDay app (desktop) has the LA Dodgers' 2020 World Champion flag flying above centerfield.

Steve Sax said...

Big walk-off win last night. Let’s try to score more runs than 2 today!

Steve Sax said...

Bummer about Slappy

Steve Sax said...

CT3 HR!

1-0 LA!

Steve Sax said...

I am done with Austin Barnes. He can’t throw anyone out, so Bellinger steals second without a throw and then scores to tie the game.

And barnes sucks from the plate.

Let’s bring up Cartaya.

Steve Sax said...

We lose the game, and lose the series.

Not good