It's official: 2015 is Andrew Friedman's "Undo Colletti's Terrible Deals" Year. And Friedman/Zaidi may not be done: Rumor has it that Brandon League is on the trading block. Talk about cleaning house!
Kevin Correia sucks. That much is clear.
But the only reason why we had to see Kevin Correia in the first place is because we wasted an opportunity in the 11th inning when Matt Kemp GIDPd, and then another in the 12th inning when Juan Uribe GIDPd. You bring in Kevin Correia, after walking a tightrope with Brandon League for two innings, and you are playing not only with fire but also with gasoline and lighter fluid and a bunch of other flammable items that would terrify me otherwise. Maybe Donnie had no other moves; maybe he just loves playing Russian Roulette to begin with. What a fucking disaster.
The worst part was, in watching this game, I saw Dodger after Dodger swing for the fences in extra innings, instead of trying to score like we scored all game--getting some runners on base and trying to move them over on the occasional XBH. And as a result, we looked idiotic flying out to Hunter Pence and such. Whatever.
Lead shrinks to three and a half; magic number sticks at 3. The Giants are still alive. They outhit us 12 to 4, and we had three errors to boot, so we didn't deserve to win this game. But damn, we should have won. We should be embarrassed.
Roberto Hernandez Dan Haren was ineffective at Coors Field, but it didn't matter which mattered as the Dodgers Rockies rolled to a huge victory at Coors Field.
Unlike last night, it didn't hinge upon a blowout inning for the Dodgers; rather, the Dodgers had their chances again in the sixth inning, but couldn't get it done. Down 5-0, the Dodgers had Matt Kemp and Scott Van Slyke lead off with singles, both of whom advanced on a wild pitch and scored on a Justin Turner double to make it 5-2. But when Juan Uribe came up and doubled after that, Turner was called out at home in a home plate collision that looked ugly (and required an umpire review). A.J. Ellis walked and with two out, Dee Gordon singled to load the bases. But Yasiel Puig got rung up on a cheapie 3-2 low ball that was called a strike, and that was all she wrote for our attempt at a rally.
Matt Kemp did not yell at Puig (who had a two-run HR in the ninth).
Haren gave up five runs in five innings; Scott Elbert gave up another run without recording an out; Brandon League also gave up a run; and Jamey Wright continued his freefall by giving up three ER without recording an out. Yeesh. I mean, it's Coors Field, but really.
Giants won, so the lead goes back to three games in the west, now with 11 to play.
And I don't even know what the question is. But Roberto Hernandez came out tonight and gave up five runs in the first three innings, ending his night early as he handed the ball over to Yimi Garcia (two innings, no runs), Kevin Correia (two innings, no runs), Jamey Wright (okay, there was a run here; but hey, it's Jamey Wright), Brandon League and Chris Perez (split an inning of work with no runs). Take away Hernandez' bed shitting, and we would have won. Yeah, but if Woody had gone to the police, this would never have happened.
Look, I don't know where this PGT is going, as I'm still drunk. But if not for the fact that the end of the four-game win streak also coincided with the Giants' beating the venomless Diamondbacks, I might be okay with this loss. Clearly, Don Mattingly was, as he didn't go to the bullpen until after we were in a 5-0 hole.
We had our opportunities, none more poignant than two on, one out, in the bottom of the ninth (down by three, mind you): Dee Gordon Ks and Hanley Ramirez (who also had two errors in his 0-for-4 evening) flies out to center. 3-for-12 with RISP isn't good, nor is a loss to the sub-.500 Padres. But at least we took the game yesterday, which keeps us 2.5 games up on SF with 17 to play. One more with the Padres tomorrow...and then, it's showdown in SF.
Boy, I'd feel better about going into Phone Park with more than a three-game lead.
Oh, and Yasiel Puig got a hit, a leadoff infield single in the seventh. Whoop de frickin' doo.
Roberto Hernandez' kryptonite was the longball: four HR off of three Nationals (former Dodger Jayson Werth, Asdrubal Cabrera, and two from Denard Span). After he left following 4.1 IP, (5 ER, 1 BB and 4 Ks), the only other run scored was off Brandon League in the seventh. But the six runs held up, as the Dodgers couldn't make extended rallies happen in either the seventh inning (with one run in and two on, A.J. Ellis lined out and PH Justin Turner struck out) or the ninth inning (with one run in and two on, PH Joc Pederson struck out). And so we drop the first game of the series to the Nationals, which we hoped would be -EZ. Oh, well.
Matt Kemp went 2-for-4 with two runs and 2 RBI; Juan Uribe had the same line save the two runs scored. Aside from that, the Dodgers' offense still looks sleepy: Dee Gordon 0-fered again, as did Hanley Ramirez in the two-hole.
Not only that, but the Giants actually won a resumed game for a change, beating the Rockies in Colorado. On the positive side, however, the Giants were up 7-2 in the real game in Colorado, only to watch the Rockies take a 9-7 lead into the ninth inning. The Giants countered with two runs to tie it in the top of the ninth. And then Sergio Romo came in for the tenth and gave up the game-winning run. Rockies 10, Giants 9. So the lead is now two games. But it could have been worse.
I know our recent history with the Diamondbacks has been testy of late, with us swimming in their pool after clinching the division, and them hitting our players with pitches and breaking collarbones. But it's hard not to feel a little Fonda about the Snakes after watching last night's 9-to-5 victory. What began as a competitive game, punctuated by a two-run HR from Matt Kemp in the first, coupled with a two-RBI single by Ender Inciarte in the second to tie the game, ended up being a rout in the fourth inning. 11 Dodgers game to the plate in the fourth inning, notching three walks, five consecutive singles (Carl Crawford, Justin Turner, A.J. Ellis, Roberto Hernandez, and Dee Gordon), and two successful Dodger challenges along the way. It was all takin' and no givin': Dodgers turned a 2-2 tie into an 8-2 lead, Parton the seas with that onslaught.
This allowed Roberto Hernandez (6.0 dicey IP, with 3 ER, 2 BB and 3 Ks) to register the win, but not after the Dodgers dug into the bullpen's bot Tomlin-ing on Brandon League (who was ineffective: 0.1 IP and 2 H, 1 ER and 1 BB; I swear, sometimes that man is out to get me) before having Jamey Wright close the eighth and Pedro Baez allow one run but finish the Snakes off in the ninth. (J.P. Howell also pitched a scoreless seventh inning, with 1 K.)
The Giants beat the Rockies, albeit imperfectly, so the lead stays at five games with 29 to play (31 for SF). I suppose I should be freaking out about how anything can happen in this divisional race, but when late-season pickup Hernandez is winning games for us, I'm staying pretty Cole, man. I mean, it's enough to drive you crazy if you let it.
Two errors from Justin Turner doomed the Dodgers tonight, but that wasn't the only issue. Brandon League gave up three runs--none earned--over 0.2 IP. The Dodgers' bullpen crumbled late, including Carlos Frias allowing a three-run HR to Richie Weeks in the eighth inning. And with 0-fer performances from Yasiel Puig (0-for-4), Juan Uribe (0-for-3), and Drew Butera (0-for-4), there wasn't much about which to talk besides Adrian Gonzalez' solo HR in the sixth, and Andre Ethier's seventh-inning infield single which gave the Dodgers a fleeting 3-2 lead.
But back to Turner. His PH AB in the seventh inning allowed the Dodgers a leadoff single which led to a two-run inning. But his two errors (bobble and throw), juxtaposed with a side injury to Hanley Ramirez and an "uneventful" showing from Miguel Rojas, have exposed what Doug Padilla of ESPN is calling a sudden shortstop issue.
Again, like I said yesterday, let's not get carried away. But the Dodgers seem to be plugging holes (like the starting rotation, buoyed by Roberto Hernandez' decent performance today) just as fast as others are appearing. At least the Giants lost again, so we stay 3.5 games ahead in the West.
As the movie poster says, "You can't escape the most powerful force in the universe." That may be true for Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, and Hyun-Jin Ryu; however, when we throw up Dan Haren or Josh Beckett this second half of the season, much like a black hole, you can't escape the suck.
Beckett had yet another non-quality start, this time going 4.0 IP before being pulled three batters into the fifth, having given up two more runs to put the Dodgers down 3-1. Beckett did have 6 Ks to go with his 3 BBs, but was as shakey as a pizza parlor and Mattingly had no choice but to go to the pen early...which proved fateful when Brandon League and Chris Perez combined to give up four runs in the last two innings to put the game out of reach. Not even Matt Kemp, who homered again and went 2-for-4 on the day, could claw back this deficit.
You might have heard this once or ten thousand times during the broadcasts, but when a last-place team comes out and spanks you Friday, and again Sunday (and our Saturday win was only due to extra-inning heroics), it doesn't give one a lot of confidence. Nor does the back half of our starting rotation, which seems universally catastrophic. Better fire up those waiver wire deals, Neddie.
With the exception of Matt Kemp's two-run HR in the fourth, the Dodgers looked pretty weak offensively tonight: 0-for-13 with RISP going into the pivotal 12th inning. But with two out, Dee Gordon singled to center (off the glove of Cubs SS Starlin Castro, if I recall correctly), then stole second base. Justin Turner worked a full count and walked anyway, leading to Hanley Ramirez--who nailed a line drive HR to left field, winning the game 5-2.
It would have been great to have seen this highlight, but my f'ing internet feed dropped right as HanRam started his at bat. But enough about me. (Just saw the highlight, which I've conveniently embedded below, because I'm a giver (unlike mlb.tv). Why the Cubs' Blake Parker hung a curve up there for Hanley, who was waiting for it on a 1-0 count; I don't know. It was cool to see the ball go into the left-field Dodgers' bullpen, and see Chris Perez in there with his arms raised up. According to Vin, that was HanRam's first career walkoff HR.)
Hyun-Jin Ryu went 7.0 IP and had 9 H but only 2 ER, with 1 BB and 6 Ks. The Dodgers trotted out everyone after that (Brandon League, J.P. Howell, Kenley Jansen, Brian Wilson (who had an impressive business-like tenth inning)), but capped it with Jamey Wright, who had a very nice 2.0 IP with 2 hits but 2 Ks, most notably on Justin Ruggiano with two on and two out in the 12th. Thankfully, we didn't have to go to Chris Perez (who was next in, given Adrian Gonzalez PH for Wright in the 12th, striking out).
But it was a long, strange, rainy evening at the Stadium. As for a gutty win that barely gets us over a weak Cubs team? I'll take it.
Matt Kemp is either not listening to the noise about trade talks. Or maybe he is? Either way, Kemp powered the Dodgers to a series-opening victory against the Braves, knocking a two-run HR in the second inning off of ex-Dodger Aaron Harang, and then another two-run HR in the seventh off of Anthony Varvaro, who took the loss. The latter broke open a back and forth game that was settled in a 4-4 tie; Carl Crawford (1-for-3 with 2 RBI and a run) started the scoring that inning by grounding to second, scoring Yasiel Puig, but then Kemp's HR to center scored Adrian Gonzalez and made the score 7-4.
The Dodgers tacked on another run in the eighth when Adrian Gonzalez (3-for-5 with 2 RBI and 2 runs) doubled in Dee Gordon from second.
The other offensive power in the Dodgers lineup was Yasiel Puig, who went 4-for-5 with 2 runs, but massively failed in the seventh inning by striking out only a home run away from the cycle. Clearly, Puig needs more practice, certainly if he wants to improve his team-leading batting average from .317. Said Harang, "I made some bad pitches over the middle of the plate that he could hit." Uh, yeah.
Josh Beckett was once again not great, lasting only 4.1 IP and giving up 9 H and 4 ER, with 4 BB and 2 Ks. But Jamey Wright, Brandon League (who got the win), J.P. Howell, and Kenley Jansen combined for a scoreless 4.2 innings to preserve the win. Dodgers move to three games up on the Giants, who lost again.
UPDATE: And holy smokes, how could I forget this? The Dodgers just won four games in a row for the first time all year! In honor of this feat, a picture of an In-N-Out 4x4:
Kemp photo: Jae C. Hong / AP
Can the Dodgers' Brandon League work his way back into your hearts? (LA Times)
(Look, I have built some appreciation for Dee Gordon this year, after ragging on him incessantly in seasons prior, for coming with a renewed attitude, better glovework, a little bit more power, and less bunting for no reason. So I suppose it's feasible. But unlikely.)
photo: Ralph Freso / Associated Press (April 12, 2014)
Everyone played their usual roles in this one: Zack was solid (5.1 IP, 1 ER), Uribe and AGon led the way with two RBIs each, and League shit the bed. Handed an 8-2 lead in the ninth inning, League proceeded to give up three runs, forcing Donnie to bring in Kenley for the one-out save. Thanks, Brandon.
Still, the Dodgers earned the series win against the Snakes and go for the sweep tomorrow. Good job, boys!
That magic number of six (to win the NL West) got a bit sticky tonight, as the Dodgers dropped one to the Diamondbacks that seemed to be out of reach early. Hyun-Jin Ryu was rusty coming back after a missed start, giving up two runs in the first and leaving with a bad line, at least for Ryu: 6.0 IP, 10 H, 3 ER, 0 BB and 1 K).
Brandon League came in for the seventh and promptly loaded the bases, with one run eventually scoring despite Brian Wilson getting an inning-ending double play. League, as SoSG Fred's Brim pointed out in the GT, is reverting to form and / or unlearning his Honeycutt lessons at just the wrong time (for him; maybe not for us Dodgers fans).
Yasiel Puig launched a majestic solo shot to left in the seventh, his 16th HR of the year. Other than that, not much about which to write tonight. Magic number six it is; with the Diamondbacks idle tomorrow (though we play the Giants tomorrow in the first of four games), the earliest we could possibly clinch is Sunday. I'm guessing it's later than that.
Despite fielding a lineup without Yasiel Puig, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, Mark Ellis, or Andre Ethier, the Dodgers actually made this kinda close. But five runs plus a whole bunch of other squandered opportunities were not enough to offset a couple of pitchers' lousy showings tonight.
Edinson Volquez made his debut as a Dodger starter and lasted only 4.0 IP, yielding 6 H and 4 ER (0 BB, 4 Ks) over 75 pitches. He did not look comfortable; dare I say, blown out? Nor did Carlos Marmol, who reverted to Cubbian form by giving up 3 H and 3 R (2 ER) in an inning of "work" (Marmol also added a balk for good measure). Brandon League had a shaky fifth but escaped. All three appearances should be good data points as we consider postseason rosters.
All the position player starters listed above (save Mark Ellis) ended up getting in the game, and none got a hit (Puig, Crawford, and A-Gon all Kd). Michael Young with 3-for-5 with 2 RBI. Charlie Culberson did not play left field tonight, so we didn't have a chance to make up three runs on an error. And so, the Dodgers' magic number remains at 12. Lights out, kids: off-day tomorrow!
image swiped from here
DODGERS 10, ROCKIES 8
Not sure how to feel about this one. One the one hand, Kershaw looked less than mediocre for the second time in a row, and though he got the win, he left after 5 innings (81 pitches). A succession of May-like relievers followed; Wilson was effective but Belli and League were not. Even Kenley looked human, giving up a home run and barely scraping three outs. Aside from the pitching, the fielding was shaky at times and there were a few questionable base-running situations. Michael Young struck out on three pitches in his Dodger debut. Worse, Puig had to leave the game with a mild strain of his right knee.
On the other hand, the offense produced ten runs and just kept chugging along despite the pitching keeping giving up leads. Ethier had a bomb and went 3-4 with 3 RBI and 3 runs scored. Uribe went 3-5 and had some timely hits. Even Kershaw got in on the offense, getting 2 hits and 2 RBI. Dodgers move to 12.5 games above the Dbags and narrow the magic number to 14.
Sooooo...we won, but the hard way. Leaves this reporter thirsty and surly, just the way the day began.
Somebody moved spots, and now the ten-game win streak is over. Thanks a lot, people.
Don't blame Andre Ethier, who homered in the second and then scored in the fourth off a Jerry Hairston single, accounting for both of the Dodgers' runs.
And don't blame Ricky Nolasco, who lasted 6.0 IP giving up 5 H and 2 ER (1 BB, 5 Ks). Ronald Belisario and Paco Rodriguez each had scoreless appearances (three and four outs, respectively), and Brandon League gave up the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth with one out and the bases loaded.
But it wasn't League's fault, either; Hanley Ramirez must have rattled League, who entered with one out in the ninth, with a throwing error that allowed Casper the friendly Wells to reach base. Carlos Ruiz singled to get Wells to third (Yasiel Puig making an outstanding play in the field to keep Wells from scoring), Jimmy Rollins was intentionally walked, and then PH Michael Young, with two strikes, hit one sharply to Ramirez...who bobbled the ball, allowing the winning run to score.
Not that the double play was a definite; Rollins is speedy and was coming into second hard. But Ramirez' kneeling bobble was enough to give the Phillies the win and avoid the sweep.
Fine. Hanley has bad days, too. We start another streak in Miami tomorrow afternoon; it's the MLB.tv Game of the Day.
UPDATE 8/19 1:17a: Deadspin's recap, Phillies Finally Beat Dodgers On Walk-Off Error: "On Friday, the Phillies fired Charlie Manuel and appointed Ryne Sandberg interim manager. He picked up where Charlie left off and was shut out in his first two games. But then Sunday rolled around and Hanley Ramirez decided to start handing out wins." Deadspin also notes it was the Phillies' fith win in 26 games.
photo: Daniel Shirey / US Presswire
The Dodgers tied their franchise record with their 12th-straight road victory, and because the game was so early, I wasn't there to see it. Neither was Mark Ellis or Don Mattingly, both of whom were ejected in the fourth inning arguing a called strike three (to Mellis, not Mattingly).
But that two-run fourth inning, in which the Dodgers stretched their lead to 5-1 (thanks to a Hyun-Jin Ryu single, a Nick Punto infield single, an Adrian Gonzalez RBI single, a Yasiel Puig HBP, and a Scott Van Slyke sacrifice fly), was the dagger.
Ryu only ended up going 5.1 IP and giving up 11 H but only 2 ER, along with 0 BB and 6 Ks. J.P. Howell completed the sixth inning and Brandon League, Ronald Belisario, and even (gasp!) Carlos Marmol followed with scoreless innings each.
Tomorrow's game is @ 1p again. I'll be ready this time.
When I read the dodgers.com headline, "Colletti willing to deal, but targets uncertain," I couldn't help but reverse the headline and think, "Targets uncertain, but Colletti willing to deal." And so here we are, at the trade deadline, with Ned getting anxious:
Only one problem -- he's having trouble finding a target.Wednesday's non-waiver Trade Deadline is approaching quickly and Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti is locked and loaded with an itchy trigger finger.
Oh, no.
Another focus could be a right-handed middle reliever, but Colletti has said he has his doubts how much of an upgrade is out there. The Carlos Marmol experiment is still a work in progress judging from early returns.
I don't think the late returns are going to get any better.
Colletti has repeatedly shown a reliance on vets over kids with almost annual in-season trades for veteran relievers -- Elmer Dessens, Scott Proctor, George Sherrill, Octavio Dotel, Randy Choate and [Brandon] League.
But to get those guys, we gave away Odalis Perez, Wilson Betemit, Josh Bell and Steve Johnson. Randy Choate came over with Hanley Ramirez, at the cost of Nate Eovaldi and Scott McGough. League came over for Leon Landry and Logan Bawcom, which might not have been so bad in itself, except it led to a $22.5M deal a blink of an eye later.
And then there's Dotel, who came at the cost of James McDonald and Andrew Lambo. Ouch.
Somehow, I have this sinking feeling that Brian Wilson is imminent.
Mark Saxon of ESPN.com wrote exactly what I was thinking after watching Sunday's extra-inning win over the Reds: if you can still win the game after: (1) suffering 20 strikeouts, (2) starting Chris Capuano, (3) forcing Brandon League to pitch two innings of relief, and (4) watching phenom Yasiel Puig get picked off of first base like a third-grader earlier in the game, one might think that the Dodgers might actually be not just lucky, but possibly good:
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was unaware his team had struck out so many times until he walked into the interview room after the game and was asked about it.
"You're kind of inning to inning trying to win a game. You're not really paying attention to how they're getting their outs, just that they're getting them," Mattingly said. "It's a good game for us from the standpoint of it's a close game, it's a tough game, it's a tough club.
"It's a game we hung in there and stole a series."
For perfectly justifiable reasons, Mattingly gets antsy when Capuano is still on the mound late in games. He pulled the veteran left-hander after Capuano had given up only three hits, and thrown 83 pitches, with two outs in the seventh inning. Joey Votto was at second base and right-handed hitter Todd Frazier was coming up.
Capuano has rarely gotten to that point in a game, having failed to pitch into the sixth inning in three of his previous four starts. The move worked. After walking the first man he faced, Ronald Belisario struck out Zack Cozart to end the inning.
It was another confident stride for the Dodgers' bullpen. Even as general manager Ned Colletti looks for one more arm, good things are happening. Demoted closer Brandon League, booed routinely at Dodger Stadium a few weeks ago, pitched two scoreless innings. In his past four games, League is 3-0, has thrown 6 2/3 scoreless innings and opponents are batting less than .150 off him. On the same day the Dodgers set a Los Angeles strikeout record (the wrong side of it), they also tied a Los Angeles record for the team's best 32-game stretch (26-6), equaling the 1977 World Series team.
Throw in Skip Schumaker's unlikely heroics yesterday (only his second HR all year); or Hanley Ramirez' game-winning shot Friday (after a pathetic failed do-se-do at home plate earlier in the same game); or the fact that we don't even have Matt Kemp in the lineup yet: it's really frickin' crazy.
I don't know if I'd go so far as to say the Dodgers are "good." But they sure are remarkable.
