Roki Sasaki (3-4, 4.76) vs. Trey Gibson (1-2, 5.91).
This is the opener of a three-game set vs. the Baltimore Orioles, the beleaguered bottom of the AL East (actually, the Red Sox are 16 games behind, four worse than the O's).
Tommy Edman debuted on Wednesday and didn't have a hit (0-for-3 with a walk in the leadoff spot). Can this game mark his first hit of 2026?
I might just have sobered up from the USNMT-Australia World Cup game in time to watch this one.
Clayton Kershaw vs. Tomoyuki Sugano.
This season is a disaster.
Yamamoto vs. Rogers.
A couple of days ago, I sacked up and dropped $30 for a month of SNLA+ so I could actually watch this Dodgers team that I love. (I was watching them through another (legal, mind you) streaming service earlier this year, but now needed to get SNLA+, so I dropped the coin. I figured, $30 for roughly 30 games--basically, $1/game investment.
After last night's Tanner Scott debacle, the latest in a long string of soul-crushing disappointments from our high-priced offseason addition, I feel totally ripped off. Sure, the bullpen was otherwise pretty good, with Shohei Ohtani and team covering for Tyler Glasnow's ouchie. And the Dodgers' offense was shitty again, leaving 8 on base and going 0-for-5 with RISP.
But Tanner Scott is a steaming pile of shit this year.
As is Michael Conforto.
For the love of god, stop playing these two black holes. There's only 21 more games. There's no more time to fuck around.
I could have used that $30 elsewhere.
Tyler Glasnow (1-3, 3.41) vs. Krispy Kremer (9-10, 4.52).
The Dodgers' play has been downright disgusting of late, as we just dropped all three games to the last-place Pirates (who are the fourth-worst team in the National League). But wait--that disgust extends to the Padres as well, who just dropped three straight to the last-place Orioles (who are the fourth-worst team in the American League).
So the Dodgers go into Camden Yards where the birds are strangely hot, and the Padres...go to Colorado, which has been ice cold all year long.
At least the Dodgers can count on Michael C0nf0rt0 to stay ice cold!
Tue 8.27: Flaherty vs. Irvin
Wed 8.28: Buehler vs. Burnes
Thu 8.29: TBD Miller vs. Povich
All games 7p first pitch
This should be another playoff-caliber series!
The Baltimore Orioles, a worthy opponent, were leading the AL East until recently, when injuries to their starting rotation put them on a mediocre skid (sound familiar?). They're now 1.5 games back of the division-leading Yankees, but in ownership of the first Wild Card spot by three games. And with the O's hurling staff ace Corbin Burnes (12-6, 3.28) on Saturday, against our Walker Buehler who is valiantly (but, to date, unsuccessfully) trying to figure out if he can return to form (1-4, 6.09 ERA; not good)--we will be hard-pressed to get a series victory here.
But it all starts with Jack Flaherty, Tuesday's starter, who is 3-0 with a 3.22 ERA in four starts since joining his hometown Dodgers at the trade deadline.
Thursday's starter is TBD (and I'm planning on going to this game, with SoSG Orel!), right before we head into the lions' den in Arizona for four games over Labor Day Weekend.
Mon 17 4p: Sheehan vs. Rodriguez Tue 18 4p: Grove vs. Wells Wed 19 10a: Urias vs. Kremer
It's difficult for me to write something recapping the last series with the Mets, partially because the Los Angeles Times no longer covers game recaps with its emasculated Sports content strategy. I think we did pretty well in the first two games @ Citi Field, including the Friday Night Baseball nationally-televised game, before dropping the final game in extra innings, which means we beat Justin Verlander and held pretty close with Max Scherzer. So I'll take it.
And now we face the O's in Baltimore, at one of my favorite ballparks in the majors, Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The world has now found out about Adley Rutschman, with his incredible 2023 Home Run Derby performance (switching sides of the plate for the bonus time round--amazing!), and is the best catcher in baseball (sorry, Will Smith). The Orioles are a surprising second place in the competitive AL East, they have a better record than the Dodgers, and they're one of the small-market feel-good stories of the year. Tough for me to root against them.
But I'll try.
7/4, 6p: Julio Urias (1-2, 4.09) vs. Yovani Gallardo (3-1, 5.77).
DODGERS 7, ORIOLES 5. WIN STREAK = 5
7/5, 7p: Kenta Maeda (7-5, 2.82) vs. Chris Tillman (10-2, 3.71).
ORIOLES 4, DODGERS 1
7/6, 12n: Bud Norris (4-7, 3.89) vs. Kevin Gausman (1-6, 3.97).
ORIOLES 6, DODGERS 4 (14)
Happy 4th! And 5th! And 6th! (These Series Threads are taking some getting used to.) The Dodgers are back on the schneid, looking for their third straight series win after taking two of three from the Brewers and sweeping the Rockies, going from eight to five games back of the Giants in the process.
Hopefully a few more women like #BaltimoreMom have stepped forward to help calm things down.
However, there's something very surreal about this part....
Tigers @ Orioles, 2:30p
Max Scherzer (18-5, 3.15) vs. Chris Tillman (13-6, 3.34).
Royals @ Angels, 5p
Jason Vargas (11-10, 3.71) vs. Jered Weaver (18-9, 3.59).
Last year SoSG reader goodchild27 attended the Dodgers-Orioles series at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, in which Andre Ethier crushed a home run that reached Eutaw Street, which runs in front of the famous warehouse behind right field.
The Orioles have a tradition in which a home run hit by any player, home or away, in that area is commemorated by a plaque. Above is Ethier's.
Thanks, goodchild, for the photo update! It's hard to believe that was only last year.
There's ways to depict frustration about losing a series at home, capping a 3-4 homestand which saw your home team drop to 15 games back in the division, 13 games under .500. And there's the Giants, who sink to racist taunts while being demoralized in defeat:
Bananas have been used, time immemorial, in racist depictions of blacks as being subhuman. In 2011, a white fan threw a banana peel at NHL player Wayne Simmonds, who is black, during a game in London, Ont. Canada.
Worse than graffiti, what happened to Simmonds and Jones is tantamount to being spat upon, with an added insult of racism. In 2013, such behavior cannot be tolerated.Jones, who is black, said somebody threw a "banana towards my direction" in the ninth inning of Baltimore's 10-2 victory against the San Francisco Giants.
Meanwhile, despite this blowing up on national media outlets, the Giants' representative said "he hadn’t heard any in-house radio calls about the alleged incident". Yeah, so that makes it okay.
The Giants are allegedly investigating surveillance footage. Hope their cameras aren't obscured by shit.
After getting ass-whupped by the Orioles in Saturday's doubleheader, stretching the loss streak to six, the Dodgers looked like they were out of any sort of mettle and were ready to phone in the final 145 games of this season. The Orioles jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first off of Stephen Fife, an emergency call-up in place of Chad Billingsley, who hit the DL (with an elbow pain issue that probably should have been resolved with surgery over the off-season, instead of nutpunching us now...but that's another gripe for another day).
The Dodgers eked out a single run in a three-walk third inning, then watched Adam Jones promptly rope one to left center in the bottom of the inning. Still down by three runs.
And here's where things got crazy (at least, for the Dodgers). The Dodgers, averaging fewer than three runs per game, erupted for four runs in the fifth (Mark Ellis, two-run RBI single to center with the bases loaded; Adrian Gonzalez, double to left scoring Carl Crawford; Matt Kemp, single to left scoring Mellis). The Dodgers then went on to extend their 5-4 lead with a RBI single in the seventh from AJ Ellis, and a run in the ninth from a Jerry Hairston sacrifice fly.
Credit Mattingly for finally putting Gonzalez in the three spot, switched with Kemp. That move was compensated however by Donnie pulling Fife with 4.2 IP, denying Fife his first major league victory (the Dodgers were up 5-4 at the time).
A come-from-behind victory? An end to the six-game nightmare? A shot at gaining on that six-game deficit in the NL West (hey, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves; Rox lead the Snakes 3-0 through three, and the Giants are up on the Padres by the same score in the fourth). But hey, a salvaged win @ Camden Yards, in front of SoSG Dusty Baker? I'll take it.
(PS. Lakers (down nine in the fourth quarter), you could stand to take a lesson from these Dodgers today.)
Chad Billingsley (1-0, 3.00) Stephen Fife (0-0, -.--) vs. Jake Arrieta (1-0, 5.40).
We sit six back of the NL West-leading Rockies. That's a greater gap than what the Mets, Cubs, or Mariners have in their respective divisions.
And let's be clear: we're barely halfway through April, and the season already looks precariously lost.
While I try to get over how beautiful Oriole Park at Camden Yards could have turned into the Dodgers' own house of horrors, I have to wonder how short a Rope Don Mattingly is on, I Confess. But it's no Easy Virtue watching our team skid Downhill like this. This season has been one for The Birds. At least we've got Psycho and Eric Collins calling this game, I suppose.
The Sons of Steve Garvey aren't taking this lying down, however. We've sent our own Son, Dusty Baker, to Baltimore on assignment, in order to lift our team's spirits (and hopefully kick Ronald Belisario in the nuts). Get to work, Dusty!
UPDATE 7:57a: Edited to reflect Billingsley's move to the DL.
Big shout out to SoSG reader goodchild27 for these pictures from the morning game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, when the Dodgers lost to Baltimore 7-5. According to goodchild27:
Let me begin by saying there was a LOT of Dodger Blue at the game here in B-More, and a large majority of them of the Korean contingent. It was a good game, but man o man I'd love to see at least one win while I am here...
Let's go to the pictures:
Ryu, bringing 'em out.
Mattingly and Showalter, pre-game.
Ethier knocks a three-run HR, for naught.
Matt Kemp gets a single, also for naught.
Thanks, goodchild27! (Great seats, too!)
Sax's prediction of a doubleheader split unfortunately got pecked away by the Orioles today, who feasted on the carrion of Ronald Belisario in Game 1 before circling Josh Beckett this evening. The killer blow was a Manny Machado three-run HR off of Beckett in the seventh.
Matt Kemp's 0-for-3 (and an eighth-inning GIDP), Andre Ethier's 0-for-4, and Luis Cruz' absolutely pathetic 0-for-3 on nine measley pitches (Cruz is batting .087) didn't help any. Hanley Ramirez can't come back soon enough, but unless he can bat third, fifth, seventh, and eighth, we're fucked.
At least the upside is that, unlike today, we can't lose more than one tomorrow.
Josh Beckett (0-2, 3.26) vs. Wei-Yin Chen (0-2, 4.00).
Since the Dodgers hadn't been back to Oriole Park at Camden Yards since 2002, Mother Nature wanted to make sure their first visit in 13 years was a doozy. Hence today's double-header, whose second game pits two hard-luck starters. Beckett had two starts in which he gave up three runs each over 6.0 and 5.0 IP, but his third and most recent start was a tough-luck outing with 8.1 IP and 1 ER, awarding Beckett the loss. Brutal.
Chen has also had three starts this year, the last two of which were both quality starts (6.1 and 6.0 IP, 3 ER each), but also both of which rewarded him with losses. Both starters go out there tonight to one of the majors' most beautiful stadiums, but flanked by tired teammates who have already played one today.
But if I could Wei-Yin here, I'd guess that the Dodgers will end up splitting the doubleheader (in 2002, we went 2-1 @ Camden Yards). That is, unless Juan Uribe could...tip the scales?
Just like that robust Dodgers-hat-wearing, Orioles-shirt-clad guy over Kenley Jansen's left shoulder, the Dodgers and Orioles tried to keep this a balanced match between two promising teams. But the end result was enough to make your head (at least, if it had a Dodgers hat on it) rife with grumpiness.
The Dodgers raced out for four runs in the first two innings, powered by an Andre Ethier 3-run HR. They then let the Orioles come back and take the lead in the sixth, before coming back to tie it in the seventh off a wild pitch.
Enter Ronald Belisario, who basically sucks this year. He came in for the bottom of the eighth with one out and a man on second, and proceeded to walk the next two batters on eight pitches (one an IBB), and then allowed a Nolan Reimold double to right which iced the game for the Orioles. Belisario now has an ERA of 4.91, his high point of the year...so far. Let's just hope that this means Belli can't enter tonight's Game 2.
Hyun-Jin Ryu (2-1, 2.89) vs. Jason Hammel (2-1, 4.34).
The Dodgers are scuffling, having been swept by the heretofore lowly Padres, and now enter the gauntlet of interleague play against last year's AL wild card team, the O's. The likes of Adam Jones and Matt Wieters await. Welcome to the majors, Ryu.
But there is some hope: The Dodgers are well acquainted with Hammel from his days as a Dinger-lovin' Colorado Rocky/ie. Lifetime against the Dodgers, Hammel is 2-5 with a 5.47 ERA, so let's see how his game translates to Oriole Park at Camden Yards — and if the Dodger bats made the trip east.
UPDATE:
Tonight's game has been postponed. We'll play two tomorrow: 10am and 4pm PT. #Doubleheader
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 20, 2013
UPDATE 2 (8:14p): Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said Ryu would start the day game, and Josh Beckett would start the night game, as originally planned.
Earlier this week we introduced you to Thomas Roberts (@BertsBall), who is in the running to become a finalist at the MLB Fan Cave.
But what of the man himself? you may be asking. Well, we dug deeper and got the scoop for this exclusive interview:
SoSG: Tell us a story that best illustrates your love for the Dodgers.
Thomas: Here’s a perfect story that illustrates how I love the Dodgers and stick with them through thick and thin. I was at the Hall of Fame 2 summers ago. This is the Mecca for any Baseball fan. It is holy ground. A pilgrimage that every fan of the game should make. Anyway, as I browsed the countless artifacts and exhibits, I was riding the ultimate high. Visiting the Hall of Fame was on my bucket list and I had just crossed it off.
Well near the end of the Hall, they have computer monitors that display the latest Baseball stories. After spending the entire afternoon immersed in the past of the game, I figured I’d glance at the huge screens and see what was going on in the present. It was then and there in the Hall of Fame that I read the most depressing news of my life. Plastered huge across the screen for all to see was “Dodgers file for Bankruptcy protection” with a picture of Frank and Jamie McCourt. I found out that the Dodgers were Frankrupt while I was in the Hall of Fame. The ultimate low.
It hit me hard. After such an incredible day drifting through the legends of the game, I found out that my beloved organization was in shambles. So did I take off my Dodger hat and throw it in the trash? No! I gritted my teeth and wore it proudly the next day in Philadelphia at the Phillies game and then in Baltimore at the Orioles game. Sure I got a ton of crap and heckling from other fans but none of that mattered. I had my colors on and I was going to wear them proudly, even if my colors were flat broke.
SoSG: You can star opposite Bar Refaeli in this commercial (above). Or you can get two tickets to Magic Johnson's luxury suite for any game at Dodger Stadium. Which do you choose and why?
Thomas: I take the two tickets and invite the Nerdy kid from that commercial to come to the game with me. Then I have him tell the tale of how he made out with Bar Refaeli and live vicariously through his story. It’s a win win situation where I get both options for the price of one. Check. Mate.
SoSG: Let's say, theoretically, that you are chosen to be in the MLB Fan Cave, and that it turns out one of your cohabitants happens be a Giants fan. Much like your lawnmowing neighbor, this person actually turns out to be pretty cool, and you guys end up forging a strong friendship rooted in a love of the game of baseball. Do you add arsenic or hemlock to his/her breakfast cereal?
Thomas: Absolutely Not! What’s wrong with you!? Arsenic and Hemlock would be too quick of a death. I want him to suffer. First I would lure him into a false sense of security where he thinks that our friendship is bigger than my hatred of the Giants (big mistake on his part) then I quietly slip Nyquil in his diet coke and invite him to watch “For Love of the Game” with me (the most boring Baseball movie ever made.)
After he drifts off into a deep slumber, I cover his entire body in Industrial strength Dodger Blue paint. That way his pores clog and he is unable to sweat. Slowly but surely the paint will suffocate him (like in Goldfinger) and not allow him to cool down when it’s really hot outside.
The last part of my plan involves taking him to a game at Wrigley field in July and sitting in the outfield bleachers where the temperatures can kill a small child. Not being able to sweat will cause him to suffer from heat stroke and it was all due to the paint that he couldn’t get off. He will have literally been killed by the Dodger Blue.
There you go! Three painfully honest answers from your MLB Fan Cave candidate.
Like what he had to say? Vote Thomas Roberts into the 2013 MLB Fan Cave here!
Want to hear in-depth answers from another candidate? Stay tuned!
