Three straight hits for the Dodgers, by Justin Turner, Corey Seager , and Yasiel Puig led to an early Dodgers lead.
Puig vs Bum 1: With two on and two out, Puig sent a bouncer deep into the left-field corner to score Turner and Seager.
Carlos Ruiz blooped one into short CF to cash in Puig – who was off and running – he was committed to running home, no matter what.
Giants
They roared right back with a rally to score before there was even one out. 2-1
By the end of the inning, eight men had come to the plate and the Giants had tied the score. 2-22nd inning 2-2
The Dodgers lost a possible run in the first inning when Justin Turner was thrown out at third, and thus, did not score when Yasiel Puig hit the double behind him.
They lost another possible run in the second when Kiké Enrique Hernandez over-ran second base and was tagged out when he came off the bag. Time will tell if those runs eventually prove necessary.Puig vs Bum 2: A little dribbler that Puig beat out for an infield single on pure hustle.
The teams pushed and shoved, but remained tied through four.
5th inning 2-2
Bumgarner went 1,2,3, to make it seven Dodgers retired in a row.
Rich Hill kept the Giants scoreless.
6th inning 2-2
Puig vs Bumgarner 3: fly out.
Ruiz and Rob Segedin with back to back singles. Kiké added a third single, which drove in Ruiz from second. Dodgers led 3-2
Giants
Rich Hill out. Brandon McCarthy in. He gave up a walk and two singles to load the bases with nobody out.
McCarthy then grooved a 2-0 fastball that quickly became a 2-run double into the RF corner. Lead gone. 3-4 with no out.
But that wasn’t enough. He gave up another double for another two runs. 3-6
Josh Ravin in. One pitch. A blast! 3 more runs. 3-9That was the end for the Dodgers, who flailed about and never scored again.Dodgers lose 9-3
Reaching for a silver lining: Rich Hill gave up two early runs, and he let the lead off man get on in every inning, except the fifth. That said, he pitched well enough to win, and the Giants never again scored off him after the first inning. All of that said, it took him 82 pitches to get through five.
Ouch: The Dodgers handed Brandon McCarthy the lead, and he handed the Giants a walk, 3 singles, 2 doubles, and 6 runs. All without recording an out.
Puig vs Bum: Yasiel went 2 for 3 with an RBI double and a single.
Rich Hill went 5 innings with 6 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 4 Ks ERA 2.12
Team with RISP: 2 for 3
Oscar Martinez
I was born in the shadow of Dodger Stadium and immediately drenched in Dodger Blue. Chavez Ravine is my baseball cathedral, Vin Scully was the golden voice of summer all my life, and Tommy Lasorda remains the greatest Dodgers manager ever. My favorite things are coffee, beer, and the Dodgers beating the Giants. I also blog about my baseball card hobby at All Trade Bait, All the Time.
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Dodgers decided to go trick-or-treating a month early, they left a flaming sack of poop on the doorstep, and the Giants stomped the hell out of it. Hopefully this was the last we see of #38 this season.
Unfortunately, they keep hoping things will change with their pitching staff.
McCarthy and Anderson should not touch the ball in the post season. I also don’t have confidence in Stripling. Wood is the one rotation player that may be salvageable. He’s been on bad teams and he’s been injured. He was 12-12 last season, IIRC. I would probably look at him in the next couple of games and see if he can be the #4. Urias is a big question mark for me. JDL is a no-no.
The bullpen is mostly bull. Players I’d like to see gone are:
Howell
Chavez
Ravin
Liberatore
Coleman
No confidence in these guys.
the bullpen is mostly bull?!?!?!
How
Liberatore has been pretty effective most of the year, Coleman has stunk it up a bit lately. Chavez has also been pretty good. Ravin is ineligible for the post season roster due to a PED violation, and Howell is a free agent after the season. Ravin throws 100, so he will be back.
In case you missed the memo, the Dodgers have the #1 bullpen is baseball. Sorry to confuse you with the facts.
Jeff, I agree with you on some statements and disagree with you on others.
1. Agree-Anderson and McCarthy should not be on post season roster.
2. Disagree with you on Stripling. He has been good all year.
3. Agree with you on Wood.
4. Disagree on the bullpen. It has been one of the strengths all year. Those players you listed probably will not be on the post season roster. Maybe Howell because of experience. Liberatore and Coleman were good before their injuries. The bullpen as a whole has been good all year.
Well I am back for a while at least. I have to move the end of January, so will be here during the post season. McCarthy pitched himself right off the post season roster, Anderson who was some what effective probably will be available if they make it to the NLCS. They need to win the next 2 and have Miami beat the Nats to get home field, but they have owned DC this year, so it might not matter. I would like to see them win the next 2 and send the Gnats home for the winter. Hernandez should not be on the roster, Culberson should. Ethier will probably not make it, not enough AB’s. Rotation will be Kersh, Hill, Maeda and Urias. BP Jansen, Baez, Blanton, Dayton, Avilan, Chavez, and Fields. Roster….OF’s….Puig, Pederson, Toles, Reddick, and Kendrick, Inf, Gonzo, Utley, Seager, Turner, Culberson, Segedin, and………..Barnes……C Ruiz and Grandal….that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Michael
It is good to hear from you!
The only players that you listed for your post season roster, that I would question is Chavez, and of course Anderson.
I have much more faith in Stewart, and if they were really concerned about pitch limits, I don’t think Urias would be an option.
Anderson or any pitcher with his history, shouldn’t be on a post season roster, just because they were somewhat effective, in a couple of innings, in the entire season.
Pitching Anderson in the post season, sounds like desperation.
Michael,
It’s true that we’re able to beat the Nats, but we are not a good road team. We are also very vulnerable with this pitching staff. The inconsistencies are still there and we are also terrible against lefties.
Are they only going to allow their starters no more than 5 innings and then pull them no matter what? I can’t remember ever seeing a team do this with the bulk of a rotation. Was something wrong with Hill that they pulled him after 5 IP? I am of the opinion that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. For me, now is the time to put the war paint on and go with what has worked, not with an experiment, like McCarthy relieving Hill.
I also think we just gave the Giants an edge.
Beat them 2 of 3 at their place, and they are also hurting. No Strasburg, their best catcher just went down with a torn ACL, Murphy, their best hitter is out with leg problems, we handled Harper pretty well and their only LH starter, is struggling….I like our chances. I probably screwed up by not putting Stripling on the roster because in my mind he is a much better long relief option than Anderson or McCarthy.
Michael
We all screw up that is just being human.
Good to see you back Michael
Thanks Scott
After watching McCarthy in that inning, it reminded me, of what happened, when Anderson pitched in the post season.
McCarthy doesn’t have the mental fortitude to pitch in big moments.
And Anderson is probably even worse.
Orel said that it looked like McCarthy was not throwing any of his pitches with convection.
And that is what McCarthy was doing, he was just throwing.
Most of McCarthy’s pitches leaked into the middle of the plate, where any decent major league player, would hit any of these pitches hard.
It wasn’t like the Giants missing offense suddenly appeared yesterday, it was only because McCarthy threw the Giants batting practice.
But mentally it probably gave all of the Giant’s players, a big lift, something we didn’t want to do.
And it wasn’t like the Giants players were not familar with McCarthy either, because the Dodgers and everyone in the western division, beat MCCarthy like a drum, when he pitched for the
Dbacks.
That is another reason I thought signing McCarthy was a terrible idea.
One half season of decent pitching, doesn’t make up for a long history of being injured and mediocre.
I’m tired of giving these guys that didn’t pitch all year, a tryout to be on the post season roster, except for Wood, who was pitching pretty well, the first two times a faced the order, before he went out.
When this front office choose to sign McCarthy to a multi year contract. as one of there first big moves, they got off to a bad start with the fan base right away.
And unfortunally McCarthy hasn’t done much to put those fears behind.
And two years into McCarthy’s contract, McCarthy still hasn’t fullfilled his multi year contract.
And just the fact that the front office tried to trade McCarthy at the trade deadline, shows that they are not pleased with McCarthy, either.
It just wasn’t a good idea to pitch McCarthy in a big game against the Giants, when he hadn’t really pitch more then twenty innings all year.
I just wonder why someone like Stewart or another pitcher, that has pitched well this year, didn’t get this chance, or even Wood, who hasn’t allowed a run since he came back.
It was such a shame that after the team scored the go ahead run off Bumgarner, that McCarthy came in, and turned this game into a blow out, in just one inning, and Ravin giving up that three run HR, sure didn’t help either.
But to me Bumgarner looked really vulnerable, so who knows if the Giants even make the post season, that they will advance.
But it would be great to finally see the Giants not win a playoff game, or the wild card game.
Because they have been able to win a couple of World Series, without being one of the best teams in baseball, just by getting into the
I’m always afraid of a giants’ spark. Fortunately, in the second half every time the spark has happened it hasn’t been maintained. Usually because the giants don’t hit. So…Kershaw is BIG today. This game could take the life out of them or keep it going to the playoffs. Don’t count the giants out against the Cubs. I don’t like a giants-Mets matchup. I guess there was no Scully spark last night. McCarthy should go back to twittering. He’s better at that than pitching right now. There is no room on the playoff roster for our walking wounded, McCarthy or Anderson. I’ll take my chances with the other guys who can throw strikes. Against lefties, isn’t our usual lineup with our left handed hitters just as good as the right handed lineup? I say leave the lineup alone against lefties. It’s nice to see Ruiz get a couple of hits. Maybe the only change should be Puig/Reddick; or Toles/Pederson. Utley, AGon, and Grandal should always play. Hopefully, in the playoffs, there won’t be such an urge to go right handed.
Well, I guess one bad game after a good initial game back gives us all we need to see to know that McCarthy can never pitch. (sarcasm)
I thought it was dumb that Roberts brought in McCarthy to pitch in relief. He hasn’t pitched if relief for about 9 years, but then it occurred to me that if McCarthy is the 4th starter he will also likely have to pitch in relief. Well, in that one game audition, I would have to say that it is for certain that he cannot pitch in relief. I now doubt that he or Anderson will be on the playoff roster.
Of course, Anderson will be gone after this season, but McCarthy and Kazmir will be back and Ryu might too. Maybe none will be back, but if you haven’t noticed pitchers are often up and down and some pitchers put it together late in their careers – i.e., Rich Hill.
Look at JA Happ:
2011 – 6-15 – 5.35 ERA
2012 – 10-11 – 4.79 ERA
2013 – 5-7 – 4.56 ERA
2014 – 11-11 – 4.22 ERA
2015 – 11-8 – 3.61 ERA
2016 – 20-4 – 3.20 ERA
At age 34 he is now one of the best pitchers in baseball. KAZ re-invented himself once. So did McCarthy. They both have good stuff. There’s a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning, just like there is a fine line between success and failure. BTW, McCarthy didn’t have the YIPS – he had a hip injury that was affecting his release point.
I have no preconceived ideas about KAZ and Mac but either one or both could surprise you. I like the depth. In fact, I would rather owe KAZ and Mac $52 million for two more years than Cueto and Samardzjia $187 million for 4 or 5 more years. I get what FAZ is doing. It’s really pretty simple. They would rather take risks than overpay because of the youngsters coming up… and guess what? IT WORKED!
Kershaw won’t likely pitch past 5 or 6 innings today in his tuneup for the playoffs.
Mark you can try to spin it anyway you want but the McCarthy deal was a bad deal from day 1.
I agree with Jeff when he says that they have played 160 games this year and they know what they’ve got in the pen by know. Throwing McCarthy and Anderson a bone now is asinine.
They have 5 days off between Sunday and Friday, running this week like spring training was stupid and unnecessary.
It’s one thing to start Anderson instead of Deleon on Thursday and let him audition for the 4th starting spot. I would have understood that. But throwing Anderson and McCarthy into the pen for these games is stupid. They will not be on the post season roster as relievers. Their jobs right now should be pitching inter squad games during the team’s off days.
Also, in all their attempts to baby Hill, they’re taking for granted that he can maintain his sharpness despite all the long layoffs.
Hawkeye
I agree about Hill.
He needs to pitch enough to stay sharp, but not to much to cause a blister.
That is a hard thing to manage, and it will be even harder, in the play offs too.
I get it Mark, and that’s cool, but to me McCarthy is not on the first round roster. I do not think he A. earned it, and B. Has shown he is ready to pitch. My opinion…
No confidence in Kazmir. His last couple of outings have been well a disaster. He cannot get out of the first inning, shut him down til spring….
Unless 4 out of 4 games go our way, we open up on Friday in Wash DC. Oh well.
Meanwhile, Cards and Mets play at 10am, so hopefully StL can win and Kersh can handle it at 1pm.
McCarthy’s deal was for 4 years. Two are past and the first two have been very bad. I don’t think the deal can be evaluated until it’s over. We can look at Greinke’s deal and say it bad now, but I think we have to wait 5 more years to evaluate it.
I still rate the Anderson signing as good. You may have saw that Anderson would take the QO, but no one else did. I didn’t and FAZ didn’t. Here’s the predictions on some free agents from last year:
Zack Greinke – $180 million/6 years
David Price – $250 million/8 years
Johnny Cueto – $120 million/6 years
Cespedes – $150 million/6 years (what happened there?)
Kendrick – $45 ,million/3 years (Dodgers got him for $20 million/2 years and were ridiculed by fans)
Zobrist – $50 million/3 years
Samardzija – $50 million/3 years (can anyone say overpay?)
Kazmir – $68 million/4 years – Dodgers got him for $45 million/3 years)
Brett Anderson – $36 millon/ 3 years (he will still get a decent deal this winter)
Almost no one saw Anderson taking the offer – The QO had never been accepted until last offseason, so it was unprecedented! Two more years and the Dodgers have no long-term obligations with pitchers and most other players for that matter… and yet they are winning! Their position going forward is obviously enviable!
I would look for FAZ to try and lock up Seager for 6-8 years this offseason at $150 plus million. I think he’s a player you do that with.
Mark
It sounds like you are saying it is better to blow 37.8 million dollars on these two pitchers, that haven’t fullfilled there contracts, then sign one decent pitcher, that will make most of his starts,
and earn his money.
Because Anderson has sit on the bench almost all year, and collected 16. 8 million dollars.
And McCarthy has sit on the bench tweeting, most of the first two years of his contract.
That is a total of 36.8 million dollars, that went for not.
You aren’t good at math are you? How about $187 million for 5 years?
MJ: “McCarthy doesn’t have the mental fortitude to pitch in big moments.”
Hawkeyedodger: “Mark you can try to spin it anyway you want but the McCarthy deal was a bad deal from day 1.”
What to say? I’ll give it a go!
MJ, I think ANYTIME someone steps on a MLB mound it is a “big moment”. Maybe, just maybe, McCarthy has pretty good “mental fortitude”, but, instead is only 17 months out from Tommy John surgery and is still not fully recovered. Maybe, just maybe, his strong “mental fortitude” made him rush back to try and help his team.
Hawkeyedodger, hindsight is always 20/20, when you get TJ surgery a month into your new contract it’s going to be a “bad deal” for a while.
Fortunately, all the depth FAZ acquired (and was ridiculed for) gives them better options in at least the first playoff series. I am sure McCarthy, Anderson and others will be working out and monitored to determine if they could possibility help later in the playoffs.
Mark Timmons: “I would rather owe KAZ and Mac $52 million for two more years than Cueto and Samardzjia $187 million for 4 or 5 more years.”
As usual, a voice of reason. How about this, would you rather owe KAZ and Mac $52 million for two more years or Greinke $171 million for five more years?
Boxout
McCarthy didn’t rush back from TJ surgery.
A lot of pitchers have came back sooner, then MCCarthy has.
And sorry a lot of pitchers go out there and are able to keep there team in a game, when they don’t have there best stuff.
And pitchers like that, have mental toughness.
And McCarthy is not that type of pitcher.
Maybe there was a reason, that even the Yankees wouldn’t give McCarthy a better contract.
Boxout
It isn’t either one of the top aces in baseball, or Anderson and McCarthy.
There are a lot of pitchers out there, that can be four or fives, in a rotation, and they will make most of there starts.
Lirano cost less then McCarthy, and he pitched pretty well, in his first two years, in Pittsburg, and he is with the Bluejay’s now, and is pitching effectively for the BlueJays now.
Boxout
Even Orel said that McCarthy wasn’t throwing his pitches with convection.
Sorry McCarthy is not even close to being a gamer, or a grinder, and he doesn’t fit on this team, because of this.
It isn’t hindsight when I said it the day they signed him. No way I give him 4 years based on his history with or without a TJ. Hopefully he can be dealt for something that helps the team next year. It would take two great years to make that deal acceptable.
I read other articles that said Anderson was a great candidate to be the first ever to accept QO. Rasmussen just beat him to it.
I’m not a FAZ hater and if McCarthy is on the roster still next year he deserves a re-boot, but throwing him out there last night was asinine and it pissed me off. Having Reddick hit with the bases loaded against a lefty on Tuesday also pissed me off. And running Grandal the other night with Reddick up against a lefty also stupid.
I’m a Roberts fan but not a fan of handling the team this week.
Mark, as a Colts fan you’ve seen teams shut it down and not be able to turn it back on.
All the hype about Mc and no one says anything about Turner getting thrown out at third or Kike coming off the bag at 2b. It’s those tiny errors which can cost you a playoff game/series. Can’t make those mistakes!
Artieboy
I wasn’t happy with those two base running errors either.
And now that Turner was out by a mile, I don’t think Turner will be trying that to soon again.
Both errors were really bad, especially against a pitcher, that can dominate games, and have shut down innings, after being scored on early in games, like Bumgarner can do.
Good point, Art. If Roberts had given Brand Mac the hook earlier those plays might have loomed larger.
I agree with the Hawkeye. This isn’t the time to audition pitcher’s. That was, 5 months ago. As for McCarthy and the tips. Sorry Mark, it’s the yips. The hip injury is one thing but this dude doesn’t have it between the ears right now. We can’t take our foot off the accelerator. But they just did.
We don’t know their plan, but last night’s plan sucked ass. It’s questionable thing going like last night’s moves that make us skeptics, ummm skeptical.
Why are they doing these head scratching moves in the last series against the biggest rivalry team in MLB when we have the chance to knock them out? These moves and also with all rightie lineups are what drive us insane.
And we all know the definition of………..
I don’t think FAZ cares about knocking out the rival, or about any rivalry in general. That’s old school baseball that we follow not them. So you get what we had last night. Fun stuff?
“Sorry Mark, It’s the yips because I said it is without an ounce of evidence to back it up.”
That’s what you should have said. Look at the video of his last 3 games when he walked everyone before he went on the DL. Even Ray Charles could see he was not flexing his hip which was why he was shut down. He tried to pitch through it and couldn’t. After he came back, he proved it wasn’t “The Yips” as he walked 1 batter in 5.1 innings.
If it makes you feel good, call it the yips, but that total BS! You can say that you don’t think he will ever be any good. Shoot, you may be right, but don’t just make shit up!
These games mean nothing to the Dodgers… home field or not. They want to get outta’ this healthy and be ready for the playoffs. Don’t lose your minds on the past couple of games.
MCCarthy even mentioned that he was having mental problems throwing the ball. His first 5 or 6 pitchers were balls last night and then he started throwing BP.
Audition time is next spring shouldn’t have been last night. Oops, now I’m Hawkeyecolt.
“don’t just make shit up!”
vs
“These games mean nothing to the Dodgers”
How do you know that? Are you making “shit” up?
1. They have clinched the NL West.
2. They are resting players.
3. They are testing other players.
4. Home field advantage mean very little in the playoffs: http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/204233542/home-field-advantage-mlb-playoffs-history
Does any of that tell you anything? That’s how I know it. No shit here, Sherlock!
The Dodgers are not a very good road team. It has been their achilles heel this season. While I don’t know the reason for it, I could say that mathematically, it will put them at a disadvantage no matter who they play. It doesn’t mean they can’t win, but they will have to go against the momentum they have created for themselves. That is not a measurable stat.
Plus, we’ve been focusing on our pitching and good points have been made in the pros and cons of individual players as well as the collective staff. We haven’t even addressed the inconsistent batting of the Dodgers and the seeming disappearance at times of their hitters. This has been a factor all year for this club. The long ball has saved their ass many a game, but we don’t see a consistent hit factor that leaves the Dodgers with only a .250 BA overall. Add to that the inability to hit well against lefties and you have a strategy that should be used against them in the playoffs.
Add to this the fact that Kershaw is the only pitcher the fans have confidence in and he has choked in big games more than he has won. Today was another example of fans taking for granted the Dodgers would win with Kershaw. It’s not guaranteed, obviously. Where were the bats? Methinks the boys are getting tired. The amount of errors made the last week or so have been piling up. This is not a good momentum to be going into the playoffs with. I would not bet on them coming out of the first round. I hope they do, but I am not confident.
And everyone get ready the Giants are pitching one of there rookie left handers today.
The Line up isn’t to bad, except Roberts has Howie leading off again.
Howie isn’t a good lead off hitter, and he is in a big slump, and hasn’t got on base much either lately, so he doesn’t have a good OBA this month either.
He is also playing leftfield again.
My first round playoff rotation:
Kershaw, Hill, Maeda, Urias
My pen:
Jansen, Dayton, Stripling, Stewart, Baez, Wood, Avilan
Infield:
I prefer Culberson over Hernandez;
Outfield:
I prefer Toles over Hernandez
Funny how home field advantage an knocking the Giants out of the playoffs were a big deal before game-time last night but by 9:00 it was all about making sure everyone was tucked in and cozy. BS.