The Dodgers activated newly acquired all-star right hander Yu Darvish on Wednesday afternoon. In order to clear room on the roster they optioned right hander Josh Ravin back to Oklahoma City. Darvish is prepared to make his Dodger debut on Friday evening at Citi Field in New York against the Mets. With the Dodgers adding Darvish at the trade deadline that probably increases their odds of winning the World Series this season. That means there is no more of an exciting time to bet on the Dodgers this season to go all the way. Hint Hint.
In the meantime the Dodgers continue their series at SunTrust Park against the Braves. The boys in blue won the first game by a 3-2 score as Cody Bellinger blasted his 29th home run of the season, and Kenta Maeda tossed seven scoreless frames. Tonight they’ll give the ball to young right hander Brock Stewart. The Braves will counter with Julio Teheran.
Stewart was predictably horrible in his last start and we should really lower our expectations for tonight. Stewart has been excellent out of the bullpen, but as a starter not so good. That leads me to believe that he’s probably not a starting pitcher, but should be used primarily out of the bullpen. To be fair all five runs he allowed in his last start were unearned. He’s pitched well this year, but I still don’t like him as a starter. Don’t believe me?
Here’s Stewart’s stats as a starter, and when he pitches in relief.
Brock Stewart as a starting pitcher-
2-2 5.53 ERA .861 OPS against, .303 BAA 7 home runs allowed. 25 K/9BB 25.2 IP
Stewart as a reliever –
0-0 0.53 ERA .399 OPS against, .145 BAA, 12 K/7BB 17.0 IP
Stewart has tossed two career scoreless innings against the Braves. Overall he’s allowed no earned runs on 10 hits across 16.2 innings pitched in 2017. He’s struck out 12, walked 4, and has allowed 5.4 hits per nine innings.
Teharan allowed 4 runs on 8 hits over 6.1 innings during a 6-2 loss to the Dodgers back on June 22. He allowed eight earned runs in 4.2 innings pitched in his last start against the Phillies. He’s had a down year. Overall he is 7-9 with a 5.09 ERA in 120.1 innings of work. He’s never beaten the Dodgers before. He’s 0-6 with a 5.32 ERA against the boys in blue, and 0-4 at Dodger Stadium. He’s 1-7 with a 7.05 ERA at SunTrust Park. That sounds good to me. Here’s how he’s done against the Dodgers.
Teheran vs. Dodgers
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | OPS |
| Chase Utley | 29 | 28 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | .250 | .276 | .633 |
| Yasmani Grandal | 15 | 13 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | .462 | .533 | 1.226 |
| Yasiel Puig | 15 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | .500 | .600 | 1.433 |
| Justin Turner | 14 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | .214 | .214 | .429 |
| Joc Pederson | 13 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | .308 | .308 | .615 |
| Corey Seager | 9 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | .333 | .333 | 1.667 |
| Logan Forsythe | 5 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .600 | .600 | 1.800 |
| Chris Taylor | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .667 | .500 | 2.167 |
| Cody Bellinger | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Rich Hill | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Kenta Maeda | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Hyun-Jin Ryu | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .000 | ||
| Ross Stripling | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Total | 113 | 105 | 34 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 15 | 6 | 22 | .324 | .354 | .916 |
Congratulations to Rich Hill who has been named the National league pitcher of the month for July! He was 4-0 with a 1.45 ERA in 31 innings pitched. He allowed just 5 earned runs and struck out 40 against only five walks.
Rich Hill is the National League Pitcher of the Month! #LetsGoDodgers pic.twitter.com/PuqmTJCi3i
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 2, 2017
Dodgers Lineup
Tonight's Dodger lineup at Braves:
Utley 2B
Seager SS
Taylor LF
Bellinger 1B
Pederson CF
Forsythe 3B
Grandal C
Puig RF
Stewart P pic.twitter.com/TxKcalifQ7— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 2, 2017
The Dodgers are looking for their third ten game winning streak of the season.
Congratulations to Rich Hill who has been named the National league pitcher of the month for July! He was 4-0 with a 1.45 ERA in 31 innings pitched. He allowed just 5 earned runs and struck out 40 against only five walks.
Looks like all you message board GMs who traded Rich Hill for Matt Moore really F’d up.
I know, I know, you would ALL still do that trade. Same thing Lucille Stewart says about his Shelby Miller trade.
who the hell wanted to trade Rich Hill for Matt Moore??
Nobody. He’s referring to last year when, after the deadline, Moore outpitched Hill, helping SF into the playoffs, then going 8 against the Cubs giving up only 1 earned. Last year is long gone. Hill had a good month. We are all happy about that. We are going to need him to have a similar month in October.
Quite a few of these guys Bobby. You can go back just a few threads and see the debate. I argued “quality over quantity” and was savaged by the guys who preferred mediocre, just as long as it was lots and lots of innings of mediocre.
We strike first … this puts a bit more pressue on us to have to win this, now we have that weird freak streak on the line (to extend it).
But they struck harder.
Jonah
Read what Bobby posted, you will like what you read!
It is the anti Joc.
We lost a Stewart Stripling start. 1 for 9 WRISP. It’s going to happen. Stewart only 66 pitches. Seager, Pederson, Taylor and Forsythe 0fer. That won’t happen often.
This is no big loss.
https://www.fanragsports.com/mlb/dodgers/dodgers-improve-hold-top-prospects-trade-deadline-passes/
Badger
What were you saying about Baez?
That is the third HR in three straight games, that one of our relievers gave up!
Good arm.
Badger
Flowers agrees with you!
I was underwhelmed by the trades. Darvish has been over-rated a while, now, IMO.
They’ve stopped hitting the last week or so, while continuing the amazing win %.
Remember the 42-8 team of a few years ago – favs to win it all? Could be a repeat.
This is a better team than I envisioned, by far! But I still don’t see champs here…
DD
I still wished we had a better eight inning option myself.
I don’t see Baez pitching well under the pressure of the post season.
Baez had not pitched in a few days, and the guy had been nails his last several outings. Everyone has a bad game at one time or another. Baez this year is different from Baez last year. Yeah he got the loss, But had the offense cashed in a few of those opportunities, the story may have been different. Puig doubles and gets left there. And what about Morrow? He has been lights out. His WHIP is almost as low as Jansen. Bullpen has kept them in most games. Avilan’s ERA is over 3. Baez under 2. WHIP is 1.16, only Morrow, Jansen and Fields have a lower WHIP than Baez among the relievers.
We should have won that year. Puig saved Mattingly in the regular season (along with Hanley though he came back and got hot later) and Mattingly failed to bring it home. The Hanley HBP did not excuse all of Mattingly’s bad moves and failure to lead that year. In retrospect that one season had several bad repercussions – bringing up Puig too early I think hurt the club house and Puig, and Mattingly got a contract extension and held us back for another two years.
YF
And remember Mattingly took Agone out of a close game for a pinch runner.
Mattingly was a terrible manager!
Gutsy call dud. I’m not certain. I am not convinced this will be the team that shows up in the playoffs. We haven’t finished well in many years.
I thought we should have won one Yueh. I definitely thought we were better than the giants. In ’15 I saw what I thought was a SP weakness. Last year I just thought the Cubs were better. We’ve been Division strong for quite a while but just have not peaked at the right time. And pitching Kershaw on short rest has proven to be unsuccessful. Bumgarner he ain’t in the playoffs.
It looks different this year. Kershaw, Darvish, Wood/Hill, Maeda could look very strong in two months. Or not. Who tf knows how this will play out.
Oh course there are no guarantees. That’s why sports contests actually exist. Is that what the criticism here amongst the realists has descended to. “Well, yeah the Dodgers are better than expected, but I don’t think they’re guaranteed to win the WS.”
Gutsy commennt, yeah…but kinda dumb. I mean, what more do you want? You’re still not happy with the deadline moves? This team is not just good, but insanely good, and good across the board. No guarantees, but that’s really all an organization can do.
Dumb? It’s my opinion that to call an opinion that differs from yours “dumb” is the height of arrogance. What makes you so much smarter than others in here? You know why I thought dud’s call was gutsy? Because I kind of figured one of the uppity FAZophants would jump all over it. I expected it would be catbox, but am not really all that surprised it’s you.
I look at what dud dew offered and ask “why” he might think that. Well duh, just look at the last 4 years. Why did we fail 4 years running? Do you not see what might be a similar pattern? Dud did. And I do too.
They at least made a more ballsy move this year. Didn’t cost us all that much so it’s not like they took a huge risk. But we got what appears to be just what we needed – and that alone is different than the last two years. With that, I’m encouraged.
Oh brother! Spare me the saccharine, solipsistic piousness.
It’s not just a good team, it’s exceptional. This organization has done a good job, in my objective, rational, non-FAZphant opinion, of putting a great team team in place top to bottom. The deadline deals have been lauded by nearly every observer and pundit with any credibility.
And still someone complains? Why? ..because a WS is not guaranteed?
If there’s a comment that I can’t even begin to deconstruct logically because it lacks no rational foundation, then, to me, that qualifies as dumb.
It’s a dumb comment. ….DUMB
And I popped over over to Dodger Therapy recently. What a miserable narcissist. I’m amazed that guy continues to comment….no surprise though that he doesn’t post articles any more. He no longer has any credibility..none. Yet he tries robustly to justify his position.