It was a classic matchup. Dodgers vs Yankees. East coast vs West coast. NL vs AL. Pantone 294 vs da Bronx. There’s a long line of history between these two that half the players on both squads probably know nothing about.
1st inning
The Dodgers came out blasting with back to back singles by Chase Utley and Corey Seager. Those were followed by a fielder’s choice RBI for Adrian Gonazalez. 1-0
Yankees
Jose De Leon took the Yanks down 1,2,3.
2nd inning 1-0
The Dodgers rallied again and benefited from an error (E9) to score two more. 3-0
The ROY then muscled a bouncer through the infield to knock in Utley for another run. 4-0
Yankees
De Leon left one up in the zone that was quickly shot into the NY night for a solo homer. 4-1
3rd inning 4-1
Yasmani Grandal and Josh Reddick blistered line drives to open the inning. Howie Kendrick laid down a bunt with eyes that scored Grandal, and everyone was safe. 5-1
Later, with Reddick on third, Howie attempted to steal second. The Yanks catcher threw the ball into CF, and Reddick scored. 6-1
Yanks
Joc Pederson saved De Leon’s carnitas with a heckuva run to flag down and catch what looked like a sure gapper.
Pitch count after three: 54
5th inning 6-1
Another solo homer for the Yanks. 6-2
6th inning 6-2
De Leon out. Pedro Baez in.
1,2,3, job done.
Quiet 7th inning.
Yasiel Puig made sure the 8th wasn’t quiet with a loud crack of the bat. His PH home run made it 7-2 Dodgers.
9th inning 7-2
It was Justin Turner‘s turn to light up the scoreboard and unfurl Pantone’s giant Dodgers flags with his home run into the RF short porch. 8-2
Yanks
Josh Fields in to finish.
Job done.
Dodgers win! 8-2
The Pantone 294 group was out in full force in the Big Apple. Giant LA flags and loud chants of ‘Let’s go, Dodgers” filled the left field line, transforming hostile territory into Blue Heaven.
Dont look now, but: Adrian Gonzalez has a quiet little 11-game hitting streak.
Jose De Leon (W2-0) went 5 innings with 3 hits, 2 runs, 2 HRs, 2 walks, 3 Ks. ERA 4.09
Team with RISP: 2 for 9 And still scored 8 runs!
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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Nice win. Deleon not as impressive as his first outing, but he got the job done. BP did a great job again. Those two homers Deleon gave up were CRUSHED! The two the Dodgers hit barely cleared the RF wall, and that Yankee RF, all 6’7″ of him almost got up high enough to catch them. Secret to this victory was jumping on Mitchell early.
Michael
That first HR was hit off a hanger, and all players should hit a hanger far.
That pitch was not a hanger. It was right down the middle of the plate. He missed location because Grandal set up inside. And Castro is a lot stronger than he looks. Hell I could have hit that pitch out.
Michael
Yes Orel first said it was a hanger, but then said it was a change up, I just forgot.
And you are right could hit that out.
Over the fence or out of the ball park all score the same.
Magic Number 17
Meanwhile, the LA Rams are putting me to sleep
Bobby
I turned on the Rams game, and I felt bored too.
I didn’t stay there long, but it looked to me, they need a better quarterback.
Back to being the Lambs
Actually I was impressed with DeLeon. Not because he had impressive stuff, but because he was able to get by with what wasn’t his best stuff. He was hitting as high as 94-95 in his first start. Tonight he was 90-92, and I don’t recall him registering higher than 92. Even though Castro killed one of his change ups, that pitch was very effective for him tonight. I’m still very impressed with him, and expect steady growth over time.
Now that Josh Reddick has begun to hit with more consistency, I’m still scratching my head over why there are still a number of people who can’t put his slow start behind them. I like what I’ve seen of Andrew Toles as well. No reason why both can’t get significant playing time against lefties.
It’s why I think Ethier is really just in the way. Reddick has found his swing, Toles has been good, and Puig has been excellent. I wish Ethier was in OKC right now getting in some more AB’s. Until the Dodgers clinch, Ethier should just pinch hit.
Andre is there because he is the Dodgers longest tenured player. It is out of respect for his prior contributions that he was activated. But I doubt he will be on the playoff roster. The real DEAD weight in the OF is Kike Hernandez, who has not hit well since April.
Brooklyn
The thing about Reddick is that first we didn’t need another leftie in the outfield.
Secondly he has made more errors in the outfield since he has been with the team, then any of our outfielders, have made all year.
Thirdly, he isn’t a run producer, he has still only hit in 3 runs since he has been with the team.
Most of his hits are singles, or when no one is on base.
And Puig and Toles have done more then him, in less at bats.
And Puig has done more then Reddick, in the short time Puig has been back with the team.
And even with all of this, Roberts goes out of his way, to play Reddick over almost every other outfielder.
Roberts said that Puig would be playing leftfield today.
I hope that doesn’t mean Reddick is playing against a leftie pitcher, unless he owns Sabbathia.
Well done. Reddick was a mistake and he hasn’t done anything to change that. If they resign him next year, I’m an ex-Dodger Fan.
Bye and don’t let the door hit you in the asz on the way OUT!!!
Reddick has been hitting mostly singles, not driving in runs, and as a Dodger he has been very average as an OF. Puig is a better fielder, has more power, and a much better arm. Toles is hitting around .355. He has driven in more runs than Reddick in less games. But the problem is this. Reddick is FAZ’s fair haired boy. They traded for him to boost the offense and he has failed at that. That is the main reason most fans are not all in on the guy. Toles has as many home runs as Reddick has extra base hits as a Dodger, 3. That’s lousy production over a month no matter who you are.
RBIs?
Blaming the Front Office?
Just face it. Reddick’s a better fit and player.
You know how I know? Because he’s playing!
Stop it with the anachronistic stats, or the conspiracy theories.
Trust the baseball manager to make baseball decisions.
This is my opinion, you do not have to like it and I will criticize the FO whenever I think they made a bad deal. And he is FAZ’s fair haired boy, They needed a RH bat at the deadline, not another LH bat, and especially one that has not been productive. Reddick is not a better fit on this team which right now has too many OF’s anyway and most of them hit from the left side. He has shown little power, few extra base hits and as of this point has ZERO clutch hits under his belt. And I think it is more the FO telling Dave to play this bum.
Oops, I meant that Toles and Reddick should see significant playing time against “righties”, NOT “lefties”. Not sure what happens to Ethier.
Brooklyn
I do stuff like that all the time, and we know you know better so forget it.
Magic Number 16
On the MLB telecast last night, Hershiser had an interesting analysis of Baez and what they are trying to do with him. According to Hershiser, his fastball is above bat speed, his changeup is below bat speed, but his slider is bat speed. When his slider is working, Baez is untouchable, but it is not really a reliable pitch for him. As a result they are working toward getting him to use the fast ball and the changeup and forget the slider. Or at least that is the way I understood it. Maybe someone else who watched the same telecast can touch up my comments a little bit.
That is what I got out of that.
Where is everybody?
The Dodgers won, against the Yankees, and the Giants lost to the Padres at home.
Time for the silly stuff… Nineteen games left for both the Dodgers and Giants.
If Dodgers win ten games, Giants must win fourteen to tie.
If we split the six with the Giants (plus seven of the other thirteen games), that means they must win eleven of their other thirteen just to tie. I hope I got that right but that’s only one of dozens of variations. Remember 1951!
thanks for those numbers. The key, obviously, is those 6 games vs them. 2 game swing every time!
Everyone’s on vacation before the real season starts, I guess!!
Either way, yesterday was a great day for us. One rookie did his job, today another one goes. Sabathia isn’t all that anymore, so we should score some runs today. I like it!
Bobby
I was glad Urias was pitching in this game tonight, because it is a national broadcast game, and Urias has had much more experience up in the bigs, then De Leon.
But I will say that I can see the age difference in De Leon, and Urias.
It seems like De Leon has had a little better composure in his first two major league games, then Urias.
But I don’t know if it is because Urias had to face the Mets and the Cubs in his first two games, or just there age difference, but probably a little of both.
The real season almost over. See if the Dodgers can accomplish the hardest part of the season, the grind of 162 games and winning the div. Then if they get real lucky and get hot maybe they can do well in the softball tournament that MLB calls the post season.
Big game for both teams last night. The Yankees blinked. We didn’t get their best chucker, but they didn’t get ours either. Super, big time win. I thought the giants would roll against the Pads, but just the opposite happened. The best manager of all time can’t figure out his team. Oh well. Let’s get that margin up to 5 again. How about all the wild cards losing yesterday? The Cardinals have to do the job on the giants this weekend so they have to start playing better. The Mets too. Go Padres.
Since it is time for fun stuff, any one care to speculate on the 25 man roster for the first round? Some hard decisions for Dave and the FO boys. Locks……Gonzo, Utley, Seager, Turner, Kendrick, Pederson, Reddick, Grandal, Ruiz, Bench is a toss up…..pitchers, Kersh, Hill, Maeda, Jansen, Blanton, Chavez, Howell, Baez, Dayton and Liberatore. You only need 3 starters in the first round and Blanton would be the long man. The other 6 left, I have no clue except to say, they desperately need Puig.
You could be right about Reddick because FAZ is in love with him, but on MY team, Puig and Toles play and Reddick disappears. Forever.
Yes they have to put Puig on the play off team.
He is just about the only righthanded bat with power, that hits lefties, on the Dodgers
And Puig has not done anything, but hit and play well, since he got back with the team.
And I want to say, it was good to see Puig hit that HR to right last night, even with the short field.
Because when Puig is hitting well, most of his best power, is to the right side.
And Toles has something that no one else on the Dodgers have, and that is speed.
I do wonder if Toles bat can continue to hit, because he is doing more time on the bench, then on the field.
Actually Pederson is pretty fast. He stole 30 bases at AAA the last year he was there.
Michael
Pederson is fast on defense, but he isn’t close to being as fast as Puig or Toles.
Joc isn’t as fast as those guys, but man, he takes great, straight on routes to fly balls. I think he’s a great defender out there, but that’s my eye test. I have no idea what the stats really say
I was not comparing him to either of those guys, I just said he has speed. He has to cover a lot of ground out there, and if he was not pretty fast he could not do it. Kemp had good speed until he started having hammy problems, and with a little tutoring, Joc could be a very good stolen base threat.
Observations: The expected collapse of the bullpen from fatgue has not happened. DeLeon was good last night, but he was the only pitcher to allow a run. His three hits allowed in 5 innings were followed by 2 hits for the final four. Baez may be re-tooled for this new season. Do they still have fuel in the tank?
Reddick is a good, solid player. I was prejudiced against him at first because he was replacing my man, Puig. But I have to admit that he is a a good, solid player. But I want more than that.
The DH is going to allow our workhorses and producers to get some rest.
Everything is lining up so good, it is scary because baseball always has some unusual twists and turns. Just ask the Giants.
Hp
I know what you mean.
After we lost that Marlin’s series, I was getting worried, like many Dodger fans.
And that is the problem and the addiction with the Dodgers.
Because like Vinny has always said, the Dodgers don’t do anything easy.
So we are always trying to keep ourselves honest, and not assume anything.
Solid maybe, but he has not been getting extra base hits….he has 3 since he joined the team over a month ago, and only 1 dinger and 3 RBI’s. Toles has as many homers as Reddick has extra base hits. Personally I think the only reason he is playing is that the FO hopes he gets real hot so the trade does not look so bad.
I find this perplexing. On the one hand, the criticism I constantly see about the current FO is that they persistently do things the sabre way, always looking at some anomaly in the big data to derive some minuscule statistical advantage. As a result, the team has no soul: there is an obsession with platoons that don’t make sense, pitch counts that are enforced arbitrarily and without consideration of what makes baseball dramatic, and a generally soulless kind of baseball. On the one hand they are hyper rational but the team they’ve constructed is boring to watch.
Now, on the other hand, the accusation is that the FO is dictating managerial decisions to in a craven attempt to simply save face, which seem more ego driven and irrational.
I was thinking about something else recently about the decision to pull Hill the other night, and the general thinking around pitch counts and pitchers that only go five or six innings. It seems many of you pine for the good ole’ days, where starting pitchers were real men, and went nine innings no matter what. Somehow there’s this impulse, particularly among those who are older, to look longingly for some golden age of an era that has passed by, and bemoan the fact that something has been lost along the way.
…maybe…but consider two points:
Fernando was pretty much done as a pitcher by the time he reached his late 20s. He was injured in 1987, and in 88, when he came back, he wasn’t even a factor. I forget why he wasn’t on the playoff roster in their championship season. I think he was on the disabled list. That should have been his time. He should have been in his prime. Instead, he was never the same again. You could make the argument that Lasorda made him throw until his arm came off and ruined him as a pitcher.
Let’s look at Hershiser. He had season for the ages in 88, came back and pitched nearly as well for a bad team in 89, and in 90 he was injured and done. He came back but was never the same. Would a better approach to physical preparation and managing physiological strain have lengthened their careers?
Here’s another consideration. Pitchers typically lose effectiveness when they go through the order a third time or they reach a certain pitch count. They either get tired or the opposition, having had the opportunity to see them twice, begins to figure them out. If putting in a fresh relief arm an inning earlier gives a slight but measurable statistical advantage, what would be the problem with doing so? That is the objective with sports: trying to devise tactics and strategies that give a comparative advantage. If a player can use videotape to analyze a pitcher and look for tendencies, what is wrong with looking at trends or these “market inefficiencies” to find comparative advantage with lineups or managing pitchers?
People are afraid of progress?
people are afraid of change in general
progress usually = change
Dodger patch
I don’t feel that way, because I think good info, is never a bad thing, but it isn’t the only thing either.
But I really don’t see any reason to play the platoon team, if they are not giving the team an advantage, after all of this time.
I don’t know what the answer is right now, beyond Puig, who seems to be hitting lefties better lately.
I guess our team’s roster is going to have to have more balance in it, in the future, to avoid being so vulnerable to leftie pitching.
You could be right, I am older and liked the way things were, but I understand the reasoning behind a lot of what is happening, Players today make huge amounts of money. They are an investment, and any good business man protects his investment. Thus pitch counts and saber metrics. If Gonzo has a career BA against Bumgarner of say .150, he never plays when that guy pitches, but if he is a career .380 hitter against him, he is in there all the time. They use the stats to dictate who plays against who. Nowadays percentages are used all the time. Track history’s will dictate a lineup as much as anything. And that is why you see players platooned so much. In the late 70’s the Dodgers starting 8 used to run in the OF together prior to the games. And it was usually the same 8 every day. Where as when Alston was the manager he platooned players most of the time. There were a few exceptions, but they were the star players. Blaming Lasorda is a little harsh. Hershiser and Fernando may never have been the same, but they both had significant careers after they left LA. Fernando’s screw ball probably had more to do with his injury than LaSorda.
all great points, my man
Bobby
I am not a big believer in defensive stats, but I too, think Joc plays well, in
centerfield.
I was more thinking about base running, and taking extra bases with Puig and Toles.
Badger
Puig is back and hitting and playing well, but we haven’t heard for you, and I know you have been a big Puig supporter.
Give us some one your wise but witty words.