Rich Hill took the mound against Tyler Anderson as the Dodgers took on the Rockies. Rich Hill pitched his tail off to the tune of 110 pitches. The Dodgers bats were silent most of the night. Matt Kemp has been slumping and Justin Turner hasn’t gotten on track. This turned into a pitchers duel. In the first inning, Hill only gave up a single to Nolan Arenado. In the top of third, Hill gave up a single to Tyler Anderson.
Ian Desmond singled off Rich Hill in the fourth inning. Rich Hill was cruising along. Dodgers didn’t get their first hit until the bottom of the fourth inning as Justin Turner singled. Yasmani Grandal, Joc Pederson, and Max Muncy all sat out this game. Walker Buehler was optioned to single A Rancho.
The Dodgers will bring up J.T. Chargois tomorrow to complete their roster. He has been making multiple-inning stints in triple-A.
— Pedro Moura (@pedromoura) June 30, 2018
The game was scoreless until the Rockies struck in the 5th inning as Matt Valaika hit a solo shot and the Rockies took a 1-0 lead. The Dodgers got two hits in the bottom of the fifth but Logan Forsythe hit into a double play and Austin Barnes grounded out to end the inning. Rich Hill pitched into 7th inning. Scott Alexander entered the game in the top of the 8th and promptly gave up a solo shot to Nolan Arenado. The Bullpen lately has been springing some leaks. The Dodgers need to make a move to get some bullpen arms even if they have to trade some depth from the roster.
In the ninth inning, Yimi Garcia gave up a solo shot to Chris Iannetta and the Rockies led 3-0. The Dodgers were about to get shut out until Justin Turner hit a solo shot off Wade Davis but the Dodgers would lose 3-1.
Turner’s HR makes it 54 on the month. That’s a #Dodgers franchise record.
— AlaNNa Rizzo (@alannarizzo) June 30, 2018
The Dodgers are a .500 team at home. The Dodgers need to trade their prospects to get Manny Machado. Its time to go all in. The team needs an extra bat.
James Moya
Hi I’m James Moya. I am an avid Dodgers fan. I graduated Cal State Fullerton with a Bachelors in Communications. I used to freelance at the San Bernardino Sun. I’m excited about this opportunity to write for LA Dodger Report to gain experience. I’m a straight shooter on my opinions and I hope to get some good conversations going. My dream has always been to report on the Dodgers because Baseball is the National Past-time. I hope you enjoy the ride with me.
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The Dodgers never seem to do things the easy way. There’s always a struggle. Now, it’s the bats not batting. Turner’s shot was a reminder of never giving up and coming to play with energy. Some players do this every night but it might be a great surprise to us if we could peek inside their brains and see what they are really up to before, during, and after the games. How many are really focused on the game and prepared to play with full attention and energy?
Dodgers got outpitched. Got to hand it to Anderson.
Our 3 pitchers – 4.68, 4.04, 5.00. Nice.
Don’t look now but the giants are 8-2 and one game behind us.
Hill looked good. I guess he is like all the others on this team. Lousy one night, good another. 6.2 is his longest outing of the year. 110 pitches? Pretty risky with Blister Boy.
Looking at the box….. apparently we never had a runner in scoring position.
Badger
The box score had a two out RBI, but that was Turner’s Homer.
Jeff
Vinny told us for years, that the Dodgers never do anything easy, and they don’t, but that makes them an even bigger draw.
Forsythe and Barnes can’t hit the floor with their shoes. Forsythe’s glove is his only quality and Barnes is a ground ball machine. How would bringing in Machado solve those issues?
That’s an interesting question dan.
The simple answer is it wouldn’t change those players performances a bit. But what it would do is put Forsythe on the bench, which is the first step toward removing him from the 25 man. Replacing a negative .6 WAR player with positive 2.9 WAR player is a huge step in the right direction.
Games like this, is why I think a team needs to do the little things good too.
Because it is always better to have more then one way to score runs.
And doing the little things is not hard to do!
The Astros hit HRs, but they also know how to play small ball too.
And against good pitching especially, you need to find different ways to score, other then a HR.
And that is exactly what the Astros did in that last game, in the first couple innings of the game.
Our hitters were striking out, instead of trying to get Taylor over to third with one out, and we never recovered from there.
I am thinking about this is after thought, but I think Roberts better give Muncy days off, when we are facing a righty pitcher, because we have more players that hit righties, then lefties, on this team.
Believe it or not, I would have had Joc pinch hit last night, or go into the game later in the game, because although he is terrible against lefties, he has hit this leftie pitcher in the past, and this year, so I think Joc sees this pitcher well.
I would probably have started Joc over Puig in this game because of that, and because Puig has not hit lefties for the last two years at all.
These relief pitchers just might be tired right now, with two more HRs given up, by the pen last night.
Having Forsythe in the lineup instead of Muncy is just a bad idea. He needs a day off? You know who needs more off days? Logan Forsythe. A lot more days off.
That game just had L written all over it. Squirrel offense. No nuts happens.
So I’m told by a friend that a certain take, that take being our starting staff is rounding into shape and now ready to take us to the promise land, is spot on. Sorry, I’m not buying it. Kershaw is back. Really? He’s 1-4 with 57 innings pitched. If he’s now another 5 inning pitcher that means he’s turning over the ball to who? Hill is back? Really? Because he held a slumping Rockie team to 1 run in 6.2? Who is Rich Hill? The guy who got clobbered last time out, came into last night with an ERA over 5, only has 8 starts by July boasting a -0.2 WAR, or the guy who pitched last night? I don’t know, and neither does anyone else. Wood? Maeda? Ryu? The pen that follows all those 5 inning guys?
At this point in the season I just don’t trust our pitching. As much as I would like to see another masher in our lineup, my gut tells me we need to fortify the pitching. I hope I’m wrong about that.
Badger
The right answer is that we need both, but we need pitching more, especially in the bullpen.
But I don’t see us getting anything but pitching for the bullpen, because every everyday player they have brought to this team at the trade deadline, have been terrible!
Now after Kershaw, and Buehler, have pitched a few games, and if Ryu comes back, they could use both Maeda and Wood in the bullpen, if the starting rotation is stable, to an extent.
A lot of people assume Maeda can be our set up guy, but they don’t realize that Maeda is only a rightie killer, but he has pitched well this year, against both at times.
But he is one of the best pitchers in baseball against righties, and that is why they put him in the pen in the post season, last year.
We didn’t even get a base runner to second last night, what is going to happen when we face Ray from the Dbacks?
I should give myself more credit, because I was going to text Jonah before the game, and ask him if we are going to win, without Muncy.
So maybe Roberts should have thought the same, and waited until we were facing a rightie to give Muncy that day off, since I am not a baseball manager, but I thought about it.
But we don’t know what the front office’s idea was about this line up, but Puig shouldn’t be an automatic start against lefties, according to his numbers for the last couple years.
Just checked the stats. Dodgers SP 5th in ERA, 28th in IP. Relievers 17th in ERA, 3rd in IP. See a pattern there? We don’t hit well enough (9th in runs, 7th in OPS) to cover those numbers.
Still a long way to go. We are better than we started, but still need consistency.
On a lighter note, anyone protesting today? Too hot for me out there on the streets.
Protesting what?
Didn’t hear anyone complaining when during the Obama Admin years they also separated children from their parents.
Can you say hypocrites?
When Americans break the law and are caught they might serve jail time. Never seen any of these libs protesting the thousands of American children separated from their parents.
Its hard to connect these children with the parents when the parents from thousand miles away and multiple countries away decided to separate THEMSELVES from their children.
That is terrible parenting. That is where the outrage should be.
Myself, along with millions of other law abiding citizens can’t wait for the November elections. Can you say a red wave is going to rise once again.
And I believe the wacky professor that predicted Trump would be out of office by spring was wrong.
Of course!
They all like to hear themselves talk and if anyone else listens to them it makes them feel important.
Ah,
Chili returns with a post full of mis-information.
Did we miss him or that?
Badger
Those numbers are making our case, about having to have balance between the bullpen, and the starting rotation.
I bet everyone of our starters, would say they could pitch more innings.
And if they are pitching well, they shouldn’t be taking them out, just because of what hitters do to pitchers, the third time through, the line up.
When a starter is pitching exceptionally like both starters were last night, the managers should let them stay in games longer.
But I do know that Hill was at the limit of hundred pitches or more last night, so that is a little different.
The program is more or less working for the starters. What isn’t working is the bullpen. The numbers say that.
You need a lock down close the door bullpen for the no 3rd time through the order strategy to work. We don’t have one. The guys FAZ picked are not getting it done. Not yet anyway.
“Can you say a red wave is going to rise once again.”
Nope.
I don’t see see just red or blue. I see red, white, and Blue. And brown. And black. I still look for unification.
Where you been Chili?
Badger
It works every time, I wonder if anyone is concerned about all these phone calls, and meetings with Putin.
Our side never makes them public, but Putin and the Russians beat them to it, every time, and that is how we find out.
Just like all those pictures of the Russians and their top Spy, in the Oval Office, that Putin released publicly a while back, even Fox doesn’t get those meetings, unless it is later after Putin releases the pictures, or the phone calls.
Just rounding up illegal immigrants in the area. Should be wrapping it up in the next few months.
Don’t worry Chili, more illegals are coming.
You should start fundraising for the wall immediately.
Perhaps do that instead of posting jibberish?
Badger
The scapegoating is working fabulously that is for sure.
Chili may be right about one thing, and that is a red wave, because Putin the former KBI agent, of the Red communist state, has something on this President, it is quite obvious.
Well that went south in a hurry.
Illegal? I would refer you to the UNHCR guidelines on what constitutes IDPs from illegals, and also the Essentials of Asylum Law, but, both are written in black and white, not red.
I hope we can begin to end the hate speech buddy. “Can’t we all just get along?”
Oh, MJ, maybe you haven’t heard – Putin is a White Hat. Good news. I thought he might still be a problem.
Just read Muncy dealing with a “hip thing”. How come that wasn’t reported here? You gotta rest a hip thing. Everyone knows that.
If the bats are not hitting, pitching is not going to save our boys. It is and has been exactly the opposite for us. The bats save the pitchers. That’s the way it was last year and that’s the way it is this year. When we were in our horrendous slump early in the season, it was the bats that imploded. No run support for Kershaw or Wood, hence their losing records. If our bat were batting, we would be in first place right now. So please don’t put the blame on the bullpen or the starters, Badger. Sure, they need to perform well too, but it is the bats that are dooming this club. Kemp, Grandal, Forsythe, Barnes, and even Turner have been slumping. It’s just too obvious that this is our major problem every year.
I agree the bats have been silent recently. Pitching has been good enough to win. Just a few days ago against the Cubs it was the pitching that failed.
I’m just saying more of what I’ve been saying – I think the team will hit. I’m not as confident in the pitching. I hope I’m wrong.