The Dodgers beat the Padres 9-3 on Monday evening at Dodger Stadium to win their 100 game of the season. Just to give you an example of how incredible this is I’ll tell you. The Dodgers have won 100 games in a season just two other times since 1958. This is the sixth overall season in which they’ve reached the century mark in wins, and the last time they have done it was 1974. I have never seen the Dodgers win a 100 games in my lifetime. So this is something of a marvel to me.
The Dodgers didn’t need much marvel to beat the Padres in the series opener. This is the last home series of the regular season and the Dodgers wanted to give the Dodger fans some fireworks before the playoffs. Logan Forsythe had the game of his life. The second baseman collected three hits, blasted a home run and drove in four of the Dodger’s nine runs. Starter Yu Darvish tossed seven innings of one-run ball and struck out nine to get the win. The Dodgers have now inched a little closer to wrapping up home field advantage (magic number is 2) in the NLCS. Home field for the World Series has yet to be determined. The Dodgers lead the Indians by two games in that race.
Padres 3 6 0
Dodgers 9 10 1
WP-Darvish-10-12
LP-Wood-4-7
HR-Forsythe-6-Barnes-8
The boys in blue scored three runs in the first, one in the second and one more in the third. They plated three more runs in the fifth, knocking opposing starter Travis Wood out of the game. In the bottom of the first inning Chris Taylor doubled, Enrique Hernandez and Corey Seager walked to load the bases. After Cody Bellinger struck out, Forsythe cleared the bases with a three-run double into the gap. The Dodgers led 3-0.
Rob Segedin doubled and scored on a Taylor sacrifice fly to go up 4-0 after two frames. Forsythe added a home run in the second inning for good measure. That was his sixth shot of the year. The Dodgers took a 5-0 lead in the third inning. Austin Barnes’ three-run home run in the bottom of the fifth put the Dodgers up by an 8-1 score.
Meanwhile Darvish was spot on. The right hander tossed seven innings striking out nine and allowing just one earned run on two hits with no walks. He made 91 pitches and looked strong all night. Kenta Maeda pitched the bottom of the eighth inning in relief and allowed one earned run on two hits. Pedro Baez finished the game and allowed two hits but struck out three in the top of the ninth inning.
Justin Turner was still out of the lineup nursing a thumb injury. He’s reportedly feeling better and Roberts stated that he would likely be back in the lineup tomorrow. Yasiel Puig was still being punished for showing up late for batting practice. Apparently he was made to stand in the corner of the clubhouse and face the wall until the seventh inning stretch. He’s been a bad boy and we don’t know when he’ll return to the lineup. Here’s my take on the whole thing. Best to get him back in there soon.
The Dodgers improve to 100-57 on the season and there are five games left. The final home stand continues as the Dodgers and Padres do battle again on Tuesday evening. Alex Wood is scheduled to start as the Padres will counter with young right hander Dinelson Lamet. Remember him?
Congratulations Dodgers! 100 wins is quite an accomplishment.
Forsythe says after the game that after a while he realized he was too passive. No $&)/! Sherlock. He should have been reading this blog daily to help him out. I remember MJ begging this guy to swing earlier in the count since June.
I thought the same thing! MJ has been yelling “swing!!” all year to Logan. Maybe he finally heard her?
After 5 1/2 months there has been a Forshyte sighting. Can he stay on the radar screen for more than two weeks (in a row) will be the key. Hopefully he has pulled his head out of his azz and will remain aggressive and go up there pleading for a walk. Sorry, but this guy has been the shitz thus far. It makes a huge difference to go up there looking to get a hit rather than praying you get a walk.
The Whirling Darvish has seemed to figured things out, could make things interesting.
Puig better figure it out, he is showing signs of returning to his immature ways, Roberts leash is very short on him. I guess some guys just can’t stand success. I have always been a Puig fan, but dude needs to shake himself or he is going to turn this whole clubhouse against him. Nice timing Puig!
Yes 100 wins is a fantastic accomplishment. Sadly modern baseball places more emphasis on the post season tournament than the long grueling regular season. Which, IMHO, is ridiculous.
I wish they would give out a title, award for the best team of the campaign. One hundred wins wow!
Artieboy
Your right it is to bad, that the team that happens to get hot for a few weeks, will be the World Champion, and that is basically how the Giants won at least two of those World Series!
I love that the extra wild card teams, allows more teams to be in the hunt at the end, but baseball is such a different sport, so any team can get beat in a short series, even the best team.
I barely remember 1974, so I’m stoked with the 100 wins. I’d love to see at least three more to set the LA record over the 102 in ’74 and ’62 (some would argue the 102nd win in ’62 doesn’t ‘count’ because the it came in the 3-game playoff with the hated ones after both finished the regular season at 101-61, meaning they had 165 games to reach the 102nd win. I tend to agree).
That said, I don’t think giving awards for most regular season wins would amount to too much. Hockey already does it with the President’s Trophy. It only matters to teams who don’t win the Cup like the Sharks, Caps and Canucks. It doesn’t matter in any other North American sport that I can think of. That’s just how it is.
YF
I think I was just one of the many here, that couldn’t watch Forsythe take another two strikes, that were really good pitches to hit, and then strike out again.
Like everyone here already knows, sometimes the first two pitches a hitter gets, are the best pitches, a hitter will get.
It is so obvious when your watching him, on TV.
All of Forsythe’s hits were off a leftie last night except one hit, and he has been hitting lefties well, all season long.
But I do hope that Forsythe is finally getting it.
As we all know, it always seems that an unheralded player, helps their team win the World Series, like Gene Tennis did, for the A’s.
I think we would all forgive Forsythe if he got hot in the post season, and helped this team win it all!
But he did hit well against the Padres in an earlier series, in the season, so I would have to see what he did against the Rockies, and the rest of this series, to take this to serious right now.
I would like to see Corey turn this around, and he did get one hit last night.
It does sound like Corey’s elbow, is not the reason he is not hitting, and if that is true, I am not worried about Corey.
If Corey can hit singles and doubles, and get going again, that is enough to keep our offense going.
I do think he has to let his first pitches go by right now, because I think the pitchers, have his number with first pitches, because he isn’t getting to many good first pitches.
And also think Corey needs to let those high fastballs go too, because he is not catching up on them, and they are close to being out of the strike zone!
It was good to see Darvish pitch better last night, but even though the Padres have a better record then the Giants, they still don’t have a very good offensive team, so I will have to see Darvish pitch again, if he has another start, before the post season, but it was good to see Darvish ahead on his hitters, all night.
I just think Roberts was upset that Puig didn’t take responsibility for going on that play, because Puig made an excuse that his ankle was bothering him.
I think Puig may have been decoyed by Crawford, that Chase had fouled off that pitch, and that is why Puig didn’t slide, so I think Puig may have been embarrassed, and that is why he used his ankle for an excuse.
But Puig needs to just be honest, and I think him and Roberts will be fine.
The team’s energy seemed higher last night, but it still seems like the team, are not having really good at bats, throughout the game, but they did look a lot better last night!
And last year when that Padre’s starting pitcher was on the Cubs, we didn’t hit him at all, so even if he did have a high era this year, it was good to see them hit this pitcher!
If you want to make the wild card teams have to really earn a WS and not just be the hot team, you make the Wild Card a best 2 out of 3 series. That forces the WC teams to burn up at least two of their top pitchers, plus tax out their bullpens. Don’t give me static about making the playoffs too long, the WC could be played three nights in a row, they play the regular season that way, no difference is required to settle the WC team advancing. Thus the season really counts for something, division winners get a few extra days to rest and heal while they wait for the WC to be settled. The current WC system is totally BS and renders the regular season rather meaningless.
I agree with that. Make the wild teams play m-t-w, and then start the division series thurs and fri like always
True
That is something I agree with you about, and what is just two more games, and in some instances, it would only be one more game!
I think the fact that the wild card teams don’t have to sit and wait, has helped these wild card teams, do better in the post season, then they would be able to do against these other teams, that are having waiting four days, until they play!
The wild card winner, not only doesn’t have to sit down, they gain some momentum, in winning that one game.
And momentum has been True’s favorite word, for the last four weeks!
But it isn’t truly fair, for a team to only have to win one game, to go on in the post season, when every other team has had to win the most games, of a long 162 season, except for the other wild card team, that lost in that one game!
I have felt from day 1 that it should be a 2 of 3. Even back when there were only 8 teams in each league, if there was a tie, it was 2 of 3 for the pennant. Of course the other league had to wait for the winner. Amazingly, the Dodgers were involved in the only 4 that ever happened. 1942 against the Cardinals, 1959 against the Braves and 51 and 1962 against the Giants. They are 1-3 in those series beating only the Braves in 59. We all know how heartbreaking the 51 and 62 series were.
Finally a laugher. Been a long time coming. Forsythe looked like he did in spring when he was crushing the ball. Triple shy of the cycle. And Darvish looked like an ace.
Two things I would love to see before the season ends. Cody get to 40 HR’s and 100 RBI’s and Corey head into the post season with a hitting streak, even if it is a short one. He has been struggling for a while now. Do not expect good weather for the series in Denver this weekend. It has been getting colder here by each day and we have already had snow in the high country. It still rains almost every afternoon…..
Michael
Why did they not go for a stadium that can be opened or closed there?
I have often thought that Colorado would benefit more by having a stadium that did that, because there are so many rain outs, or days lost it seems from year to year, because of the weather there.
I really do not know why they did that MJ. The football stadium is open too. They always manage to complete the season somehow. They have had snow outs in April I know that for a fact. I also think Coors had a lot to say about it since it was pretty much a given that it was going to be Coor’s Field from the get go. And the population here considers them selves to be a hearty lot. There are so many different outdoor activities here. That being said, I really believe the fans like the ball park the way it is. Since I have attended games there and at Chase in Arizona, I prefer the naturalness of the out door ball park. I think Chase is a lousy place to play a game.
Some of the bigger snow storms come in April in Denver area. Huge afternoon thunderstorms in August and September is the norm there as well. I have very close friends that live in Dacono and i just hate the weather there November thru April but they seem to love it. I hate cold so you would never see me at a Denver Elways game starting in November, not even if it was a closed stadium cause you still have to walk thru the parking lot. Cold and snow BAD!, Warm and sunny GOOD!
It looked quite cold last night in the Roxs/Marlins game. What if Colorado beats Arizona? Oh baby!
It was. And believe it or not, the Rocks are capable on any given day of beating any team. They have a pretty decent offense, and their closer is pretty good. But the Rocks are going to have to make it first. The Brewers are only 1.5 games behind them. The Rockies will pretty much be out to sweep the Dodgers….they really need that.
Some of the bigger snow storms come in April in Denver area. Huge afternoon thunderstorms in August and September is the norm there as well. I have very close friends that live in Dacono and i just hate the weather there November thru April but they seem to love it. I hate cold so you would never see me at a Denver Elways game starting in November, not even if it was a closed stadium cause you still have to walk thru the parking lot. Cold and snow BAD!, Warm and sunny GOOD!
I was just thinking if the wild card game was going to be in Colorado, that would make the wild card game, even more interesting.
I don’t think anyone can predict, which team is going to win that wild card game.
And I believe I saw that Greinke has an era over four against Colorado, but that has to include the games Greinke pitched, in Colorado too.
But this Rockies writer, made it sound like the Rockies hit Greinke pretty well.
In those wild card games you can forget the stats, unless Bumgarner is pitching, unfortunately.
We know that well, when it comes with Kershaw.
I thought maybe if the Rockies could control the environment in their stadium, maybe that could help them with the attitude problem, but if that was possible, they would have did that, since they have tried so many things, to pitch better, in their stadium, and that hasn’t worked.
Todays Line up…Utley 2B Seager SS Turner 3B Bellinger CF Grandal C Puig RF Gonzalez 1B Ethier LF Wood P… Az has home field in the wild card game no matter who they face.
Michael
I knew the Dbacks did have the home field advantage, but their anouncers are so unprofessional, and cocky and bad, with the way they talk about the Dodgers, I would have loved it, if the Dbacks had to play Colorado at their place.
I know the Rockies only have
that small lead, but it looks like the Cubs will take it to the Cards, and with the Brewers,
it is hard to tell!
And one thing those Dbacks anouncers, and the Dback fans are forgetting, is that they didn’t face Kershaw and Darvish, in those last two series, we played them.
But we faced their top starting pitchers, and really, the back guys in our rotation, pitched really well, in that second series, at Dodger stadium.
. . . aaaand, our closer isn’t named Fernando Rodney.
That is true, and they faced Wood when he was struggling. The D-Backs announcers are bad, but the Rockies announcers are just plain annoying. Cardinals have come back on the Cubs tonight, and the Brewers have been playing well. But against Az’s staff, they are too free swinging for my taste. They strike out a lot.
Awwwww come on now Blue, no sense of adventure in the great white? My friend, I have seen snow in Colorado in May. Where I live the climate is a little milder than Denver, but we still get snow, it just never stays a long time. Usually it melts in a couple of days. My son lives in Littleton a suburb of Denver. It usually stays on the ground a lot longer. Of course 2 years ago, we had a cold snap here that lasted about a week. Temps hovered around zero for a while. It was a heat wave.
True
I hate when it is cold in California, so you know I really hate the cold too!
I don’t know how those fans in Colorado, and in New England, go out and watch those late football games, in those areas.
I guess I would have to drink a lot of beer to stay warm, but I would probably be out of it pretty quick, if I had to do that!
I haven’t drink a beer in a long time, and with my body weight, I would be legally drunk, easily.
If I were you I would opt for Hot Chocolate…..beer does not seem to have warming capabilities. Especially the swill they serve at ball parks, now a good smooth bourbon, that will warm you up.
Yasmani Grandal started Sept. 1 for 34 with 6 BBs 18 Ks.
Since then, 7 for 23, 3 HRs, 2 2B, 4BB 7Ks
Tonight is the first time in a long time he has got a hit with men in scoring position. He is about the worst clutch hitter on the team. I am more worried about Seager coming out of his slump.
Cleveland and Washington lose. We can gain a game on both. Twins magic number is 1 to clinch wild card berth.