On a night when the Dodgers were considering life without Kershaw, the offensive side of the squad stepped up and reminded everyone in the majors their big blue offensive line up is long, varied, and powerful enough to overcome a below-stellar performance from their remaining pitchers.
Hyun-Jin Ryu tried real hard, but he couldn’t get past five innings – once again. He gave up just two earned runs, but looked finished to Roberts, who brought in Grant Dayton to hold up a fresh 3-2 lead the Dodgers granted Ryu after he was lifted.
The Dodgers were baffled by Bartolo Colon for the first half of the game, but they figured something out in the fifth, when Yasmani Grandal and Joc Pederson smacked back to back homers, and Yasiel Puig hit a triple off the portly Colon.
That was the end of Colon, but the 3-2 Dodgers lead didn’t last long, because Grant Dayton and Josh Fields came in and quickly made the Twins very happy. Each man gave up a run (Dayton’s was a homer), and combined with a misplayed ball by Chris Taylor in the outfield, they coughed up the lead. After seven, it was Twins 4, Dodgers 3.
But these are the Dodgers we’re talking about, so as long as they have an out in them, they have a very real chance to come back and win.
In the bottom of the eighth, Chris Taylor made amends for his error with a base hit to lead off the inning. Corey Seager struck out, but up next was Justin Turner. Another base hit. Up after him – Cody Bellinger. As we said, it’s a long line up.
Minnesota lefty, Taylor Rogers had Bellinger 0 and 2 on two straight breaking balls. Would he throw a third? He did. He should’na, but he did. Cody responded with this…
Bellinger’s three-run bomb put the Dodgers on top to stay at 6-4.
The Dodgers gave 12-year minor leaguer Edward Paredes his major league debut in the eighth. Paredes pitched a one, two, three inning, but each of the outs was hard hit (one fly, and hot shot line drives down the lines). Kenley Jansen made quick work of the Twins in the ninth, and the first game was filed 6-4 in the win column.
Look for more pitching adventures with Kenta Maeda taking the mound tomorrow.
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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Good to see the boys come back!
Tigers rumored to be offering to pay part of Verlander’s salary to get him off their team. Not a good sign and maybe I am now off the fence on him. Still temping as I think the only scenario where we significantly upgrade without losing Verdugo and Beuhler is to trade Alvarez and Calhoun and bunch of blocked prospects for Verlander, Wilson and Britton.
I can second that motion. I haven’t looked it up but I seem to remember that Verlander has about $66MM coming on his contract. And a $22MM vesting option. How about some deadwood, Kazmir ($21MM?) and McCarthy ($12MM?) to reduce Verlander’s cost, and now add Wilson to their side and some prospects to our side to make this palatable to both sides? Now we got a chance to get out of the penalty box next year….
Frankly I worry Verlander is about two blocks from running out of gas. But, even on fumes he looks stronger than anyone we currently can throw out there. He’s still taking the ball every 5th day, nobody else in our rotation can say that. He’s racked up 124 innings on his way to 200 (yeah, I know Bluto – so what?) xFIP of 4.78 might drop a bit pitching in LA. Is he the difference maker we need? I don’t know. Maybe. I do like the idea of getting all 3 of the guys mentioned, but does FAZ have las bolas to get that done? I doubt it.
Badger
Like I have said many times, Verlander pitched well last year, and he has always pitched well, in the post season.
And he still has his velocity, but with these deals you just never know.
Last year doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s what to expect going forward that I am considering. It’s quite possible that Verlander would appreciate the enormous opportunity the Dodgers would be offering and dig deep to help pull it off. No one can doubt what has done. It’s what he can offer moving forward that is at issue.
And it’s my opinion money has nothing to do with it. The Dodgers are pissing money. This is about helping to win a championship.
Verlander had a good game last night. The Tigers ended up losing but he pitched well. Wilson pitched a scoreless 9th. Yueh, the Orioles have pretty much said that Britton is off the market, and the Rangers have said the same about Darvish. I do not think the Tigers would want Kazmir or McCarthy, but along with the 2 mentioned, a couple of lower level prospects might get it done. The Dodgers are scouting Pat Neshek of the Phillies pretty heavily and have seemed to switch the focus from Reed to him.
Verlander was throwing 95 in the 7th inning last night, when he was already over 100 pitches. I think a trade here totally rejuvenates him. Now, his contract thru 2018 and 2019 is an issue, as we’re trying to avoid that repeater luxury tax after 2018. But our guys are smart; they’ll know how to shed some salary next year to get us under the tax level. Perhaps we can attach our D’Angelo with our Mozgov’s bad contract and ship their asses out.
Besides, we’ll only need Verlander to go a strong 6 in a game 2 (or maybe a game3 on the road since he’s a vet and knows to pitch in a big game 3 on the road better than Alex Wood would).
So we’re 69-31. If we suck, and go .500 the rest of these 62 games, we’re still a 100 game winning team. Impressive.
Don’t underestimate his contract, nor his no-trade.
Like I said, money is not an issue. LA could and would easily absorb that if they felt he was the missing piece. They’ve tried the high risk low reward method the last two deadlines. Learn from those mistakes. Be bold.
No trade? From Detroit to LA? I don’t see that as a problem.
Badger
The Dodgers are not on Verlanders no trade list!
That’s silly, of course money is an issue.
It’s not a point of absorbing it. It’s a point of getting under the repeater luxury tax penalty.
In addition, it’s more the point of value. Is Verlander’s contract in any way going to prove a value.
We’ll see.
Bluto
One of your favorite writers, said he would be all in, this year!
Who said what about whom?
And you men get to see Verlander’s fiancé in the stands, in those two additional years.
Doesn’t that beat Larry King in the background?
I never thought she was all that.
100 wins means nothing. This team, and this organization, are working with one goal in mind, and repeating what they’ve done four years running, and a few additional times before that, will not stand. History is littered with 100 win teams that lost the last game of their season.
What don’t you like? I’d think carefully before answering that, CatBox will read your answer….
I prefer a more athletic type. She has 175 pounds by age 35 written all over her.
By the way, I didn’t see your picture until after I posted mine. Sorry about that.
Badger
I don’t either, but I think men love her body more then anything else, like that isn’t what most men look at, and like!
I must be dead, I have never seen the woman. She would have to be better looking than Charlize Thereon to peak my interest……LOL..
Michael
You have good taste in women!
I like Charlize too.
She also seems to have a great personality too.
I just saw here on TV the other night, on Bravo!
Michael- you’ve never seen Kate Upton? You’re the one man who hasn’t.
She kinda looks like this:
MJ, that is basically all us men know of her, we don’t have the privilege of knowing her fine mind and sparkling personality….
Jonah
That is all true!
But do you think that men would really want to ruin their fantasy, about her?
Badger
I think you need a little more passion, in your last paragraph!
Yep…..1962 Los Angeles Dodgers. 102-63
Absolutely!
Rumor has it (https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/889871725000654849) that Oakland wants a centerfielder in trade. We can do that…. Goodbye, Joc, don’t let the door hit you in your a** on your way out. Replacements: Taylor, Verdugo, Puig, Toles (next year) and eventually, Kendall.
Straight up?
oh, I like when Badger quotes Paula Abdul!
I like early Paula Abdul!
Paula Abdul?
She kinda looks like this:
Or the rapidly aging Jaclyn Smith.
Who is just a little older than you and a little younger than me. And I don’t know which of us is aging the most rapidly. I’ve started watching Ancient Aliens to see if anyone I know shows up there….
Jonah
There was a guy that used that for a moniker, on Dodger com!
I guess he thought the alien made it sound like, he was of another world.
Jaclyn Smith?
Kinda looks like this:
Badger
I meant her music!
What? Music?
How about some information, please?
Wood
Hill
Maeda
Ryu
McC
Late July, 11.5 games in first place. Should be enough of a lead till Kid K comes back….right?
Yeah. Sure. Maybe. Gulp.
Moderation. Sure does interrupt the flow of conversation around here.
You know what really interrupts the conversation flow even more? 1,000 spam comments from weird websites getting through the filter
Got some advice for FAZ and you other Dodger fans from my location on the back side of life. We forgive ourselves for the things we do that we later determine to be mistakes, but we never forgive ourselves for the things we wanted to do but didn’t that just might have turned out well. Think of all the bad deals/trades GMs have done over the years; we learned to live with Jason Schmidt, Juan Pierre and all the others, just as we’ll learn to live with Kazmir, McCarthy, Hill, Anderson, Carl Crawford et al. We still suffer for Clemente, Konerko, and others that got away from us. I hope he keeps that in mind when he thinks about a proposed trade. I tend to be a gambler, I’m more inclined to make that trade than he may be, but that’s OK, he’s the one that has to take the heat for it….
The list is long. Pedro for DeShields, Piazza for a bunch of stiffs and Sheffield. Daryl Strawberry who was good for one year and then was a huge disappointment. The great Andrew Jones and resigning Manny. I trade for someone who makes them better, and I mean really better. Neither Hill nor Reddick did that last year. If it cost a prospect, so be it. They are after all just that until they prove they are not.
Mr. Sock Puppet says he won’t put pressure on the Front Office to make a trade. Big surprise! http://www.latimes.com/sports/mlb/la-sp-kershaw-darvish-dodgers-20170724-story.html
Jonah
Well Agone will be going on a rehab assignment next week, to get himself ready to play.
And when he comes back, Cody will most likely move to leftfield, and Taylor will probably be playing centerfield, because he has the best offensive numbers, of the two choices.
In regards to the A’s wanting a CF in any trade for Gray. The guy they covet is a 18 year old in the Yankee system, so Joc may be a little long in the tooth for them. As for Kate Upton, definitely a very beautiful lady, but no way I would take her over Charlize. Rangers switched gears again this afternoon and said they would listen to offers for Darvish, but unless they get the package they want, he is not going anywhere. When she was young, I absolutely adored Jaclyn Smith. More than Leaky Fawcett. Never was into blonde bimbos.
And Jaclyn Smith adored Farrah Fawcett. Fawcett was no bimbo. Not by any definition.
My fave of the original 3 was Cheryl Ladd.
Meanwhile, I posted this earlier, but I don’t see it posted: our top pick Jeren Kendall was promoted to Single A ball today.
Ladd was not one of the original three.
Kendall reminds me of Johny Damon.