The Dodgers are riding high on a nine game winning streak as they head into US Cellular field to take on the White Sox for a quick two game set. They’ll look to extend it to ten games as they give the ball to Clayton Kershaw. The White Sox will counter with right hander Miguel Gonzalez.
Kershaw is 14-2 with a 2.18 ERA over 132.1 innings of work in 2017. Kershaw has struck out 159 and allowed 6.4 hits per nine while posting a 0.877 WHIP. Kershaw has won his last ten consecutive decisions and hasn’t lost a game since May 1 against the Giants. He struck out 13 in his last start against Kansas City which was a complete game six hit masterpiece. Tonight he’ll look to keep that streak intact too.
Kershaw has made just three career starts against the White Sox and is 1-1 with a 4.00 ERA. He’s never pitched at US Cellular but he’s held the White Sox to just a .200 (6 for 30) batting average against with four extra-base hits. Here’s how the rest of the White Sox (numbers below) have done against him. It’s been a while since Kershaw faced the Pale Hose.
Dodgers @ White Sox
Tonight's lineup at White Sox:
Taylor LF
Seager SS
Turner 3B
Bellinger 1B
Forsythe 2B
Pederson CF
Grandal C
Puig RF
Utley DH
(Kershaw P) pic.twitter.com/hMtkEFJ1Lp— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 18, 2017
Clayton Kershaw-14-2 vs. Miguel Gonzalez-4-8
Game Time 5:10 PM –TV- SNLA
Kershaw vs. White Sox
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | OPS |
| Melky Cabrera | 13 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | .182 | .308 | .762 |
| Todd Frazier | 13 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | .231 | .231 | .615 |
| Jose Abreu | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .333 | 1.667 |
| James Shields | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Mike Pelfrey | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Total | 32 | 30 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 11 | .200 | .250 | .717 |
Meanwhile Miguel Gonzalez has struggled to a 5.18 ERA across 78.2 innings pitched. He’s been terrible in July posting an 0-3 record with an 8.62 ERA. He’s been having problems ever since getting off to a good start in April in which he went 3-1 with a 3.27 ERA. He’s allowed way too any base runners (10.5 hits per nine) and doesn’t get many swings and misses which is clear by looking at his meager 5.1 K/9 rate. He’s never faced the Dodgers and only two current Dodgers have ever seen him.
Gonzalez vs. Dodgers
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | OPS |
| Logan Forsythe | 17 | 16 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .250 | .294 | .607 |
| Chris Taylor | 8 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .571 | .625 | 1.339 |
| Total | 25 | 23 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | .348 | .400 | .835 |
The White Sox are in last place in the AL Central with a 38-52 record. They’re 0.5 games behind Cleveland and have lost four in a row entering tonight’s contest. The White Sox are 19-21 at home, and the Dodgers have a 25-18 record on the road.
Here’s the Dodger’s lineup for tonight which looks like the usual lineup. With the exception of Chase Utley batting ninth. The veteran will be the DH as the Dodgers adhere to the American League rules in the White Sox home grounds. For Utley this will be just his eighth time playing at DH in his career. He’s currently hitting .227 with a .715 OPS in 231 plate appearances this season.
Dbacks are sending prospects Dawel Lugo, Sergio Alcantara and Jose King to the Tigers in exchange for J.D. Martinez.
— Nick Piecoro (@nickpiecoro) July 18, 2017
Trade official. No cash in deal. #DBacks assume balance of Martinez’s $11.75M salary.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 18, 2017
In case you haven’t heard the news, the Dbacks acquired outfielder J.D. Martinez from the Tigers this afternoon. According to reports it was a 4-player deal with Arizona sending three prospects to Detroit in the Martinez swap. According to Ken Rosenthal there will be no cash exchanged. So much for the rumors of the Dodgers getting him, but it’s not like they really need him.
They got him cheap (Which is why they’re paying his salary). Guess that proves FAZ could have had him if he’d wanted him. Seems to me FAZ waits til the last minute, when the better players are gone, and he ends up with the Reddicks…
Dbacks are better, but it won’t be enough.
Who’s Miguel Gonzalez? The guy you posted is a catcher who hasn’t played in 4 years. Advantage Dodgers.
Brenly is chafed about the Dodgers. He doesn’t think they’ll win 9 of 10 the rest of the way.
LOLZ They have the same name apparently and the Baseball Reference linker couldn’t figure out the difference
Badger
Martinez is OPSing 1000 plus, against lefties.
He is going to tear it up, at the Dbacks stadium, with the way the ball flys out of there.
Badger
Did you hear about the other meeting, with no one else there?
Yes. There’s one more no one to go.
Martinez is a solid addition to an already strong lineup. They could be trouble in the post season for someone. They won’t beat the Dodgers.
Jonah
JD is a much better hitter, then Reddick!
I know that. But we got Joc, he can hit into double plays for us while Agon is gone.
Reddick will be forever undervalued by some here.
Not that he’s great shakes, but he’s better as showing this year.
This is a great and funny write up from some chisox fans:
https://www.southsidesox.com/2017/7/18/15978880/man-your-battle-stations-a-los-angeles-dodgers-preview
Bluto
That is because he under performed on both offense and defense, and he got picked off three times, to top off his lack of production.
Bluto
Thanks!
That was a really cute article, that you posted!
That was entertaining. Thanks.
“Looks confused. Isn’t.” Hilarious.
Have you noticed, FAZ NEVER does the obvious, it’s always some convoluted back door idea that sometimes doesn’t work out….
They’ve got gold darts – and more of them.
Did you guys see that Judge is one for 21 after the derby?
Just noticed: The LAST three hitters in our lineup have 35 home runs and 107 RBIs. Any other team match that?
I don’t know but the Nats have four guys that are in the top ten for OPS, in all of baseball.
Nats are very scary. And I think the Cubs will start to wake up and win this division. Playoffs will be a battle for sure!
Jonah
Looks like you jinxed the bottom of our order!
Those of you lusting for Baltimore’s Britton in trade should realize he’ll get a $12MM plus contract next year, which probably takes him off FAZ’s list…
Jonah
How about Brach he isn’t a leftie, but he has been the Orioles closer, and he has good stats?
I think he is under his contract until after the 2018 season.
I remember we had the bases loaded twice, and I think one time there were no outs, and the Orioles relief pitchers, shut us completely down last year.
And I don’t believe anyone made contact.
Forsythe is this year’s Reddick.
Good thing we have Taylor
Taylor is our Turner 2.0. He’s for real.
CT3 is right up there with the usuals for team mvp.
Great great trade
Not even close, Reddick was a mid season pick up, Forsythe was traded for over the winter to be the regular 2nd base man. He has gotten better the last month and is getting on base. He hit some balls really hard and had nothing to show for it in Miami, plus his defense at any position he has played has been stellar, you cannot say the same thing about Reddick.
Meanwhile, our top pick, Jeren Kendall made his debut today:
3-3, 2 runs, 2rbi, 2 sb
Jeren is Kemp 2.0. He’s going to be great.
1-0 win, Kersh gets # 15. But it was scary there for a moment. Sometimes some of you should check the stats before saying dumb things. Counting the DP he hit into tonight, Joc has hit into 6 DP’s, Not even close to the team leader Yasiel Puig who has hit into 16. Seager, Grandal, Forsythe, and Turner have all hit into more DP’s than Joc has. Joc’s BABIP is a very respectable .291. Turner’s is .388 Taylor .389. 3 other guys besides Joc hit into DP’s, making him the scapegoat for a low scoring game is not watching what happened to the entire team. Joc smoked that pitch but it was right at Abreu.
Yeah, hard to hit into double plays when you strike out a lot. Joc WILL be traded within the next year…
Every guy on this team strikes out a lot and that includes Seager, and Bellinger. You have a hard on for Pederson and I doubt you have any clue what they are going to do. In order to trade a player you either have to have his replacement in house or you trade for him. Right now, Joc is the best CF in the system, he has a bad game and all of a sudden he is trade bait. Turner had a bad game too, struck out twice. Forsythe, Puig also hit into DP’s, you gonna trade them? I doubt you have any insight into FAZ’s thought process. Puig was going to be traded over the winter too, every body said so and here he is an integral part of the offense. Joc has been one of the teams better hitters over this streak and you want him gone. Sorry, you are an idiot.
No, nothing personal at all. I liked Joc a lot better when he first came up. He has gotten worse since then, but more importantly, we can now replace him with a better player. Taylor, Puig, Verdugo, and Thompson can all play center, and three of them are clearly better offensively. You want Taylor at second base? So do I, get rid of that slug Forsythe. That still leaves more than adequate replacement for good old Joc. He will be gone within a year, count on it.