Tonight’s Dodgers – Snakes game matched current Dodgers ace Alex Wood, against ex-Dodgers ace, Zack Grienke. They both battled valiantly, but Grienke eventually fell to the long Dodgers lineup as Yasiel Puig and Joc Pederson sent him to the dugout losing 3-2. The snakes never recovered.
It was an old-fashioned pitchers duel through the first five innings, as both pitchers gave up only one run apiece. The Dodgers drew first blood in the second inning behind Cody Bellinger‘s 33rd home run of the season.
Dodgers Killer Paul Goldschmidt did his usual damage with a home run, thankfully solo, to tie the game 1-1 in the 4th inning. Alex Wood hung tough until the sixth, when he gave up his second run of the night on a small ball Arizona rally.
The score remained tied at one run apiece until the seventh, when the boys finally found a way to get through Zack Grienke. Cody Bellinger doubled to begin the inning. Later, with two out, Joc Pederson doubled to score Belli. The game was now toed at two. Yasiel Puig came up and hit a clutch single to put the Dodgers ahead 3-2.
Josh Fields took over in the seventh and pitched two scoreless innings to win a bit of confidence from the skipper and the Dogders faithful. Kenley Jansen finished things off with a shut down ninth to record the save at 3-2.
HaHa: The Dodgers handed Grienke his first loss at home after going 10-0.
Approaching 30: Tonight was Jansen’s 29th save.
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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Joc’s was a mistake pitch and he smoked it! But I still don’t like the swing despite the result.
Puig hit a good pitch inside out (the second baseman was positioned on the grass). That was great to see, especially after striking out to end the game yesterday. The wild horse is growing up before our very eyes.
Tomorrow will be interesting.
I think we may want to pitch Wood and Darvish at Chase Field, and have Kershaw and Hill go the first 2 at Dodgers stadium, if we do end up with the snakes in the NLDS (and I think we will because this Diamondbacks team is pretty good – maybe other teams’ front offices are not as dumb as some thought … one thing I learned via decades of negotiations is you don’t assume the other professionals are dumber than you because you don’t know what their constraints are and you don’t know what they have coming up in their pipeline).
Kershaw vs Greinke is going to be a doozy at Dodgers Stadium (though unlikely as Greinke is likely to start in the wildcard game).
Bellinger is a great mistake hitter. He has hit good pitches for a HR. However, he does not miss a mistake.
Yes agreed. And he’s shown a willingness to walk or to bunt in big situations. Got to love that type of composure.
I suppose Farmer goes down when Agon comes back, a couple of the odd lot pitchers to create space for Kershaw and Hatcher… I suppose it’s actually stupid to wish they’d get a couple more relief (read: BETTER) pitchers, they apparently don’t like to deal in quality…
Bellinger is a ball player, he is not just a power hitter, and he is not just a first baseman, and that is the ultimate complement, and the ultimate truth.
Puig is having a good summer along with a good time, and he is learning to relax and hit, and he is having fun doing just that!
I think Turner Ward my be a father figure to Puig, or like an older brother.
I haven’t ever heard much about Puig’s father.
I thought Joc was due, and I am glad he got the hit he did, because we needed that then, and it isn’t fun to watch anyone struggle.
Hopefully Joc will take his next off season seriously if he hasn’t before, and work on his hitting.
Everyone knows Joc can hit a HR, but he has trouble hitting consistently.
But maybe Joc won’t be so tight tonight, after getting that hit.
Joc should give up the weight training and the eating, he needs to concentrate on flexibility and speed. Look at his face now as compared to when he first came up.
Jonah
Dodgers Digest has made those type of remarks about Joc about gaining weight earlier in the season, but didn’t know if they were just playing around, or really meant it.
I have thought Joc had bigger legs, from his first year, but I thought he had just built his legs up more with muscle, or he just started to fill out more, like a man.
But his face does look more filled out in your picture, and it does look like he has gained a little weight.
Brenly was all over that pitch to Joc. Earlier in the inning he mentioned Greinke was starting to miss his spots. That pitch to Joc was supposed to be low and away. It was up and in. He should have been pulled before that mistake but it was Pederson at the plate, who is on like a 3 for 20 something schneid. Lovullo figured Greinke could get him out. He figured wrong. And Greinke never should have been allowed to pitch to Puig. That inning is on the manager and he knows it. Maybe that success will help Joc, or maybe better pitches will continue to get him out easily.
I wonder if sending Joc out for 15 days with Kapler would whip him into shape. Put Verdugo in center for two weeks. He couldn’t do any worse.
Verdugo isn’t on the 40, neither is Henry Ramos, so they won’t be called up until they manage to fit them on the 40. That’s true also of Agon and Ethier. And then space on the 25 (before Sept. 1st) is another hurdle. Our pitching collection is so unstable, it is difficult to find room for position players. FAZ surely ought to push for increased roster size (28?) as well as DH this fall.
For resident geniuses like the F and the Z roster manipulation should be a piece of cake. A most beautiful chocolate cake. The most beautiful chocolate cake you’ve ever seen.
Badger
How may scoops of ice cream do they get with that beautiful chocolate cake?
That reminds me of a good nick name I saw someone post, for Joc.
They called Joc, “White Jocalate”
I don’t think either (expanded rosters or DH) can/will happen until the next CBA negotiations.
You are correct. But they can talk to the union and modify the current CBA. The DH has been discussed each of the last couple of years and narrowly avoided being passed. But expanded rosters has been a subject of discussion between both sides. Obviously the players union is all for that. Some owners have been said to be against it, and I think it needs to be unanimous.
A-gone and Ethier are on the 40 man. They are simply on the DL so activating them will be easy. Just look at some of the flotsam on that 40 man and activating those two is a gimme. I would not assume that Hatcher is automatically activated in September. So far we know he is on re-hab, but I have heard nothing about him pitching in any games. I think they are more than happy with the RH they have in the pen right now, Jansen, Morrow, Fields, Baez, Stripling, and Stewart. Eibner has not been put on the DL yet, and he is out for the year with TJ surgery, so he can be moved. A couple of those pitchers, Ysla, Floro, Paredes, who are all not really prospects can be DFA’d. So roster space will be available. Right now they have 8 guys on the 60 day DL. 4 on the 10 day. They are also carrying 8 relief pitchers on the 25 man roster. They cut Ferrell and Freeman last week. So they are not afraid to shuffle the fringe guys. I would bet that close to September 1st you see a lot of that. I also read where they have been using Buehler out of the BP at OKC in preparation for him maybe being used out of the pen in September. I just checked on Hatcher. He has been in 3 games and pitched 4 innings with 6 K’s and 1 BB.
Badger
Why kind of pitch was that pitch to Joc?
It is odd because Puig has slimmed down, to what he was in his first year, and that is why Puig has had no problems with his hammys.
And that probably has made Puig a little faster, and more able to get to more balls.
And it does seem like baseball players, didn’t get hurt as often, as they do now, and back when, and they didn’t build up like they do now.
I know I had never heard of all these oblique problems back then.
The difference I saw in Joc, was that his legs looked thicker, but with muscles.
I didn’t realize he has gained that much weight, until I saw Jonah’s two different pictures of Joc.
I think you and Jonah have the right idea, when it comes to Joc.
Look how much that has helped Puig!
Actually Badger, Joc was ofer 29. Verdugo is not on the 40, so a roster move would have to be made. I know what I see is that he is pulling off the pitches. His front foot moves way to the right as he swings. Which makes hitting that outside pitch impossible. Corey does not do that but he chases the down and in pitch way too much. He has no way of hitting those. What really bugs me, because I hit left handed, is that they do not take that outside pitch and just punch the ball to left field. Especially when the over shift is on. I used to do that all the time when I was playing.
Michael
Corey hits the ball to the opo side.
He is one of the few who does, Chase does it a lot, but I was shocked when Grandal did it the first game, he never tries to do that. All that being said, Corey’s Achilles heel, and the pitch he strikes out the most on is that down and in pitch.
MJ, if you want an eye opening read, just go to Puig’s Wikipedia page. What he went through and is still going through in some form or another is eye popping. The people he had to deal with to get here, a who’s who of Cuban criminals. Wow! His dad worked in a sugar cane plant.
I knew Joc would get at least one more base hit before the season ended. He was 0-29 I believe before that gift from Greinke (blind squirrel theory may be in play here). I have to admit it was sure sweet to hang Greinke’s first home loss on him this season. It was sweet to come from behind after the Watson joke job the night before. I’m not convinced that Watson and Cigaretti were available for trade for some very obvious reasons. We may look back and feel like we got skunked in those deals.
80 wins on August 9th, that is some crazy stuff we are privileged to be witnessing.
Greinke was pissed he let one get up and in on Joc. That’s an out he needs to get. Oh well, gotta love it when the opposing manager gets rookied by a grizzled vet. Especially an ace vet. A $34mm ace vet. A $34mm ace vet that jumped ship. Suck it Zack.
We have to consider the Darvish deal in contrast to those deals. But I have to admit I’d rather paid more and got Sonny Grey instead, I don’t like rentals…
Jonah
At least Darvish is a very good pitcher.
And at least Calhoun will have a place of the Ranger’s major leauge team.
I can’t wait to see how well Calhoun does, when he is called up!
It was good to see Greinke show some type of emotion, because he doesn’t do that, to often.
It was fun to see Puig get that hit off Greinke, and see our little Puigie, go to town on Greinke!
Greinke showed more emotion on that play than he ever did in the Dodgers’ clubhouse, from what have heard. Not sure I ever saw him look directly at the reporter when he is interviewed.
As stated by Joe last night on the telecast, Greinke was very close to re-signing with the Dodgers. Az jumped in and sealed the deal with the 6th year, which the Dodgers would not do. I do not fault Greinke one bit for taking the money. Nor do I fault the front office for not going all in on the 6th year. But I love it when they do beat him. He has pitched 5 times against the Dodgers since the move. Twice they pummeled him. Last night they pinged him in the late innings. Score last night was the same as the playoff game he lost to the Cardinals to knock the Dodgers out of the playoffs. Last night the Dodgers knocked his team into 3rd place. Jay Bruce traded to Cleveland. Verdugo hit his 5th homer last night. Guy named Tim Locastro, a 2nd baseman, playing at OKC is hitting .385 down there. Had 4 hits last night with 2 of them being doubles. Thompson still striking out a lot, but his average is now at .219. Buehler went 2 scoreless, giving up a hit, and 2 walks and striking out 1.
Michael
I don’t remember Greinke losing a game to the Cards in the post season.
He did lose to the Mets in that last game at Dodger stadium, but I don’t think he lost a game to the Cards.
You are right, Kersh lost that game when Adams hit the homer, Murphy did the same thing to Greinke, only a year later. MY BAD! WHOOPSIE!
He is also very blunt. He was that way on the Dodgers. AJ Ellis once asked Greinke what he would do first to improve the Dodgers if he were the GM. Greinke told AJ that the first thing he would do would be to trade AJ! AJ got a kick out of telling that story to Vinny.
As for Cingrani and Watson. I believe they got Watson because of how good he was the last few years. He is not having that kind of season this year, but they felt maybe a change of scenery would help. Cingrani on the other hand, has nasty stuff. And they felt his control issues were probably because of a mechanical issue and we all know how good Honeycutt is at spotting those kinds of things. By the way, nice job by Fields last night.
My thoughts on that are expressed in this picture, which I’ve posted before. I think it exactly expresses the attitude FAZ has….
Jonah
That is cute!
That pitch by Watson was not bad, Lamb was fooled but he did a great job . Like Greinke’a inside pitch to Puig that Puig hit inside out. Cingrani had a good outing last time.
I think the problem with Watson was that he was asked to close but he doesn’t have closer stuff (far from it). Cingrani is Cincinnati’s Hatcher – great stuff just can’t seem to get it together and puts too much pressure on himself. Both lefties will do better under Honeycutt and Roberts I think, and I also think Hatcher also needs a change of scenery.
I view these guys as two more risk reward opportunities. Like all those starters we signed over the last two years, Cingrani and Watson are risky pitchers. They aren’t shut down high GWAR players. They both have negative WAR numbers this year. That’s kind of a tell, don’t you think? On the surface this is NOT who you go pick up to finish the year by winning three post season series. You get Andrew Miller for that. I think these guys are here to eat a few innings and who knows, maybe get some lost magic back. For all I know neither will be on any post season roster. Maybe the team will want to go with a rested Avilan/Dayton. Maybe Liberatore will make it back. Maybe Ryu pitches out of the pen in October.
I hope they both turn it around. I won’t be surprised if they do, nor will I be surprised if they don’t. The meaningful pickup was Darvish. We have an excellent shot at a very deep into the game 4 man rotation. Its what we’ve been missing. It’s freakin huge.
Please, Dodgers …….. everybody stay healthy for the next 2 1/2 months.
Badger
Our GM said that Watson has gained some velocity over the last few weeks, and that they were going to have Cingrani use a different type of strategy, like they did with Fields.
Is that strategy throw high fastballs, just out of the strike zone?
Anyways I forgot to give Fields and our bullpen credit for having a good nite too.
Because Fields has had his share of giving up HRs at times.
Agreed on both fronts, Badger. The risk reward and staying healthy. I do have high hopes for Watson though, but just just hope at this point. His next couple of pressure appearances will be telling.
YF
There is an article at Dodger com., about the back of our line up, coming through last night.
And there is a paragraph about what Puig was thinking before to hit that oppo.
And I thought Puig’s thoughts at the time, really showed that he is learning, and how he is growing as a hitter.
It was good to read!
Thanks MJ. It does show maturation. Joc’s admission that he gets away from having a consistent routine and try to chase hits is also telling. He’s been a professional for over 4 years. Get with it. And he needs to slim down a lot this off season – he’s expendable as a corner outfielder.
But he is not a corner outfielder. And at this point they have no other real CF although Taylor can play there in a pinch. Joc is 6’1″ and 220 pounds. He is pretty solid and he has closing speed. He showed that off a couple of times last night and tonight on shallow fly balls. But unless they trade for a true CF this winter, Joc will be back out there next year. So at 220 pounds how skinny do you think he needs to get>? Just wondering, he looks to me like it is mostly baby fat in his face because his body does not look all that big.
Michael
I bet you really enjoyed the game last night!
I am glad that Joc got that hit, and Puig hit in the go ahead run, off Greinke.
That had to make you feel much better, after having to watch Joc struggle, so much lately.
I know those two are your favorites, and it is hard when a player we like, doesn’t do well, because of our belief in certain players.
But it isn’t fun for me, to watch any of our Dodger players, struggle.
And even after Joc got that hit, I think he was still doubting himself, a little.
I don’t understand why Joc doesn’t work with Turner Ward.
He seems to always work with Shawn Whooten.
Anyways, I think Ward is a father figure, or like a big brother to Puig.
I have never heard much about Puig’s father, but maybe you have.
I have not really had a favorite on this team since Piazza was traded. I just look at Joc and Puig and see what could be while everyone else just looks at what they have not done. I was happy for both of them, but free agency and no loyalty in today’s game makes having a favorite a little iffy for me.
Here’s some pitchers FAZ can sign cheap. That seems to be the only requirement…
See, Oscar? This is what makes a great video..
Some of those people looked like they maybe spent a couple of hours in Oscar’s basement before heading to the ball park.
You mean mix in videos of attractive women here and there doing sporty things (like pitching in heels)? Works for me!
I believe Greinke lost game 1 of the nlcs 2013 at StL. Good close game but he did start and I think lost it
Bobby
I could be wrong but I don’t remember Greinke ever starting the first game of a series.
And I wanted him to one time, because he had always pitched better then Kershaw did, in the post season.
The only game I remember Greinke losing, is the one I mentioned to Michael, against the Mets.
Greinke started game 1 vs STL because Kersh pitched on short rest in that clinching Game 4 NLDS vs Atlanta at home. That was the game Uribe hit a huge 2 run HR in the 8th.
Mark this day. Henceforth, Kike gets more playing time than Joc.
Not against right handers.
Not even close Jonah. Kike cannot hit RH pitching worth a damn right now, so Joc will be going out there every time there is a righty on the mound. Now, when Adrian comes back and is in the starting lineup, you will probably see Taylor in CF and Bellinger in left.
Gonzo hits a 2 run dinger at OKC.
That’s great to see.
Chris Taylor! Now we need to keep scoring. This DBacks lineup is really good. Darvish is finding out how tough the NL West is – this is the third place team in the NL West!
He could make things interesting if that back is healthy
AGon and Ryu getting their mojo back in October are game changers for us. We can use Ryu as either long relief or LOOGY, and in late innings we can pull Joc and shift Taylor to center, Bellinger to left and AGon to first after AGon pinch hits. Taylor has played center as well as Joc – this year – both CT3 and CodyLove are just good athletes and they make up for the occasional bad route with their speed. We don’t need AGon to be a power otter if he’s replacing Joc on a double switch in late innings. And if we need another pinch hitter then it’s Utley for Forsythe, or Kike for Forsythe, then Kike goes in center and Taylor to second.
Taylor with a great at bat! First and second no outs with Seager, Turner and Bellinger up … I’m putting this game in the refrigerator.