The Dodgers played the final game of a ten game road trip on Sunday Night baseball on ESPN. The season series with the Cardinals is tied 3-3. This game would determine the tiebreaker. The Dodgers held a one game lead for the wild card and 0.5 game lead for the NL West. Today it was Ross Stripling against Adam Wainwright as the Dodgers went for the 4 game sweep.
#Dodgers settle for a series win at Busch Stadium and a potential NL Wild Card tiebreaker was decided tonight.https://t.co/8vvKxpPbam pic.twitter.com/0YkSTMOuiA
— Dodger Blue (@DodgerBlue1958) September 17, 2018
In the top of the first, Justin Turner doubled and the Dodgers had the chance to set the tone for the game. Manny Machado flied out followed by a Max Muncy strikeout. In the bottom of the 2nd, the Cardinals got on the board as Marcell Ozuna hit a solo shot and the Cardinals took a 1-0 lead. In the third inning, Joc Pederson singled. Justin Turner then struck out on a full count and Pederson was caught in a rundown.
In the bottom of the 4rth, Jairo Munoz struck out but reached first base on a wild pitch. DeJong then singled for the Cardinals. Jed Gyorko then singled in a run. Yadier Molina then singled in a run and the score was 3-0 Red Birds. The way Wainwright was mowing the Dodgers down, it kind of felt like the game was over. Pat Venditte came in and got the Dodgers out of the inning. In the bottom of the sixth, Kenta Maeda was pitching. Marcell Ozuna and Jed Gyorko both reached on singles.
Yadier Molina grounded to third and an error by JT allowed the Cardinals to score a run. The score was 4-0. Scott Alexander came in and got out of the inning. Bud Norris came in for the 7th inning. He walked Yasmani Grandal and had a ball on Cody Bellinger. He left the game and the Cardinals brought in Jordan Hicks who walked Bellinger. This flamethrower was throwing lasers up 104 mph. He got Yasiel Puig to strike out. Chase Utley flied out and then Alex Verdugo grounded out. The Cardinals added a run off Josh Fields and won the game 5-0.
The Dodgers fly home tonight. They wont get home until super late. They start a big three game series against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger stadium tomorrow 0.5 game out of the NL West. Tony Cingrani and John Axford are expected to be activated for the game. The Dodgers need to bring the energy.
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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Folloing script, the Dodgers expended all their bullets on Saturday, and came out shooting blanks today. A 4-game sweep would have been huge, but maybe too much to ask for. Also lost Home Field, should we meet the Cards in one game playoff.
Wainwright was not too dominant, but got a lot of help from the umpire. Seems Adam got assistance from the generous MVP strike zone.
Strips was not in starter mode today. Only lasted 3.1 innings and did not get the same strike zone Wainwright received…. I guess he has not earned that honor yet. I still do not think the starting rotation is as good as FO thinks they are….meanwhile Maeda wasting away in the pen.
Bullpen kept the Cards within striking distance, if not for JT’s costly error.
Manny “The Smirk” Machado no help today. The whole offense was no help. 12 KO’s, 0-5 RISP, 15 LOB.
Big series against the Rocks, then perennial spoilers, SD, and SF, with AZ “sandwiched” in between. Could be a big knuckle sandwich, if the Dodgers are not careful.
Just Win.
The Vegas odds are tempting to bet on the Rockies.
Bullpen was excellent today, Stripling was not. But the real problem is the same old problem, hitting and scoring runs consistently. Do we really have the best offense in the NL? Seems like a put on. And, Joc, caught like a deer in headlights trying to go from 1B to 2B. Laughable. Who the hell is coaching these baserunners?
The smirk has the worst haircut in baseball. It is horrendous and gives me the creeps every time he takes his cap off. UGLYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!! Turner looks like GQ in comparison. Somebody bring them to their stylist!
I didn’t think Waino would be all that, but I forgot our young players hit fastballs much better then off speed stuff, although the announcers said Cody was in the top ten against off speed pitches, if that is true.
I don’t know what happened with Joc, but any base runner has to be very careful when Yadi is catching.
Yadi threw Ethier out on the bases in the post season a few years ago too, and we know Ethier was a veteran player then.
I looked to see what the exit velocity was on Muncy’s smash that hit the pitcher, and it was only 77.
I thought that sounded hard hit, but I was wrong.
You would think balls are hit harder off high velocity pitchers, but it is just the opposite.
Because a lot of the balls hit hard, are off lower velocity pitchers
I guess hitters are not hitting these high velocity pitchers right on, and that is why the balls are not hit as hard, as you would think.
Forgot to mention that beautiful hit and run play by the Cards in the 4th.
Hope the Dodgers took notes. Something that has lacked, all season, with these Dodgers. Could be that they cannot rely on the batter to come through with solid contact, situational hitting. If they do run, they are afraid they will be scurrying or moonwalking back to first or second, following a weak pop up by the batter.
Situational hitting is non-existant with they HR happy Dodgers.
Package
I wanted to tell you, I know you guys still have a lot to deal with, even though the weather was not as bad, as they first thought, it would be.
I hope you can still post during the games, because I know that helps you deal with your frustrations with the team, and the line ups.
MJ
It is really difficult to get around here as many rivers and creeks have overflowed to flood stage or above. Thanks for thinking of me. Matt Kemp is out again tonight and I will never never understand why he is being kept out. He is an all star and deserving to play. I have continually blamed Roberts. If it is not him, whoever is making it happen needs to be fired as they are hurting the reputation of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Who would want to play for a team that does that to their star players. No one else seems upset over this but I am as it is just plain wrong.
Do not know if any of you have ever seen Clint Eastwood’s Trouble With The Curve movie. Clint plays a aging scout for the Braves who is sent to scout a phenom in the Carolina’s. The kid is touted by the assistant director of scouting who is a saber geek. FAZ in the movies, who knew. Clint is also losing his eyesight so the director of scouting, John Goodman, asks his daughter, played by Amy Adams, to go with him and help him out. The Braves have the #2 pick behind the Red Sox, and if the Sox pass on the kid, the Braves guy really wants him. The Red Sox scout is played by Justin Timberlake, who just happens to be a former pitcher signed by Clint’s character and traded to the Sox, where he promptly blows out his arm. But he really wants to be the Sox play by play guy, not a scout. Anyway, they watch the kid for a couple of games where he is creaming the ball, but the 3rd game, Clint , who is all but blind now notices that when he hits a ball off of a curve, it has a different sound. So he sends his daughter down to watch the kid from the 3rd base side of the field. Sure enough, his next at bat, even though he homers, she notices that his hands drift when trying to hit a curve. Clint tells the Braves the kid cannot hit a curve. Timberlake gets advice from Clint not to draft the kid because he can’t hit a curve. So he tells the Sox to pass, but the ADS talks the Braves owner into drafting the kid anyway. So Justin thinks that Clint and his daughter duped him, and leaves in a huff after getting fired by the Sox. Clint leaves for Atl. on a bus, but his daughter, who is a lawyer stays until the next morning. She goes outside and see’s the hotel managers son pitching to his little brother, and the guy is bringing some serious heat. She asks to catch him and after a few pitches asks for the curve, and he has a great one. She talks Goodman into having an open tryout for the kid in Atlanta. Sure enough they get there and the phenom is ready to hit. They send the kid, who is a lefty in to pitch to the guy. He throws fastball after fastball past the guy and then buckles his knees with the curve. Robert Patrick who plays the owner is really POed that the phenom knows what is coming and still cannot hit it. So they decide to offer the kid a contract with Clint’s daughter becoming his agent. The ADS is fired and they offer Clint a new contract, which he says he will think about. Timberlake is waiting outside of the stadium and the romance continues…happy ending. Why do I post this? Simple, Eastwood’s character is about the way baseball should be scouted, not the way it is. Scouts use all sorts of tools in this day and age, but the computer geeks are leading the way. The result, Dodger baseball as you see it today. It is all about velocity and launch angle, spin rate, and stats that the common fan does not have a clue what they mean. But there is not a computer around that can measure the heart, desire and resolve of a player to be more than they are. It cannot compute competitive juices. Or the desire to be the best. Oh we all know what OPS, and OBP and all of those stats are. But things like RBI’s, BA, wins, and the fact that a certain player strikes out way too much are not things that they find meaningful. I think that is narrow minded. You do not win without runs and someone driving them in, and wins are what it is all about. The game yesterday is a micronism of that philosophy. You might not think that Waino was that great, and maybe the ump helped, but the fact remains, the Dodgers had trouble with his curve the entire time he was in there, and they knew what he was going to throw. 9 K’s in 6 innings. If saber metrics had been around back in the day, Pete Rose might never have made it to the bigs. He was not that talented a player. But he had more heart and hustle than most and ran himself to what should have been a Hall of Fame career. Give me the old way any day. I am really tired of whiff city, great offense one day and futility the next.
Same lineup again. That’s a first, 3 days in a row. No Kemp for the 5th game. Of course, Gray is not Waino. You want to know what I think of FAZ’s blueprint for a team?? Watch the Clint Eastwood movie, Trouble With The Curve. Give me old style baseball scouts who do not rely on saber metrics and invisible stats to judge talent.
Even if you take out the ridiculous 1.176 OPS he put up in June and assume that was a fluke before pitchers adjusted. Muncy has basically been a legit .900 OPS hitter.