We as Dodger fans tend to be pretty damn spoiled. Throughout the baseball season the Dodgers will play clubs that will make you say “thank god we’re not them!” Those teams are the ones that you should really feel sorry for and remember that hey maybe things aren’t so bad in Dodger land?
Thankfully that club right now is the San Francisco Giants. The Giants are bad guys, they’re real bad, and off to one of the worst starts in their franchise history. So far the Giants are 6-13 and were just shutout in Coors Field. Madison Bumgarner is out for months after junking his shoulder up in a dirt bike accident, and their bullpen is still awful. They can’t hit much and Buster Posey was hit in the head with a pitch. Yeah that’s how bad things are going up there, and it will make you smile with glee.
No matter how bad the Giants are in the present, they are not likely to stay this bad forever and they always perk up whenever the Dodgers come to town. This is the first trip to San Francisco of the season and it’s a long one, (four game stretch) spanning from Monday through Thursday afternoon.
Dodgers @ San Francisco
Hyun-jin Ryu-0-3 vs. Matt Cain-1-0
Game Time – 7:15 PM – TV- SNLA- MLB.tv
So hey the Dodgers aren’t that bad despite their 9-10 mark and third place standing, and the lines are running between +145 to -150 for tonight’s game. ( Bovada always has good value for the average joe, as noted here and they are always competitive) It could always be worse, and well the Giants are one of those teams that will make us thankful at the moment. Yet the Dodgers are still very frustrating. They’re already 4 games out of first place and are 3-6 on the road to start the year. To make things worse, the injuries are beginning to pile up yet again. Now Joc Pederson is the latest injury debacle to hit. The club is teetering on the verge of putting him on the disabled list after he pulled his groin in Sunday’s 6-2 win over Arizona.
With Joc unable to play that means we’ll see more Kike than ever before, and probably more Brett Eibner. You know how much that irritates me since both of those guys are no more than utility players. Amazing how the Dodgers have a 230 million dollar payroll yet are playing guys like Eibner, Kike, and Scott Van Slyke in the lineup every day. I’m sure there are plenty more guys they can pluck from obscurity to put in the everyday lineup. Before you lecture me, yes I am aware that Kike has been playing better of late. I hope he succeeds for the Dodger’s sake.
Let’s get to the pitching match-up for tonight, which will be right handers Hyun-jin Ryu going up against Matt Cain.
For Ryu, this is his fourth start to the season and he’s been pretty atrocious in the early going. What’s very concerning is his declining velocity. You’re just not going to win many games lobbing up 87 MPH fastballs right down the pipe. I like Ryu, but sadly for him serious shoulder problems can become career ending.
Looking at his numbers he has struck out 17 and walked only 4 across 15.1 innings pitched. Unfortunately he has also allowed 19 hits and 10 earned runs which gives him a 5.87 ERA. He’s 0-3 and has allowed 11.2 hits per nine innings and 6 home runs. I don’t care how good your strikeout to walk ratio is, you will never win allowing 11 hits per nine innings. My tip for Ryu is to become a finesse pitcher. Learn to use your off-speed pitches and try to keep hitters off balance. He may never regain the velocity that he once had. There’s no shame in learning how to throw a knuckleball either. Oh I kid guys, I kid.
Anyways, Ryu is 4-4 with a 4.07 ERA in 9 career starts against the Giants. He’s 4-2 with a 3.74 ERA in 6 starts at At&t Park. Here’s how the current Giants have done against him. Hunter Pence and veteran infielder Aaron Hill have both had some serious ownage against Ryu.
Ryu vs. Giants
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | OPS |
| Buster Posey | 25 | 22 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | .273 | .360 | .905 |
| Hunter Pence | 24 | 22 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 3 | .455 | .500 | 1.045 |
| Aaron Hill | 17 | 16 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | .438 | .412 | 1.037 |
| Brandon Belt | 14 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | .250 | .357 | .690 |
| Brandon Crawford | 14 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | .154 | .214 | .445 |
| Madison Bumgarner | 7 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .143 | .143 | .286 |
| Matt Cain | 6 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .167 | .167 | .333 |
| Johnny Cueto | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Nick Hundley | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .333 | .333 | .667 |
| Joe Panik | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 3.000 |
| Total | 115 | 106 | 32 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 8 | 22 | .302 | .348 | .782 |
Opposing Ryu will be Matt Cain who has been just as washed up as he has been. Last year he allowed over 10 hits per nine innings and his ERA was 5.64 over 89.1 innings. Cain has been derailed by injuries and age as he begins his thirteenth MLB season. While he’s definitely not the same pitcher he once was, he’s been better this year thus far. He’s 1-0 with a 3.31 ERA in 16.1 innings of work. Cain has allowed 8.3 hits per nine but only struck out 12. His strikeouts have been steadily declining and his control has diminished.
The Dodgers have always had some success against him. Cain is 5-11 with a 3.53 ERA in 32 career starts. Check out the Dodgers numbers against him. Chase Utley is hitting .344 with a 4 home runs against Cain, so look for him to be in the lineup tonight.
Cain vs. Dodgers
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | OPS |
| Adrian Gonzalez | 89 | 78 | 22 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 10 | 17 | .282 | .360 | .885 |
| Chase Utley | 35 | 32 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 3 | .344 | .400 | 1.150 |
| Yasiel Puig | 17 | 15 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | .333 | .412 | 1.078 |
| Yasmani Grandal | 9 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .125 | .222 | .472 |
| Clayton Kershaw | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Justin Turner | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .286 | .786 |
| Hyun-Jin Ryu | 6 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .167 | .167 | .333 |
| Brandon McCarthy | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Joc Pederson | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .333 | .333 | 1.000 |
| Corey Seager | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .333 | .667 |
| Ross Stripling | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Scott Van Slyke | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Enrique Hernandez | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Kenta Maeda | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Total | 186 | 168 | 44 | 11 | 1 | 9 | 26 | 14 | 34 | .262 | .323 | .823 |
It just doesn’t feel right going to San Francisco without Vin Scully. What is right is to make the Giants suffer and regain some lost ground in the standings. Here’s hoping the Dodgers make the Giant’s season more miserable than it already is. I want all Giant’s fans to be sad at work and school tomorrow.
Go Blue!
Joc not in starting lineup, but not on the DL yet either. Kike in CF.
Michael
Did you see Brett Anderson just fall?
Puig should be able to get a hit against Cain tonight, he doesn’t throw that hard now.
And that park is so big.
Joc is on DL now.
Dodgers Place Joc Pederson On 10-Day DL; Julio Urias To Make Season Debut
https://twitter.com/jphoornstra/status/856652673956757504
No I did not MJ, but last I checked he went 6 and gave up 3 was in a position to win since the Cubs scored 13. I saw that Joc went to the DL.
I don’t see why the Dodgers don’t start Trayce Thompson. He his a starter, can hit well, is young, and has speed. Thompson seems like a clear choice as a replacement for Pederson.
Because Micah, he’s not a clear choice to replace Pederson. As evident by his performance so far.
Bluto
Has Trayce got a hit yet?
And are you able to watch the games now?
He is hitting .048 at OKC…obviously very rusty.
FAZ works in strange ways, his blunders to perform….
… Rumblin’, stumblin’, bumblin’…
Micah
Trayce is 0 for 38 in AAA.
Wow, I have the same batting average in AAA this season.
Yoiks. We traded two Major League starters for this guy. Not such a great deal ey?
Yeah True, I’m pretty sure I could hit .000 in 38 AAA at bats.
Debateable if anyone traded in the Trace deal, which also netted Montas who led to Hill, is anything to crow about. Trace included.
Montas led to the Hill deal? I think others were involved, one being in the starting rotation. And Hill has not been all that. Maybe you’ve noticed. Maybe not. I wasn’t crowing, I was being snarky. And it’s Trayce.
Badger
One of Puig’s best throws to home!
It wasn’t to hard for Grandal to catch, and it was right on
They can’t shift on Posey like that, he will go the other way.
Yep. Earning his money.
Now hit Yassie.
Micah
Trayce is 0 for 38 in AAA.
Eibner is also a CF, is hitting over 300 at AAA and Thompson was sent down because he was not hitting at all. Either at AAA or when he was called up.
Ryu has touched 91 and 92 tonight!
I think Ryu’s throwing fine. Still having trouble putting batters away.
Bluto
He had the second to last guy struck out, but Grandal didn’t catch the ball.
But keep it up, you got Agone hitting the wall, in yesterday’s game.
Agone’s back to sub-optimal.
That 2nd out was Adrian Gonzalez’s third infield fly ball out this season (72 PA). He had six all of last season (633 PA).
Bluto
So far, the whole team is sub optimal, except Corey, who is the best hitter, in the National League, against righties.
Bluto
He wasn’t hurt like this, last year.
I hope that it’s MJ.
Six innings shut-out by Matt Cain? Can it get any lower for the Dodgers?
Ryu turning in a nice showing, stuff and command-wise.
Cain’s been better this year. Not this good, but he went 7, 1 earned against KC last time out. That said, no runs after 7 against a last place club sucks the ruby begonia.
Ryu throwing harder now. Great sign.
The Giants manufactor runs well, that is what we need to do.
Really? Trying to steal 2B with Seager batting and two outs!
We don’t run much, but in a situation you shouldn’t, you do and get caught. Then getting picked at second? Embarrassing.
Ugly, ugly baseball.
Bright spot: Great performance by Ryu.
When does Braun arrive?
Just before Bellinger is called up.
I’m really lost as to what’s going on with Gonzalez, he looks much worse than Toles and Toles looks bad.
Bluto
The only one that looked decent last night, was Corey.
Puig went to right which he needs to do more often, and he got a solid hit, but no one else did anything.
And Puig tends to try to pull the ball, when he is not hitting, so that was great to see from Puig.
Toles doesn’t go up there and strike out all the time, like some players do.
And I don’t hear you say a thing, about that.
And really there were very few hitters, that made any hard contact last night, like Nomar said, on the post game show.
And that is what Cain has been doing this year, eliminating hard contact.
He had only allowed one run, in two of his previous starts.
And we have players that are not in their first year, that look a lot worse, then he ever does.
And that was the first time in A long time, that Toles didn’t get a hit, when he started.
But no one else did much.
And about Agone, when Turner was not 100 percent last year, he didn’t drive the ball, or hit, for almost the first three months, of the season.
We just have to be more patient, because believe me, I and others, wanted Roberts to move Turner down in the order, when he wasn’t hitting.
But he did hit really well, once he started hitting.
And if Turner didn’t get picked off last night, Agone might have got a timely hit.
And how can anyone be upset with Turner, he is usually gold
He F up.
Hopefully never. Him and his huge contract can just go somewhere else. No Toles is a contact hitter for the most part, but weak assed grounders to the infield are not very inspiring, and in tonight’s game he struck out on a pitch he could not have hit if he was 6′ 6″ tall. Very bad AB with the sacks jammed….Hitting a robust .220 now.
Time to pay a visit to the storage shed where they keep the dyanamite. Show them the power. If they don’t respond, blow it up!
LOL! It’s starting already. Time to blow up the team. Trade Kershaw.
Not Kershaw. He is our sacred history, up there with Koufax. Now, the rest of them? Have at ’em.
but if you’re doing a full tear down and rebuild, it makes the most sense to trade Kershaw now while you can get the most out such a trade. I mean, he’s going to opt out and leave for Texas anyway. You might as well be proactive.
As unpopular as that may be, you’re right patch. I brought that point up last year when we were discussing rebuild and staying competitive while doing so. He has an opt out in ’18, so though he will make $35mm in ’19 and ’20, we might look for him to go full Greinke in ’18 at age 30 and sucker Texas into 6 more years. Who knows. But I doubt FAZ folds this early. If we are still in full suck mode in July, maybe.
Cody coming up to bat! First of many!!!
Wow you blink you missed it.
Next time 🙂