Add to that, Johnny Cueto taking the mound for the Giants, and we had all the makings for a great Dodgers, Giants matchup.1st inning
The Giants’ lead-off batter, Eduardo Nuñez made sure there would be no no-hitter tonight, as he promptly rapped Hill’s first pitch for a base hit. Yasmani Grandal returned the favor by throwing him out trying to steal second. Hill ended the inning 1,2,3.
Dodgers
Chase Utley ruined any thoughts of a no-hitter in Johnny Cueto’s mind by hitting the first pitch he saw for a base hit.
Corey Seager followed that with a quick base hit.
Justin Turner then hit into a 5-3 double play. Adrian Gonzalez hit a weak grounder to end the inning.2nd inning
The Giants were looking at a mini-rally. With two on and two out, Brandon Crawford tried to force his way into third base on a single to Andrew Toles. Tolesy threw a strike to Justin Turner, who applied the tag to end the inning.
Crawford ended up dislocating his pinky on the bag, and he was removed from the game. Oops!
Dodgers
Back to back singles once again for the Dodgers, and once again they failed to drive them home.At the end of four innings, both teams remained scoreless.5th inning
Nuñez tagged Hill again, this time to open the scoring with a just-made-it-out home run. 0-1
Dodgers
The Dodgers had their biggest opportunity in a few innings, with two on two out – Adrian Gonzalez up. They ended things 0 for 8 WRISP.
6th inning 0-1
Baez in. Job done.
Dodgers
“I only hit singles and then get picked off”Reddick rapped one out another single lead off the inning.
During Andrew Toles’ at bat, Cueto landed awkwardly on his left leg. The trainers and coaches all came out to the mound. Cueto threw a few warm-up pitches and reassured everyone he was OK. He then went on to walk Toles. After that, Cueto motioned to the dugout that he was done.
New Giants pitcher in and Yasiel Puig in to PH with two on and one out. Nothing, nothing, and nothing.
Fast forward to the 9th, still 0-1
Grant Dayton in, a fastball way out. Brandon Belt solo home run. 0-2
Sergio Romo vs the Dodgers – 3 up, 3 down.
Dodgers lose 0-2
Rich Hill used his fastball extensively his first time through the Giants’ lineup. The second time around, he went with his breaking pitchesto mix things up. Hill did his job well enough to win tonight. However, the Dodgers went 0 for 7 WRISP in (non)support through the first three innings. They did nothing for him until the 5th, when they rounded it off to 0 for 8. Truly a waste of good pitching and momentum from last night’s exciting victory.
Double Delighted: Corey Seager hit his 40th double in the third inning tonight, making him the first LA Dodger rookie with 40 doubles in a season.DD Part 2: He also topped the LA Dodgers rookie record for most total bases at 308 (and counting).
Rich Hill went 5 innings with 6 hits, 1 run, 1 HR, 1 walk, 7 Ks. ERA 2.05
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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Certainly, Hill pitched well enough to win this game, but, alas, Dodger bats could hit, but not score. This is a good example of the importance of the Dodgers to score runs, and their continued waffling between being brutes and beggars.
The teams hitting is maddening at times. No explanation.
I think the Giants will regret the Cueto signing… but not so much this year. Over his career, he allows 3/4 a run more the second half. The thing is, his first half was stellar. He has declined the second half of this year too, but his first half was dang good. While he really didn’t pitch that well last night, he pitched well when he had to and had some luck.
With runners on, Toles hit the ball right on the screws but right at the LF. That was the tone of the game. Oh well, let’s get ’em today. It’s just another lefty who almost no hit them last game.
Mark
I totally agree with you about Cueto.
The combination, of his various deliveries, and his large middle, will probably cause Cueto, to have some kind of back problem.
But I still think Dodger Patch had the right idea with Cueto.
It made more sense to give Cueto an opt out after a year or two, then Kazmir.
Because Cueto has pitched well enough in his career lately, to have a reason to opt out, so we wouldn’t be stuck with him, beyond that.
But I have to give credit to Cueto, for not accepting the Dbacks offer.
I wish I would be regretting the Cueto deal about now, but alas I’m 5 ahead and as I have said since Camelback last Spring we will be MLBW champs.
Kersh, Maeda, Hill and smoke n mirrors…
Damned if I don’t love baseball…
Back in the day, your best hitter batted third. I know there are a lot of stat geeks out there, but has anyone noticed Grandal’s OPS this year is about 400 points higher when he’s batting sixth than batting 5th? Just a fluke? Maybe, but who are we to argue with statistics? Try Kendrick or Toles in the two-spot and then Seager, Turner, Gonzalez, and Grandal.
And Oscar, you forgot Hill’s last outing in Arizona but I’m sure he would just as soon forget it as well.
Snider
I like your suggestion of the batting order.
I am not convinced that OPS is a good measure of what a player, provides offensively, but I like your suggestion.
I like OPS but I am also in a small group that says Runs, RBIs, and BARISP are the best measure of offensive success.
Bum I like those stats, and I am not someone that doesn’t like the new things too.
Agreed, but his slash lines were higher across the board. Of course, RBI’s are dependent on opportunity, so I think average with RISP is more reliable.
I heard somewhere earlier this year that all the stats and analysis suggest your best player bat 2nd now, instead of 3. Who knows.
Either way, yes, I like Seager at 3 provided we have guys ahead of him who can get on base and cause some havoc. Otherwise, at 2, Seager doesn’t get as many RBI chances, but he does get more chances to score runs. So who knows what’s better.
I was hoping we’d take 2 of 3 this series. It’s 1-1. So now we can go out tonight, win the series, and get closer to the division. It’s that easy! And beating Moore, a good leftie, would be a great sign for the future. Please don’t play the Culberson/Segedin combo today. Start the 25 guys who’ll be on the team Oct 8.
It is to bad we couldn’t win that game, especially after Cueto went out, because that would have knocked the Giants hope’s down, even further.
That would have brought the focus even more on the Giants bullpen, and could have been one good final blow, to the Giants, epecially after both Crawford and Cueto went out.
We also needed to win that game even more, because we are facing the Giants leftie pitcher, that almost no hit us the last time we faced him.
Leftie pitching is our biggest weakness, and Kike, Segedin, and Culberson are not the answer, and they have not been the answer all year.
But for some reason, they continued to march them out there, game after game, instead of trying other options.
And Kike and Segedin, are trying to hit a HR, instead of just getting a hit, and that makes them easier, to get out.
Nomar said that they should be just trying to hit the ball the other way, or just concentrate on making contact to get a hit, since lefties are there weakness.
Kike will try to do that, for a couple of at bats, then he is back, to swinging from his heels again.
When Kike went on the DL, they should have made him play in AAA a month, after he came back, to try to get him hitting again, if they were going to count on him, to hit leftie pitching.
I hate to continue to say this, but this almost all rightie platoon line up, has not did much all year, and they are not going to suddenly be great against leftie pitching.
Also Grandal and Joc, are no help with runners on base, when all they can do, is swing for HRs, instead of just trying to get a hit, and hit the runners in, or move the runners over, into scoring position.
I’m sorry strike outs, are not productive outs, and they should be penalized more, with saber metric figures, and especially in the OPS formula.
Except for Grandals, first at bat, both Grandal and Joc came up to bat twice, with runners on, and swung from there heels, on almost every pitch they got, and they didn’t even make contact.
They were not the only ones, that didn’t get the runners in, or over, but there execution was poor, because a HR was not needed, that early in the game, when a single would have done the job.
It gets tiring watching that type of poor execution, when they both should know better, by now.
And sorry Puig should be playing and starting over Reddick, if they want to make this team better.
And Toles should be playing more too.
Most of Reddick’s hits, are more often infield singles, or bloop hits, just over the infield.
He seldom ever hits the ball that hard, and his offensive production, is not much at all.
For people who love OPS, Reddick is last in OPS on the team, except for Culberson, who seldom plays.
Roberts needs to have Puig start most of the time, because he is a much better answer on both defense and offense, then Reddick is, by a lot.
And really, most of the outfielders, are a better option then Reddick, and they deserve to be out there, and that would be best for the team.
Reddick is a veteran player, and he has been picked off twice, and there is no excuse for that.
I know anything can happen in baseball, that is part of the reason baseball is so much fun, but I am not looking forward to seeing our team hit against Moore tonight, but I hope they can suprise me.
But that is probably just wishful thinking, just like the same wishful thinking, by Roberts and his coaches, who put this platoon team on the field all season, hoping they will master leftie pitching.
MJ:
While I agree with you that strikeouts are not productive, I’d rather have our hitters strikeout than hit into a DP like Turner did last night with 2 on and no outs.
Agree.
Also, I don’t understand why Joc has been swinging so hard lately. He does that more often when he hits 8th, maybe with runners on base and the pitcher up next, there is more of a need to hit a home run than there is when the next hitter might actually keep a rally going.
Bum
When there is a runner on second, it just doesn’t take a HR to get a runner in.
I think Joc’s over swinging, is because he hit that one HR so far, and got a lot attention because of it.
If Joc only knew, that When he swings easier, and hits runners in, that makes everyone look at Joc more, and appreciate Joc more.
We all know he can hit the ball far, but we love it more, when Joc goes on a hitting streak, and does the little things right.
And that bothers me, because he can do just that, and he doesn’t have to swing that hard, to hit it out.
He is a strong young man.
Richie
I totally agree with that, but even what looks like a double play ball, can sometimes, not be played properly.
A double play ball, that is hit hard from one of our best players, is more easy to deal with, then a strike out with runners on base, by the same players, because they are not executing in the right way, over and over.
I totally agree someone else should bat 2nd and move the lineup down so Grandal isn’t hitting 5th.
Grandal should be hitting 10th right now.
I’m still nervous about the season. Too many shutouts lately. Too many late game wins. When will the gods strike back? The giants still will be formidable if they get in the playoffs. 4 starters who can go the distance. We MUST WIN today. Rockies come next against our rookies/bullpen. LaMahieu going for a batting title. We MUST WIN today. No pressure on Maeda, who will be on short rest–for him. It’s the shits being a pessimist.
Anderson starts Thursday. What’s up with that? A spring training start against a top hitting team? Pretty stupid, unless the plan is to go 3 and out. Even stupid then. Are we playing like the playoffs are in the bag? Not a good idea. Will the giants rally around their newly injured players like we did around Kershaw going down? I hope not. Just read this morning that on this day in 1964 the Phillies started a 10 game losing streak that lost them the pennant. Yikes. I was a fan of Richie Allen and Chris Short and Jim Bunning and still……….
If Anderson is healthy he might be the best choice. Kershaw, Hill, and Maeda aren’t available. Stewart will probably pitch Friday. Urias and De Leon are in the wings for long relief as is Stripling.
Long relief? What’s wrong with using them one or two innings at a time?
I would use caution with young arms that are destined for a bright future starting with next year’s rotation. Caution meaning not warming up in bullpen on consecutive days or multiple times in a game and pitching 2 to 3 innings.
If Dodgers couldn’t take advantage of SF last night they’ll never take advantage of anything. Nothing like reviving a team that’s done. Just a bit disappointed. Oh well, it’s the Dodgers, what can anyone expect.
Since 1958
You know they never do anything easy, because Vin has always schooled us, nothing comes easy for the Dodgers.
Maybe they are going to do it the hard way, and finally beat this leftie pitcher tonight.
I think the idea to bat Seager third, is a good idea.
I was looking at Corey’s RBIs, and he only has about 9 more RBIs, then Joc.
And Corey I believe has about 200 more at bats then Joc, so he should have more RBIs, then he has.
It is probably just because Corey is hitting second.
I think most baseball people want the best hitter to hit second, because the second hitter, will get more at bats, then anyone else of the team, except the first hitter.
And the second hitter, will still have opportunity to hit runners on base in.
I know that the latest thinking, but in just the first inning, if a hitter bats 3rd, what is the maximum number of runs they can drive in? It’s one more than if they bat 2nd. I am not a saber geek (although I see the value), so I want my best hitter to hit 3rd.
Howie
Seager
Turner
Agone
Puig
Chooch
Kike
Culberson (ridic)
Maeda
If Utley needs a day off, then just play Kike or Howie at 2b, and let Toles or a real player start in LF/CF
I am officially bored with Kike’ and Culbertson.
Mark, I agree that our best hitter should hit 3rd. Not only because they have the opportunity to drive in more runs in the first inning. I also want them getting chance to drive in more runs throughout the game, and that doesn’t happen when the #2 hitter is preceded later in the game by the pitcher and then the lead-off guy. I also prefer seeing a bit more speed at the top of the order at both #1 and #2. However, even though he’s not our best hitter, I’m perfectly comfortable having Turner hit 3rd.
The Dodgers did have some tough luck early in last nights game. In the first inning Turner hit the ball hard into that double play, and in the second inning there was Toles’ line drive to left. If either of those balls turn into hits, I think there is a strong chance that the Dodgers would have won the game. Still, it was frustrating to watch the Dodgers unable to mount much offense throughout the game.
I’m not ready to panic, but I’d love a victory tonight, if only to allow the Dodgers to better manage their pitching prior to the playoffs. And of course, I’ve seen some notable meltdowns over the years, so I take nothing for granted, and prefer to put this thing out of reach. Surely, I don’t relish the thought of the Dodgers going into their final series of season with the midgets less than 4 games in front.