The Dodger’s big blue heroic steamroller rolled right over their latest victim on Friday night. This time it was their hated rivals the Giants time to suffer. The blue wheel spun and spun and tonight’s player of the game was Corey Seager who hit two huge home runs in the Dodger’s 6-4 win over San Francisco in the series opener. Doesn’t it feel a little more special against the Giants? Come on just admit that you know it does.
The Dodgers and Giants are two clubs moving in opposite directions. The Dodgers came into the opening game of the three game series on Friday night 31.5 games ahead (now 32.5) of the Giants. The Dodgers are on pace for 111 wins, meanwhile the Giants are on pace for 100 losses.
Somehow the Giants have the edge in the season series between the two clubs. It doesn’t matter how good the Dodgers are or how bad the Giants are, San Francisco will always find a way to play the Dodgers tough and be a thorn in their side. How in the world did the Dodgers lose 6 of 10 to these guys? I don’t know but the hated Giants rolled into town to play a weekend set at Dodger Stadium.
Giants 4 8 1
Dodgers 6 6 1
WP-Wood-12-1
LP-Kontos-0-5
SV-Jansen-26
HR-Seager-17-18-Crawford-9
The pitching match-up saw 11-1 Alex Wood taking on fellow southpaw Matt Moore. It’s important to remember that Moore nearly no-hit the Dodgers about a year ago here. It’s also important to remember that Moore is one of the worst starting pitchers in the National League. Let me show you just how bad Moore is.
Moore has a 5.82 ERA and has allowed 138 hits in 111.1 innings pitched. Take a look at that again and notice he’s allowed 11.2 hits per nine. Moore is awful and of course the Dodgers had just two hits against him through the first 6 innings. Even though Wood gagged up a one-run lead in the seventh inning as the Giants scored 3 unanswered runs (no thanks to Corey Seager’s throwing error), the Dodgers were still able to do their usual and score four runs in the bottom half of the seventh inning to one-up the Giants. That got Wood off the hook and the Dodgers had another brilliant come from behind win. Final score Dodgers 6 Giants 4.
The game began as both clubs exchanged solo home runs. Seager hit one out in the second frame and the Giants got one from Brandon Crawford. The Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth thanks to some good base running and some sloppy defense from the Giants. Austin Barnes walked and took second on a wild pitch from Moore. Nick Hundley’s throwing error allowed him to go to third.
After Jae-Gyun-Hwang’s diving stop on Kike’s sharp grounder to third, Joc Pederson walked. The Giants made another critical mistake when nobody was covering second base on Alex Wood’s grounder to short. Joc was running on the play and the Giants could only retire Wood. Barnes crossed the plate to give the Dodgers the lead.
Taylor did flash some leather in the second inning. He’s not all bat and no glove certainly.
The seventh inning is where things got wild. The Giants scored three runs in that frame off Wood. It started with a Buster Posey bloop single and after a Brandon Crawford force out erased Posey, Hwang’s single to center scored Crawford to tie the game. Oh and Seager did make a horrible throw… but don’t worry he would make up for it later.
Then Hundley doubled, and Gorkys Hernandez’s double brings home Hwang (just ahead of the throw) to plate the fourth San Francisco run. That makes the score 4-2 Giants.
There was worry, and I was admittedly annoyed. But these are the 2017 Dodgers, so you know they’re going to have something left in the tank. There is no give up in these boys.
In the bottom half of the seventh, Barnes leads-off with a walk. After Kike looks at a called strike three, Joc doubles Barnes to third. In comes George Kontos from the San Francisco bullpen and pinch-hitter Yasiel Puig’s grounder scores Barnes to put the Dodgers within one at 4-3. Miracle man Chris Taylor does it again by flaring a double into shallow left field to tie the score at 4-4.
Another pitching change from the Giants (Josh Osich) does nothing as Corey Seager immediately crushes a two-run home run to put the Dodgers back up by a 6-4 score. That was all she wrote. Brandon Morrow pitches a scoreless eighth inning and Kenley Jansen finished the Giants off in the ninth. Dodgers win 6-4!
The two clubs will battle again tomorrow afternoon in a nationally televised broadcast. Rich Hill will take on Ty Blach in another duel of southpaws. The entire world will be able to see the Giants get embarrassed. What a magical season this has become hasn’t it?
Oh and Seager also did this too….
Wood Pitching line : 7 IP 4 ER 8 H 0 BB 5 K
Feel great to come back on the Giants! Corey sure walloped that hanging curve from a lefty.
These Dodgers punish mistakes. And the teams we’ve been playing make a lot of them. This is fun to watch. 110 wins and a championship. What could possibly go wrong.
Have to chuckle over the Matt Moore description. Didn’t we just the other day have some folks here pining for Moore over, say, Alex Wood or Rich Hill? “Yeah, but he goes seven innings. He’s a workhorse.”
Meanwhile, lap up the schadenfreude with some Brisbee. Oh, if you skim through the comments you’ll read a lot of sentiment about the Dodgers being lucky because Friedman + payroll. The single demographic on Earth who hates the Dodgers and everything Dodgers more than any other gives much more credit to this front office – grudging admiration, actually – than the posters here who seem preternaturally disposed to heap scorn on Friedman for every move they make (yes, even the Chris Taylor for Zach Lee move was derided…where are you now, haters?)
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2017/7/28/16059424/giants-dodgers-think-happy-thoughts
Yeah, I have a right to poke sticks at the FAZophobes.
One I read that article and commented. I praised their posters who offered wonderful insight into why their team has gotten to this point. Didn’t read any response.
Two I still take Moore over Hill. Moore in the traditional 7 inning approach vs Hill 5 innings is two different models. For me Moore offers far more upside. And I don’t care if that offends that cat box guy.
Three Taylor had been great. No doubt about it. But when its Culberson, Segedin, Gutierrez, Eibner, Taylor then its 1 out of 5. They hit the nail on the head with him. The rest? Not nearly as successful. Genius? To some. To others, like myself, they caught a wonderful break.
Ok, after careful consideration I’ve come to this conclusion:
I don’t trade Verdugo. I trade Pederson. I know Michael ain’t gonna like that, and I’m fairly certain FAZ and the Obsequious Band of ‘ophants probably don’t agree, but I think Verdugo has ML centerfielder written all over him. If you package him with a young arm, you better get an ace back.
Well Badger, I don’t care if they trade Joc if they get something decent in return. Verdugo has been seen by some as comparable to Brett Butler. So if we were to have a guy who was a good leadoff man like Butler, it would not bother me all that much. I like Pederson’s power and his steady glove in CF, but if Verdugo is that good an outfielder, well so be it. But I doubt anyone has to worry about FAZ trading Verdugo. All reports I have read is that the two untouchables are Verdugo and Buehler. The others, not so much. I hate losing guys for a rental, but sometimes that is the price you have to pay. When I heard that they had traded for Luke Farrell, I was disappointed because I was hoping for Luke Skywalker.
Regarding the lengthy Free Agent signing debate/investigation between Yueh_Fei and Bluto on the prior thread. Bluto said, “I really don’t know what the heck Boxout was saying. I’m sorry for that”. Well, I am ready to solve this mystery for you guys..
The Barber did it!!
http://www.espn.com/blog/los-angeles/dodger-report/post/_/id/22359/a-well-timed-cut-helped-influence-the-dodgers-winter
Sorry Yueh_Fei, this is going to hurt, but, all indications are the barber is a FAZophant. So Bluto wins!
And, with your history of bitter inaccurate prattle we are expected to take your word as final judgment on the subject?
I think not.
Why don’t we leave egos out of it and just believe what the two players themselves said when asked why they stayed home? It really isn’t that complicated.
Bitter inaccurate prattle??? A baseless attack, but typical, is it projection???
Instead of looking to Fraudy at Dodger Therapy for help, try this.
YF said that wasn’t the point when I indicated that to him. It was something about Boxout.
Let’s move on, please!
Nice try boxout. “All indications” was a dead giveaway that the article support nothing you said.
Joc and Alvarez for Sonny. If they whine, they can have Mr. Tree Trunks also… Then we call up Verdugo and see what he’s got. (They can also have SVS, Hatcher, Franklin G, and a couple others just for shipping cost.)
I like the foundation but I doubt the A’s have room for our failed experiments.
And frankly as much as we might prefer Verdugo in center, and I think I do, a deadline deal moving a starting centerfielder might upset the FAZapple cart. Too risky even for their blood. I just don’t want to see a .300 hitting CFer with a cannon for an arm sent off for a rental. I might do it for Gray, but I would want several MRIs, including one on his grandpa looking for genetic flaws. To me, Gray looks like a potential Lincecum, who peaked at 24-25, then faded fast. Gray turns 28 in November.
I would prefer a 25 year old right handed pitcher built like the ones St Louis keeps running out there – 6’6″ and lanky. Gray will do for this year, as will Darvish. But I don’t really want to use Verdugo.
Who doesn’t like a right handed pitcher built like the ones St Louis keeps running out there – 6’6″ and lanky. Sounds like you finally came around on McCarthy! Yeah, he isn’t 25, but he is available.
Like I explained in an earlier post, the A’s really like Yankees CF prospect Florian. He is 18 years old. He is one of the players that they have put out there in talks with the Yanks. So Maybe Pederson is tooooooooooo long in the tooth for them.
Dodgers are going to bargain hunt.
What else is new?
That is their MO. Will they ever do the big ticket thing? Who knows. It stinks in here…….oh,,,,….Box is back…that explains it.
I didn’t see all of the game yesterday, but I saw that last few innings.
Even though Puig wasn’t able to get a hit with the runners in scoring position, he did the next best thing, and made contact, and hit a grounder, to get the run home.
And I am proud of Puig doing that, because not everyone is able to put the ball in play, in those situations.
And when Corey came up I had a feeling that he would get the hit to make us go ahead, to make up for his throwing error, and he did!
I don’t think the Giants and Boche, knew the team they were playing, or watching, because this team may have all the same players, but these players are now a real team!
And what a fun team to watch!
I love that every player has there day on this team, like every dog has their day.
A new night, and a different player, or players, end of coming around, to help this team win the game.
And that is why my focus is on the team, and the players, and Roberts and his coaches, not mainly on the front office, but they are a part of this team, too!
Bochy complimented the Dodgers post game last night. He said they were one of the best teams he had seen. Both of course are firsts for any member of the Giants organization. I was proud of Yasiel too, and after the at bat, where was he? Over next to Turner Ward talking about the at bat.
Michael
It looked like most of the Giants players, and Bochy, didn’t know what hit them.
We looked like the Giants use to look in the later innings, when they would always find a way, to come back and beat us.
The way things are going, someday soon the Dodgers will have 9 players on the field who are all catchers! Or at least can play catcher as well as the other positions they play. Perhaps each one will catch one inning per game, but that might be disturbing to the pitchers… More likely they will catch a game in rotation every 9 days or so. But then, what about the All-Star Game….
Kike is actually an emergency catcher. Saw him with the gear on a couple of times. Kershaw played catch in the outfield yesterday……hmmmm
Michael
Like I have already said, I think Kershaw was sore from that one day.
And because of that, I think he might be back faster then three weeks.
He also has to know that even playing catch, he uses his back muscles, so I hope he is being careful, especially after last year, when he tried to come back to soon, and had a set back.
Muscle problem entirely different from the disc. Easier to come back from that. Discs usually require surgery. My daughter has had 4 surgery’s on her back because of degenerative discs.
Scuttle from around the place:
Ken Rosenthal has Sources. And those sources say: the Dodgers’ three main targets are Darvish, Gray, Britton. Not necessarily in that order; the team’s decisions likely hinge on asking prices. To be clear: It’s possible the Dodgers end up with none of the three, and settle for lesser pieces. Fluid.
Jerry Crasnick talks about an old friend of the Dodgers: The Marlins are extremely open to discussing Dee Gordon, who has a .694 OPS and is guaranteed $38M after this season. Not much traffic there.
MLB’s Mark Feinsand has his own sources and they tell him that Dodgers are “bargain hunting” and appear unwilling to part with any top prospects. Would certainly impact their chances at Darvish.
Finally, Jon Heyman sez that his sources tell him barring a “miracle,” justin verlander will remain a tiger though the deadline.
https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/891346169619787776
Texas wants either Verdugo or Beuhler. Not going to happen. If they take Calhoun it may happen.
Could FAZ improve this team. Yes they can but at what price. We could use a starter and a relief pitcher. The best decision FAZ has made was to try and keep their good farm kids. He has kept Seager, Bellinger, and Urias. Where would be now without Seager and Bellinger.
We could use a LHRP. However, Morrow looked nasty last night. Ravin looked good on Wednesday. Jansen is his usual self. We have a pretty darn good bull pen right now. Do not trade Verdugo or Beuhler or anyone else FAZ thinks will make the Dodgers team in the future. The one piece I think we can give up is Calhoun. He is blocked at second base.
I should know better, but I think (????) if the Dodgers get Sonny, they’re going all the way. I don’t really know what BB is asking for or will accept for him, but I think I might throw Verdugo in the pot, him and Tree trunks ought to be enough. I’d still rather unload Joc on them, though….
Another point; If Verdugo is gone, Texas might settle for something else for Darvish. Then we could put Kazmir, McCarthy, Hill, and Agon on waivers. They’d all clear with their salaries, and we could make our best deal as to get out of the penalty box next year.
Nice idea, but it will never happen. They would clear waivers no doubt, but you would still be on the hook for 36 mil for Hill, over 20 for A-Gone, and Kazmir and McBrittle cost you another 32. And Jonah, do yourself a favor, read some of the sites, Verdugo is not going to be traded. He is not even on the table in none of the trades and personally, I think Gray is going to end up a Yankee.
He’s not going to be traded until he’s traded. Things change, Only The Rocks Are Forever…. Never trust baseball execs/
the purpose of the waivers is to detect interest. Maybe a club would be interested in taking one of those players and paying half their salary. Anybody want Agon next year for $10MM? Or Hill for $6MM? McCarthy for $6MM. It is a step in the right direction and would reduce our penalty. And it costs nothing!!!!
If I told you some idiot proposed trading Verdugo for Frazier, could you guess who it was? His dumbest ever.
Depends on the Frazier. If it is the old guy, we had him and traded him to the Sox because he was who we got for Schebler, Peralta and Dixon. We got Montas, Thompson and Johnson for Frazier. The young one in Pinstripes is one of their top prospects.
Apparently that is the case. My fault, I did not read the link. The trade would never happen anyway, but I slandered the old coot wrongly. Mea culpa.
Both Fraizers are on the Yankees right now!
The young one struck out three times more, then he walked, in the minors last year.
And he has only had 77 at bats!
Only 77 major league at bats.
The idiocy is all relative. Every single hare brained or well thought out trade proposal here or elsewhere is just fanboys engaging in a mental exercise that means absolutely nothing. Friedman doesn’t take our advice.
And in terms or relative idiocy, I’d be pretty careful with calling other people idiots over trade hypotheticals – Joc ain’t going anywhere.
Bad news……..Chris Hatcher sent on a re-hab assignment to the AZL Dodgers……..oh no Mr Bill!
I was watching last nights AZ-StL game when Robbie Ray got hit by a line drive back through the box. Got him on the left side of his head. Cost him 3 stitches and now he is on the concussion protocol. Pretty scary stuff. Then the same thing almost happens to Wood. There was a lot of blood. But he was sitting up when they took him out in the little cart. Hate to see that stuff happen.
New name on the starting pitching radar. Dan Straily. Marlins have made him available and the Dodgers are kicking the tires. Cubs interested in old friend AJ Ellis as a backup for their starting catcher. No news on any of the other starters they have been chasing.
Mediocre pitcher. Not going to happen. He doesn’t move the needle. He’s not an impact. The Dodgers don’t need yet another mid 3 ERA pitcher. They already have plenty of those kicking around.
And the Dodgers aren’t getting Yu unless they can score deal. Verlander…forget it. He’s old, expensive and he stinks.
Remember when everyone was talking about trading for Braun?
More news!
For Badger: Dave Roberts said the Dodgers plan on stretching Brock Stewart’s pitch count in his next start to around 70 pitches.
An odd thing on Darvish, Jeff Passan reports he was tipping his pitches. Does that imply a mechanical issue or a health one? Honestly, I have no clue.
Sources: Yu Darvish was tipping his pitches in his last start. Goes a long way to explaining why he allowed 10 runs, the most in his career. Two scouts and an executive said Marlins knew what was coming from Darvish. A slight pause with hands when he was throwing his fastball.
McCullough says the team is more focused on Darvish than Gray. “Meanwhile, the Dodgers are still in on Darvish, still monitoring Gray, still looking for relief help. Luckily the deadline is almost here.”
It’s an easily corrected problem. Catchers should be looking for that sort of thing.
If Stewart is lucky he will complete 4.2 innings with 70 pitches. I know innings mean little to some, but our pen could show the strain come late September. Torre and Mattingly didn’t seem to care. Throw them out there til their arms fall off then throw the next guy out there. Roberts is working the problem. He gets it. We need a rested, healthy staff come October. The HELP WANTED sign is in the window.
I just watched Sergio Romo come into the game for Tampa with a 3-2 lead, and promptly make the game 4-3 NY on his 2nd pitch
Thank god he’s gone!
If Stewart is lucky he will complete 4.2 innings with 70 pitches. I know innings mean little to some, but our pen could show the strain come late September. Torre and Mattingly didn’t seem to care. Throw them out there til their arms fall off then throw the next guy out there. Roberts is working the problem. He gets it. We need a rested, healthy staff come October. The HELP WANTED sign is in the window.
(This is a repost. The same one sits in moderation because I misspelled my email. My bad Scott. If two show up, you can ignore one. If you’re catbox you can ignore them both)
Badger
I think Mattingly ruined Paco!
Did Orel drive you nuts, with his excuses, and his homering, last night.
Orel is too anal about recounting his stories about himself. Joe Davis is starting to get a little more interesting, he is actually starting to recount some inside stories on players, much like Vinny always did. However, Orel seems to jump right in after those stories and try to relate it to himself.
I sure hope they don’t upset the team with a rental acquisition again this year. The record on these flops is getting quite lengthy over the last few years.
The Forsythe Saga should be over. NOW
Hush, you will upset Box about one of FAZ’s prize pickups.
Forsythe does play a great 2b. I don’t like him batting 5, but def helping out on the defensive end
Pederson still here, I thought sure he’d be gone by now…. Well, a couple of more days…
Jonah, since he came back from the DL he is hitting over .290 with 9 homers. I do not think the Dodgers are in that big a hurry to trade Joc as you are. I doubt very seriously that he is traded or even in the discussion right now. Also, it looks like the A’s might pull Gray off the market. And the asking price for Straily is Gray like according to sources. Straily is supposedly the Dodgers back up plan.
Rich Hill in July:
5 starts
5 runs in 31 IP (1.45 ERA)
19 hits (.171 BA against)
40 Ks, 5 walks
0.84 WHIP
Dodgers won the first four
Per Jon Heyman on twitter..and I hope this is BS, Dodgers and Jays close to a deal for Jose Bautista. WTF??? I read it with my own eyes and I do not believe it………
Got a link? That is rather unbelievable…
I just saw it on his stream about 10 minutes ago. He was also talking about Betances wanting a trade from the Yankees, and the Gray talks stalling with the Bombers. I wouldn’t know how to get you a link, just check #jonheyman on twitter.
Couldn’t find it. If it’s true, it’ll surface soon enough… too soon actually. What in the H would we do with him?????
To take Gutierrez’s place on the bench.
I don’t see Bautista being happy on the bench?
Let’s see if I can make that work…. Hmmm… OK, I got it. We DFA Joc, have Taylor play centerfield, Bellinger and Joey Bats play 1st and LF, however they want to do it….
( I couldn’t resist pulling the Joc lover’s chains)
We are now in the phase where teams make their last ditch trade posturing by pulling trade candidates off the table ….
Jonah
I couldn’t find it either!
I think some people are on to you!
I looked at a lot of his posts and I could not find it again. So who knows, right now there is nothing going on but a bunch of rumors and minor deals. I just watched Beltre get his 2999th hit.
Baseball America has a nice article out summarizing the impact of the luxury tax and the lowering of a team’s top pick by 10 spots (though top 6 protected).
Based on earlier reporting (there was a nice older one that Bluto referred to, from USA Today) the goals of several FOs are to be lux tax free in 2018, because a lot of money will be spent that year with so many elite FAs hitting the market. In other words, the rich teams want to be under for 2018 to avoid the repeater penalty, then if they go over it by a lot to sign elite talent they will only pay the luxury tax at the low end.
What I’m trying to figure out is how much of our payroll is actually going down before 2018 and min 2018.
Estimated 2018 Payroll w/o Options (guaranteed + Arb + other) $227.7mm. I believe the Luxury tax level is $197mm
Some creative number crunching will need to happen to get that ’18 payroll figure to actually go down. I’ve been hearing that “below” line for going on 3 years. We’ll see.
Where did you get that #?
Spotrac has it at slightly over $177mm.
http://www.spotrac.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers/payroll/2018/
FAZ has spoken: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/07/dodgers-acquire-luis-ysla-from-red-sox.html
Not sure why we bother. From that article Jonah posted: “Ysla pitched himself out of the Boston organization’s plans by logging a 5.05 ERA, 8.5 K/9 and 6.2 BB/9 over 46 1/3 innings with its Double-A affiliate this season.”
FAZ is FAZ (You want reason, go somewhere else)
I know Ysla:
Very live arm. 97ish and throws from a neat lower than 3/4 arm angle. CH/SL are being developed, but a lot of Sox fans thought eventually his 3 pitch mix could work in the pen.
Command is an issue.
He’s young and Venezuelan, so he’s not heading home anytime soon.