If you thought the Dodgers would just coast through the rest of the regular season without any games being blown or terrifying injuries to key players then you’re probably unfamiliar with Dodger baseball, or with baseball for that matter. The Dodgers did walk-off to beat the Braves 5-4 in 10 innings on Sunday afternoon, but the focus was not on another thrilling victory. The focus was on Clayton Kershaw. The southpaw was forced to exit the game after just two innings because of what the Dodgers reported as lower right back tightness.
The news sent the twitter world into panic. What an aggravating turn of events for the Dodger nation. I had settled in with my cup of coffee ready to watch another pleasantly dominating Kershaw start. Instead I was greeted with Kershaw leaving with a back injury, Ross Stripling gagging up a run in the third, and Trayce Thompson striking out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third. Honestly I wanted to throw a shoe through my television set.
Braves 4 5 0
Dodgers 5 8 0
WP-Morrow-3-0
LP-Johnson-6-2
HR-Barnes-6-Bellinger-27-Adams-16
Kershaw looked fine retiring the side in the first and recording the first two outs in the top of the second. But after falling behind Tyler Flowers 3-1, he was seen grimacing after throwing a curveball in the dirt. The training staff immediately leaped out of the dugout and onto the field. Kershaw made a practice pitch and then the training staff and Dave Roberts left him in to finish the inning. As he walked Flowers we could see Ross Stripling warming up in the bullpen. Uh-oh.
Kershaw would then strike out Matt Adams, but his day was done. He was seen walking gingerly into the clubhouse. Flashbacks to last season’s herniated disc gave us all horrifying nightmares. The rumors of the Dodgers strong interest in Yu Darvish only makes us even more worried. Is this a reoccurrence of the same injury that kept him out for over 6 weeks last season?
The game went on, but I had trouble concentrating. My mind was on Kershaw’s back. The Braves were up 1-0 and the Dodgers couldn’t hit opposing starter Sean Newcomb who came into the game with an ERA of over 11 in July.
The Dodgers would eventually take the lead in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a three-run home run from Austin Barnes that landed into the Field seats inside the foul pole. With a 3-1 lead the Dodgers were forced to empty out their bullpen because of the Kershaw injury.
But the bullpen did well. Stripling pitched three innings and turned the ball over to Luis Avilan. He pitched an inning and two thirds and then Josh Fields came in to record the last out of the sixth inning.
Meanwhile the bats didn’t do much. Fortunately Cody Bellinger gave the Dodgers a hugely important insurance run in the bottom of the eighth when he slugged his 27th home run of the season off of Rex Brothers that landed into the Atlanta bullpen. That put the Dodgers up 4-1. It looked like the Dodgers would be fine, at least for the rest of the game.
Pedro Baez got the first two outs of the top of the eighth and then the Dodgers turned to Kenley Jansen for another 4-out save. Kenley got the Dodgers into the ninth with a three-run lead and again things looked fine.
The thing is, nobody can save 1,000 games in a row not even Kenley. There is always a due to lose factor in baseball and especially a due to blow a save factor for Kenley. California Love hadn’t blown a save since August of 2016. But that happened today as tub of lard Matt Adams hit a game –tying three-run home run with two outs in the top of the ninth to send the game into extra innings. Of course it was Adams that hit the game tying shot today of all days.
The Dodgers tried to walk it off in the bottom of the ninth when Barnes singled, took second on a wild pitch and advanced to third on a ground out. But they left him stranded there after Yasmani Grandal popped out.
Brandon Morrow pitched a scoreless tenth inning and I figured the Dodgers chances of winning lessened as each inning went by because they had emptied out most of their bullpen. They needed to win as soon as possible because of a thin bullpen.
They did that in the bottom of the tenth, off of former Dodger Jim Johnson for good measure. Chris Taylor singled, and was erased on the bases thanks to a Corey Seager force out. Justin Turner who’s been battling illness singled him to third. After the Braves intentionally walked Bellinger to load the bases, Logan Forsythe singles up the middle to win it for the Dodgers. 5-4 the final score.
The Minnesota Twins come into town tomorrow, but nobody is thinking of the Twins until we know what’s going on with Clayton Kershaw’s back. Tests are scheduled for tomorrow. Hyun-jin Ryu is scheduled to come off the disabled list to take the hill on Monday night. Reanimated corpse Bartolo Colon will toe the rubber for Minnesota.
The Dodgers are still in a great place with a 10.5 game lead in the NL West, but say a prayer for Kershaw as the Dodger’s 2017 season may rest upon his broad shoulders. Or back. Gulp.
It’s not anyone’s fault but as Vin Scully says the Dodgers never do anything easy!
Stripling and Stewart get their chances again and we need another long reliever to call up. Oaks?
Oaks is on the DL at OKC. So he is not an option. Justin Masterson has 9 wins down there. Font has 7. Both of their ERA’s are below 4. Font has 138 K’s in 101 innings. Masterson is averaging a K an inning. Font walks fewer batters. Font has given up 9 HR’s and Masterson 6. Pretty evenly matched if FAZ wants to go that way. There are a couple of relievers down there doing pretty well, Somsen and Broussard. But I doubt they get the call.
Remember “The Shredder”? I miss him tearing the uniforms off the heroes on walk-off wins.
https://twitter.com/jcrasnick/status/889179791886364677
Dodgers Place Brandon McCarthy On 10-Day DL; Activate Hyun-Jin Ryu
By Mark Polishuk | July 23, 2017 at 9:54pm CDT
The Dodgers have placed right-hander Brandon McCarthy on the 10-day disabled list due to a blister problem, the team announced. In a corresponding move, Hyun-Jin Ryu will be activated from the DL in time to start Monday night’s game. Kenta Maeda will take McCarthy’s place in the rotation on Tuesday night against the Twins.
I feel as if I wrote this column:
https://www.fanragsports.com/mlb/dodgers/column-2017-dodgers-must-win-world-series/
As Tim once told me. It’s about our finish.
I love the author’s bio:
Paul Lebowitz is the author of the novel Breaking Balls and his annual baseball guide. His work has appeared on AllVoices, FanIQ, and his personal site PaulLebowitz.com. He has been linked by Slate, ESPN, Keith Olbermann, Yahoo, and Baseball Think Factory. He lives in New York City.
He has been linked is the new….
What?
The guy is spot on. His suggestion about ‘playoffs being a crapshoot’ as being an excuse for the FAZ lovers was on mark as well. I’ve been saying that for awhile now. In fact any front office person that makes a statement along the lines of ‘the playoffs being a crapshoot’ should either resign or be fired immediately.
I’ve had enough with the gloating on other sites and I hope the naysayers (I call them the realists) can keep it real as they usually do. Too much gloating does this franchise no good.
It’s sports entertainment, not life. You get to start over every year.
The journey there and back is just as important. Just look at LeBron and Irving, or Kobe and Shaq.
Or better yet look at Magic and Bird.
I tell my kids don’t gloat when you win, don’t give up when you lose, and just be yourself. As a fan, as a bench player or as the star on a team. Sometimes we forget the lessons we learn as (amateur or professional) athletes when we go back to being a fan. Or a coach for kids. Sad and true, but it does not have to be that way.
YF
I don’t like to tempt fate either.
Because it seems the harder and louder someone does this, the quicker it comes back to them.
If this is the first tightness that Kershaw has felt, he may not be out that long.
The reason he was off as long as he was last year, was because he tried to rush back to quickly, and had a set back.
With the technology they have today, and the access these pro athletes have to the best doctors and surgeons, if I was Kershaw, I would have this taken care in the off season.
Because these type of surgeries are not as bad as they once were.
I had a herniated back surgery on the day that JFK junior died, so it has to be more then twenty years ago, and it wasn’t to bad.
I wasn’t able to sit down for at least four weeks, because they said that puts three times the weight on your back.
But now the surgeries are not that big of a thing, if it is only a herniated disc.
But I know next year is a pivotal year for him, because he can opt out, after next year.
MJ: “I don’t like to tempt fate either.
Because it seems the harder and louder someone does this, the quicker it comes back to them”.
Good observation MJ. Reminds me of what happened to Crooked Hillary. Speaking of Crooked Hillary, I haven’t seen so much back-peddling (than what has been going on this board) since watching Crooked Hill’s campaign headquarters the day after the election.
Yueh_Fei: “I think this site out of all the sites on the blog list was first to recognize Taylor’s talent. I just wanted to say this because every site and blogger is now on the Taylor bandwagon. I have no problem with everyone getting on the Taylor bandwagon but to play down this site on top of that is just bald faced lying. Very low and very sad”.
Badger: “Early in the season I saw an exit velocity over 100 from Taylor and I was very surprised. With his contact rate I knew we had something special”.
Ha Ha. I guess you two don’t remember all the AAAA player rants here do you? Or, it’s Colletti’s guys doing it. Or, FAZ coughing up hairballs. I was savaged here, when I said FAZ’s acquisition of Wood for the $30M paid on Olivera’s contact was a pretty good deal. You guys come around on that one yet?
Badger: “I feel as if I wrote this column”. Oh, yeah, I can remember you saying the following quote from the article many times. NOT!! Go tell it to Fraudy at Dodger Therapy.
“Their all-in attitude of spending whatever it took to put a championship club on the field went into overdrive since the group led by Mark Walter, Magic Johnson and Stan Kasten bought the team from Frank McCourt. No one can say their commitment to putting the best product on the field is lacking.”
Just so you two guys know that there is no hard feelings, here is some help for you.
Defense Mechanism is Denial, Distortion, Delusion.
https://blogs.psychcentral.com/humor/2015/11/defense-mechanism-is-denial-distortion-delusion/
Boxout
Firstly, I was not talking about this back and forth stuff!
I was talking about the Dodgers!
Secondly, I am sorry you choose to believe, a compulsive liar!
Compulsive liars, have no credibility, and non of the people around them, have any credibility either!
But they do have a money trail, and thank goodness, they are not to bright!
Who said I believed the compulsive liar? I didn’t believe ANYONE I saw at Crooked Hillary headquarters and you know I would never believe a word from Crooked Hill’s mouth.
You are correct, they do have a money trail. It leads right to the Clinton Crime Family Foundation and the sell of 20% of our nation’s uranium reserves, for donations and huge speaking fees for Slick Willy.
And no they aren’t too bright. Glad to see you didn’t buy into that Smartest Woman in the World B.S.!! Now, If we could only get you over that Obozo is the Smartest Man in the World B.S.!!!
Boxout, this site and its bloggers were all in on Taylor from spring training, while others were still making excuses for Kike and SVS. We were the first. And more than one person wanted Alex Wood to start over Hill in April (the idea was to make Hill the middle relief as Wood was pitching much better out of spring training). That’s why I call them the realists.
Maybe as old fashioned fans they were so far behind the times that they got lapped and find themselves in front of the curve (sort of).
Rangers asking for Buehler for Darvish, a 3.25 month rental. Dream on. I’m not sure I’d trade Verdugo for him.
Hill was a rental and we convinced him to stay. Unlike Hill, who wasn’t even pitching at the time, Darvish is pitching at an All Star level. He’s worth considerably more than Hill. And, the Rangers aren’t out of it yet. Hamels is back, if they don’t get what they want, they don’t have to trade him. If Qintana was worth Jimenez, Darvish is worth Buehler. Would I do it? I don’t know. Maybe. Will Darvish sign with us? Do we want him to sign with us? Or do we want another Latos/Hill? Scour the DL, who’s the most likely FAZandidate? Or…. Cole? Gray? Verlander? We might be able to keep Buehler if we include a young ML player. We have excess platoon players.
And to be honest, I’m not certain only one more starter is going to make the difference.
No Beuhler or Verdugo. Alvarez and Calhoun and whomever else.
Not giving up Seager and Urias for Hamels was the single best non deal this FO has made
Yeah, that would have been colossally stupid. Everyone agreed on that. It was never on the table. The person who originally suggested that is what it would take has been on the wrong side of every debate for over 20 years.
Sure that didn’t come from his ‘sources’ or maybe it was just ‘voices in his head.’ Please provide where Seager & Urias were the asking price from Philadelphia.
But do know that I was on record of trading for Chris Sale. Thought the Dodgers should have went hard after him last trade deadline AND I would have given them Urias in a heartbeat. Now look where things are at.
I don’t know many times I’ve linked baseball articles from multiple sources that clearly state that Ruben Amaro asked for at least one to all three of the trio of Pederson, Urias and Seager. We’ve been over this already.
It’s really easy to look it up yourself. It’s called Google. For example, just now, I “Googled” the keywords “Molly Knight, Hamels, Urias” and found several articles that revisit that trade possibility and basically just confirm what I just wrote.
This isn’t coming from the voices in Timmon’s head. This is on record by multiple sources in multiple written articles by baseball sports writers that takes all of about thirty seconds of search engine usage to confirm.
So, no. An ace level pitcher under team control could not have been had for Zach Lee and a bag of balls. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Here you go dodgerpatch. It won’t help though! These guys BELIEVE that the Phils just had to have Peraza!! If would be laughable, except it’s sad to see some suffer from psychological problems.
http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2014/07/29/phillies-wanted-joc-pederson-corey-seager-and-julio-urias-from-dodgers-for-cole-hamels/
Now according to Badger, Kiki and or Pederson for Gray or Rivero, Cole and McCutchen.
Denial, Distortion, Delusion. Please read about it Badger, I just want to help you!!!
NOWHERE did anyone on this site say we should trade both Seager and Urias for Cole Hamels. Repeating a lie does not make it true. Seager was ALWAYS off the table. And of course the Phillies would ask that at least one of those two be considered in the offer. They would be remiss if they didn’t. This argument is tiresome. Timmons and his sycophants, most notably catbox, have accused me of this Seager AND Urias crap for two years and it’s just a f’n lie.
Amaro understands the art of negotiation. A good negotiator will always ask for the moon…..along the lines of ‘he who speaks first loses’, there is only one way to speak first and not lose.
So did the youngins poop their pants and hang up the phone or did they counter offer?
One would think that a writer/reporter would provide the follow up information IF the original typed words were to be accurate. What did the Dodgers say in response? Counter offer? What were the Dodgers expecting to trade?
YF
He didn’t pitch well in his last post season appearance, he gave up two quick HRs early in one of the games he pitched in.
I don’t like to get involved in these stupid trade wars, but any team is going to ask for another team’s best prospects!
That is there job to do!
That is at the start of a negotiation.
Actually I like old timer Verlander or even Hill over Darvish in a playoff game. Just a personal instinctual bias, perhaps. I’ll do another long post later on starters using the Dodgers Digest trade comps plus a bit of my own digging ….
YF
I think Verlander may surprise a few people.
He is not pitching well this year, but he should have won the Cy Young award in the American League last year!
I think a change in scenery would do him good.
I would only be afraid of what he is getting paid, and the length of his contract.
Here are my “Untouchables” on the 25 Man Roster:
Kershaw
Wood
Jansen
Taylor
Seager
Turner
Bellinger
Barnes
The others are available if necessary in a trade.
That leaves several the Rangers would interested in. So would other clubs. Oakland would take Kiké and/or Joc and flip them at the deadline next year. Pittsburgh would love both too. A monster deal for Cole, Rivero and McCutchen….. is way out of the FAZ comfort zone.
Would you take Kemp back if you could trade Kazmir for him? Not sure about the $$ but I think he is owed a few more than Kazmir, but he would sure as Hell be more useful…. And we expand the deal with some good prospects for Garcia or Teheran or whomever the best choice might be. Give them SVS to replace Kemp, etc…
I wouldn’t. Watching him the last few days was disappointing. He’s got handles you could steer a Harley with.
But Kazmir is sunk money, no return at all. I’d settle for half a dozen important hits from Kemp in the next 3 months or so, then DFA him if you like.
Well, putting it that way, I suppose I would. But Kemp is still a middle order hitter for them. Kazmir is worthless.
And he was worthless the day we signed him, a fact that the FAZaholics conveniently don’t remember.
They conveniently leave out the failures but remember to bring up falsehoods they themselves created.
Some of the moves have worked. But many of them were colossal busts. It’s a good thing they have the bankroll they do.
MLBTR says Milwaukee wants Kinsler from Detroit but Detroit wants to include Wilson and apparently Milwaukee doesn’t want him. Where’s the problem? FAZ should call both sides and say he’d be glad to contribute Mr. Tree Trunks for Wilson…. Or maybe if Detroit wants an outfielder, how about Good Ol’ Joc?
Joc for a reliever would cause an apoplectic tidal wave in FAZburg.
Another good reason to do it….
“The Dodgers were interested in Rangers ace Yu Darvish even before Clayton Kershaw‘s back injury, writes Jon Morosi of MLB.com. The timetable for Kershaw’s return, once determined, will further impact their level of interest in Darvish and other arms on the market. Morosi hears that among Dodgers’ top prospects, the team is most attached to right-hander Walker Buehler, who has already ascended to Triple-A and could conceivably help the club in 2017. Texas, meanwhile, would likely target two of the Dodgers’ top four prospects (Buehler, Yadier Alvarez, Alex Verdugo and Willie Calhoun), per Morosi, which is a steep but largely unsurprising ask with the Rangers seemingly on the fence about whether to move Darvish at all.”
Calhoun and Alvarez?
http://m.rangers.mlb.com/news/article/244010516/sources-dodgers-interested-in-yu-darvish/
Kershaw out 4 to 6 weeks! https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/889534827036364800
That’s a lot better than 10. And there is no structural damage. Means he will be back for the stretch run. If it is six weeks he misses maybe 5 or 6 starts. That means early September. So a little more than half of the games they have left. It also means a fire is lit under FAZ’s tushi. He needs to act fast to bridge the gap.
As of this moment, 11:30 MST neither Kershaw or McBrittle have been placed on the DL yet. That will probably occur sometime this after noon, which means 2 roster moves. If they DL Kersh today. Ryu is coming off the DL to make tonight’s start against the amazingly rotund Bartolo Colon. I think they have to make a move of some sort, be it Darvish or Gray. I do not want to see them get Verlander despite his playoff experience. Contract clogs the system for a couple of years, and his production at this point is pretty mediocre. The problem is being held hostage because teams know you are down 2 starters. And one of them is your ace. Last year, Kershaw was out for 10 weeks, that was because it was a disc. This time it seems more muscle related which is much better news. Strain’s are not uncommon to the back. It is also pretty easy to treat. Since he went to the DR last night, we should learn more later in the day. If there ever was a time for Rich Hill to live up to that contract, it is now. Wood has been great, he needs to stay that kind of pitcher, Maeda and Ryu need to step it up too. The BP is going to be tested and the team is going to have to suck it up and play some good old hardball. We all know FAZ’s hesitation when it comes to big ticket trades. The 13 player deal with the Braves and Marlins did not really include any big name stars. There were some young guys in that trade and some over the hill, LATOS< MORSE, a huge free agent bust, Olivera, an injured reliever, Paco Rodriguez, and some kids with talent, Wood, Peraza, and a solid lefty reliever, Avilan. But no real big names. The Dodgers obviously have gotten the best of that deal, oh, I forgot yesterdays loser Johnson. The big names FAZ has gotten have been in his winter trades. Or let me put that better, players that fit his saber metric guide to baseball. Hill and Reddick cost 3 top 30 prospects and they were rentals. Darvish is a rental, so by himself he will probably be worth at least 2. Gray is team controlled for I think 2 more years, so it would cost more to get him. I would have liked that deal better had they been able to piggyback someone like Doolittle with him, but since he was traded, that is not happening. The A's though, might want somebody off the big league roster who is MLB ready. There are so many rumors flying around right now. It is hard to tell which are based in fact and which are just dreamed up in someone's mind. That Pirate blog writer was dreaming when he proposed Stewart-Stripling for Watson-Jaso.
Oh, one other thing while I am thinking about it. There are at least 4 other teams who are interested in both of those guys, Cubs, Mariners, Yankees, and the Astros. That could cause a bidding war, and I doubt FAZ wants to engage in one of those. He did win the Jansen war, but only because Kenley wanted to stay. He was bidding against himself with Hill because no one else was. I do not think the Yankees have enough left in their system to tempt the Rangers, and not sure the Rangers want to trade Darvish to a division rival. So that leaves the Cubs, Mariners, and Dodgers. Think how happy the Giants are that they do not have to face Kershaw this weekend.
Dodgers can out-prospect both the Mariners and the Cubs. It just depends on how much FAZ wants to win, he has the cards if he needs them…
I totally agree. One thing the team has plenty of and that is prospects. So far the only two they seem really unwilling to trade are Buehler and Verdugo. Texas reportedly wants at least two of these 4, Alvarez, Verdugo, Buehler and Calhoun. I trade tree trunks and Alvarez. Maybe even throw in one of our lower level catchers or SS of which we have a bunch, Lux, Smith, just to sweeten the deal.
Darvish will be seeking $30 million a year for 6 years. You think FAZ would give that up? Hill was easy compared to that. Not much competition for him. Darvish is different.
What about Gray? He’s only 27 and not a free agent until ’20. Oakland and LA know each other well. I don’t believe Gray will cost as much as Darvish or Verlander. Is he enough?
Not the way he has pitched over his last 27 games. His ERA is north of 4. But he would be less costly and fits the control factor FAZ likes. Thing is, right now, that would degenerate into a bidding war. There are about 6 teams he is linked to. Pirates still on the fence as to whether they are selling. According to reports, Harrison and McCutcheon are untouchable at this point, but they are willing to trade guys like Jaso, Nicasio and Wilson. Cole is a maybe.
Badger
Are you insinuating you want them to make another trade, with the A’s?
Would Darvish even talk about signing an extension?
Darvish is not going to get re-signed by FAZ. That impacts how many prospects we give up.
Also we’ve got some MLB ready backend starters and Kazmir. And Stripling and Stewart who could surprise as full time starters. That will make FAZ not want to give out any contract to a non-ace in excess of $20m per year.
MJ, I didn’t mean to say I thought it was a good idea. I’m just guessing on what it is the Dodgers might do. Gray is 6-4 on a last place club. He’s averaging 6 IP per outing, last 28 days he has a .152.BAA so it sounds like he’s pitching well. Oakland won’t expect our top prospects, and I’m ok with Calhoun and Alvarez going in trade. Darvish is a rental, who knows if he’ll extend, will be costly and Verlander doesn’t fit the FAZ model.
I don’t know if anyone here read this in the LA Times today, but Kershaw was working for a charity a day before he started yesterday.
And he was holding his daughter in his right arm, and he was bending over and picking up backpacks with his left arm, and giving them to kids.
I don’t know how long he did that, but I think this might have caused him, to have this back problem.
And Kershaw is much much taller, then I am, so he has to bend down even farther, to pick up things!
Just imagine how awkward that would be holding his daughter in his right arm, and bending over to pick up backpacks, with his left arm, and handing them to kids.
He is off balance on one side of his body, when he is doing this.
Badger
We don’t have a really good rightie starter right now, and he is not a rental.
I will say this about Gray he pitched well in the post season, when the A’s last went to the post season.
It would be fun to see what Calhoun will do if he went to the A’s, since I don’t know what we are going to do with him.
Because I think he is more then ready, to hit in the majors right now!
And you know he would come up faster for the A’s.