Every team in Major League baseball began their game at 12 PM PST on Sunday afternoon, the last day of the regular season. The final day of the regular season has different meaning for each team depending on where you are in the standings. For the Dodgers it’s a meaningless game as they prepare for the NLDS beginning on Thursday evening at Dodger Stadium. Home field advantage in the National League playoffs is already locked up. Unfortunately if the Dodgers play the Astros in the World Series (which they probably will) then they will not have home field. The Dodgers will either play the Brewers or the Nationals in the NLDS, whoever wins the NL wild card game on Tuesday. With the victory the 2019 Dodgers become the best team in Dodgers franchise history. Their 106 wins have set a new all-time record.
I just want to skip ahead and see if the Dodgers win the World Series. This year’s club has set incredible records on offense, with a blitz of home runs, walks, and clutch hitting. The Dodgers finished off a sweep of the Giants on Sunday with a 9-0 win. The game provided little suspense with the Dodgers scoring five runs in the top of the first and never relinquishing from there. The Giants never challenged. Corey Seager cleared the bases with a three-run double, and Will Smith added a home run. Even Austin Barnes drove in two runs with a single. The good thing to see was Rich Hill delivering three scoreless innings and striking out four. Hopefully he will be healthy enough to pitch in the postseason. He looks good, except for pitching without a left knee.
The rest of the game unfolded without much drama. The Giants are possibly saying goodbye to manager Bruce Bochy and pitcher Madison Bumgarner. While Joe Davis droned on and on about Bruce Bochy’s greatness, the Dodgers brought in Clayton Kershaw to pitch the bottom of the fifth inning in order to get him some work before the playoffs. Bungarner was given a token at-bat in that frame in which he doffed his cap to the crowd and then lined out to third. Kershaw himself then doffed his cap in salute to Bumgarner. The veteran hurler is a free agent at season’s end and is unlikely to return to San Francisco.
On a side note, I have been somewhat detached this season. I’ve been focusing on other things and haven’t had much time to write or promote over here. For that I apologize. This seems like a good time to let you all know that I will be semi-retiring at the end of the postseason. I assure you that this place will not go dark, but this seems like the best time to let you all know our plans for the future over here. I’ll have more on this later, but it involves installing a forum so the few of you who still post here have a place to hang and talk Dodgers. I greatly appreciate everyone who has stuck around to keep this place going. I think we’ve had a great run over here over the last few years. Hopefully the Dodgers have another great run left in them. Let’s see what happens.
Good Luck Scott. Thanks for everything. It must be tough to juggle the website and your personal life, especially with two disappointing World Series losses in a row. I am sure that if they were a winner, it would have made things a lot easier for you.
Let’s hope the Dodgers have enough left in the tank to send you off on a happy note. That sure would be nice.
Nice way to end a great regular season. Now the real season starts.
I would love to see some sorry (alliteration) of retrospective from Scott.
What he had seen in fandom over the years. The rise of toxic fandom. The impact of podcasts and Bleacher Report-type sites, the weird tiny enclave of #firefraudman bozos, how analytics have elected or not effected blogging, what it’s like to run a blog….
I really enjoyed this video which touched on some of the above:
https://www.trendsmap.com/twitter/tweet/1178003141767438336
I’m back and full of piss and vinegar. I loved send Bochy into retirement with a Dodgers’ sweep in SF, that couldn’t have been scripted any sweeter.
Good luck, Scott, thanks for the thread to continue to exist, I hope you will still be posting in the future.
GasKanley is still a moments notice from blowing any and all games he enters. Yesterday was classic GasKanley, hits first batter, gives up a single to the next hitter, then Giants batters bail him out by swinging the bat, if they leave the bat on their shoulder he would have issued three straight walks. In the playoffs, I fully expect him to be a total crap shoot.
Hello True Blue:
The one thing that is a concern to me going forward this PS is that they may have vulnerability once again to LHP. If ya noticed, the Dodgers scored 20 runs in these 3 games while sweeping the Giants and ALL of this run producing was off their RHP. As soon as Bochy brought in his lefties, the Dodgers were stopped completely. It makes me wonder why he didn’t start these games against Dodgers with a LHP. but actually, had Giants been contending for something he may have, IDK. But going forward here the Dodgers play against the better LHP they may see is of concern.
Lefty line up stinks…. been that way most of the season. So, why not just play the hot bat of Pederson?
This I could not believe…. Game 1, 1 on, 1 out. Pederson was 1-3 with a 2-run HR. A leftywas brought in, and what does DR do? You guessed it, bring in a pinch hitter. Freese swings at first pitch, and GIDP?♂️.
I hope DR does not pull that crap in the playoffs…. but he will. You know he will.
You are right Paul, “Lefty Lineup” will be the Dodgers’ downfall…. along with Jansen.
We is gunna see lotza lefties this post season, are you ready for severe frustration this post season? I’m not but I am not expecting much, so I guess anything good will be a bonus for me.
I’m feeling same as you, True Blue. I am not expecting much this post season, so anything they achieve “positive” is just icing on the cake. If they go all the way, a World Series Cake Topper will be in order… I will celebrate, but I will not apologize….I’ll just chalk it up to “Luck”.
Go Blue!