Every major league pitcher has an Achilles Heel stadium. For Clayton Kershaw, it’s Oakland-Alameda Stadium, where the Oakland Athletics play.Believe it or not, Kershaw came into tonight’s game without ever having won there. With a struggling Dodgers offense ( which has never got a hit off Oakland starter Mike Fiers) behind him, the odds weren’t promising that Kershaw would break his losing streak, no matter how well he pitched.
Fiers started out like he was on fire, Sitting the first dozen batters he faced, while striking out eight.
The A’s got to Kershaw in the fourth, scoring two runs on four singles. He was gon after six, giving up 2 runs, 6 hits, and striking out just one. Another no decision in Oakland, so he’ll have to seek victory number 150 against the Giants.
Then the Dodgers came right back in the fifth with a solo home run by Yasmani Grandal to cut the A’s lead in half. The Dodgers picked up another couple of singles from Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy, but they were left on the bases. The big news however, was Fiers was now vulnerable.
Chris Taylor made up for killing the rally in the fifth inning by picking up a game-tying RBI in the seventh when he drove home Cody Bellinger with a single.
Oakland took the lead in the eighth on a two on-one out grounder to third that produced a play at the plate. Justin Turner’s throw was there, and Yasmani Grandal applied the tag, but he never had the ball in his mitt. The ball sat on the dirt in front of home plate and the go-ahead run scored. Oakland led 3-2.
The Dodgers last chance resided in Cody Bellinger, Yasiel Puig and Max Muncy. Puig walked and that was it. The Dodgers couldn’t muster two hits in row (like so often) and they lost (like so often).
Next stop: Colorado
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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This was a tightly fought game until Grandal dropped the throw from Turner at the plate allowing a run to score. Why wasn’t this recorded as an error on Grandal? He should have caught the ball as the throw was on the money. Oakland goes up by a run and we can’t knock in the tying or winning runs because we lack a consistent hitting game. This is the weakness that has to be overcome for us. Chargois is charged with the loss after pitching well due to Grandal’s blunder.
Good to see Bellinger and Muncy get hits. I like our lineup and the way we are starting to play. We just need to see more consistency with the small ball approach, stealing bases, bunting to advance runners, and not swinging for the bleachers. Get the little things done.
This was again a very frustrating loss. Our starting lineup was not well thought out and I feel like we (yet again) gifted away a perfectly winnable game. How many of these are we going to squander away? This is not last year where we had such a large lead throughout the year.
Leave Grandmal alone, he was “framing” Turner’s throw. Yikes, a catcher that has trouble just playing catch. Not good, but has become expected. At least Grandmal is consistent.
This year is proving to be a “very rough ride” and it ain’t going to improve.
I’m growing weary of making excuses for this group
Today’s excusatory factoid – if the A’s were in our division we’d be 5 games behind them. The freaking moneyballing A’s.
Speaking of excuses, I believe I’ll start self medicating now. So, excuse me…..
Badger
Please do share your thoughts, after self medicating!
That might be more interesting then discussing this last game.
Jeff
I could blame Puig just as much as Grandal on defense, for losing this game, because this isn’t the first time Puig has lost a ball either because of the sun, or in the lights, this year.
And they did give Grandal an error for this, but if an outfielder doesn’t touch a ball, they usually don’t get awarded an error.
I think the bats were more responsible for losing this game, then any one player.
And Grandal was responsible for one of those runs.
And how about the relief pitcher that made that go ahead run more easy, to get.
And actually Manny was the one that made the throw, because Turner was DHing.
This was a team loss.
We are lucky because of our pitching, that we are where we are, because we are last in team batting average, and last in getting hits, when runners are in scoring position, in the West.
And those two stats go hand and hand.
Grandal’s muff did not cost them the game. Nor did Puig’s losing the ball in the lights or anything else that transpired on defense. The offense again FAILED when they could have taken the lead. They do not hit well with 2 outs, and they are miserable with men in scoring position. Roberts might have left Chargois in a hitter too long. When his pitchers get in trouble late in games, he does not have the BP up and ready until there are 2 men on base. A fatal flaw in my way of thinking in his managing style. Everyone keeps saying that our bullpen is pretty good. Well if it is so good, trust that the next guy will put out the fire. The A’s have a far superior back end of the BP to the Dodgers and it showed. CK pitched ok, and at least the offense got him off the hook for the loss. Fiers has pretty much dominated the Dodgers in his 2 starts against them and he made them look silly for quite a while in last nights game. On to Colorado. Offense should not be the problem there. Shutting down the Rockies? Well we will see.
Epic rant against the nerds of baseball by Jason Werth on ESPN.com. He says that the stat geeks are ruining the game. Great read in my book and spot on. By the way, Grandal did exactly what we have expected of him. He made a fielding misplay in the late innings that ended up costing the Dodgers a game. How many times have we seen that? A lot. It was not the sole reason for the defeat, but it sure helped. Campy would have caught it.
Michael
Some of the saber metrics equations and the things they value, are definitely ruining the game.
Sabers don’t even appreciate when hitters, hit in runs, at a high level.
So they don’t appreciate when hitters get hits, when runners are in scoring position.
And it is sometimes even harder to get just a single, when runners are in scoring position, then hit a solo HR.
Because pitchers pitch much tougher, when runners are in scoring position
Could not agree more, and it causes them to trade for guys who meet their saber metric ideals. In Friedman’s case, he does this to an extreme. Kemp was a salary dump move that basically back fired in Friedman’s face because first, he played well in Spring, made the team and then for most of the season has been the teams most consistent hitter and run producer. It also shows in the fact that most of the pitchers he has acquired are basically low risk high reward, or not, types of guys. If you look at his entire history of acquisitions since he took over, he has signed or picked up on waivers a ton of players. The roster is a carousel all the time. They use the 10 day DL more than any other team so far. More misses than hits as far as the free agent and waiver deals. Trades have produced some decent results, Hill, Wood, Grandal, as much as I hate to include him, Taylor, so far Kemp, Fields. Some total duds, Reddick, Granderson, His free agents have been hit or miss including this years big deal, Tom Koehler. I think they pooh pooh the old school types more than they should. If you mix the two equally you might get much better results. The Astro’s seem to value both sides of the coin. Case in point they traded for a real innings eater in Cole, traded for Verlander at the August deadline last year. And their draft picks are generally multidimensional players.
Venditte sent down. Stripling activated. Carousel goes round and round. No lineup posted yet, but expect the RH hitter gang. Hopefully Roberts is smart enough, doubtful, to not hit Kike in the 4 hole again. Can’t wait to see this.
Bear
Yeah, the lineups are out now. Kemp is in tonight batting cleanup and Kike is 6th. No Puig as Matt is playing there. Kike in center and Taylor in left. Dummy keeps changing the lineup. It has been a long time since I played baseball but you can’t tell me that it doesn’t make a difference when you keep changing positions. You know as well as me that you get to know what your teammates are doing and it makes your job easier. How anyone can make a case for Dummy being a good manager is beyond me. These sabermetric guys are going to mess the game up for sure. Notice I did not mention pitching and that is because he is so bad I figure anyone on this site can recognize incompetence. He excells in that.
Badger
Quit making excuses for Dummy then. Take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning. Just answering your 5:48 a.m. comment, sorry.
Package
You are not the only one saying, what you are saying.
I have read plenty of posts like yours, when it comes to the Dodgers.
And I do think most players feel more comfortable playing a certain position.
I would usually say that Puig has not hit lefties the last couple years, but he just hit that leftie starter, that we just faced.
And Puig can cover more ground in the outfield, so I would put him in right.
But he is a little dinged up, so maybe that is why he is getting a day off.
But Kike has not hit lefties well this year, and we haven’t hit lefties well as a team this year, so that is probably why Kike is in the line up, tonight.
But Kike was over played last month, and we need to go with our best line up, because this race in the West is to close.
And we know these games in Colorado can go anyway.
Pack, Roberts is one of those guys who is the management’s perfect lackey. He does and uses exactly who they want him to play and juggles his lineups the way they like to have them juggled. The problem is who they give him. He has a lot of pitchers who can’t go a lot of innings, he has hitters who are not very clutch at all and then when he is handed a bona fide super star like Machado , he inserts the guy into a spot in the lineup where he is less effective than he is at the other spot, #3, where he is hitting well over .300 and has the majority of his homers. Dave the Dummy is the perfect manager for FAZ because he buys into all the stuff they feed him…which in my book is an enormous amount of BS!
Bear
So True, so true!
MJ
I think starting Kike at all is a mistake. Dummy thinks the kid is MVP on the Dodgers. Very little that Dummy does do I agree with. I think he is on an ego trip and wants to manage just to take whatever credit he can take for success. Also he will be quick to affix blame, you can bet on it.
There are comments to play Joc more, play Puig more, Kike and others right on through the lineup. One has to wonder just what might any of them achieve if they were given a position and a regular place in the lineup day after day. Certainly more than FAZ and Mr Sock Puppet get by playing roulette with the players every day. I hope Utley, Forsythe, or someone else who leaves the club will expose these frauds for what they are… Obviously the owners could care less as long as the money rolls in. I guess that includes Magic as well.
That is the only HR I have ever seen hit, that didn’t have an exit velocity of hundred or more.
Joc’s exit velocity on his HR was 97, and Muncy’s exit velocity was 102.
I just think squirrels, like Badger always says.
And if one hits on this team, most usually hit, we need Puig to hit one out now, just like the one Puig hit to right last night!
And then Baez just happened, is anyone surprised?
Robert is a flipping idiot. A three-to-one lead at Coors Field is like a one-to-one tie game any place else. Why the heck did he put in Baez.
Cody’s exit velocity was 103, and we are tied now.
Cody POP!
Why Pedro Baez is still a Dodger is beyond me. He can snatch defeat from victory faster than any other pitcher in the pen. Thank heavens Matt and Cody had huge hits in the 8th. Now they have to beat the Rockies closer, Davis.
Taylor’s exit velocity 99, and Dozier’s exit velocity 98.
Probably three of our HRs don’t go out anywhere, but Colorado.
Puig’s exit velocity on his single was 104, what is wrong with Puig, he has to get that in the air?
Check that one off the list