One night after they clinched the NL West division and literally bathed in champagne, the Giants snuck in a victory over the tired and possibly half-comatose Dodgers. Madison Bumgarner held the boys quiet over seven and 2/3 innings.
Justin Turner was still out of action, nursing a “viral thing”, as skipper Dave Roberts referred to it. In additional news, the Dodgers dodged a couple of bullets injury-wise during the game. First, Hyun-Jin Ryu was knocked from the game in the third inning when he took a line drive off his throwing arm. He’ll have a heck of a bruise tomorrow, but the good news was x-rays came up negative.
Later, Yasiel Puig was thrown out for the final out of the game while trying to steal second base with two out. He approached second awkwardly, and he didn’t slide. He stretch-stepped it to the bag and grimaced in pain immediately afterward. Later, he said he twisted his ankle. Expect to see Puig on the day-to-day list.
Brandon McCarthy came out of the pen tonight for the first time since early July. He pitched two innings and gave up the Giants’ second run. The Giants scored the first run of the night off Ryu in the first inning. The Dodgers scored their lone run in the seventh when Austin Barnes smacked his seventh homer of the season to bring the boys within one, but they just couldn’t string anything together and pull out the win.
It was just as well, since they are probably in a hurry to get a good night’s sleep after last night’s madness. Clayton Kershaw will take the mound tomorrow – on six days rest. That usually doesn’t turn out well, so look out below!
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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I don’t know if you saw the post game show, but it seems that Puig is just fine.
Roberts wasn’t exactly happy, that Puig took off to second on his own, in that situation in the game, with two outs, and Chase up to bat.
You could tell Roberts was furious with that move, because he said, he truly wants the team to play good baseball, and smart baseball, in the last few games, that are left in the season.
And that is the first time I have seen Roberts that upset about a game, in quite a while.
Thanks for the update, MJ. I didn’t see the postgame.
It even continued into today, as Puig was benched for that – and some other transgressions.
Todays line up…..Taylor CF Seager SS Bellinger 1B Granderson RF Forsythe 3B Utley 2B Grandal C Pederson LF Kershaw P Barnes should be the first string catcher.
Turner still out with flu symptoms.
McCarthy actually pitched pretty well last night. Seems he has changed his delivery.
Now Roberts wants them to play smart baseball? What happened the prior month? Were they not supposed to play smart baseball then? How about the manager managing like he did all season instead of trying a new line up every night, or giving auditions. The team went in the tank. Injuries were part of the problem. But tinkering constantly with a winning team was part of it too. Their depth bit them in the ass.
Test
My previous comment disappeared into the time space continuum.
Oh well.
8-21 since the start of the Milwaukee series. Luckily there is no correlation between late season awful baseball and post season success 🙂
Dodgers acquire OF Connor Joe from the Braves for international signing money. Joe is a .250 hitter in the minors over 4 seasons. No power.
CK on his game today. Pederson 1-1 with 2 walks. Kersh can hit too….Corey and Taylor not hitting at all.
Dodgers win 3-1 Kersh is 18-4. 200 K’s. If you project Barnes stats over a full season, he is a 10-15 HR guy with close to 70 ribbies and an average of about .270. I take that any day out of my catcher. Consistent production over bursts of hitting and then long slumps.