The Dodgers won the first game of the weekend series against the Giants with a little help from ninth inning heroics from Justin Turner and Clayton Kershaw‘s thirteen strike outs. They didn’t have the benefit of Kershaw again, so Scott Kazmir and his up and down pitching abilities would have to suffice. Could Kazmir hold off the Giants bats?
1st inning
Giants
With two outs, Kazmir went walk, walk, single, to give up a run.
Another RBI single made it 2-0.
2nd inning Giants 2-0
Dodgers
Trayce Thompson base hit. He took second on a heads up, tag up on a fly out.
Yasmani Grandal base hit to score Thompson. 2-1
3rd inning Giants 2-1
Dodgers
1,2,3 inning
Giants
1,2,3 inning. Kazmir looking settled in.
4th inning Giants 2-1
Dodgers
Justin Turner on with a single.
Adrian Gonzalez blasted a double to drive in Turner and tie the game 2-2
6th inning 2-2
Giants
They scored to break the tie 3-2.
7th inning Giants 3-2
Dodgers
Bases loaded and two out for Trayce Thompson.
Walk!!! Tie score 3-3
No one could break the tie, so extra innings.
10th inning 3-3
Dodgers
Butter and Eggs!
Adrian Gonzalez went deep to left field for the tie-breaker! Dodgers 4-3
Giants
Kenley Jansen vs Giants
Parker: PF5
Denard Span: Double!!
Joe Panik: Single Tie score 4-4
Buster Posey: Single to win the game.
Dodgers lose 5-4
Just as last night’s ninth inning heroics put a dagger in the Giants and their fans’ hearts, tonight’s game brought a gut-wrenching loss for the Dodgers.
Scott Kazmir gave up three runs over five innings, and the Dodgers successfully called upon their late innings muse once again. However, the usually reliable Kenley Jansen (who labored to finish off the Giants last night) had trouble securing the save. He gave up four hits and two runs to lose the lead, and the game. He has not looked in control this series. It just goes to show elite savers have slumps as well. I’m wondering if that long stretch where Dave Roberts didn’t use Jansen has come back to bite, because Jansen cannot seem to find the feel for his pitches these days.
What’s more, that loss completely took the air out of our BBQ party, and made the air suddenly feel 10 degrees colder.
The good news is the hungriest Dodgers bats have started to fatten up against the Giants. Justin Turner last night. Adrian Gonzalez, Joc Pederson and Yasmani Grandal tonight. Here’s hoping this continues into tomorrow, and the Dodgers can score plenty of runs for Julio Urias tomorrow.
Scott Kazmir went 5 innings with 3 hits, 3 runs, 5 walks, 3 Ks. ERA 4.52
Home run: Adrian Gonzalez
Doubles: Pederson, Gonzalez, Turner
Team with RISP: 1 for 9 Getting worse
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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Red Sox
The Trade – August 25, 2012
Boston had reached a difficult time in 2012. Club house drinking; many players did not go to Johnny Pesky’s funeral but to a charity bowling game instead. The Red Sox finished 69-93 — 26 games behind the Yankees (their worst season since 1965). The head shed decided to build from within — and The Trade was a key part of that changing of the guard. Bobby Valentine was fired on Oct 4, 2012. Replaced by John Farrell.
With really making over the roster — the next season, 2013, they won the World Series.
The so called new Dodger plan . . . has hit several road bumps. They hoped to have helped the team with trades and signings and minor leaguers. But it has not worked at catching. 1st base is just getting older and not the AGong he was several years ago. 2nd base has to guys about to retired to the background. 3B is hanging on, and not producing like they would like. The outfield is a mess. Puig down, Pederson seems he cannot learn to hit major league pitching, and Thompson is an if. SS has the big promise but most want to move him to 3B in a bit. Starting pitching past #1 is so iffy it is not funny.
This team will not work.
The new manager uses the same lineups and left-right deal as the last one — so maybe the lineups are from above him.
Scott you are right.
In 3 games vs the Giants, Kazmir has given up 13 runs in 13 innings. In his other 10 starts he has an ERA of 3.56. If you’re going to pitch for the Dodgers, you have to do better against our division rival. Hopefully Urias can get through five today.
Well, the Dodgers draft is over and it looks mostly like previous drafts. Of 42 picks, 34 of whom were collegians. 23 were pitchers and 20 of the pitchers were right handed so as usual, they have selected mostly right handed pitchers from college.
Of the 23 pitchers, how many have had Tommy John surgery already? 6. When asked about this, Billy Gasparino said “Honestly, it’s not a franchise strategy, it’s just that there’s so many of them,”
The other odd thing about this draft is that the Dodgers regularly seemed to grab players ahead of where the baseball publications projected them. Their 1st pick, Lux was taken with the 20th pick of the draft. Baseball America had him #34, BaseballPpipeline had him at #36. Obviously, the order of selection is never reflective of how good the player will be in the majors (Kershaw was the #7 pick for heavens sake), but it is an interesting trend.
Smith, taken with the 32nd pick was rated #74 by Baseball America and #110 by Baseball Pipeline. Sheffield, taken by the Dodgers at 36, was rated #23 and 19; White, taken at #65 was rated at #138 by Baseball America and didn’t make Baseball Pipeline’s top 200.
May, whom they paid a significantly above-slot bonus of $1 MM to, was taken by the Dodgers at 101; he was rated by Baseball America at 109 and by Baseball Pipeline at 166. Peters was taken at 131; he was unrated by Baseball America and was ranked by Baseball Pipeline at 290. Smeltzer, taken at 161; he was rated by BA at 244 and was unrated by BP. Robinson was taken at 191; he was rated by BA at 190 and didn’t make BP’s rankings.
I don’t know anything about any of these players. I don’t have an opinion as to whether the Dodgers had the players rated better than the baseball publications did. It’s just odd when the team only took 1 of their top 8 players higher than the publications had him rated, and 7 lower – sometimes significantly lower.
We won’t know for years whether this draft works out. I am less impressed than others at how highly the farm system ranks. i don’t want great minor leaguers – I want great major leaguers. AS i have noted previously, minor league prospects do not necessarily translated into good major league baseball players.
You could say exactly the same thing about every other team so what does it all mean? Nothing really. Every team rates players differently. You are stating something that is designed to denigrate the FO when EVERY team proceeds the same way. There is nothing to see here. Move along. Manufacturing straw men is not a good use of time.
It is mathematically impossible for all teams to pick lower than the publications. Come on – you can do better than that.
Maybe the Dodgers scouts are better than those who put together those pre-draft lists. No way of knowing any time soon. The ’15 and ’16 drafts won’t have any reveal for a few years. Patience will be required.
The new management team has had two off seasons and now two drafts, and next month will have their second deadline. They have literally made dozens of ML roster moves, and counting everything they’ve made hundreds of organizational moves. My take remains the same in this circular argument – FAZ & Co. are doing what they feel necessary to distance themselves and this organization from the failed campaigns of the past and build it the way they want it built. That will take some time. To believe this system wide overhaul can be done in two years is, in my opinion, painfully naive. I am on record, I’m fine with rebuilding. I sure hope when the time comes these guys will be better at signing free agents, and better at making trades than what they have shown so far.
There was an interesting piece at theringer.com about the draft and how many teams are taking players with an eye toward saving slot money to spend on players who have fallen to lower rounds; before the draft Groome was projected to go #1 but ended up at #12. I don’t pretend to understand it, but at DD Nosler had an article headlined “Dodgers going for athleticism in Rounds 6-10”, which if you read it sounds more like “Dodgers going cheap in Rounds 6-10.”
The draft is a crapshoot; some first-round picks will flop while a few guys from the higher rounds will become All-Stars. And it will take at least three years to figure out who “won.” But I agree about the imbalance between pitchers and position players
The Dodgers drafted a few college seniors who have no bargaining power (they can’t stay in school) during the early middle rounds, but drafted 2 high school pitchers in rounds 11 and 12 with big upside. I think that they will try to save some of their slot money to spend on # 11 and 12 round picks and talk them out of going to college.
I’m not going to worry about Kenley Jansen. He’s been great. He’s human and blows a save once in a while.
I am more concerned that Kazmir only went 5 innings again and walked 5. His control, both in and out of the zone, has been his big issue this year.
Dodger rick
Bochy made up the Giants batting order differently yesterday. And he made a very smart move, in the Giant’s batting order, that allowed the Giants, to score more runs then the Dodgers, even though the Dodgers had a HR, and more hits.
And it was just a subtle move, that caused this game, to end up like it did. Bochy had Brandon Belt hitting in the third position, instead of Duffy. And he did this, because Belt has hit Kazmir so well, in his previous at bats, it looks like Belt, almost owns Kazmir.
And everytime Belt came up to hit, Kazmir pitched, very carefully, and defensively, against Belt. And Kazmir walked Belt twice I believe, and he didn’t only pitch Belt very carefully, and very defensively, he did the same thing, to the hitters, in front of Belt, and in back, of Belt. And by doing this, Kazmir, gave the Giant’s best hitter Posey, a runner, or runners on base, to hit in, twice in the game. And this helped the Giants, score most of there runs!
And Kazmiz was so afraid of pitching to Belt, he pitched overly careful, to Panick, who was batting in front of Belt. And I think Kazmir, walked Panick once, and he gave up a hit to Panick, in Panicks last at bat. Kazmir gave up a hit to Panick, even though Kazmir had two strikes on Panick.
And you could see that Kazmir, was visibly pissed off, after he gave up that hit to Panick. After that, I believe that Kazmir walked Belt again, and then Roberts smartly pulled Kazmir, after that walk. In the first inning, when Kazmir walked Panick, and Belt, the Giants was able to score both of runners, that Kazmir, put on base.
And in the last inning, that Kazmir pitched, the Giants were able to score one run, after he gave up a two strike hit to Panick, and walked Belt again. This subtle move by Bochy, practically won the game for the Giants yesterday.
Along with Joc and Kike’s running errors, and Kenley pitching with little cut on his cutter. This is one of Kazmir’s main problems, when he pitches, as well as, leaving his pitches up at times.
Kazmir pitches very defensively, when he is pitching in trouble, or when he fears a particular hitter, instead of pitching offensively, and attacking the hitter.
And that is why I think, at times, Kazmir, pitches like a rookie pitcher, instead of a savvy veteran. Also yesterday, Joc really took the team out of the game, with his bad base running, and his last at bat, when he swung at the first strike, that that relief pitcher had thrown in a while, after this same relief pitcher, had just walked in a run.
And to compound the bad choice that Joc made, Joc swung very off balance, and he predictable hit an easy flyball, to leftfield, and ended the Dodgers threat. Joc is not a rookie, and I hope that Roberts talked to Joc about his mistakes, because Joc’s mistakes, really cost the Dodgers from winning this game. And this can’t continue to happen, especially when Joc hadn’t done much at the plate, until yesterday. And Kike also made a bad base running error too. Kike is over trying, and he needs to settle down, and slow the game down, like he did last year! These were some bad moves, and Kenley and Honeycutt, should have addressed Kenley’s problems, before last night. Because Kenley has been a little shakey this year, and he didn’t pitch well, in the game before, and he didn’t pitch well, in SD, so there has been a problem.
And now Kenley, has blown more saves, then a did, all of last year. And what made Kenley’s loss even worse, was that the rest of the bullpen, did a great job in this game. And Kenley is the big guy in the bullpen, and he needs to almost be perfect, to help the Dodgers, to win every game, they have a lead in.
This front office deserves all the crap we can give it. The draft is just part of it. I can’t believe the guy from Santa Clara University. I live here and not a word about him. His team sucked for the whole time he was there. I saw a few games and they are a step above a JC. That alone is proof of something. Guessers with $. And bad ones at that. Nice school. Maybe they are entering their Catholic phase. Getting away from the Cuban phase. I guess that’s a good thing. On the game last night: 5 walks is terrible. Kazmir takes 1 step forward and 2 back. Like his team. Today a 19 year old vs. a 99 year old(seems like it). These are important games vs the Hated Ones, and the only choice we have is Urias or Bolsinger. I have to go with the old man today, but it should be a 4 hour game with both starters out by the 4th inning.
News on Montas:
http://espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/insider/post/_/id/13139/urias-a-temporary-fix-while-dodgers-wait-for-developing-secret-weapon
Wondering
Good article! I thought they were stretching him out to start. Why else, would they be so worried about building up his innngs.
I read that article. It was very interesting. The original plan was to make him a reliever for the late innings, but now he is starting and seemingly is doing well. No control problems like he had in Chicago. But one point in the article makes me wonder and that is how much faith they are putting in McCarthy’s comeback. They feel Ryu will be ready by July too. Not sure I want to bank my trust in 2 injured guys.
Ryu pitches today. I hope that Ryu can come back, because he is a good pitcher. I don’t think much about MCCarthy.
I see he already give up a HR. I know it is a rehab start, but he is what it is.
Was Pederson’s attempted steal of third in the fourth with one out a product of a missed sign? He surely doesn’t have a green light . Anyone with thoughts on this!
Joc did that on his own. I listened to Dodger talk, and they said Joc was on his own.
If we win today, we take the series up there, 2 of 3. Going into Friday, we all would take that, so hopefully we can get what we want.
Urias looked much better his last start; as with any young pitcher (Kersh included), he throws too many pitches. That’s normal.
Otherwise, it sucks we have to wait until 5pm for the game. Leaves more time for us to bitch and vent.
But it doesn’t cost anything to bitch and vent. And it pisses Mark off. That’s all good.
haha
No it does not, and according to most psychologist’s it keeps you from storing up anger and actually performing violence…….that being said, If I had come on here after last night’s game it would have been a X-rated post for sure, filled with all sorts of vile words……..but I controlled the impulse to vent, and am much calmer now. Of course that does not mean I have changed my opinion of the collection of baseball specimens the front office has provided us. Yasmani Grandal is still a lousy hitter, they still have no clutch hitting. Getting the tying run on walks? Well if you cannot hit, you have to find a way. Giant fans are still giant assholes. They booed Thompson’s brother Klay because he was wearing a Dodger hat. Morons. Jansen the last 2 outings, even though he got the save Friday, has not been sharp. I noticed when watching Fridays game that his cutter, when thrown to LH hitters, was not as sharp as to RH hitters. This is one reason he got hit so hard on Saturday. They were sitting on that pitch. But for the most part he is still one of the best closer’s in the game. Kudo’s to the bullpen for a fine job through 9. Making comments on some of the other players is like beating a dead horse. We, and I am pretty sure, they know what the problem is, and it is up to the powers that be to get off their ass and make some decisions and moves. Oh, they cut another 6 million loose yesterday when they released Jose Tabata from AAA OKC>
More flotsam from the Latos deal; they gave Michael Morse to Pittsburg and paid the difference in salary. Not even any prospects in the deal.
It would be interesting if some capable person added up all the lost money involved with those deals. Would they altogether pay for Cespedes and Cueto?
Michael
What did you think about the base running?
Abysmal…..neither of those guys had any reason to run. Kike should have known better, and Joc trying to steal 3rd when he was already in scoring position with a guy like Kendrick up was just plain stupid.
Bobby
What is better, then more time to bitch? I am just playing with you!
Everyone would have felt so different today, if Kenley would have saved that game. We were so close that it did hurt, but there was also a lot of good, in yesterday’s game.
Turner didn’t hit one good ball, he had a couple of really good hard hits. I think he has turned that corner. And just like I said, if Turner is hitting, everyone else’s at bats, get better.
Agone also had two really good hits, that should have been both HRs. And the one that wasn’t a HR, was hit a lot further, then the one that that went over the leftfield fence.
Agone always seems to hit the ball hard in SF, but they usually end up, in the deepest part of the park, or hit the wall. I want one of the Dodgers to pull a ball, into deep rightfield, and into the drink.
I don’t remember any of our players, hitting it into the ocean. I thought Joc, had hit a HR yesterday too. I could hear it off, of his bat.
And almost all the players, got hits yesterday, so that was good to see. Joc, Grandal, Chase, Cory, and Howie got hits. And Trayce had two hits also. I just wish that after Agone hit that HR, the other players, besides Trayce, who got a hit, would have got hits, to give Kenley, more runs to work with.
Agone hit the HR out against, the Giants last pitcher, and that pitcher, wasn’t really that good. And after Agone, Trayce came up to bat, and got a hit.
But non of the other players, that batted, after Trayce, really had very good at bats.
It looked like they acted, like, Agone had just won the game, with his HR. And they can’t think like that!
I am suprised why some are so upset about this game. We were not sure that they we get enough hits to score a run. And the Dodgers should have won this game. I think Everyone is more upset, because they almost won both games.
And that got us more emotionally involved in yesterdays game. And it was hard, to only lose the game, and lose two games in the standings.
I think it might have been much easier, if Kenley would have just gave up, a game winning HR.
At least it would have been much faster, and we wouldn’t have to listen to beat LA so long! I think I know I why Joc tried to steal third base.
I think he did that, because Trayce taged up, and went to second, on Joc’s flyball. Trayce and Cory, are doing a lot better, then Joc is right now. And I think Joc feels like he isn’t doing anything to help the team to win.
And also, Trayce and Cory have more HRs, then Joc does right now, and I think that bothers Joc too. Joc didn’t want to change his swing, because he badly, wants to be a HR hitter, and he is probably a little upset, that Cory and Trayce, are getting all of the attention now.
If Joc could keep his batting average at least at 250, and start hitting the other way, like he did last month. I wouldn’t have any problem with Joc.
He would also hit a few HRs, if he did that. But Joc needs to get back, to what he was doing before. And make better decisions. Because Joc took the Dodgers out of that game yesterday.
Roberts didn’t have Joc steal that base, it was Joc on his own. I have no idea why Joc would suddenly try to steal third base, except what I mentioned above.
Kike has been grasping at straws lately, because he is trying to do to much too. I just hope Urias blows us, and the Giants away today. And the Dodgers win this next game.
When the Dodgers win there Sunday game, it makes for a better Monday morning.
And a win today, would make everyone feel much better, and help us all, to forget about that debacle yesterday!