I completely understand that the Dodgers can’t win every game. At some point the Dodgers were going to lose again. Ten wins in a row was really nice, but the winning streak was bound to come to an end at some point. Tommy Lasorda once said that every team no matter how good or bad will win 60 or lose 60 games per season. It’s what you do in the other 100 that determines where you finish in the standings. That’s very true.
So when the Dodgers got shutout by Ricky Nolasco and the Angles 4-0 on Monday evening to snap their ten game winning streak, it wasn’t that much of a shock. Was it embarrassing?…. Indeed it was. Considering that Nolasco hadn’t won in months and sported an ERA of well over 5 for the season. He led the American League in home runs and the Dodgers couldn’t get anything off of him. The former Dodger tossed 6.1 shutout innings to pick up the win.
There was a point in the game where I felt that the Dodgers at least had a look. It was the seventh inning and the Dodgers had gotten consecutive singles to put runners at second and third with only one out. With the Dodgers losing 3-0, Yasiel Puig and Kike both had hard hit liners that deflected off of Nolasco’s leg/body that put both of them in scoring position. The Angels had to remove Nolasco after he appeared to be injured. Cam Bedrosian was brought in and the Dodgers had the ninth spot due up.
Before the game the Dodgers had recalled Trayce Thompson from Oklahoma City while placing Brandon McCarthy on the disabled list with knee inflammation. They called up Thompson because Corey Seager was still unavailable and still in disabled list limbo after straining his hamstring. The Dodgers didn’t want to go into this game with a short bench. It made sense.
With Thompson, Barnes, Logan Forsythe and Seager (for a possible pinch-hitting appearance) all available off the bench, manager Dave Roberts decided to go with the newly recalled .132 career hitting utility journeyman Mike Freeman. Why? I have no idea.
I’m guessing he did it because the only other left handed bat off the bench was Seager, and even though the Dodgers claimed he was available for pinch-hitting he really wasn’t. So Roberts went with Freeman and unsurprisingly he struck out swinging. Chase Utley immediately followed that by striking out looking to end the inning. The Dodgers didn’t score. That was basically their last chance to do anything with the sticks.
Normally asking a .132 hitting journeyman to pinch-hit with runners at second and third late in a game in a big spot is a bad idea. A really bad idea. I understand that the due to loss factor was huge on Monday night as the Dodgers were due to lose soon. But that situation called for anyone else to pinch-hit other than Freeman. I would have rather had Thompson hit than Freeman.
The lefty/righty stuff is stupid. I’ve said before that I don’t like it. This was just a very bad call. Can we not call on Mike Freeman or any other triple-A castoff with the game on the line next time? I’m not asking for much here. Sorry Mike. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but you know.
Roberts enjoys doing weird stuff like this. Learning moment for him and the player and he burned a game.
The real question is why Freeman is even up on the big club. There are a number of guys that have earned their shot at OKC, why take a guy who lost his shot on the mighty Mariners and stick him on the big club. this FO is just mind-boggling. Sends a very poor message to the guys down on the farm.
Puig is still a stud, btw.
Small point but I think Lasorda said no matter how good you are you are going to win a third lose a third and its what you do with the other third. You can win 102 and still lose 60. So…. win 60 lose 60 it’s what you do with the other 42. And in our case, it’s also what you do in the playoffs. Kershaw, the best pitcher in baseball the last 5 years will eventually enter the slide that all players do. As has been alluded to just about everywhere, it would be a shame if ………
Freeman makes little sense to me on any level. We have other players that could do what he does, but he was picked up so – throw him in there. He might have some Taylor magic in him. The wheels on the FAZ keep on turning.
I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t hit Ricky that well, because our guys hit fastballs much better, then off speed pitches.
And I think against a pitcher like that, you have to grind out better at bats.
As everyone here knows, Ricky throws everything up there that he can, to get hitters out.
I think Vin use to say that Ricky will throw anything up there, including the kitchen sink, to get hitters out.
I was surprised that Turner didn’t hit him well, because Turner is one of the best off speed hitters, in baseball.
And I thought Puig would hit Ricky and he did get that one hard hit and that bloop single.
Hill did pitch better, but I think he is effective more by being effectively wild, then anything else, and there is a fine line there, when he pitches.
Because his wildnesss, also causes us to get down in games early, because there is no defense for a walk.
And Hill has the highest walk average in baseball, I believe Orel said.
He certainly is not pitching like a number two pitcher.
Our guys might be getting tired too.
I know they are playing twenty straight games, and I don’t know if they are half way through that schedule or further.
And I agree Scott sometimes just using a little common sense, is much better, then going with leftie, rightie, match ups.
Roberts using Freeman in this situation is the same brain fart that recurs when he uses Hatcher or Romo in tight games. These 3 players don’t deserve to be on the Dodger roster, let’s face it.
This looked to be a lost game from early on. Dodgers just didn’t have it in the tank last night.
The Freeman thing is just a reminder to all of us that we like doing odd things at times. All part of the drama of LA.
Now, let’s go get a right handed stud (my choice is Darvish)
That’s a long season Scott!
I prefer 54 wins and 54 losses are guaranteed. It’s the other 54 which determines who’s in and who’s out. It’s amazing that everything boils down to 54 games.
Freeman was hitting .325 at AAA this year. Of course so are guys like Muncy, Calhoun and Drew Maggi, who is hitting at a .339 clip. Farmer is well over .300. There were better options down there, and if they needed a LH bat, Calhoun or Verdugo make more sense than Thompson. But Thompson at least has shown skill at the big league level. Personally I would have started him in LF over Taylor and put Taylor at short and Kike on the bench. I think, and this is just me, they do not want to start the MLB service time clock on Verdugo just yet. Maybe a September call up. Bobby, Darvish would be a rental. And not worth giving up some stud prospects for, there are other pitchers out there who would cost less. Cole or Archer would be better choices. Who knows, Stewart might be that guy if he gets the opportunity. It has happened before. Hell if nothing else, bring up Calhoun and use him as a primary pinch hitter. Losing Ethier before the season started threw a lot of things out of whack, losing Toles when he was playing so well, made it worse. They have played well, sooner or later a speed bump was inevitable. They just need to make sure it is a small speed bump, Freeman will not be here long. Chavez has an ERA over 5 too. Hopefully, they light him up.
LaSorda dijo: el equipo mas malo ganará 54 juegos, el mejor equipo perderá 54 juegos, la diferencia es que haces con los otros 54 !!!
I saw that Charlie Sheen is selling some of his baseball memorabilia.
He is selling Babe Ruth’s 1927 World Series ring, and the contract between the Red Sox and the Yankees, when Ruth was traded to the Yankees..
I must be nice to have that kind of money, to be able to buy something like that.
I guess the bid on both the ring and contract, starts at 100 thousand dollars.
And we know he will get much more then that, from some rich Yankee fan.
I saw that too. Must be nice. But I am not sure, and I will check on this, that they gave rings for championships back then. I know they had little pins, but I will double check. Ruth was not traded to the Yankees. He was sold. The Red Sox owner, Harry Frazee, was a Broadway show producer. He sold Ruth to finance his new Broadway show. The show was No No Nanette, the sale price? A cool 100,000.00. Lot of money back then. Okay, just checked, the Yankees did get rings that year. First rings went to the 1922 NY Giants….
Michael
I saw the ring in the LA Times, so I knew about that.
I do remember that Boston’s owner, was more in to Broadway then baseball, but I didn’t remember he was sold out right.
I think it was football that had pins.
I saw that on that show Pawn Stars.
Babe Ruth must have had a lot of fun when he was in his prime, in NY.
And some say he was almost as good of a pitcher, as a hitter.
Babe was 94-46 with an ERA of 2.28. He won over 20 games twice when a full time pitcher with Boston. He never had an ERA over 3.00 when he was pitching regularly. He held the record for consecutive scoreless innings in a World Series. That streak was 29 2/3rd innings. He did it against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1916. The record was finally broken by Whitey Ford. It stood for 43 years. He actually started that streak against the Dodgers with 13 scoreless innings in a 14 inning 2-1 Boston win.
I think guys like Freeman, Romo and Hatcher exist because FAZ and DR use them to strike back at fans who criticize their moves. It’s “How do you like this…” just to remind us that we might complain but we don’t really have a vote.
I might just agree with you on that.
LOL.
Definitely.
Puig not in lineup tonight. Thompson is. Kike at SS again. I think DR has lost his noodle. Taylor should be starting there. No Corey. Utley at 2nd and Forsythe at 3rd. They are sure bringing Turner along slow.
They are all out because of their hammys.
I didn’t think Turner came back until his hammy was fine.
I believe Turner had two days off last week.
The fan base is not going to happy with this line up, especially with the way they lost yesterday with a shutout.
Especially for the $ they are paying!
These modern league major leaguers, must over work in the weight room.
You never heard of oblique injuries in baseball, back when, and you didn’t see three players on a team, all having hammy problems, at the same time.
Most hammy problems come from an imbalance with the quads.
But they didn’t have trainers telling them what to do. Get rid of the trainers and fitness coaches.
Jonah
They even had trainers back then.
But I don’t think they lifted weights like they do now.
I was looking at Trayce’s stats, and I thought he must be doing well now, but he is only hitting a little over 200 in his last ten games.
And for the last two months, he has hit 258 and 248.
Those are not very good numbers for AAA.
I wonder what the players in AAA think, when Trayce is called up, when they have much better numbers.
They probably curse the 40 man roster.
It’s important that Thompson be given the opportunity to succeed.
That’s a great way to look at it!
Every player should get an opportunity to succeed. Worked for Taylor, Barnes, Hernandez, even Freeman was given such a chance.
Jesse Chavez pitching like Scherzer….two guys with 5 plus ERA’s shutting down the Dodger bats…of course, the B team is in there tonight.
Dylan Hernandez has exactly what the Dodgers need:
Another ace, a second closer, AND an All-Star outfielder.
That’s it.