The Los Angeles Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw stuck to the theme of the season and gritted out an edge of your seat 4-3 victory in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Washington Nationals. Take stats out of the equation in this series and just win should be the motto. The Dodgers bullpen deserves a lot of praise for coming in the 6th inning and pitching shutout ball. Kenley Jansen secured a five -out save.
Well today is game 2 with weather permitting. Game 2 on FS1. Game time scheduled for 1pm
Chance of rain during Game 2…
4 p.m. – 85%
5 p.m. – 50%
6 p.m. – 35%
7 p.m. – 35%
8 p.m. – 15%— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) October 8, 2016
Rich Hill 12-5 2.12 ERA will be going against a right hander in Tanner Roark 16-10 2.83. Now with the word of the weather delay, the game might start between an hour or two after scheduled time. This will be the Nationals lineup today:
Turner CF
Harper RF
Werth LF
Murphy 2B
Rendon 3B
Zimmerman 1B
Espinosa SS
Lobaton C
Roark P
So how has Hill fared against the Nats? Hill is 1-1 with a 4.34 ERA in four games (three starts) against the Nationals. Hopefully the moist weather won’t be an issue for Hills’s blister as everyone knows he likes to throw his nasty curve. Also something to keep in mind as Hill prepares to take the mound. Hill’s spin rate on his curve ball is what makes his pitch so devastating. Hopefully the game won’t be rained out.
The key for Hill and this series is keeping Trea Turner off the basepaths. This is how the Nats have done against Hill.
Ryan Zimmerman has had the most at bats against hill and has had success with two home-runs. Jose Lobaton was put in the lineup because he has has success vs Hill. This will be the Dodgers lineup today:
Utley 2B
Seager SS
Turner 3B
Gonzalez 1B
Reddick RF
Pederson CF
Grandal C
Toles LF
Hill P
So how have the Dodgers done going against Roark?
| BATTER | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Andre Ethier | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Adrian Gonzalez | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .500 | .500 | 1.500 | 2.000 |
| Yasmani Grandal | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | .200 | .333 | .800 | 1.133 |
| Howie Kendrick | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .143 | .143 | .143 | .286 |
| Joc Pederson | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .667 | .800 | 1.000 | 1.800 |
| Yasiel Puig | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .400 | .400 | .400 | .800 |
| Josh Reddick | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .333 | .333 | .667 |
| Carlos Ruiz | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .182 | .182 | .273 | .455 |
| Corey Seager | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .333 | .333 | .667 |
| Trayce Thompson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Justin Turner | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Chase Utley | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .077 | .143 | .077 | .220 |
| Totals | 60 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 9 | .217 | .266 | .367 | .632 |
The Dodgers have never lost a best-of-5 postseason series after winning Game 1, 6-0 record is the best of any team in postseason history.
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) October 8, 2016
So Adrian Gonzalez and Joc Pederson have had success against Roark and need to come up big today. Yasiel Puig also has had success but he will be on the bench. Hopefully he will see some action. Roark likes to throw his sinker and uses his two seam fastball on two strikes to put batters away as they are expecting breaking stuff. Dodgers are good at hitting fastballs and need to make the adjustment with two strikes.
It would be nice to take this game and take a 2-0 lead in the series. The series will shift to Los Angeles for game 3 where the Dodgers have played really well. The only issue with game 3 is they will be going against left-hander in Gio Gonzalez. The Dodgers need to get out of the NLDS and close the Nationals out in Los Angeles.
James Moya
Hi I’m James Moya. I am an avid Dodgers fan. I graduated Cal State Fullerton with a Bachelors in Communications. I used to freelance at the San Bernardino Sun. I’m excited about this opportunity to write for LA Dodger Report to gain experience. I’m a straight shooter on my opinions and I hope to get some good conversations going. My dream has always been to report on the Dodgers because Baseball is the National Past-time. I hope you enjoy the ride with me.
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Today’s game has been postponed until 10 am tomorrow!
And the Monday game, will still be played at the same time.
I think they should have the Dodgers play the later game, considering they won’t get a travel day, like the Cubs and Giants will be getting, who are scheduled for the late game.
With Hill pitching tomorrow that probably means he wouldn’t pitch game 5 as he would be pitching on 3 days rest. So Kershaw would go game 5 which I guess Urias is now slotted for game 4.
Then again there might not be a game 4.