The Dodgers were embarrassed yesterday after nearly setting a major league record for consecutive scoreless innings to start a season. They were just one inning away from tying it before Alex Wood and the bullpen imploded to give up 12 unanswered runs to the Giants in a 12-6 loss. That was the first loss of the season for the Dodgers and they have now lost 9 of their last 11 games played at At&t Park. This will be a good test to see how they respond.
In the second game of the series the Dodgers will give the ball to rookie right hander Ross Stripling. The 26-year old will be making his MLB debut. You just have to go out and beat the Giants at At&t Park in front of a bunch of rabid Giants fans kid. No pressure.
Dodgers Lineup @ Giants
Utley 2B
Seager SS
Turner 3B
Gonzalez 1B
Puig RF
Pederson CF
Van Slyke LF
Ellis C
Stripling P
Ross Stripling 0-0 vs. Matt Cain 0-0
Game time – 7:15 PM TV- SNLA
It will be a tough assignment for Stripling for sure. He pitched well enough in the spring to surprise everyone by grabbing the fifth starter job, thanks in help to the injuries to Brett Anderson, Hyun-jin Ryu, and Mike Bolsinger. Stripling is 6’3 and 210 pounds. He is from Bluebell Pennsylvania, and attended Texas A&M University. He actually pitched a no-hitter in college. The Dodgers could use some of that no-hit stuff tonight.
Stripling uses a full arsenal of pitches, and owns a 2.83 ERA in three minor league seasons. The Dodgers drafted him in the fifth round of the 2012 amateur draft. He was originally drafted by the Rockies in 2011, but did not sign with them. Stripling had Tommy John surgery in 2014, and did not pitch at all that season.
The Giants will counter with right hander Matt Cain. The veteran had an injury plagued season in 2015. He made only 11 starts and posted the worst ERA (5.79) of his 11 season career. Cain is 5-11 against the Dodgers in 30 starts with a 3.49 ERA. He is 54-51 with a 3.24 ERA at At&t Park.
The current Dodgers have hit Cain well as evidence by their .281 (48 for 171) average against. The Dodgers have hit 9 home runs and driven in 24 runs against Cain. Adrian Gonzalez and Chase Utley are the big boppers. Gonzalez is hitting .297 (22 for 74) with 4 home runs, and Utley is hitting .300 (9 for 30) with 4 home runs as well.
Dodgers vs. Cain
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | SH | SF | IBB | HBP | GDP |
| Adrian Gonzalez | 85 | 74 | 22 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 10 | 17 | .297 | .376 | .554 | .931 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Chase Utley | 32 | 30 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 3 | .300 | .344 | .733 | 1.077 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| A.J. Ellis | 24 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | .286 | .348 | .333 | .681 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Carl Crawford | 21 | 20 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .250 | .286 | .300 | .586 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Yasiel Puig | 13 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | .364 | .462 | .818 | 1.280 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Clayton Kershaw | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Blanton | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Justin Turner | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .667 | .667 | 1.000 | 1.667 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Charlie Culberson | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 190 | 171 | 48 | 11 | 1 | 9 | 24 | 15 | 29 | .281 | .344 | .515 | .859 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
I know the Dodgers had to lose and give up some runs at some point. Believe me I understand that it’s a long season and it’s only been four games. I just would have liked to see them not get blown out like they did. The bullpen problems are one thing. We already are familiar with that situation. I just don’t understand why the front office chose Alex Wood over spending a little bit more money to bring in a more established starting pitcher. They didn’t have to sign David Price, or Zack Greinke. Please don’t give me the excuse that “nobody else was available”, because we all know that there were plenty of mid tier arms available on the market.
Here’s hoping that tonight’s game has a better result. Remember to come over here and check out the recap after the game. Go Blue!
Wood wasn’t even supposed to be in the rotation. He was “depth,” remember?
I like our chances today.
Giants favored, again, but I think we can score against Cain. O/U is 8. I will take the over once more.
But will the game be played?
Why what’s up MJ?
Can’t have run out of starting pitchers already?
MJ asked about what Woods injury in Spring Training was. The Dodgers held him out for 6 or 7 days with “forearm soreness.”
Thanks Mark I remember now. And Watford it might rain. It is raining in southern California right now.
The rains should start around 8ish in SF today; let’s see how much game we get in
Bobby the Dodgers will play tonight. I saw it on the Dodger pre show. But they are concerned with tomorrow’s game, being rained out.
“forearm soreness” is a medical term that means the trainer is an idiot. Anyone who can not create a plan for an increasing level of physical activity while ALSO monitoring soreness is felony stupid and qualified only to work at a message parlor giving special messages.
I sure got the o/U right on DL to start the season.
SVS in the lineup vs a RH pitcher? Interesting!
I read CC has a sore back.
Artie boy he was also in the line up, against a rightie. Crawford has a sore back, he might be in the line up tomorrow. Probably better, with Crawford’s arm, because the Giants have such a big outfield.
Puig has an average exit velocity this season of 104 mph, third in MLB behind Carloses Gonzalez and Correa. (Pederson is ninth in the Majors at 101 mph.)
What exactly is that stat?
Bum Joc has been doing pretty good. If he keeps on hitting at a decent average, his strike outs, won’t be such a big problem, and he is doing better, after he has two strikes.
I bet you loved the HR! It was to bad, that JP came in, and erased what Joc had did, and gave a bigger lead to the Giants.
What was the exit velocity on some of those Giants hits yesterday? Not a very meaningful stat IMO, especially for players who strike out half the time. It’s a line drive in the box score, as they say.
I like seeing a set lineup of starters, damn I’m glad Mattingly is gone. Roberts wants to build a team and not just a bunch of players that are swapped in and out of the lineup daily and moved thru-out the batting order night to night. Did I mention that I am damn glad Donnie is gone?
I won’t beat a dead horse, but it is painfully obvious that the same bullpen problems exist this season and are maybe worse than last season’s, if that is possible. Same gas can, different day!
TrueBlue TT I totally agree about Mattingly! I tried to tell people it wasn’t the front office, changing the line up constantly, but they didn’t believe me.
I think that Mattingly thought what he was doing, was what the front office wanted. No team in baseball, changed the line up, as often as Mattingly.
And there wasn’t a single team, even close. I really bet that the front office, thought that Mattingly was a terrible manager.
I think they were only going to keep Mattingly, for the last year, of his contract, out of respect to Mattingly.
Meanwhile, that Story dude in Colorado has 2 more HR today
Here’s the difference in the pen this year:
If Garcia, Baez and others don’t cut it, there’s Cotton, Urias, De Leon, Anderson and several others who will take their place. The leash is short!
That is really good to hear Mark.
I’ll believe it when I see it. they seem to love Hatcher because he throws hard, but he’s unreliable. They love Blanton but I can’t figure out why.
So I signed up for, and am using unblock-us.com today. super easy to change the dns, and now the game looks so crystal clear on the apple tv!
thanks MJ, I believe you told me about this. Drinks on me!
Bobby did you try it on your iPhone, because mine only worked on my Apple TV. It is easy if I figured it out. But I am glad to hear that.
I did it on my laptop, and apple tv, and it’s worked on both
Crawford battling back muscle issues, you can’t make this stuff up.
Nobody here is surprised, that’s for sure
The trade strikes again.
Stripling, you stud. Keep throwing that nasty curveball, they can’t hit it.
kid has good stuff. unlike Lee, who we can tell doesn’t have the mlb type stuff, Strip does.
Glad Doc gave him a shot. Now, how long will the kid go???
All right third time through the lineup coming up.
Bullpen warming up?
Ross is looking solid. Hopefully this is a sign of more to come. Also, just learned that T-Mobile offers all its customers a free mlb.tv subscription. So if you have T-mobile, sign up and you no longer have to worry about missing games because of TimeWarner
What a job by this kid!
Wood please observe Stripling pitching!
Sorry I have never seen anything that impressed me about Wood. End the trial and execute Wood and bring someone else up, I’ve seen enough.
Yesterday, at the first sign of fatigue, Wood faltered.
Today, the rookie battled back. That inning right there showed me more than the previous 6. This kid is here to stay.
And I believe I said in a post last week “Stripling darkhorse for rookie of the year!” (paraphrasing)
Take him out!! Take him out!! He just walked the first two batters! …wait! Leave him in! He’s throwing a no-hitter.
Good game…
He goes to the 8th with 91 pitches. How long do you leave him in? If he gets through the 8th, do you even take a chance with him in the 9th, or just put in Jansen? It’s a two run game.
I would have pulled him, too, after that walk. Hatcher doesn’t really instill confidence, though.
I don’t disagree with taking him out either, but last inning he was able to get a dp. Either way, Hatcher better do his job now and get out of this inning
Good call to pull him. He pitched well, but was tired. Plus, coming of tj, no need to push the pitch count and risk injury. Great debut by Ross.
Yeah, Roberts did the right thing.
What a performance.
Bullpen. Gulp.
unbelievable
Leave it to the bullpen…
Bobby, you mean believable, same s***, different day.
Who the hell is Trevor Brown? Of course that was his first career homerun.
Why do the baseball gods f’ing hate us???????
Damn Hatcher. Bullpen still sucks.
Roberts did the right thing! I’m sorry this is not on the umpire. This is on Hatcher! How can he let a rookie hit the ball out? I am so sick of this, and this bullpen, except for Coleman and Jansen! And Hatcher, better get out of this inning, with no more runs! This is all on Hatcher!!! !!
And the ump today has pretty much been right on, according to that strike/ball box.
Hatcher blows the game then gets our manager kicked out.
Where is Joe Blanton????????
You asked for him – well, you got him
Roberts has his players’ back. I respect that.
Same old gascan, different game. WTF!!!
Just more moneyball garbage in the bullpen.
Well at least Mark was right about this kid.
Good game but really more than 90 pitches this early in the season?
Crawford? His special Trainer? Morons all! His long term workout program was always designed to kill the body. They will never learn.
Should Roberts have pulled him at 75?…while pitching a No No. Can you even imagine the response from Badger?
The front office set a pitch count limit of 100. Moneyball garbage strikes again
https://twitter.com/BillShaikin/status/718658747145408512
Pedro not exactly a reliable source.
It was said on the pregame show that he had a limit of 100
What does 100 pitches have to do with Moneyball? That’s what I hated about Torre – his hard pitch count.
Nothing. Im not talking about that. Im talking about the garbage bullpen
They are trying to hit a HR, but that doesn’t always work, especially in SF, unless of course, Hatcher is pitching! Our guys just need to get on.
Hatcher sure groved that pitch.
The middle finger curve is the perfect pitch to throw against the gnats.
Stripling looked really good. Great mix of pitches and he’s not afraid to throw any pitch in any count. While it’s only one game, I’m hoping he’ll be really good.
I hate seeing Hatcher come into any game. He doesn’t know where he’s throwing it. He pitches against a stiff front leg and his release point is different every time he throws. AND HE’S THE 8TH INNING GUY?
The Dodgers’ situational hitting is horrible as usual. 8 hits, 2 runs. Too many guys LOB. Not enough productive outs with guys on base. Too many fly balls into the rain which have no chance to go out.
Jason, there’s Joe Blanton
This is how I feel all the time about this team.
I HATE JOE BLANTON. Another brilliant move by the Braintrust. 89 MPH at the letters.
More moneyball garbage guys. Remember, Joe Blanton is Andrew Friedman’s “solution” to the bullpen
FOR HOW MANY YEARS DO WE HAVE TO SAY IT IS THE BULLPEN STUPID?????????????????