There are three things you can count on in this life, death, taxes, and the Dodgers losing in San Francisco. The Dodgers rolled over again dropping the second game of the series to their hated rivals by a 2-1 score on Tuesday evening. They’ve now lost 5 out of 8 to the Giants this year and 4 out of six in San Francisco. Overall they’ve lost their third straight and have lost 4 of their last 6 to drop back into third place. As for the Giants, they’ve now won five in a row. Honestly I never thought the Giants were as bad as their record indicated.
Dodgers 1 7 0
Giants 2 11 0
WP-Blach-1-2
LP-Avilan-0-1
SV-Law-4
HR-Belt-8-Taylor-4
The Dodgers were unable to hit left hander Ty Blach (who strikes out less than three batters per start) who limited them to one run on five hits over seven innings with four strikeouts. Blach has now allowed just three earned runs to the Dodgers in 25.1 innings pitched. It’s unbelievable that the Dodgers couldn’t hit this guy. I mean come on its Ty Blach!
But the Dodgers put out another all-righty lineup, resting the red-hot Yasmani Grandal and playing Scott Van Slyke at first base who is terrible and batting .122 after going 0 for 3 tonight with two strikeouts. Kike Hernandez was penciled in at cleanup for some reason (Kike did have two hits), and Franklin Gutierrez batted second. The Dodgers had seven hits, five of them were singles with six walks. The only run was scored on a solo home run from Chris Taylor in the top of the sixth inning that tied the game. The boys in blue were 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position.
Rich Hill made his return to the mound for the Dodgers as they optioned left handed reliever Grant Dayton back to Oklahoma City. Hill wasn’t terrible, but again couldn’t pitch past the fifth inning. Sound familiar? Hill tossed five innings and allowed one run on six hits with six strikeouts and no walks. Hill was fine, but unfortunately the Dodger offense again folded up like a beach chair against a subpar pitcher.
The Giants put runners on base in every inning against Hill. They had a runner reach second in the bottom of the first when Denard Span was hit by a pitch and was balked to second base. Hill was able to get out of it by whiffing Christian Arroyo, getting Brandon Belt and Buster Posey to fly to center.
The Giants put a runner on first in the bottom of the second when Nunez singled and stole second but was stranded there after Mac Williamson grounded out. In the third inning Span singled and was picked off by Hill. Then in the fourth inning Belt belted one out of the park for his eighth home run of the season to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.
The play was reviewed because it looked like a fan reached over the fence but the call was upheld, because you know it’s the Dodgers here. The fourth inning could have been worse after consecutive singles from Posey and Crawford but Hill got former Dodger Justin Ruggiano to strike out, and Nunez to ground into a double play. Hill wasn’t sharp as he was missing his sports early but was able to limit the damage.
The problem was the pathetic Dodger offense, yet again. The Dodgers had their best chance to plate some runs in the top of the fourth inning. Justin Turner singled with one out and Hernandez doubled over Ruggiano’s head to advance Turner to third. Turner tried to score on Austin Barnes’ fielder’s choice grounder and was thrown out at the plate. Then Yasiel Puig grounded into a force play.
The Dodgers had another chance to score again after Taylor’s home run in the top of the sixth, but couldn’t get a clutch hit. Gutierrez and Hernandez singled. However Turner struck out and Barnes and Puig both flied out.
The Giants took the lead in the bottom of the sixth. With Luis Avilan on the mound (who is now the lone left hander in the Dodger bullpen) Belt reaches on a ground ball single to second. Avilan uncorks a wild pitch and Belt goes to second. Posey’s grounder advances him to third and he scores on Crawford’s single. The Giants lead 2-1.
The Dodgers got a lead-off single from Taylor in the top of the eighth, but that was immediately erased when Corey Seager grounded into a double play. That was it.
The Dodgers are now well on their way back to mediocrity and fall to below .500 against the NL West. The club is now 22-18 and have fallen back to three games behind Colorado. The Dodgers look to get swept tomorrow afternoon even with Clayton Kershaw on the mound in Wednesday’s series finale. Johnny Cueto will counter for the Giants with first pitch scheduled for 12:45 PM.
That Turner Ward is a great hitting coach, just like when he played.
Jonah,
Not impressed with that career .251 BA I take it.
RICH hill did pitch well. Unfortunately it takes him oh 30-35 days to be able to get psyched up and ready to pitch a game……heaven help him if he has to pitch 5 days from now.
I hope everyone understands that the Giants offense is BAD. They rank 26th in BA and next to last in Runs Score. A couple of Dodger pitchers have benefitted from pitching against this line up. Half of Urias’ starts have been against the Giants.
These guys are like a right handed bowl of plain oatmeal – with no nuts.
The railing that guy had his hands on is out of play. The ball would have hit it, or the flat concrete – it was by park ground rules a home run.
Chris Taylor is a player, but when he is your sole source of offense, against a guy not named Bumgarner, you’re gonna lose.
Was I right about the brooms, just wrong about who would be using them? Stand by. We should win today. But, like I was told by my therapist, “don’t should on yourself”.
Third place. We have the same record as Milwaukee. They’re in second place.
I’m gonna have some more oatmeal now. This time with milk and honey. And nuts. Gotta have nuts with my oatmeal. I’ll eat it left handed. That’s so I won’t be thinking about that bland right handed lineup we keep throwing out there. Too late. Might as well have toast. Plain.
Yeah, Timmons said you needed nuts…. (Just kidding)
Why you want to get me thinking about that creep this early in the morning?
What are he and the FAZophants saying about this right handed lineup Fried Zaidi has cobbled together? I think they got Taylor right. I like that guy. We don’t need Forsythe with him playing like this. Makes me wonder what De Leon is up to.
We’re saying that players who are hot should be playing regardless of whether a lefty or righty is pitching. Seager and Bellinger need a day off at some point but it would be nice if it wasn’t on the same day. Same would go for Grandal but I don’t remember the last day he had off. Probably could have played him at 1B instead of Van Slyke Every year it seams there is a team in the west that is our kryptonite. Maybe it’s going to be the giants this year.
It appears to be more about platoon match-ups and less about days off. As you mentioned, when it comes to your starters, typically you stagger days off. With last night’s game as another glaring example, FAZ/Roberts doesn’t do that, they platoon. This IS who we are.
Agon will be back to save us in a day or two… Psychology plays a big part in what people say and do. Baseball players have to be historically conservative in that the way to do things is the way they have always done things. A radical thinker who is in a position to force his new way on them is bound to get them off their feed. Even our best hitters, left handed hitters, are not playing up to their standards. I think all our players (except the ones who shouldn’t be here) are upset by the way FAZ builds his roster, his value designations, the players he chooses to sign or trade for. I think for sure Kershaw opts out to get away from him. Others will follow.
I think many of us questioned that lineup before the game last night. I recall vividly saying that it was a very weak lineup. They sat Turner out the first game of the series and then sat Seager and Bellinger out last night. Ummm, those are 3 of the top 4 hitters at the moment.
Can everyone agree that these platoon/flip-flop/versatile/piss poor lineups all began shortly after Fraudman took over?
Yeah, Chili, what we’ve seen for 2+ years is an on field roster manifestation of their small market philosophy. This is how they do it in Tampa and Oakland and the fans there recognize this is how it must be done to compete. The money they’ve spent, that doesn’t show up on payroll, has been on the international market. Where are those guys? The money they’ve spent that does show up on payroll has been spent on guys like mcBrittle, Kazaster, and Blister Boy. The trades? Meh.
This is what we can expect going forward. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, I don’t know if this is going to work. I do understand the plan but I’m not that familiar with this model. I know I it’s been rather blah so far, but for the time being I’m hanging my hat on the fact we still have enough non FAZ players left over that we should be competitive until Kershaw makes his decision.
It seems this kid Blach has pitched excellent against us every time he has been given the ball.
It probably helps that he throws with his left hand. Because of that alone, FAZ punches data into their Nintendo 64 game and plays thousands of games vs. Ty Blach with various lineups and the end result is Seager sits. Bellinger Sits. The ‘hot hitting’ Grandal sits. Gutierrez hits 2nd. Kiki hits 4th. The computer says we win this game 97.355% of the time.
A true ‘no-brainer’ lineup!
Nintendo 64 🙂
Hill wasn’t that sharp, but he pitched well enough to win. Unfortunately, the Giants had a left-handed pitcher and Roberts dutifully put all his right-handed hitters out there. Hernandez in the cleanup spot! He’s out-hitting Van Sludge by a hundred points, you know.
Seager has been looking like he needed a day off for a week, but why the same night as Bellinger? I guess they figured they could beat up the Giant bullpen anytime they wanted.
Imagine yourself a Dodger player, any player except one of FAZ’s buddy boys who doesn’t earn his roster spot on the playing field. Let’s say you’re left handed hitter. Every at bat you’re telling yourself I have to do better than normal against right handed pitchers because, as sure as snot, they’re going to set me against lefties. If you get an ab against a leftie, you’re telling yourself, If I don’t get a hit, they’re taking me out. Can you perform your best with thoughts like that, never knowing when you’ll get to play or how long? I doubt it. This is what Dodger players have to look forward to in the future.
I used to imagine myself a Dodger player. That was years ago.
These guys all know who it is they play for, and therefore know what it is they need to do. You’re right, through the entire organization they all know they have to work on their splits and their OPS. Strikeouts mean nothing, slugging percentage means everything. I worry this approach may be generating bad habits.
Imagine yourself a Dodger platoon player.
You have a bevy of coaches and statistics to help you prepare for the opposing pitcher.
You know you will be put in the best situations for you to perform in. If strong against lefties, you’ll get an AB against lefties. Vice-versa for righties.
You know that “favorites” won’t get played against lefties if they haven’t proven they can hit them.
You know what your role is on the team, and that the entire team values you for that role.
You play for one of the best teams in MLB, for a great manager and well-respected front office.
That is what Dodger players have to look forward to in the present and future.
This is a fun game.
“You know you will be put in the best situations for you to perform ”
This is “the best”?
“well respected front office”
Says who?
Says me!
“Say’s who?”
…..most of the baseball world outside of a few Dodger fans who comment on websites and blogs.
Even Giant fans give more respect to the organization.
DP-
You must live in LA LA Land. I know a lot of fans of other teams and most laugh at the Dodgers/organization. As they all point out, if you didn’t have Kershaw where would the Dodgers really be.
But it’s not just that. Do you know how many GM’s/Presidents have said ‘jokingly’ in interviews that it would be nice to be able to have the budget/payroll that the Dodgers operate with.
Fan bases laugh at the Dodgers when their $100M payroll team finishes off the Dodgers $250M payroll. 4 straight years and counting.
And yes I bet those Giants gave a lot of respect to the Dodgers during those championship seasons of 2010, 2012 & 2014. So much so that their leader (Bumgarner) has yet to show any respect to the Dodgers. (i.e. Puig)
Here’s whom is giving respect to whom while sublimely comparing them to the Dodger hitters…….(after his May 1, 2017 start)
“Definitely credit to them. Just so many good at-bats, especially their 2-3-4 hitters,” Kershaw said. “They don’t strike out, one of the few teams these days that don’t. They seem to take pride in not striking out. Sometimes you can get through a game quick with a lot of contact. Other times like tonight, they kept fouling off pitches and even when you get outs, it’s six-, seven-pitch at-bats.”
Do we really think the opinion of ‘fans of other teams’ is something we (or anyone) should care about?
Fans?!??!?!?! I’m a fan. Chili is a fan. Our opinions are useless. Opinions are like….
Who cares if other GMs are envious of the Dodgers payroll? And even if we cared, shouldn’t we be happy about that?
Finally, what point are you trying to make with the Kershaw quote? That the Giants had (have?) good hitters? Of course, they did! They are another good team.
Kool Ade strikes again…
Bluto
What did this platoon team do offensively last year, to believe they would be successful, this year?
The only player that wasn’t here last year, is Gutierrez.
I have no idea what the point of this question is.
The theory behind platoons is what I outlined in my comical response. You put players in better positions (pun!) to succeed.
For the upteenth time:
Process > Outcome
As a certain businessman from Omaha sez, “We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.”
Bluto
It was a question about numbers.
Because you said, that the front office, gets the best stats, to put their players in the best position, to perform, at their top, level.
I was just giving you, a hard time!
Nice piece on catching prospect Will Smith.
http://baseballcensus.com/2017/05/16/los-angeles-dodgers-will-smith-versatile-catcher-infielder-prospect-louisville-interview/
He’s at High-A as some here will love to hear.
Wood did pitch better, then I thought he would.
Because he had better control, then I thought he would have.
Because that first inning, could have easily got out of control, after he walked the first hitter, and hit the second batter, but Hill didn’t allow that, to happen.
But I will have to see how he pitches against a team, with a better offense.
And the fact that I have not seen anything about a blister, is good news, when we are talking about Hill.
But the problem was, that Kike and Taylor provided the most offense, and had the two hardest balls, hit.
We needed some of the other hitters in this line up, to step up, and that didn’t really happen.
Turner did most of his job, even though he did strike out in an important part of the game, but he can’t provide most of the offense, all of the time, we need others, to step up.
Gutierrez has been really good, in most of the at bats, he has gotten.
But our other regular players that were in this line up, didn’t do much at all, and I expect more from them, then Kike and Taylor.
Hey gang, back after my router crashed last night due to a internet crash. Sooooooo I had to get a new router. Got it all set up and working now. Missed the game because of the outage but at least I did not miss much. Get to watch CK try to save them again.
Was it the internet or just the Wifi Router? If it was just the router you could have unplugged the Ethernet cable (the incoming wire which plugs into the back of the router) and plugged it directly into your computer. In case it ever happens again…
No, the cable company crashed. Was down most of the night. My router was doing an update when it crashed, so it never recycled. When the internet came back up, the router would never start up. It was over 3 years old, so I just went to Wally’s World and got a different make. Have a Netgear now. Plus it is faster than the old one.
Michael
That is always a pain, but it shows you, just how wrapped up we are, with technology now.
Got that right. I mean there are days when I just do not go on the internet at all, but we are so connected nowadays.
https://twitter.com/OccupyDodgers/status/864341009634697216
Jonah
They are not making Iphones, that have batteries that come out, now.
But my new iPhone’s power, lasts almost all day, so it is much better.
My phone would last several days without recharge, but I only use it for maybe half a dozen phone calls a day. I know you ride your phone hard. I’d be willing to bet you use your phone more than anyone else in the country.
Apple knows how to charge customers and make money, you have to give them that…
Android phones cost maybe one-third as much and have replaceable batteries. They do the job every bit as well.
This day in Dodger history. May 17, 2008, Chan Ho Park, Hong Chi Kuo, and Takashi Saito become the first trio of pitchers from different Asian countries to pitch all 9 innings of a game. Down on the farm, Drew Maggi….389, 2 HR’s 6 RBI’s . Max Muncy .364 2HR’s 6 RBI’s..Alex Verdugo at .310 with 0 homers and 14 RBI’s…Okoye Dickson is down to .270 and has 8 HR’s with 26 ribbies. Trayce Thompson has his average up to .149 and now has 2 HR’s . Jurjjens and Masterson are both at 3-1.
What if…
Popular thought is FRAUDMAN signed the likes of Hill, McCarthey et al to save a few bucks… What if the word is out how FRAUDMAN runs a club (not conducive to players putting up good money making numbers) and better players who have more choice decide to not sign with the Dodgers. Could or will this be happening?
Would definitely be interesting to view through the lens of the Jansen, Turner, Hill signings for (not all) below market deals.
Not sure what you mean here.
And which of these deals do you consider below market.
Yes, my writing could not have been clumsier.
Here’s one report:
Jansen entered the winter as one of the market’s premium free agents and drew significant interest from the Yankees (who instead re-signed Aroldis Chapman), Nationals and Marlins — the latter of whom reportedly made an offer to Jansen that was greater than the five-year, $80MM pact to which he has agreed with the Dodgers.
And Turner signed for less than Dustin Fowler!
Once again logic loses. I have been writing about “kool-ade” whereas most people spell it “kool-aid”. My logical reason was,”Well, lemonade is spelled with “ade”, why wouldn’t this? So I looked it up. Here is an excerpt from a story about its inventor:
But the spelling was originally “Kool-Ade” (which was trademarked by Perkins in 1928). Family lore includes two versions of the story behind the name change. One says that government regulators complained that “Ade” was reserved for fruit juice products, so the name became “Aid.” The other states that “someone threatened to sue Edwin if he used the original name.” The “Kool-Aid” name was trademarked in 1934, again by Perkins Products. – See more at: http://kool-aiddays.com/history/#sthash.m3b9RQuS.dpuf
I would say popular thought is the Dodgers failing is just fine with most baseball fans. Even the Yankees aren’t disliked like the Dodgers are. You don’t hear Beat NY at their games. SF used to hate the Dodgers because they won a lot. Now they’re just laughing at our inability to close the deal. Popular joke in the Bay Area – “What do you call a Dodger with a World Series ring? A thief.” As for Fraudman, “most of the baseball world outside of a few Dodger fans”, as patch put it, know damn well what his record is. Zaidi? Never played a game of anything but chess. His “ball” is a Rubik’s Cube.
I don’t know how good these guys are. Maybe they are geniuses. But I don’t believe they will win any Executive of the Year awards.
Well put. They may well be geniuses but what they are not is knowledgeable baseball executives.
Fun stuff at the old ball yard !
Love it!!!!!
Great job Puig!
Nice job by Kersh. Romo gives up the shutout, but they win so no big deal. Great AB by Puig to drive in those 2 much needed runs. Cody and Corey and Turner all have 2 hits.
I was reading an article on the difference between 2 seam and 4 seam fastballs. The 2 seamer would seem to me be more effective for pitchers to use, yet none of the Dodgers seem to use it much. Is that an organizational directive or the pitchers just haven’t learned to use it?
Badger spoke about this is a recent post. He concurs with your affinity for it, but I’m sure he can say more….
Yeah, I could talk about the two seamer, but I never repeat myself. Besides, everyone that knows anything about pitching knows the value of a two seamer.
Orel making a deal out of Kershaw leading the league in wins. Apparently he didn’t get the memo that wins mean nothing. This game isn’t about winning, it’s about participation. That and OPS. And wRC+.
A day off tomorrow. What will I do with my time. Pull weeds I suppose.
Dbacks game on. Tied in the 11th. We could move back into second place today.
If we had another McKazhill instead of Kershaw, we’d be just another .500 club.
Yeah, I could talk about the two seamer. But I never repeat myself. Everyone that knows anything about pitching knows the value of the two seamer.
What’s in that Kool-Aid you’ve obviously been drinking?
Jonah
I think Maeda might throw a two seamer, now.
Guy I was thinking about was Hatcher. It might help him a lot.
I agree. I suggested that for him and Baez.
The two seamer has been around for decades. I learned it from my grandpa when I was 12. That was 1960. The best I’ve ever seen use it was Greg Maddux. And Orel Hershiser. Verlander, Keuchel, Arrieta and Price throw it. Felix Hernandez, Corey Kluber, Porcello, Scherzer – there are a lot of pitchers in the league that use it. Brandon McCupcake throws it.
Jonah
I think Hatcher needs good mental help, maybe Trayce can recommend, his sports psychologist.
Grandal hit in the first two runs, and Bellinger hit in the third run, and that gave Kershaw more then enough runs, to work with.
He was pretty sharp today.
Also our three guys that hit in the middle of our line up, all had two hits today, too!
I can’t relax, I’m waiting to see who plays the DL Game next.
Jonah
I know it isn’t Ryu, because he starts tomorrow.
We are going to have a tougher schedule next week, after we play the Marlins.
We play six games against the Cardinals next week, and three against the Cubbies.
And we better have a better showing against the Marlins, this year.
They swept us at home last year.
Deja Vu, All Over Again…
You mean 1974?