Leading the four-game series against the San Diego Padres three games to one, the Los Angeles Dodgers sent their ace pitcher, Ross Stripling to seal the series win. Chicken Wing showed everyone why he is a 2018 All-Star.
Stripling brought his “A” game and went six shutout innings, striking out six, giving up six hits, and walking one. The trouble was, Stripling came out of the game in a one-one tie because the Padres Ross, Tyson, was also shutting down the Dodgers. Ross had a no-hitter going until the middle of the sixth inning, when Joc Pederson broke it up with a double.
The Dodgers broke the scoreless stalemate in the seventh when Andrew Toles singled and brought in Chris Taylor, who had doubled earlier. Matt Kemp drove Toles home with the second run of the inning, and Joc Pederson got in on the action with an RBI single that scored Logan Forsythe (who was in to pinch run for Chase Utley).
Stripling was done for the night, so Dave Roberts called on Daniel Hudson, who immediately stunk things up with a walk and a single. Roberts yanked the chain on Hudson and brought in Scott Alexander. He got two quick strike outs and then gave up a two run double to Wil Meyers. The Dodgers managed to limp out of the inning holding on to a slim one run lead, 3-2.
The newest front office pick up, Dylan Floro, continued to impress with a spotless eighth inning. Boy, that guy’s got wicked movement on his pitches.
I can’t say the same about Kenley Jansen, however. Sure he picked up the save tonight, but once again, it wasn’t easy, and it included putting the tying run on base. Jansen’s got impressive numbers on paper, but I’m not convinced he can be trusted over the long haul with increasingly pressure-filled games.
That said, a big bright spot tonight was Chris Taylor. He flashed the leather and spoke loudly with his bat. He saved a run with a brilliant stop of a screamer between third and short, made a great catch for a big out in the ninth, and came up with a double and scored a run. Give the kid a ring of the bell.
The Dodgers took the San Diego series three games to one and will face the Angels at home before the All Star break.
PS…The Dodgers are in sole possesion of First Place in the NL West for the first time this season. Stay tuned!
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.
Follow Me:
First place! Arizona pitching is starting to crack. We have overtaken them in almost every pitching category. They should be looking at our ass for a while trying to catch us.
Hitting has not come easy for us. We got some clutch hits but no power. Games like this one are important to win and the Dodgers seem to muster just enough magic to do it.
I agree with Scott, that Jansen somehow doesn’t seem comfortable. I’ve noticed this the last two games which he has gotten saves in. Looks a bit shaky as if he is not quite healthy. I think Jansen tries to hide small injuries from the management. I hope he can go for the distance this season.
Floro continues to impress as does Stripling.
I don’t think he is injured at all. I think he has this approach that once he has 2 strikes he can amp it up and get the guy out. Problem with that is he loses his rhythm and all of a sudden his pitches are all over the place. That’s what happened against Ohtani in that blown save against the Angels. He better figure it out quick because after the all star break they have a 10 game trip against teams who actually can win games. Albert hits #630 and ties Griffey JR.
I could care less if they hit another HR all year if they keep winning. This one was ugly. But a win is a win. First place is first place even if it is only a 1/2 game lead. Jansen again started over throwing once he got two strikes and walked a man. It is expected for a pitcher to have ups and downs during the season. Hudson had an off night too. Ross kept them off balance for most of 6 innings. Bad news is that Turner has a strained hip. He will not be in the lineup for tonight’s game and might miss tomorrows as well. Buehler back on the hill tonight. I know sabermetrics and all or nothing hitting is what we see more of than anything else now. But a player can hit for average and have power too. Machado is doing that, Cabrera did it for years. So why do players today think they need to swing the way they do to be successful? You got me….
Michael
That is what I have been saying, there are hitters that can do both, so why settle for less.
I think if we had two 300 hitters, we might get by a little better.
The good teams have at least two of these type of really good hitters.
We don’t this year, because Corey is out, and Turner is hurt.
I would not play Turner until after the Allstar break, and see if that time can help him heal a little better.
And I haven’t forgot about Kemp, but I was thinking before the season started, that we would have an additional good hitter like Kemp, and still have Corey and Turner.
What was important last night, everyone that hit a run in, was not up there, to try to hit one out.
They made sure they made some kind of contact, to try to get the runner or runners home.
Kenley goes through something every year, but I think since we lost that game against the Angels, Kenley has tried even harder, to try to throw a clean inning.
But a couple of the Padres hitters, were just being patient, and trying to have good at bats, and that was more about those Padre’s hitters, then Kenley being off his game.
He was still over throwing. When he stays in his game, he is much better. But when he does that he gets out of his rhythm. But he managed to get them out. Against a better team, that might not happen. They have a very rough road trip coming out of the break. Lets see where they are after that rather than celebrating a 1/2 game lead. And the trading deadline is coming up. They will be down to a little more than 50 games left by then. Do they trade prospects for a 50 game rental>>>????
Michael
It sounds like Chase is going retire today.
They said on the MLB Channel, that Chase was going to have a news conference today, at Dodger Stadium.
He is retiring after the season. I was wondering whether he would come back for the 2nd year of his contract and now I know he is not.
So I heard that W posted something about our feckless leader over on Timmons’ site. I know from our long history that Mark doesn’t tolerate progressive thinking in his kingdom so I had to go check it out. It was basically nothing.
But while there I did see a copy and paste article from the Athletic about Alex Verdugo. It went on for several paragraphs and offered absolutely nothing new. Is that all you get for your money? If you pay I would expect some hard hitting insightful conspectus. What’s the cost for those intermutual expositions?
I’m feeling rather full of myself this morning. We sit alone in first place before the All Star break. Badgerdamus spoke, the people doubted, but the baseball gods responded. It’s good to be astute. It’s not good to be an asstoot. That’s something altogether different. And don’t ask me about the market. My predictive skills are limited to baseball.
Now, about this upcoming series….. hey, you pay for the Athletic regnant pablum, this information is gonna cost.
But, seriously folks…… looking ahead to after the break….. have you seen that road trip schedule? Brutal.
Trouble posting this morning.
I’ve tried 3 different posts, all disappeared, but when I tried a second “test” post, it told me it was a duplicate. So, if they eventually get here, please excuse the double posts.
“Do they trade prospects for a 50 game rental>>>????“
They do every year, so, yeah.
I’ve got posts from this morning stuck in limbo somewhere. For all I know this will go there too.
I already knew they had a road trip in the east after they come back, but I think the schedule in August is going to be even tougher.
We face the Dbacks in the last series of August too.
And I only think we play one more series against the Dbacks after that, so that series against the Dbacks is going to be pretty important.
I didn’t like that Kenley didn’t pitch inside at all last night.
I know he has to be perfect inside against those last two hitters he faced, but pitching those hitters outside on every pitch, allowed those hitters, to foul off his pitches much easier.
And his cutter runs in on a hitter’s the hands when he pitches inside, and it is harder for hitters to foul off those inside pitches, because they get jammed, or they totally miss those inside pitches, if Kenley pitches inside enough, so they can’t extend their arms.
And although Kenley’s outside cutter was cutting well, because it was cutting well, it was hard for Kenley to get a called strike, because his cutter, would cut outside of the strike zone, to much.
It was a good two strike pitch, if the hitters would bite.
Utley has scheduled a press conference this afternoon where he is expected to announce he is retiring at the end of the season. That just justifies his salary for the rest of the season, there is hardly a need to call a press conference unless there is some other action to remove him from the roster and call up a replacement. Perhaps he will become an “Assistant to The GM” or some such. I say let him keep his uniform and step right in as a coach.
It also could work this way: Turner is hurting and should be out for awhile. Move Chunky Monkey to third, Bellinger back to first, and call up Verdugo for the outfield…
Jonah
How about the Dodgers just play Kemp every day? Don’t need more outfielders to muddy the waters. Toles is doing fine.
Scott
Badger’s posts, are not getting through again!
I see a few of them got moderated this morning. I manually pushed them through, and I cleared the cache again. Not much else I can do here. I’m sure he’s super pissed. If you guys know of a web designer or programmer that would work for super cheap, let me know. I wish I had the programming knowledge to fix it, but alas I do not.
I think you use Word Press software, don’t you? They have technical support people who can help you adjust your spam filter…
Yes but you have to pay extra for the support
This will forever be a classic:
Almost on the scale of Tommy’s rant on Kurt Bevacqua.
This is so funny and wonderful
Buehler activated. Venditte sent down, again…they are still a man short. Rosscup has not reported yet and with Turner ailing they are a man short on the bench.
Rosscup is interesting. A left hander with a fastball and splitter. I like the fact we are getting relievers who can throw splitters.
I don’t think we can rely on Jansen this postseason. It’s going to be a bit of a rollercoaster, hang on.