The Mets are gone, but things did not necessarily get easier, as the Cheatin’ Cardinals rolled into Chavez Ravine.
Tonight’s game brought us Michael Wacha vs Ross Stripling, two former Texas Aggies. Wacha is coming off three consecutive losses, and Stripling, while usually decent, is another reminder that the Dodgers rotation always packs surprises.
Here’s how the game went.
1st inning
Cardinals
Stripling quickly gave up a couple of base hits. Add an error by Corey Seager. 1-0.
Dodgers
Howie Kendrick, batting lead off, took the ball for a ride all the way to the CF wall, but he was robbed of a home run by a leaping catch by Randal Grichuk.
2nd inning Cardinals 1-0
Dodgers
Two booted hits (one error) equaled two on and nobody out for Joc Pederson.
Pederson walked. Bases loaded.
Trayce Thompson – Base hit! That scored two – and no out.
A.J. Ellis double play.
Stripling base hit to RF. This was Stripling’s first career hit.
Howie Kendrick- base hit! RBI
3rd inning Dodgers 3-1
Dodgers
Joc Pederson doubled to score Adrian Gonzalez.
4th inning Dodgers 4-1
Cardinals
Stripling gave a run back with a homer to the Card’s number 8 hitter. 4-2.
Dodgers
Stripling on with an E.
Howie Kendrick base hit.
RBI/out for Corey Seager. 5-2.
Yasiel Puig knocked in Kendrick with a base hit to left. 6-2.
5th inning Dodgers 6-2
Cardinals
They got one more run. 6-3.
Dodgers
Wacha out, Bowman in.
Justin Turner blistered one past the troubled shortstop, Diaz, for his third E of the night. More importantly, it brought in Kendrick. 7-3.
6th inning Dodgers 7-3
Cardinals
A triple and a wild pitch brought in another run. 7-4.
Stripling out, Adam Liberatore and Louis Coleman finished the inning.
Dodgers
And then Puig happened!
Home ron! 8-4.
Pedro Baez pitched the 8th, and Joe Blanton made things interesting in the ninth, until Roberts brought in Kenley Jansen to end things.
Dodgers win 8-4!
Stripling got the win, but he just insisted on keeping the Cardinals in the game. On almost any other night, he may well have lost this game. However, he didn’t, because the Dodgers broke that blockage that I talked about in last night’s recap.
The Dodgers scored early (as usual), but they managed to continue scoring through the middle innings. Although the Cardinals helped with four errors, the change tonight was, the Boys in Blue capitalized on those mistakes. They scored runs in every inning from the second through the sixth, and Yasiel Puig got a home run.
The bullpen added another 3+ innings of scoreless ball to preserve the victory. Things are good in Chavez Ravine.
Ross Stripling (1-2) went 5 innings with 8 hits, 4 runs, 3 walks, 2 Ks, 1 HR. ERA 4.26
Homerun: Yasiel Puig
Doubles: Gonzalez, Pederson
Team with RISP: 4 for 14. They scored 8 runs tonight, but they coulda had a fistful more.
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.
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A win with 20 LOB. Too many Diaper Dans tonight 🙁
The Cards left 18. The Dodgers pen continues their stellar streak.
Mark don’t tempt fate!
Totally agree about the BP Mark. With exception of Hatcher and Howell the current 7 man BP has an ERA of 1.95. When you combine Hatcher and Howell the 1.95 jumps to 3.58 ERA.
I am not a proponent of ERA for the BP because it does NOT allow IRS and still think that if an IR scores the responsibility should be shared equally between SP and RP. It would be a truer indication of each pitchers effectiveness.
Stripling reminds me of Billingsly. He does not trust himself. He tries to be just on the corner. He misses by just a little and then he gets behind. You cannot pitch from behind. The bull pen has done better. However we have not seen much of Hatcher, or Howell lately.
Idahoal good point!
Aggies, Oscar, not Longhorns.
Apologies to Wondering–when I read his post about Ryan Braun I was thinking of Bryce Harper. Even though Braun would be a big upgrade in left, I don’t see the Brewers trading him for Crawford unless someone puts a horse’s head in Bud Selig’s bed. It would go nicely with the other end of the horse.
Ryan Braun is an interesting trade piece. By today’s standards his contract is very affordable. He is one of those players that plays a lot of of games and thereby is able to put up the numbers to justify his $20 million a year. I’m not sure why we are talking about him as an acquisition as on the surface he does not look like a FAZ guy. We already have a right hand hittin left fielder, two of them in fact, three if you count Hernandez. A right handed thumper would be cool, and he’s proven, but he is on the wrong side of 30. FAZ wants platoon guys who are affordable. That said, would you include Thompson and SVS in a deal for him?
“A horse’s head in Selig’s bed”
🙂
ha! oops…I just exposed my ignorance of college teams.
Mark, I am glad you see the BAR set so LOW for Dodger relief pitching. If you are basically happy with walks and wild pitches and all — and lost games after 5 or 6 or 7 innings because that is the way the GM wants to play it. OK.
But my bar is higher. I do not accept this “on today” and “off tomorrow and the next and the next” — with the likes of Avilan, Baez, Blanton Coleman, Garcia, Howell, Liberatore types.
And compare them with the rest of the league — is not what I want. I want stoppers and relief pitchers that can do the job, just not be as bad as other teams.
I was glad that Roberts didn’t fool around, and let Blanton lose the game, at the end! He got out there, a lot faster then Mattingly would, after Blanton, let two batters get on base, in the ninth.
That was begining to make me really nervous, at the end, especially with some of the games, we have lost to the Cardinals. I hope Stripling can get back to pitching, like he did, against the Bluejays.
I had thought he had gotten over pitching way to careful, and getting behind on the count, and walking batters. But he is still learning, so we will have to be more patient. But it is hard to be patient, when the Dodgers are playing the Cardinals! Puig did hit a HR, but one of his hits, was a gift. AJ hit two line drives, that were caught. That is a tough night, for AJ, but he only cares, that the Dodgers won.
I’m not a huge fan of this bullpen, and I think my writing shows it. But I’ll keep it real and give credit where credit is due.
They had a great scoreless innings streak earlier ( i also wrote about that) and they are in the middle of another scoreless streak now.
That doesn’t excuse the other meltdowns, but (I believe) a lot of those can be placed at Howell’s and Hatcher’s doorsteps.
Overall, the BP is showing to be streaky, which viewed through blue-tinted glasses shows me the potential is there for them to get hot and stay hot.
They’ve been holding up against pretty good teams lately, so I’ll take that as a positive sign as well.
Bullpen pitched effectively with a lead for a lot of the game. Game could have been lost by them. Nice job. Is Robert doing a bochy and using relievers for an out or 2? Using a lot of them. Ok if it works and if the arms don’t wear out. It looks like the Cardinals may becoming what we don’t want to be, on a slow downhill slide. Maybe there was more to the scandal than what was in the media. Now the scariest part of the rotation: Kazmir and Wood. Take a deep breath.
BTW: the importance of Puig in the offense. This team can ride on his shoulders. Up or down.
Yes, we can definitely ride to the top with Puig, but if Seager and Thompson can pick up the slack, Puig’s bat can be dropped in the lineup and not be missed too much.
That said, I don’t think he’ll drop to A.J. Ellis levels of hitting. Even batting seventh, at his worst, he will show occasional hits and power.
Did you guys see that Jose Reyes, got a longer suspension then Chapman? I would have thought that Chapman, would have gotten a longer suspension. Because Chapman was shooting a gun, but he is a Yankee, and all of the power in baseball, is in NY!
I don’t think that is the reason MJ.
Chapman did shoot off a gun. But, there is no crime if no charges are filed. He never laid a hand on the woman. Reyes did.
“The Maui County Police department said Reyes’ and his wife were involved ‘in an argument that turned physical and resulted in injuries’ at the Four Seasons Resort in Maui on the afternoon of Oct 31.”
‘Mrs. Reyes was treated by medics at the scene and later transported to the Maui Memorial Medical Center for further treatment,’ the force said in a statement Tuesday.”
Mrs Reyes refused to cooperate. We all know that shooting a weapon out a window is illegal. So what? No charges filed. Had it been you or me that shot out a window, and a cop was in the neighborhood, reckless endangerment and attempted murder of a police officer would have been the charge. Chapman? Nothing. And, for MLB, no domestic violence happened. MLB in its infinite wisdom gave a short suspension because they knew they had to. Image and all. Reyes did indeed smack his wife around. Charges were filed. It didn’t go anywhere because the wife refused to cooperate. It has nothing to do with a city. It has everything to do with a multi billion dollar industry and public image.
Badger thanks. I didn’t know that Reyes wife was injured Badger. I assumed when she didn’t press charges, that it didn’t go that far. And I didn’t mean NY the city. I meant the top people and decision makers, in baseball, that are all in NY. I think the Yankees got some kind of inside info, before they traded for Chapman. You really don’t know what is true, in some of these cases. And that is why I still wanted the Dodgers to get Chapman, but he got lucky, with all of those bullet marks. I think because he was honest with the police, and showed them, what he did, is part of the reason nothing was done, and of course because he is a pro player.
Cops probably got tickets promised to them.
Make no mistake, I know the Yankees have influence. They are the #1 valued franchise in all of baseball, $3.4 billion, in a business worth $36 billion. They got clout. But they also have common sense. No charges? A guy like Chapman is worth that risk. 30 days. FAZ walked from an arm like that over 30 days? An argument could be made that McCarthy and Anderson were much higher risks than that and they went all in on those guys. Disappointing.
I know Badger. It was even worse in the way the press played this. Since the front office, didn’t get any decent starting pitching, except for Maeda. They should have got at least one good arm for the bullpen.
Roger, In case you didn’t see my last post about the pen:
The Dodgers bullpen is
5th in MLB in WHIP
4th in fewest hits allowed
3rd in batting average allowed
4th in saves
So, I guess the bitching and moaning have stopped … at least until the next meltdown. Then you will be back with a vengeance, I assume.
One or two of the starters… maybe more… will be back. I have no clue who, but right now, the hitting is the problem. However, it looks to me that Puig, Gonzo, Turner and Kendrick are all starting to heat up. The Dodgers are hitting .242 as a team and I guarantee they will be over .265 – so you can expect a lot of offense in the future.
Two games over .500 after 36 games – I’ll take it.
Bolsinger is probably a week or two away… I’m sure they will keep him in OKC the maximum to build arm strength, He pitched 4 innings Thursday night and allowed 0 runs. Frias pitched 3 inning on Thursday too.
Yasmani is the defensive equal of AJ, in my opinion. He is healthy and I look for big things from him. He handled Clayton just fine in his last start. The Dodgers are much better with Grandal behind the plate than AJ – bless his heart! The Kemp-Grandal will go down as one of the best Dodger trades.
It’s no coincidence that when Adrian Gonzales slumps, so do the Dodgers. Hopefully he will heat up and the Dodgers will streak… Again, I am saying that the Dodgers are the class of the west!
Mat Latos is 5-0 but he has been very lucky. I doubt that it continues. However, I still question Honeycutt! After a good start Nicasio has come back to earth (4.34 ERA).
The pen, at one time was like 29th, so be where they are now is pretty amazing!
MJ asked what’s wrong with Turner: “He’s in a slump, like A-Gon, Puig and like Kendrick was. He’s moving good, running well and I think he will have an excellent year.”
Mark Agon has mostly been good, except the first homestand, and it looks like Howie, is turning the corner. But Turner hasn’t hit much all season long. And except for the first week, Puig hasn’t done much either. Thompson had a real good at bat, with the Bases loaded. He didn’t try to do to much, and he singled, and hit two runs in.
And Joc also had a good at bat in that inning, and got a walk, after the pitcher, had two quick strikes on him. But right now, Turner is the most inportant bat, that the Dodgers need to get going, because he is batting third, and getting more at bats, then almost everyone in the line up.
And when Turner is hitting, and driving in runs. Agone gets better at bats, and the line up, is much longer. I hope your right Mark, about Turner. I am trying to be patient, but when we play the Cardinals, it is hard to be patient.
You only cite the numbers that suit your argument. They are 3rd in blown saves with 5 – thank you Chris Hatcher! They are 9th in K/9, which is middle of the pack.
The big complaint on this site is that the numbers don’t reflect the reality of the situation – which is that the ‘pen seems to pitch well in low leverage situation but melt down late in close games. Too many times, Roberts gives the ball to Hatcher or Baez or someone only to see them fall apart.
Sure – they have pitched better lately and I am glad for that, but as a group, I still don’t trust them.
Exactly. They’ve been great at protecting big leads and deficits, but besides KJ who do you trust with a one-run lead? Maybe Baez has turned a corner as he’s pitched well the past week. I like the fact Roberts didn’t fool around when Blanton started to struggle. One thing for sure, our starters have been giving them plenty of work.
Couldn’t have said it better. I have this “yeah but” theme going through my head. There are some good arms, and even a couple of good pitchers in the pen. Yeah but…… I still don’t trust the group. Not yet.
That said, Hatcher and Baez have the arms to blow people away. Baez might already be there. Hatcher clearly isn’t. If those two both get it together, add Garcia and Montas, we have the potential to be Kansas City good from 7th on.
I’m just glad Strippling got his first win! But you are right. After Kershaw the starting pitching becomes an adventure.
Does cheatin’ cardinals refer to the story of them hacking into some other team’s database?
Yes
Artieboy – yes, Cheatin’ Cardinals comes from the hack/spying …and…intentionally hitting Hanley in the playoffs to knock our best hitter out of the game…and …the King of all Cheaters, Mr. McGwire.