Here’s the second of the two biggest questions facing the Dodgers as they head into the playoffs:
Can Cody Bellinger carry the Dodgers to the Promised Land if he has to?
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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Bellinger is a key piece unlike last year when he was platooned and did not play against lefty’s. They had a lot of RH pop last year but were much better against LHP this year. That is because Muncy and Bellinger were pretty good against those guys. Believe it or not, Pederson, as bad as he is against LHP was 4 for 9 against them over his last 9 plate appearances against them. Corbin will probably be the starter in game 1. He is 5-9 in his career against LA and 3-4 at Dodger Stadium. He only has 1 appearance against the Dodgers this year and he won that game. But on paper, LA is a much better team. The Nats are 8th in the NL in pitching and the Dodgers are 1st. It will not be an easy series, but I feel pretty good about the Dodgers chances.
Hhmmm, Joc is 4 for 9 in his last appearances against lefties. Bet he doesn’t start any games that have a leftie starter.
I read your last post in the previous blog, please pass around what you are smoking (you can keep the Blue Goggles however).
The MLB is so bad this year, that a handful of teams had incredibly high win records, yet numerous clubs had absolutely terrible records, funny how that works. This fact gives an incredibly slanted take on the reality of how many holes the Dodgers actually have in their line-up, their starting pitching and their awful and unreliable bullpen.
Have another drink on me, Michael. I think you are living in a very strange and skewed of statistical world.
In any event, welcome back from Siberia.
You can say the same about every playoff team. The fact is they had the best pitching staff in the majors, and that is not the blue goggles talking. The second place team was the Rays, not the Astros and the Yankees were 8th. Baseball is not played the way it was when we were kids. It is a whole different game. And I wasn’t in Siberia, I was getting surgery on my eyes. Now I can actually read the BS you throw out there all the time. But it doesn’t matter that you take such a negative slant on the team, you do that all the time anyway. if you ever praised anyone I would fall over from shock. Some of us just happen to have a little faith in these guys. As long as they play hard, I care less if they lose. I have seen them win and I have seen them lose. I watch the game to enjoy the game. All the other stuff means nothing . It just is not that easy to win 11 more games. If they do, great, if not, well they still had a great year.
Michael
Glad to see you back. I feel good about the Dodgers but I am a little apprehensive about winning the W.S. They still have to worry about the bullpen but the hitting and starting pitching looks pretty good. I do not think some of the decisions that will probably happen will be good ones but I can always hope. After 31 years they need to give the old guys a break. What do you say?
The bullpen has been a strength this month other than a couple of meltdowns. The Dodgers posted their best month of the year, so yeah, I am pretty confident that they will do well. Decisions are dictated by game situations and you have to realize you cannot plan for the unexpected and most of those decisions are split second ones. You do not have the time to second guess yourself. The Dodgers are the BEST team in the league hands down. Now they need to live up to that. They have winning records against Atlanta and DC and they have beaten some pretty good pitchers. St Louis beat them early on when they were not at full strength, but when the Cards came to LA in August, the Dodgers swept them. Does not matter who they face, they are going to have to play their best baseball now.
I prefer not to get caught up in all that Pack. We have no control over what will happen over the next couple of weeks. All we can hope is that the team is as prepared as they have been all season and that they play the best baseball possible. But no one can predict how it all will turn out.
Way to stick your neck out there with those bold predictions, Michael. You wouldn’t happen to be Timmons, he always made predictions that had a backdoor escape hatch built into them. My point is, of course no one knows how things will turn out, but anyone can actually “predict how it all will turn out”, it’s called speculation. It happens all the time, in the stock market, in sports, in life. So no one is asking you for a “lock” on the future, they are asking you for a prediction on what you think is going to happen. So, no offense, save the out clauses in all your statements, have a take and don’t suck as Jim Rome used to say (maybe he still does, I haven’t listened to him for 10 years). So be bold, take a shot at something definitely not with a wishy-washy out-clause, if you are really interested in having a sports conversation, that is.
Like what you think of my posts even matters to me. I do not speculate., never have and never will. Short series are always a crap shoot. Judging by what they have done against DC this year, it should be a good series. They were 2-2 against them in LA. Ryu pitched a near no hitter. They pounded Buehler in DC, but in LA it was a different story. Your take matters to you and you alone, as to whether it sucks or not, that is not for me to say. I haven’t listened to that bombastic pompous ass since I left California. If I am wishy-washy as you think, well does not bother me at all. I just watch the games and hope for the best. If they lose, I have zero control over that.
You are wishy washy and you know it and it bothers the shit out of you. You don’t speculate, hah, most of your posts are weak ass speculations presented as fact, I call BULLSHIT on you and your type. Don’t toss shit and see what sticks, grow a pair and state your take. You bitch about Jim Rome, yet you are just an passive-aggressive pompous ass, the worst kind, at lease Rome stands and delivers and stands behind his speculations.
As we know and expect, constant quality content.
Consider the source Bluto, and as they say I am outa here permanently. I do not need to listen to his bitchy cry baby mentality anymore. I can find more intelligent conversation elsewhere. Better fans too.
Well, Michael,
Hate to see you go. It has been fun. I may be leaving as well.
I get tired of posting the same old thing. At least the Dodgers are somewhat consistent in their approach to the game. They can be an extremely powerful team, if Management used a little common sense once in a while. This offense is definitely stacked. It shows that even when they win, hands down, they still lack at taking advantage of opportunities, hence the pathetic numbers in RISP and KO’s.
I hope that the other starters can follow suit, and feed on Buehler’s dominant performance. That will be the key.
We have not really seen the real bullpen. The only positive is the addition of Maeda late in the season and in the playoffs. This move has proven to be the right move over the years, to relieve the tired bullpen. Kelly is showing some promise, but too early to tell, as last night’s game was put on ice by Pederson and Lux. Also, with his recent mysterious injury, they will have to see if he has any trouble recharging his batteries
Honestly, no real reason for you or Michael to leave here. Opinions are expressed one way or the other, and different ideas, suggestions, viewpoints are what makes things ‘go’ here. I have learned that not everyone will agree or even like what I have to say but that certainly won’t ruin the rest of the day for me and one thing I know does hold true, and that is to treat others in the manner in which you wish to be treated.
The only thing that bothers me True is your lack of respect for other peoples opinions. I don’t bitch about Rome, you were the one who brought him up. I just never have liked the guy. Here is me growing a pair. You would never say this crap to my face, and that’s a fact. That’s my take.
True,
You can’t talk to people like that over here. There is no reason for that kind of language and hostile manner. If you want to continue to post over here you are going to have to treat other people with respect. Everyone has opinions, that’s the point here. But you need to apologize to Michael.
Good win.
Dodgers stick to the script:
HRs, walks, good starting point, contributing youth.
Still hard to see them getting to the world series, but s ridiculously good organization.
A big win in Game 1 of NLDS. Sort of a slow start. Dodgers had Corbin on the ropes and the Listless Lefty Lineup could only manage one run, on 4 walks. Once they got Corbin out of the game, DR was able to purge out the Leftie Lineup.and score some real runs. Dodger Offense still has to cut down on K’s (12), and RISP (1-8).
Buehler pitched a great game.and won by the hair on his chinny-chin-chin, as he barely got enough run support. Lots of heroes tonight, but one MVP…. Max Muncy! Maeda, a great 1 2/3 innings of relief. Kelly showed some promise after his mysterious injury…. could he be the Dodgers’ secret weapon? Peddie and Lux seal the deal, avoiding having to use Jansen in the 9th.
So, for game 2, which Kershaw will show up? Strasberg looks tough, but the hot bat of Pederson should be in the lineup.
Go Blue!
Corbin as we know is one of the elite starting LHP in this game and as we know has been tough on the Dodgers. I find it amazing to see that the Nationals did not put more LHP on their NLDS roster to face the Dodgers. Again we did most of our damage in this game off RHP but a win is a win .
Well Paul, what he thought was fun, I took to be a pain in the ass to deal with. I post on another blog where everyone is a Dodger fan and we all respect the other person’s opinion and their right to it. If we have a disagreement, there is no name calling or bitterness. Each person states their case and that is that. I have emailed with Scott about this and I will still be here, I am just going to ignore the negativity some have,
IDK if ya can tell me but curiously would like to know what other blog ya post on. I will be honest though, the ‘salad’ days of posting kind of ended when MLB.com killed their message boards. As far as last night’s game, I am thankful that Nats threw a couple RHP after Corbin left the game, and similar to that 3 game sweep against the Giants previously, Dodgers did all their damage against RHP and when I tuned into the game a bit late, I saw the score of 1 to 0 and Corbin walked 4 but Dodgers were without a hit until I believe the 4th inning off him. What amazed me was that Nats only had 1 lefty reliever in their BP and you might recall in the 2018 NLDS with the Nats, they had 4 lefty relievers for that series for obvious reasons.
No problem Paul, send me an email at [email protected] address it attn Mike, and I will email it to you. Out of respect for Scott, I do not like to post other blogs on here.
Game 2 was the exact opposite of game 1. Kersh was not effective in the early innings, Dodgers were not patient at the plate, and 17 K’s is not something you want to see out of your team in a playoff game. Strasburg did a great job keeping them at bay. Some great defense by the Nats kept hits off of the board. Bullpen did a decent job until May gave up an insurance run in the 8th. Muncy’s mammoth blast got the game to 3-2, but a ninth inning rally fizzled on a Seager K with the sacks juiced and 2 outs. Only Muncy is doing anything with the stick. Cody, Pollock and Seager all ofer the series so far. Bats need to wake up on Sunday in DC with Ryu taking the bump, only lineup change will be Martin catching Ryu.