Results tagged ‘ Angels ’
First Place, We Hardly Knew Ye
The Freeway series for the Dodgers has been anything but successful so far. The Angels have outscored LA 14-3 and the Dodgers have gone 1-14 with RISP in the two games. This has let the Padres slip back into sole 1st place pushing the Dodgers back down to 2nd.
Today LA looks to it’s 5th starter Monasterios to try and somehow keep the Dodgers in the game and prevent a sweep. They might be able to claim back a share of 1st place as well if things go their way.
The Dodgers get an off day before they start a tough road trip through Cincinnati, Boston and Anaheim. They desperately need a win today because the Padres sure won’t make it easy on LA this month and the schedule still favors San Diego heavily.
Dodgers and Angels Freeway Series Suffers A Setback
While the Dodgers win over Philly in Game 2 to even the NLCS at a game a piece gave Dodgers fans everywhere hope, the Angels tour bus to the World Series has hit a serious bump in the road. The Angels head back to Anaheim today down 2 games to none against a very good Yankees team.
I have to admit though I was never that excited about a freeway series. I’m a life long Dodger fan but maybe it’s the fact that I’ve never lived in LA and I’ve barely even passed through the city. I want the Dodgers to win when they play the Angels because I understand the rivalry but I still can’t get excited about the prospect of the Dodgers and Angels meeting in a World Series.
On the other hand I’ve lived in San Francisco as a Dodger fan. The Dodgers dominated the Giants in that time span and this was one of the greatest times of my life as a fan. Despite that, being around Giants fans still made me even more bitter about the rivalry.
With obvious exceptions in cases where a Giants win helps the Dodgers, I want the Giants to suffer every game even when the Dodgers aren’t playing. I want to see them miserable and disappointed every year. I want to see half filled stadiums full of quieted disappointed fans while the empty seats are for fans too ashamed to go to the game. The idea of a Dodgers and Giants NLCS with the Dodgers finishing on top? That’s heaven to me and something I’d pay a lot of money to see. Maybe next year?
Overall though I guess the biggest part of my lack of excitement for a Dodgers and Angels freeway series is just that the Dodgers are so far from winning the NLCS. If they win today somehow it might start to look good but they still face an uphill battle and the Phillies probably won’t go easy if at all. We can give our opinion about who we would rather see the Dodgers face in the World Series if the Dodgers play great baseball and manage to be popping champagne as National League Champions.
Dodgers Win Another Rubber Game, Another Series
Dodgers 5-Angels 3 | Box Score | MLB | LA Times | ESPN
The Dodgers won their 14th series of the season with a win over the Angels at the Big A. This is a significant win for the Dodgers who have had a considerable lack of success in Anaheim in recent history. In 23 series so far this year the Dodgers have won 14, lost 4, and split 5. Not bad.
At this point even the doubters have to believe this Dodgers team is the real deal. They have played most of the top teams around the league and have won or split the series. Aside from destroying the NL West, the Dodgers have beaten the Phillies, Marlins and Mets in the NL East. They’ve split a series with the Cubs in the central. Now they’ve beaten the Rangers, A’s and the Angels in the AL West. The only two top teams in the NL that the Dodgers have yet to face are the Cardinals and the Brewers.
The Rockies and Giants stayed hot with wins today but it didn’t matter. The Dodgers keep getting the wins when it matters and the Giants have gained just 1 game over the last few weeks. The Rockies are a different story. They’ve won 16 out of the last 17 games and they’ve gained 5 1/2 games. They still sit in danger of passing the Giants and taking over 2nd place. Giants are 1 1/2 games ahead of the Rockies and 8 games behind the Dodgers.
The Dodgers get a day off which they’ll use to travel to Chicago for a 3 game series against the White Sox before returning home to face the Mariners and the red hot Rockies.
Jeff Weaver Wins Battle Of Weavers, Dodgers Tie Angels Series
Dodgers 6-Angels 4 | Box Score | MLB | LA Times | ESPN
The exciting matchup between the Weaver brothers was proclaimed a dud by ESPN and other news sources but you won’t see many Dodgers fans feeling that way. The Dodgers Jeff Weaver topped his little brother with pretty good pitching and Dodgers bats backed him through the process.
Russell Martin hit his first home run of the year, a long time coming. Ethier’s 2 run triple ended up being the difference in the game. Jon Broxton was back from the toe injury that sidelined him for a few games. He started out shaky but got a couple of outs. He allowed the first home run of the year so far but it only cut the Dodgers lead in half and he was able to get the 3rd out and the save.
So now for the 3rd time in as many series, game 3 will be a rubber match to determine who gets the win. The Dodgers have a pretty good chance of coming out on top like they did against the Rangers and the Athletics. The Angel’s Lackey is not exactly their hottest pitcher but Kershaw hasn’t been all that good of late either. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
The Dodgers bring their record up to 45 wins and 24 losses, again tipping above 20 games over .500 and trying to stay there longer this time.
Elsewhere around the league the Giants walked off in extras on a wild pitch to win their 2nd straight and keep pace with the Dodgers. The Rockies stay red hot with Jim Tracy at the helm. They won their 4th in a row and their 15th out of the last 16 games. For the past few weeks the Dodgers have been keeping an eye on the Giants to see if they can widen that gap. It’s past time to start keeping an eye on the Rockies who trail the Giants just 1 1/2 games now. Both the Giants and Rockies are both well above .500 now.
Angels Continue Dominating Dodgers, Win Game 1 At The Big A
Dodgers 4-Angels 5 | Box Score | MLB | LA Times | ESPN
For a while I thought the Dodgers were going to slip away with a win despite missing so many scoring opportunities. The Dodgers went a disappointing 0-for-9 with RISP and left 11 men on base. Key home runs had given them a 4-1 lead but it was not to be. So for the 4th time in as many games the Dodgers won or lost by a 1-run margin. This time it was the latter.
The loss sets the stage for the Weaver Brothers matchup in Game 2 which should be the most interesting game of the series by far. The Dodgers will try to even the series and the Angels will try to take the series win early.
This was the Angel’s 7th win in a row, and their 11th win over the Dodgers in the last 13 games in Anaheim. Having gone 9-1 against the NL West, the Angels are feasting on the division. The only loss is against the LA so the Dodgers will try to do some more damage any way they can with 2 games left in the series.
Dodgers @Angels – Tossup
The Dodgers may not have won a series in Anaheim in recent memory but they’ll take their 44-23 record along the freeway anyway to try and reverse course on their 2-10 record leading back to 2005.
It won’t be easy though. The Angels are hot with a 6 game winning streak, trying to retake a division lead they’ve lost to the Rangers for a while this season. The Dodgers helped the Angels out by taking 2 of 3 from Texas while the Angels were sweeping the Padres in 3 games.
The Dodgers lost 2 of 3 last time they played the Angels so they’ll be looking to at least return that favor. It won’t be easy though. The Angels have two of their best starters going while the Dodgers have only one, Billingsley.
In a lot of ways this is a repeat matchup of the Rangers vs Dodgers series. The Angels have better hitting and the Dodgers have better pitching, specially the Dodgers bullpen versus the Angels bullpen, a difference of 3.30 earned runs.
Dodgers And Angels By The Numbers – Last 25 Days
AVG Runs Scored: 3.43 Dodgers, 5.15 Angels
AVG Runs Allowed: 3.33 Dodgers, 4.35 Angels
Starters ERA: 3.82 Dodgers, 4.15 Angels
Bullpen ERA: 2.38 Dodgers, 5.68 Angels
Team ERA: 3.14 Dodgers, 4.35 Angels
Game 1 – Chad Billingsley, RHP (9-3, 2.72) vs. Joe Saunders, LHP (7-4, 3.66)
Billingsley has been pretty good in his last few starts. He’s won the last 3 games he pitched. He’ll be the Dodgers best starter that the Angels will face so he’ll try and get the Dodgers off on the right foot for the series.
Saunders is coming off a series of struggling starts with mixed results. His ERA is good though and he’s proven he can pitch deep into games. He pitched 8 innings last time out though so the Dodgers may be hoping this guy tires early this time around so they can get to the Angels weak bullpen.
Game 2 – Jeff Weaver, RHP (3-1, 3.72) vs. Jered Weaver, RHP (7-2, 2.08)
This will be the matchup the whole country is watching this weekend. It will be brother against brother. Jeff Weaver has been very effective this year, pitching well both out of the starting gate and coming in for long relief. He’s not looking to score any starting pitcher roll consistently so he’ll be of the mindset just to go out there and do the best he can and return to long relief the next time out probably.
Jered Weaver is having another successful year. He’s won his last 4 starts and allowed 2 runs or fewer in his last 5. Weaver pitches well against righties but this will be mute against the Dodgers who are heavily weighted to lefty or switch hitter.
Game 3 – Clayton Kershaw, LHP (3-5, 4.13) vs. John Lackey, RHP (2-2, 6.10)
Kershaw bounced back from a couple of shaky outings to go 5.2 scoreless his last time out. He’ll try to keep going and work on keeping his pitch count per inning low, a constant struggle so far in his career.
Lackey has struggled lately and seems to be hit or miss in his starts. He’s got an even win loss record and a high ERA but he’ll look to lower that against a Dodgers team that still isn’t completely out of it’s hitting funk.
Prediction
I mentioned already this is like the Rangers series in a lot of ways. The Dodgers to win games will need to keep the game close, protect any leads they get, and try and get to the bullpen as soon as possible. The Angels bullpen is a big weak spot. If the Angels can silence the Dodgers at the plate and go deep in the game they can overcome the bullpen problem and come out on top.
Still, this hot Angels team has been cleaning up against weaker teams like the Padres on this 6 game streak so the Dodgers may be able to derail that if they play good early on. It could go either way. Despite this being an away series in a park the Dodgers have trouble in against a team that has already beaten them this year once in a series, I have to predict the Dodgers can take 2 out of 3 against the Angels.
Graph Comparison of Bullpens
Dodgers 1-Up Oakland Again, Win Rubber Game
Athletics 2-Dodgers 3 | Box Score | MLB | LA Times | ESPN
For the third night in a row the Oakland and Dodgers series had a 1-run result, this time in the Dodgers favor sending Oakland packing with a series loss.
Randy Wolf pitched well despite being under the weather and for the 2nd time in as many games he left with a narrow lead only to see it squandered in the every next inning. Figures. The Dodgers really need to give this guy some run support. That is his 10th no-decision this year. How many of those were leads blown by the bullpen? I’m not sure, really but it’s several.
The Dodgers are still holding on to the best record in baseball, the best record at home, best record against their division, and the best record in 1-run games. They’re not completely in a slump with the bats but runs are still coming at a premium at times.
Elsewhere around the west things were a little better again. The Rockies won their 2nd straight to make their hot streak to 13-1. The Padres won so they didn’t lose ground. The D-backs won their 2nd straight but are still in last place, 15 games back. The Giants had the night off after the Angels swept them so they fell back 1/2 games to 9 games back on the year.
The Dodgers faced the best and the worst the AL West has to offer and took 4 out of 6 winning both series. Next the Dodgers head over to Anaheim to play the Angels starting tonight. Their interleague record is now 5-4 and they’ll put that to test against a team that has already beat them 2 out of 3 this year in a park the Dodgers have gone 2-10 in since 2005.
On a side note, the Dodgers have tied the all time Dodgers record for wins at this point in the season at 44-23. That matches the 1962, 1974, and 1977 Dodgers teams. To surpass that record would require them to win the next 4 games in a row to put them at 48-23 after 71 games.
Dodgers Stumble Against Angels, Looking More Human At Home
With a loss to the Angels in the rubber match the Dodgers’ 13-0 start at home is a pretty distant memory. They’ve since gone 5-5 over the next 10 games. They still hold the best home record anyway though. That contributes to their still overall MLB leading 30-15 record.
The funny thing for Dodgers fans this year is that of the 4 series the team has lost 2 of them have been at home against the Giants and Angels, the two teams the LA fans care most about seeing destroyed. Oh well. What can you do?
The Dodgers have maintained their records of not getting shutout and not getting swept. They’ve still yet to lose more than 2 games in a row. This is all something I think the Dodgers as a team should be proud of.
The Dodgers leave town after a series that very easily could have gone 3-0 or 0-3 given just 1 or 2 plays going a different way for either team. They shouldn’t let these losses bother them too much because they faced good pitching and a strong Angels bullpen in each game and they were never completely out of the running for a win. They’ll look to continue dominating the division against the Rockies before heading up North to visit the struggling Chicago Cubs to finish out the month.
I’ll have some analysis of the Dodgers and Rockies matchup soon.
Dodgers Walk Away With Win Against Angels
Clutch hitting in the 8th and a flawless bullpen kept the Dodgers in the game long enough for a walkoff bases loaded walk in the 10th to win tonight and even the series. The stage is now set for a rubber match this afternoon between the Dodgers and the Angels sending out their best starting pitching. It should be a game well worth watching.
In other division news you have to feel pretty good if you’re a Padres fan seeing them win their 8th in a row. The Padres are now 21-22 on the season. That means when they started their 8-0 stretch they were 13-22. Talk about climbing back into the race in a big way.
The problem though is that over the last 10 games the Padres are 8-2, and so are the Dodgers. This means when the Padres started the streak they were 8½ games back while today they are still 8½. The only difference is that they are now in 2nd place instead of 3rd.
It’s a tribute to the Dodgers in a big way when a team below them in the division wins 8 of 10 games but doesn’t even gain a half game.
The Giants, once leaving the pack and looking to join the Dodgers at one time this month had wittled the Dodgers lead down to 3 games only to collapse and fall to 9 games back in 3rd place.
The good news for the West is that they aren’t playing that bad. They aren’t playing great of course, but they are each nearing about .500. The bad news is that unless the Dodgers collapse completely then it will not be one of those years where a .500 team can win the division.
Eighth Inning Blues Continue For LA
Trouble in the 8th inning continued tonight for the Dodgers, this time proving costly as the Angels plating 2 was all they needed to cap the opening win of the series.
When I last looked at the graphs for runs allowed per inning things were already bad. The Dodgers had allowed 28 of their runs, 23.8% in the 8th inning. Just 5 games later they are even worse off at 34 runs, 25.3%. The 9th inning has gotten worse as well going from 6 runs, 5.1% to 10 runs, 7.5%.
On one hand I hate to complain when the Dodgers are winning 70% of the games they play (14-6 over the last 20) but on the other hand I hate seeing the bullpen squander leads late in the game.
The Dodgers have to be leaving the stadium tonight wishing things had turned out differently. But the when you go a miserable 1-for-14 with RISP with 11 men left on base in a 2 run loss the best thing to do may be to just get out there the next night and try and score early and push the rest out of your mind…
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