Results tagged ‘ Atlanta ’
Dodgers Sweep STL, Impress Big Time Against Tough Teams
The Dodgers won 5 of 7 against Atlanta and St. Louis who each came into the series tied in wins with the Dodgers. The Dodgers are 14-6 over their last 20 as well as 27-10 since May 1st. They have the most wins in baseball over that stretch. I’ve talked a couple of times now about the Dodgers earning an off day and this is certainly another one of those. The Dodgers get the day off without travel before they start the final series of this long home stand.
The Dodgers are in solid 1st place now in the NL West and top all of the National League in wins. The Padres play a double header today while the Dodgers relax at home but the most damage they can would do is bring themselves even with LA.
I’m constantly amazed at the pitching LA is getting this year. They got hot in May and I thought this can’t last. It has though. I’ve taken to calling the current LA rotation the Department of Youth.
- Clayton Kershaw – 22 years old (6-3, 3.13)
- John Ely – 24 years old (3-2, 3.00)
- Carlos Monasterios – 24 years old (3-0, 2.27)
- Chad Billingsley – 26 years old (6-3, 3.80)
- Hiroki Kuroda – 35 years old (5-4, 3.30)
When Padilla returns he’ll shift the age up again but for the time being Kuroda is the old man of the rotation and youth reigns.
Over this season the Dodgers haven’t maintained the best hitting or pitching in the league but relative strength in those two areas combined have made them a very strong team of late. LA has scored 284 runs in 60 games for an AVG of 4.73 per game. The Dodgers team ERA this year is 3.95. The roughly 1 run difference has allowed LA to go an impressive 15-6 in 1-run games. They have grown to 12 games over .500 and they lead the NL in wins with their 36-24 record.
Two Games Into June, Dodgers Are A Legitimate Threat
After a lackluster 9-14 start in April I don’t think any Dodger fan expected the Dodgers to be near the front of the pack as June gets on it’s way. Yet, after a sweep of the D-backs and their 4th straight win the Dodgers sit with a record of 31-22. Today only 3 teams in all of baseball have better records: The Rays have won 36 games, the Yankees 33, and the Padres 32.
One of the two teams tied with the Dodgers in wins is the Braves who start a huge 4 game series tonight in LA. Strangely enough the Braves and Dodgers have had identical records at the end of each month and still sit tied after winning each of their first 2 games in June. It would be very ironic if after this weekend the two teams had split the 4 game series.
The key to the Atlanta series will be whether or not the Dodgers can score some runs in bunches. The Braves are an offensive force right now. I don’t think LA can count on too many more 0-1 wins to carry them. Luckily the Dodgers should have their 4 best pitchers since the 5th spot passed yesterday and many of their regular position players rested most of yesterday’s game.
Tonight is a perfect chance for LA to gain the upper hand in the series. Kuroda likes to go deep into games and can give the bullpen some much needed rest. If he can get to the 7th or 8th that would really help his team in the next 3 games. He has struggled in his last few starts though. Kuroda is coming off his shortest and worst outing of the season but hopefully he’ll snap back to form and get the Dodgers off on the right foot.
Dodgers Finish Up May With Weird Game
As if starting with a double, 3 home runs and 6 strikeouts wasn’t weird enough the D-backs would error twice in the 8th allowing 2 Dodger runs to score to tie the game and finally balk in the losing run in the 9th. This was their 8th straight loss and gave LA their 6th win against the D-backs in 7 games. Weird from end to end. The LA will take it though.
While April had the Dodgers fans tearing out their hair May was a much better month. LA finished May 20-8. This is a record matched only by the Braves who also finished April 9-14 just like the Dodgers did. I guess this one may end up having to be decided in the head to head match ups down the line.
LA gained 4 games or more on every team in the NL West in May and even went from worst to first for a brief moment. LA struggled a bit at the end and finished 2 games back of San Diego in 2nd place.
- Padres: 16-12 (0.571) – Overall: 31-20 (0.608)
- Dodgers: 20-8 (0.714) – Overall: 29-22 (0.569)
- Giants: 14-14 (0.500) – Overall: 27-23 (0.540)
- Rockies: 16-12 (0.571) – Overall: 27-24 (0.529)
- D-backs: 9-20 (0.310) – Overall: 20-32 (0.385)
The Dodgers can’t expect to keep up such a pace in June but I still stand by my previous statements. If they can keep playing .500 on the road as they have done, continue to win far more games than they lose at home, and dominate inside the division, then LA will have a pretty good regular season.
Keys to success in June will be for the top four pitchers to continue to improve as they did in May and for Furcal, Manny, and Ethier to stay healthy and play together which has been an issue so far this season.
October Is Here
Over in the AL it’s almost set in stone. It’s Yankees, Angels, Tigers or Twins, Red Sox. The Twins are practically finished now. They had a chance to make it interesting in the head to head with Detroit but they ended up failing and are 3 games out with 4 left. Still, who wins or loses there won’t mix up the matchups in the ALDS. The other teams know where they’ll be playing even if they don’t yet know exactly when because of the A B date offset stuff for the ALDS.
Over in the NL it’s getting clearer but it’s still not clear enough to know how things will turn out. Sure, we know it’s Dodgers, Phillies, Cardinals and Rockies or Braves. We just don’t know who will play who and where just yet.
Sadly it looks like the Braves are toast. The Rockies are just 1 win or 1 Braves loss from clinching a playoff spot. That doesn’t clear things up much either, though. Only one game separates the Dodgers and Phillies for most wins in the NL. The Rockies are right up there too, the Dodgers unable to clinch the NL West in last 4 games.
The Cardinals are in a similar skid though with the Dodgers so maybe it figures that these two teams will most likely meet in the first round. The Cardinals would have to go 3-1 and the Dodgers 0-3 for the Cardinals to tie the Dodgers and win the tie breaker. The Dodgers win the tie breaker with the Phillies so if LA can win the Colorado series they will probably clinch the best record in the NL.
Given all that, this seems to be the best guess at an NLDS matchup given the standings and how things are going:
LAD, PHL, STL, COL or PHL, LAD, STL, COL
- NLDS A:
@ 
- NLDS B:
@ 
If the Dodgers hold on to their narrow NL lead and they clinch the division, the “wildcard inside the division” rule takes hold and the Dodgers fall out to the NLDS B. If the Phillies take over and the Dodgers win the division then the Dodgers land in NLDS B as well. Winning it all means the Dodgers would have home field advantage in the NLCS if they make it that far, the other way depends on whether the Phillies win or not.
Here’s an interesting note. If the Rockies lose today and the Braves win, and then the Rockies win tomorrow night against LA, there could be two champagne celebrations at the same game at Dodger Stadium: One for the Dodgers having clinched the West, and one for the Rockies clinching the Wildcard. That has to be one for the record books and it’s all together possible. We’ll see.
It’s crazy that there are so few regular season games left to play. You can see it on the faces of players. They’re tired. Some of them have just one more weekend left and then they’re done. Others start the playoff next week. For the lucky teams and their fans, it’s October again and it’s all excitement and nervous energy bundled together.
Dodgers Are Swept For the First Time This Year
It really figures, doesn’t it? The Dodgers were so close to going all year without being swept and yet in a lousy 2 game series against the lame duck Padres they can’t score more than 1 run in 18 total innings. Come on, Dodgers. You’re killing me here.
So with 1 hit tonight and no runs scored, the Dodgers staggered into their 4th loss in a row making this most likely the worst stretch of baseball they’ve played all year, especially considering it was against 3 of the worst teams in baseball. They finished their road trip a miserable 3-6 and should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for this level of game play so late in the season.
If they had clinched already we wouldn’t think twice. It wouldn’t matter. This would be the Dodgers working out some kinks. Instead this is the Dodgers failing miserably for all to see. Just a few days ago it seemed very unlikely that the Dodgers wouldn’t win at least 1 game in the next 7 or the Rockies wouldn’t lose at least 1 game in their remaining 8. Well, think on.
The Dodgers have one more easy chance to clinch the division as the Rockies play tomorrow while LA takes the day off to lick their wounds. If the Rockies win that game then it will force the ultimate head to head this weekend in LA to see if the Dodgers have what it takes to hold on to the lead or whether this little late season meltdown can be completed in disastrous fashion.
The Rockies defeated the Brewers tonight to pad their wildcard lead over the Braves. This win eliminated the Giants officially. The Rockies magic number to clinch at least a Wildcard is just 1 now.
So the pressure is on for the Dodgers. Let’s hope they snap out of this skid and can close out the season with more of a bang than a whimper.
Another Day, Another Loss
The Dodgers better check the expiration date on that champagne and beer they bought to celebrate clinching the NL West. They’ll have to wait at least 1 more day before any celebration. At this rate it could be longer.
Once again Billingsley had a pretty good outing with walks haunting him a bit. Like clockwork the Dodgers offense took the night off with Chad on the mound. He goes 6 innings and gives up 2 runs on just 2 hits and a handful of walks and he earns the loss. What? Come on. Give the kid a break and score him some freaking runs.
I don’t know what was worse in the game: Seeing the Dodgers run out of the 1st on more base running mistakes or watching the last 5 Dodgers batters strike out trailing just 3-1. The failure of the Dodgers to play fundamental baseball is starting to become an embarrassment.
But let’s not forget the Dodgers are in the playoffs and the Dodgers have to go 0-4 and the Rockies 5-0 for the Dodgers not to clinch the division. It’s going to happen. Maybe tomorrow. Let’s hope they work through these kinks now before the NLDS gets here.
The Rockies won tonight and the Braves lost. That puts Colorado up by 3 in the Wildcard which is pretty comfortable now with just 5 games to go a piece.
The Phillies won their game and the Cardinals lost. This puts a little distance between them again but this race may come down to the last weekend.
San Francisco is winning their game so they won’t probably end up being fully eliminated from the Wildcard and the NL West tonight. The Marlins are toast now though. Another one bites the dust.
NLDS Potential Matchups
We’ll know for sure early next week what the real matchups are but for now it’s fun to speculate on what the Dodgers will be up to the 2nd week of October.
Assuming the Dodgers don’t go 0-7 and the Rockies 8-0, I’m going to go out on a limb and say the Dodgers clinch the NL West. That clears things up a little.
The first problem is in the Wildcard. The Braves are red hot. They’ve won 7 in a row now and are just 2 games out of the race. I didn’t see this coming at all but I don’t follow the Braves much.
The second problem is that the Cardinals and Phillies are tied in wins and they aren’t far enough behind the Dodgers to say which order the 3 division winners will end up in.
For those who may not understand the division series format it goes like this:
- NLDS A is a Wildcard team versus the 1st place NL team. If the 1st place team is in the same division as the Wildcard then it will be the Wildcard team versus the 2nd place NL team. The Wildcard will not get home field advantage no matter what.
- NLDS B is the remaining two teams that aren’t in NLDS A with the team that has won more than the other team (with some tie breaker rules that don’t matter so much here) getting home field advantage.
With those things in mind here are the the potential NLDS matchups listed in the order a team finishes in the NL rankings and with the Wildcard last in the list:
STL, PHL, LAD, COL:
- NLDS A: @
- NLDS B: @
LAD, STL, PHL, COL or STL, LAD, PHL, COL:
- NLDS A: @
- NLDS B: @
LAD, PHL, STL, COL or PHL, LAD, STL, COL:
- NLDS A: @
- NLDS B: @
PHL, STL, LAD, COL:
- NLDS A: @
- NLDS B: @
LAD, STL, PHL, ATL:
- NLDS A:
@ - NLDS B: @
LAD, PHL, STL, ATL or PHL, LAD, STL, ATL:
- NLDS A: @
- NLDS B: @
STL, LAD, PHL, ATL:
- NLDS A: @
- NLDS B: @
STL, PHL, LAD, ATL or PHL, STL, LAD, ATL:
- NLDS A: @
- NLDS B: @
The only way the Dodgers can play in the NLDS A is for them to finish 1st in the NL and for the Braves to be the Wildcard. Most likely the Dodgers will land in the NLDS B playing the Phillies or the Cardinals. Which one they play and where they’ll play is all still up in the air for now.
(UPDATED: This list was updated. I forgot that PHL couldn’t face ATL for the same reason LAD can’t face COL. That change is reflected in the list now and it simplifies the breakdown just a bit more than I had it.)
Dodgers Walk Their Way Into The Postseason
It looked like walks would doom the Dodgers in Game 2 against Pittsburgh as they gave up 3 runs after a bunch of walks in the 7th. Instead the Dodgers turned the tables on the Pirates in the 8th and drew a few walks of their own to tie the game and then go ahead. Jim Thome’s biggest hit as a Dodger game tonight as he drove in 2 more runs on a single. Belliard capped it off with a home run in the 9th.
Broxton held that 8-4 lead and the Dodgers won their 93rd game of the season. That means it’s official. The Dodgers are headed to the post season as at least the Wildcard. They are the 1st team in the NL to punch that ticket joining the Yankees who clinched a few days ago. The Dodgers didn’t celebrate much though. They prefer to hold on and celebrate when they clinch the division.
Randy Wolf had another good night going 6.1 innings and allowing just 2 runs. This was his 9th quality start in a row and he has a 2.12 ERA in that stretch. Wolf has one more start to go before the playoffs but I can’t think of any reason he should not be the Game 1 starter in the NLDS. His recent numbers are on par with any single starting pitcher in the playoff chase right now around the league.
The Cardinals clinched their division tonight after the Dodgers won making them the 3rd team in but the 1st to win their division. I hope St. Louis doesn’t drink too much tonight. They still need to beat the Rockies tomorrow.
This loss was a pretty big blow to the Rockies who fall 6 back in the NL West and let the Braves get to just 2.5 games back in the Wildcard after the Braves won their 5th straight. Dodgers magic number is just 2 to clinch the NL West. Because the Rockies lose the tie with the Dodgers over the season series then technically this magic number is just 1 but I don’t think the Dodgers will want to celebrate until they’ve won it outright.
San Francisco lost to the Cubs so they fall even further back in the wildcard, their hope fading fast. They have lost 7 of their last 10 games and have fallen almost off the radar next to a hot Braves team.
The Phillies lost their game so the Cardinals slid just ahead of them in the NL standings. This complicates the playoff picture a little and because of that who the Dodgers will play in the NLDS is anybodies guess at this point.
Dodgers: 3-4 finishing 96-66
- Cardinals: 7-0 (1.000) to reach 97 wins: +7
- Phillies: 8-0 (1.000) to reach 97 wins: +8
- Rockies: Elim (Need 10 wins with 7 left)
If the Dodgers win 3 of the last 7 then the Rockies will be toast. The Cardinals and Phillies could not lose a single game if they wanted home field advantage against the Dodgers.
Dodgers: 0-7 finishing 93-69
- Cardinals: 4-3 (.571) to reach 94 wins: +1
- Phillies: 5-3 (.625) to reach 94 wins: +2
- Rockies: 7-0 (1.000) to reach 94 wins: +7
The Rockies are in a pinch for sure now. They have to go 7-0 and the Dodgers 0-7 for the Rockies to win the division. They can’t win it by tying the Dodgers. It’s just a question now of when and where the Dodgers clinch the NL West for the 2nd year in a row. On second thought, the Cardinals can drink all they want.
Braves Win, Dodgers Lose…LA Resets For Tomorrow
Errors cost the Dodgers bigtime for the 2nd time in 3 games. Jon Garland got his first loss as a Dodger despite going 6 innings and not allowing an earned run. Two errors and some other questionable business in the field let 3 unearned runs cross the plate and the Dodgers didn’t have an answer for it all game long.
Despite the loss though, Garland keeps putting in his bid for a start in the playoffs. If I had to choose a lineup today it would be Wolf, Kuroda, Kershaw and Garland but not necessarily in that order.
The Braves won so the Dodgers loss just means they’ll try again tomorrow to clinch a playoff spot. Hopefully the Dodgers will be a bit better with the gloves in that game than they were tonight or else figure out a way to score some runs.
The Rockies walked off against the Cardinals just now so they took advantage of the Dodgers loss and cut the lead to just 5 again. The Phillies lost as well so the Dodgers didn’t lose ground in the race for NL best.
The Dodgers, Rockies, and Cardinals have 8 games left. The Phillies have 9. You can count those on your fingers. The season is quickly coming to a close.
Rockies Salvage A Win, Keep Dodgers At 5 Games Up
Giants waited too long to come back I guess. They scored 3 in the 9th but lost 3-4. The Rockies sit at 5 games back in the West and 1st place in the Wildcard. The Giants are 8.5 games back in the West and 3.5 games back in the Wildcard, their hopes for a comeback taking a hit after missing an important win in a close game.
The Dodgers, Rockies and Giants all get the day off. This is the first time in a while that there wasn’t at least 1 game of interest on every day so it’s a strange feeling.
Starting Friday the Giants will be in Los Angeles to knock heads with the Dodgers for probably the last time this year. The Rockies play the D-backs in Arizona and will try to pad their Wildcard lead against a lame duck Arizona team. The pressure is on the Rockies big time this weekend. Any game they lose will cost them in the standings to the West or the Wildcard.
Dodgers: 7-8 finishing 95-67
- Rockies: 13-2 (.866) to reach 96 wins: +11
- Giants: Elim (Need 17 wins with 16 left)
- Braves: Elim (Need 19 wins with 17 left)
- Marlins: Elim (Need 18 wins with 16 left)
- Cubs: Elim (Need 21 wins with 18 left)
The Rockies are the only one left in the action for a Dodgers team playing well above .500, but of course people keep telling me that it ain’t over until it’s over. If the Dodgers in some absolute nightmare scenario go 0-15 from here on out, here is what the other teams would need to do to pass them:
Dodgers: 0-15 finishing 88-74
- Rockies: 6-9 (.400) to reach 89 wins: -3
- Giants: 10-6 (.625) to reach 89 wins: +4
- Marlins: 11-5 (.687) to reach 89 wins: +6
- Braves: 12-5 (.705) to reach 89 wins: +7
- Cubs: 14-4 (.777) to reach 89 wins: +10
Yes, the Dodgers could go 0-15 and the Giants could go 10-6, but if I were Frank McCourt I’d be buying a bunch of Champagne right about now. Go Dodgers.
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