Results tagged ‘ Kershaw ’
Drop of Season Opener Not A Complete Loss
Sure, the pitching stunk and the wind was a pain but the Dodgers at the plate were pretty impressive. Nobody expects pitchers to be 100% the first few outings anyway.
The Dodgers started off early with clutch hitting as Kemp drove in 2 with 2 outs in the 1st and things were looking up until Padilla fell apart. They had plenty of chances to catch up and they threatened several times but the pitching just couldn’t stop the bleeding.
The Dodgers get a day off to recover and we’ll see Kershaw for his first start of the season. The 2010 season is officially in swing and the Dodgers will start Wednesday looking to reverse their recent misfortunes in Pittsburgh that stretch back the end of last year.
Bill Plaschke Kicks It Off With Downer Article
Is it just me or is Bill Plaschke trying to bring down the team earlier than usual this year? At least with TJ Simers you know the man loves seeing the Dodgers do well but just expects the worst either way. With Plaschke sometimes I think he enjoys seeing the Dodgers fall short and fail so he’ll have something to complain about. Maybe I’m wrong. I hope I’m wrong…
Anyway, Plaschke has an article up ripping Torre for choosing Vicente Padilla for the opening day starter. What I’m not seeing from a lot of this talk from Plaschke and others discouraged by this decision is the acknowledgment that to Torre there is two starters to worry about: Opening day and home opener. If those are the same game then good. If not then like this time around, the opening day starter doesn’t mean the same amount.
When you factor in the schedule of opening day the truth is most LA fans probably won’t even see the first game which starts at 10:35 AM Pacific time. Fans on the West Coast better start practicing their fake cough and sick voice so they can stay home and watch Padilla prove Plaschke wrong with a no hitter to start the season. This is not to say 1:35 is much better for us East Coast fans.
Kershaw appears to be in line to start the home opener. That is a big piece of validation for Kershaw for the success he had last season. It also seems a lot more important than who starts opening day in Pittsburgh. I hope that Plaschke considers that fact the next time he wants to dedicate so much ink before opening day to how bad the Dodgers rotation will be in the 2010 playoffs and how they need to get an ace or they’ll be doomed as usual.
NLDS Game 2: Dodgers Take Commanding Lead
The Dodgers were kept in check by a strong Adam Wainwright until he finally left the game before the 9th. That’s when the Dodgers caught a break and with 2 outs they still walked off with a win to take a commanding series lead. The Cardinals biggest advantage in the series, Carpenter and Wainwright, have now been put away with Dodgers wins and the Dodgers head to St. Louis looking for a sweep.
Clayton Kershaw didn’t exactly dominate but he got the job done and only allowed 2 runs in 6.2 innings. The bullpen held on to keep the Dodgers just down 2-1 to allow the opportunity for the Dodgers amazing end to Game 2.
The Dodgers in the 9th quickly got 2 outs. But then a Cardinals miscue let Loney on base to start things off. That was followed by a Casey Blake Walk. Ronnie Belliard would then single to tie the game. A walk by Martin then loaded the bases for the biggest hit of the game by Mark Loretta to win it for the Dodgers. Wow.
The Dodgers have a right to feel great as they travel East after the show they put on for fans in LA. They’ve accomplished a mighty feat getting wins in games that Carpenter and Wainwright started in and silencing tons of critics while doing so. If the Dodgers lose now it will have to be be in LA in Game 5 but history shows that to be very unlikely.
This is the 36th time in Division Series history that a team won the first 2 games of the 5 game series. There have been 22 series sweeps but only 4 times in the past has the a team taken a 2 game lead and gone on to lose the series. The Dodgers shouldn’t take the Cardinals for granted of course but you can’t deny that history of the division series is on their side.
Dodgers Lose, Rockies Win. LA Resets Again For Tomorrow
It was a decent but shortened outing by Kershaw that was followed by strong bullpen work. The Dodgers struggled at the plate some more but they cashed in late game mistakes by the Pirates and took a 5-2 lead.
Up 3 runs, Broxton still got in a major pickle in the 9th. Two former Dodgers, Delwyn Young and Andy LaRoche, were right in the thick of that trouble. Big Jon hadn’t allowed an earned run to score in his last 20 innings but blew the save big time and the game went to the Pirates 6-5.
Despite the loss, Kershaw’s return to starting looks pretty good and I think he made his case for starting a home game in the NLDS.
The Rockies took care of the Cardinals in their game and they really needed that win in a big way. The Braves won their game and would have been just 1.5 games out of the Wildcard race had the Rockies fallen.
So like the other night with the Braves, the Dodgers reset against the Rockies and will try to clinch it with a win tomorrow afternoon.
The Rockies are off tomorrow. It’s good news for those Dodgers fans looking for a clinch to happen in San Diego. If the Dodgers can’t win then they’ll for sure not have clinched before they head back to California.
I won’t be rooting for the Dodgers to lose tomorrow because they still have the Cardinals and Phillies to contend with for home field advantage. That being said, I won’t feel too bad if the Dodgers lose because there are going to be a heck of a lot of Dodgers fans in town for that 2 game series in San Diego.
Dodgers Run Away With Game 1, Giants Drop Their Game
The Dodgers played a laugher in DC winning comfortably 14-2 while the Giants and Rockies battled their respective opponents out West. The Rockies won a close one while the Giants lost theirs.
Kuroda had another strong outing allowing only 2 unearned runs and would have pitched in the 7th had the Dodgers not batted around in the 6th. This is his 3rd win in a row and he’s gone 6 or more innings in each of those and allowed 2 or fewer runs each time. The scary bump on the head seems to not hurt him in the long run and it’s great to see him back playing strong.
Clayton Kershaw is back. He pitched 2 innings of relief to see how his shoulder is doing. He looked OK but we’ll know more today probably. Hopefully he’ll get 2 more starts in before the end so we can see if he’s ready for the post season. The same goes for Chad Billingsley who starts Game 2 against the Nationals. He’s having rotten luck and a loss of confidence lately but maybe he can get on track in time.
Otherwise, things have really clicked for the Dodgers and I’m starting to feel really, really good about the playoffs. I know they’ll be the underdog against the aces of the Cardinals or the Phillies but at this point you can’t ask for better performances from the Dodgers pitchers.
Over the last 30 games the Dodgers starting pitchers have allowed just 61 earned runs in 180.2 innings. That’s a 3.05 ERA with an average of 6.0 innings per start. Compare that to the Cardinals starters who have allowed 70 earned runs in 188.1 innings. That’s a 3.35 ERA with an average of 6.3 innings per start.
The bullpens don’t even compare right now. The Dodgers bullpen has allowed just 17 earned runs in 95 innings for an ERA of 1.61. Only the Cardinals come close to the Dodgers in bullpen ERA and they have allowed 24 earned runs in 83 innings for an ERA of 2.60.
I know the Dodgers will go into the playoffs the underdog probably despite most likely having the best record in the NL and home field advantage in the NLDS, but let’s not pretend this Dodgers pitching staff isn’t at least up to the challenge.
So, with 11 games left to play the Dodgers magic number is down to 2 against the Giants and 7 against the Rockies. This means the Dodgers could clinch a playoff spot as early as tomorrow while a division title is still a week away. The Giants are fading fast as they are 9-11 on the month while the Dodgers are 13-6 and the Rockies are 14-6.
According to the news media and based on how Torre has acted it doesn’t look like the Dodgers are going to pop champagne until they win the division. At this point the Dodgers just need to split the remaining games 5-6 and the Rockies would have to go 11-0 to win the division. It’s just a matter now of when the Dodgers clinch the NL West and no longer a question of if.
The magic number to clinch the division is 7 with 8 games to go until the Dodgers and Rockies meet in LA to finish the year. It’s going to be tricky for the Dodgers not to clinch the division on this road trip but if the Rockies play hard enough and the Dodgers falter then it could still come down to that last series. Since the Dodgers will have clinched at least the Wildcard by then I’m more than willing to see it come down to that kind of last minute drama. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
Dodgers Trades Helping Out
Jon Garland went 7 innings against his former team and allowed only 2 runs. He earned first victory as a Dodger starter as LA split the series 2-2. Newly acquired Belliard gave Orlando Hudson a night off and went 2 for 3 and drove in 3 runs in the 4-2 win. The 4th run was on a Manny solo shot. Good stuff.
The Dodgers find themselves back up 5.5 games as they are having no trouble keeping pace with these under .500 teams. This was their 80th win of the season with 27 games left to play. They won just 84 last year and 82 the year before that, so this is certainly an improvement year to year for this young team that grows older and more experienced by the minute.
The Dodgers await San Diego this weekend where they hope to heat the bats up. They have struggled offensively off and on still lately but the Dodgers pitching continues to pick them up most of the time. The Padres will face Kershaw and then Wolf for games 1 and 2 of the series and then the Dodgers will get a look at Kuroda in his first start since his head injury.
When we break down the remaining 27 games for the Dodgers you can see that the even split would be 13-14 finishing 93-69. This is how the rest of baseball stands in that case when you toss the Wildcard race into the mix:
- Rockies: 20-8 (.714) to reach 94 wins: +12
- Giants: 21-7 (.750) to reach 94 wins: +14
- Braves: 24-4 (.857) to reach 94 wins: +20
- Marlins: 24-4 (.857) to reach 94 wins: +20
- Cubs: 27-3 (.900) to reach 94 wins: +24
The Rockies and Giants are the only serious threats to the Dodgers left in the NL and even they are down to a precious number of losses they can sustain before it becomes no longer feasible to overcome LA. After hitting a skid in August the Dodgers rebounded and finished only 2 wins behind the Giants and Rockies on the month. Anything is possible still of course but the Dodgers are playing decent again and are 1 game above .500 over the last 20 games.
Meanwhile the Rockies are in trouble. First they lost Aaron Cook, one of their top starters. Next it was Carlos Gonzalez, a hot bat that helped them heat up in August. Now there’s question marks about their closer Huston Street who has been brilliant this year but could miss some time in this crucial month. The Rockies are 4-6 in the last 10, unable to sustain their hot streak any longer.
The Giants will look to seize on this opportunity and get back a lead in the Wildcard to put pressure on the Dodgers again but they have a tough road ahead of them. Just a little less than half of their remaining games are against teams over .500. The Brewers are close to .500 as well if you want to count that. They just finished a tough series against the Phillies and now they’ll face a pretty good D-backs team that has given the Dodgers trouble in the last 2 series with the D-backs winning 4 of the 7 games.
This time last year…
Good news for Rockies fans, bad news for Dodgers fans. This time last year the Dodgers had just 31 games to go and were in 2nd place, 3 games behind the D-backs. This year the Rockies have 37 games to go and are in 2nd place, 3 games behind of the Dodgers. Ouch.
My heart tells me that the Dodgers will build on their small lead over the next few weeks and still win the division. But my head knows that the Dodgers have some serious work to do lest they end up like the D-backs did last year who after leading the division most of the season saw it stolen away at the end by a surging Dodgers team.
The Dodgers are rested up in Colorado while the Rockies are going to be dragging their feet a bit after an exciting but exhausting 14 inning win over the Giants that had both teams depleting their benches and their bullpens.
A rested pen could help the Dodgers because I worry about Kershaw who hasn’t had much luck in Denver. Let’s hope he can get the Dodgers off on the right foot tonight though. The Dodgers need to avoid a sweep for sure with at least 1 win but winning 2 or even 3 would be pretty great.
I think the Rockies taking 3 of 4 against the Giants has pretty much sunk San Francisco. They would need to win 70% of their games from here on out to catch up to the Dodgers if LA can manage a .500 record. San Francisco is now 7 out of 1st in the division and 5 games out of the wildcard.
The Dodgers Plan B is always the wildcard which the Rockies now lead over the Giants by more than the Dodgers lead the division. It’s good to note as well that in the case of a division and wildcard tie like the Dodgers and Padres in 2006, the Dodgers would for sure win the division because their 10-2 season record against the Rockies with 6 games left to play already breaks that tie.
Let’s all hope that 10-2 including 2-1 against the Tracy Rockies translates well in this 3 game series.
Are The Dodgers Doomed In October Without An Ace?
With Cliff Lee going to the Phillies the Dodgers look to be losing out on getting an impact starter to add to the rotation and seem to be focusing on adding arms for the bullpen instead.
Lately several journalists have been saying the Dodgers are basically built to win the division but can’t win in the playoffs without an ace. Sure, the Dodgers lack an ace that goes deep in every game and dominates the other side but do they still have starters that will get the job done in the playoffs?
I wanted to know what the average innings pitched for the starter in a playoff game is when their team wins the game. The pitcher doesn’t have to get the win but their team has to win the game they started. You might be surprised to know what I found out.
In 125 playoff games since 2005 the starting pitcher for the winning team went an average of 6.0 innings per start. In 59 Division Series games since 2005 the average was just 5.6. In the 47 League Championship games it was 6.1. The World Series average after 19 games is 6.3 innings per start.
So what is the average innings per start of the Dodgers 4 main starters this season?
- Billingsley: 6.2 innings AVG, 3.96 ERA after 21 starts
- Wolf: 6.1 innings AVG, 3.43 ERA after 22 starts
- Kuroda: 5.7 innings AVG, 4.57 ERA after 11 starts
- Kershaw: 5.6 innings AVG, 2.96 ERA after 20 starts
The Dodgers may not have that starter that is going to go deep in every game and dominate the opposition like other teams but they do have one of the strongest bullpens in baseball backing up starters that can reach that average 6 inning mark most of the time.
So why all the fuss? Your guess is as good as mine. If the Dodgers can get fresh arms for the bullpen or a solid 5th starter then good for them. If not then don’t think for one moment that this team is guaranteed to crap out in the playoffs without a trade. They have the potential to make the playoffs and go deeper than last year and possibly win it all. It’s just a matter of going out there and getting the job done but don’t let folks tell you they can’t based on what they have right now.
Kershaw Wins 3rd Straight, Halts Astros
Astros 2 – Dodgers 5 | Box Score | MLB | LA Times | ESPN
Clayton Kershaw won his 3rd straight outing with a strong 7 shutout innings. He has been handed 5 wins and 1 no-decision in his last 6 starts allowing just 3 runs in that stretch. That is exactly what the Dodgers needed and they halted another 2 game slide to prevent a 3 game losing streak.
Broxton had another shaky outing but still recorded his 21st save without giving up a run. He’ll be dealing with his toe injury for the rest of the season maybe but hopefully he’ll still get the job done.
The Giants and Rockies both lost so the Dodgers gained back a game on both teams. The Dodgers are 7.5 and 8.0 games ahead. The Dodgers will try and split the series against Houston in an afternoon game before the struggling Cinci Reds come to town.
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