Dodgers beat the Padres with runs scored by Yasiel Puig, Corey Seager, and Adrian Gonzalez. Dodgers’ starting pitcher Rich Hill held the Padres scoreless for four innings.
The two will face each other again in their last game of the series tonight. Brandon McCarthy will be on the mound for the Dodgers, and he will face Jered Weaver.
2/25 VS CHICAGO WHITE SOX (0-0) 3:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
2/26 AT MILWAUKEE BREWERS (0-0) 3:05p ET Maryvale Baseball Park
2/27 VS COLORADO ROCKIES (0-0) 3:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
2/28 AT COLORADO ROCKIES (0-0) 3:10p ET Salt River Fields at Talking Stick
3/1 AT SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (0-0) 8:05p ET Scottsdale Stadium
3/2 VS CLEVELAND INDIANS (0-0) 3:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/3 VS KANSAS CITY ROYALS (0-0) 3:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/3 AT ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS (0-0) 3:10p ET Salt River Fields at Talking Stick
3/4 AT CHICAGO CUBS (0-0) 3:05p ET WGN Sloan Park
3/5 VS SEATTLE MARINERS (0-0) 3:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/6 AT COLORADO ROCKIES (0-0) 3:10p ET Salt River Fields at Talking Stick
3/7 VS SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (0-0) 3:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/8 AT MILWAUKEE BREWERS (0-0) 3:05p ET Maryvale Baseball Park
3/10 VS TEXAS RANGERS (0-0) 9:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/11 VS LOS ANGELES ANGELS (0-0) 3:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/12 AT KANSAS CITY ROYALS (0-0) 4:05p ET Surprise Stadium
3/12 VS CHICAGO WHITE SOX (0-0) 10:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/13 AT LOS ANGELES ANGELS (0-0) 4:10p ET Tempe Diablo Stadium
3/14 VS CINCINNATI REDS (0-0) 4:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/15 AT SEATTLE MARINERS (0-0) 4:10p ET Peoria Sports Complex
3/16 VS CHICAGO CUBS (0-0) 4:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/17 VS SEATTLE MARINERS (0-0) 10:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/17 AT SAN DIEGO PADRES (0-0) 10:10p ET Peoria Sports Complex
3/18 AT CHICAGO WHITE SOX (0-0) 4:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/20 AT CLEVELAND INDIANS (0-0) 4:05p ET Goodyear Ballpark
3/21 VS MILWAUKEE BREWERS (0-0) 4:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/23 AT TEXAS RANGERS (0-0) 7:05p ET ESPN Surprise Stadium
3/24 VS ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS (0-0) 4:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/25 VS OAKLAND ATHLETICS (0-0) 4:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/26 AT TEXAS RANGERS (0-0) 4:05p ET Surprise Stadium
3/27 VS CHICAGO WHITE SOX (0-0) 4:05p ET CSCh Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/28 AT CINCINNATI REDS (0-0) 4:05p ET Goodyear Ballpark
3/28 VS SAN DIEGO PADRES (0-0) 4:05p ET Camelback Ranch- Glendale
3/29 AT SEATTLE MARINERS (0-0) 4:10p ET Peoria Sports Complex
3/30 AT LOS ANGELES ANGELS (0-0) 10:07p ET Angel Stadium of Anaheim
3/31 AT LOS ANGELES ANGELS (0-0) 10:07p ET Angel Stadium of Anaheim
4/1 VS LOS ANGELES ANGELS (0-0) 4:10p ET Dodger Stadium
(provided by FOX sports)
I saw another title for another story concerning Julio Urias’ start tonight in game 4 in the Dodgers against the Cubs. The headline alluded to Urias age of twenty when it said He is underage to drink alcohol but he can start in the MLB playoffs.
I happen to like this kid very much and am happy to see him start tonight against the Cubs. He will be the youngest player to start in the playoffs.
He has a record of 5-2 and ERA. of 3.39. He has struck out 84 players.
You can read the complete preview of the game by clicking here
The Dodgers moved two games closer to their quest, the World Series appearance after shut outing the Cubs. Their pitching played a big part in their victory. Starting pitcher Rich Hill and his relievers kept the Cub batters from ever crossing home plate.
Hill pitched for six innings and gave up only two hits. He walked two batters while striking out six. This win gives him his first postseason win.
The combined pitching staff gave up only four hits the entire game. They walk two and struck out ten. Their combined effort gave the Dodgers a 6-0 victory over the Cubs.
I hope for a repeat performance in game four from starting pitcher Julio Urias and his relief.
You can read a complete wrap-up of this game by clicking here.
The Dodgers will try to break the 1-1 tie in their best of seven series against the Chicago Cubs and couple that with a win tomorrow night they could possibly make this year’s World Series.
The left-handed Hill is 12-5 with a 2.12 ERA. He has compiled 129 strikeouts. Hill has been a nice compliment to all-star Clayton Kershaw since the loss of Zack Greinke to the Arizona Diamondbacks this spring.
The Los Angeles Dodgers start their postseason journey with a stop in Washington to take on the NL Eastern Division champions, the Nationals. Here they hope to put an end to their past postseason failures while also, hoping to put an end to his own postseason failures, their starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw who has a 2-6 post season record.
The Dodgers have made it past the NL divisional series since 1988 that ended with a victory over the Oakland A’s in the World Series. Their several postseasons since have ended in early failures and some of those failures came while Kershaw had stood on the mound for them.
He has faced this team once this year which ended in a victory for him. Let’s hope for another one tonight.
Tonight’s game will pose a challenge for this team because the last time these two teams met that ended with dire results for the Dodger. They could only squeak two wins from the six times that these two teams met. One of those two victories came by way of Kershaw’s arm, so let us hope he can do it again tonight.
Tonight, the Dodgers will be facing Max Scherzer has gone 4-3 in the post season with a 3.73 era. But the last time these two teams met last year that meeting ended in a loss for Scherzer. Though his loss happened last year and since he has not pitched against the Dodgers this year, no one will ever know if tonight’s meeting will be the same.
The Dodgers will be bringing four starting pitchers into tonight’s game which will obviously include Clayton Kershaw, but also include Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda, and Julio Urias. Out all of the starting pitchers, I most happy to see Urias on this list. Closer Kenley Jensen and Ross Stripling will be part of the bullpen. Some of the others on the list: Andre Either, Yasiel Puig, Corey Seager, Yasmani Grandel, and Howie Kendrick.
You can look over the entire roster by going to this link.
As I wrote in the beginning, this game begins the long journey and I hope that this game will be the first of many for the Dodgers during this long journey which hopefully ends with a World Series with a victory. But as wrote before, in the past they have failed to reach that final victory. But this year has shown us that even with the struggles that they went through, they still won the division. So, let their journey begin and my end victorious.
Espn’s Doug Padilla has reported that the Dodgers have placed left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu back on the DL. He went back on DL because of elbow tendinitis. He has played in only one game so far this season against the Padres about two weeks ago.
Ryu has a had a rough going this year. He struggled through spring training and most of the season to make a comeback from elbow surgery. The surgery has kept from the mound for two years.
Since putting Ryu on the DL again, the Dodgers have activated Joc Pederson who played against the Washington Nationals.
No one has been named to replace him on the mound.
| Espn’s Doug Mittler has posted that Tampa Bay’s 2nd baseman Logan Forsythe could be part of a major deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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| Tampa Bays Logan
Forsythe Picture by m.mlb.com |
While Forsythe has been playing exceptionally well for Tampa Bay, they may be looking to unload his $7 million salary for next year, according to Jon Morosi of mlb.com. Morosi originally broke this story as written by Mittler.
Mittler also reported that according to Morosi there could also be a deal between the Rays and the Dodgers for the Rays’ All-Star third baseman Evan Longoria. I will be have more about the Longoria deal further down in this post.
You can read more about this story by clicking here.
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| Evan Longoria by sports yahoo
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NJ Advance Media for NJ.com’s Randy Miller posted that Jon Morosi of mlb.com reported that there could be a deal between the Rays and the Dodgers for the Rays’ Longoria. According to Miller, Longoria has a 6 year $100 million contract extension that kicks in next year.
According to Miller, Morosi believes that the deal could be complete, but there would be a low probability that the deal would be complete by the Aug-1 nonwaiver trade deadline.
You can read more about this story by clicking here.
Tonight will be one full month for Julio Urias as a starter for the Dodgers as he opens up the Dodgers-Brewers series. While he has yet to past 5 1/2 innings he has racked up 32 strikeouts in 24 1/3 innings. According to Eric Stephen of True Blue LA, this is the most strikeouts for a Dodgers’ rookie since 2013 when Hyun-jin Ryu had 46 in six starts of his first month. But, Ryu was not technically a rookie at the time because he had seven years experience in South Korea.
Stephen writes the last real Dodgers’ rookie that had the most in his first month was Hong-Chih Kuo who had 42 strikeouts in 32 1/3 innings 2006.
Urias is tied with Ralph Branca for the most strikeouts by a teenager. Branca had 29 in August 1945 and then topped it with 32 in September according to Stephen.
You can read more of Eric Stephens article about Julio Urias and the upcoming Dodgers-Brewers series by going to this link.
Do not use the Padres’ series as a standard to judge how well the Dodgers starting rotation will do against the Giants their next opponent. Rather think of it as an anomaly. An anomaly that may not repeat itself.
R.J, Anderson of CBS Sports posted a very interesting article (link to article) regarding the Dodgers’ rotation after their surprising performance against Padres which puts everything into the proper perspective, In the article he points to the Padres’ hitting debacle for the reason their rotation success. You see during the series, the Padres did not change their lineup even though it did not produce any runs. A change in the lineup could have a least produce some runs if not a win.
This Lineup debacle could be the reason that Kazmir won on Tuesday as Aderson put it, We will see how really good he pitches when he faces the Giants on Sunday. So far after their first three games, the Giants rank fourth and have combined total of 17 runs and 28 hits after 103 at bats they have an average of .272. This is far better than the Padres who are ranked at 15 with 0 runs 11 hits and batting average of .120 and he faced on Tuesday.
The Dodgers have another suspect pitcher Alex Wood who will be tonight’s starter. He still has to prove that he can win a game. He lost three of his five starts while not garnering a win during spring training.
Their fifth starter Ross Stripling will start against the Giants on Friday which will be his first pro start. While I would not consider suspect, it would be because I do not have enough information about him to consider him suspect.
So let me break it down this way. The Dodgers are going into San Fransico with a suspect rotation that got lucky in San Diago, This rotation who has one known dependable pitcher, Kershaw. While I like Maeda and I know more about what Kershaw could do. Kazmir and Woods, you know what they can do thus leaving you with an unfavorable impression. Stripling has shown some promise, but there is not enough to be comfortable with him.
Will this be enough to pull off victories? I only know that the Kershaw pitches will be a winner.
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