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 Rams would have you believe that the players went rogue at the end of the Rams-Lions’ game when they rushed the Lions’ kneel down. That’s what Jeff Fisher wants you to believe after apologizing the Lions’ coach Jim Caldwell. His excuse, the frustration of his defensive line with the Lions’ offensive line. I would like to give him the benefit of doubt, but I can’t because of their over-aggressive behavior’s history under their defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.
I will admit to you that Williams’ lack of regard for the health of opposing teams’ player does not deserve my respect. As much as I disdain him, I promise I will re-litigate past in this post. I will leave with this truth to ponder upon. There are three teams that have label this team dirty because of Williams’ over-aggressiveness, so don’t get upset when they get their revenge on us. So, coach Fisher, you can deny the sideline was directly involved but it was most certainly indirectly involved of Gregg Williams just being in the building and presence on the team.
You can read about Fisher’s apology by clicking here.
An article came to in my email this morning with the headline saying that the Fisher is not concern about the rising penalties. Really, I thought to myself and how can he not be concern about his team’s penalties especially when they been hurting his team.
According to Alex Gonzalez of ESPN, they have committed 50 penalties for 435 yards for their first six games. This is the third worse in the league, but what’s Fisher’s response to his team’s penalty problem:.
“The team is aware,” Fisher said. “The team is aware. The team is addressing penalties like they’re addressing their practice tempo and their effort and their commitment to meetings and things like that. I’m not overly concerned right now. Penalties aren’t the problem.”
That’s right penalties are not the problem. Then please tell what is the real problem causing your team’s self-destructive behavior.
You read Alex Gonzalez article by clicking here.
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.
It is week five and the Rams own first place with a record of 3-1, but will they remain in the sole leaders of first place in the NFC West? While you ponder that, the Cardinals will take on the Forty-Niners in the Thursday Night game. This will decide who owns the basement of the NFC West. Also, who do I think will remain undefeated at the end of week five. These are some of my picks that I will discuss in this post.
So who do I pick? I would sound biased if I say the Rams, but what the hey, I have to go with the Rams. If they can keep on throwing deep like they have been, use their passing deep to free up Todd Gurley, and their defense plays the way they did against Seattle then I have to give them the game. I do believe they will do all these things. I am also counting on Rex to open his mouth before thinking before this game which will fire up this team even more.
Now, we have tonight’s game between the Arizona Cardinals and the San Francisco Forty-Niners to see who remain the NFC’s Western Division basement. Both teams will be coming into tonight’s game with a record of 1-3. The Cardinals will be looking to end their two-game losing streak while the Forty-niners a three-game losing streak. Without having to go any further, I like the Cardinals in this game and why? While the Cardinals could be faulted with bad offensive play calling, they will correct that problem. Also, I feel the Cardinals are a much better-coached team than the Forty-Niners.
Now, for my picks for the three remaining undefeated teams. A lot of people are going hate me for this, but I think there will be two remaining teams at the end of week 5, and that will be Denver and Philadelphia. Why did I not include Minnesota? That would be because they will be going against Houston (3-1), and right now they are playing well enough to give the Vikings their first loss. You could make this same argument against Denver who will be playing Atlanta (3-1), but I just think Denver will pull out a very close victory over Atlanta. The other remaining team Philadelphia will be playing Detroit who has been called Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde team, so this is a given.
So these are my picks for week 5
Since the Rams have such a problem getting the running game going, why don’t they start targeting Todd Gurley as a receiver? This idea comes from Rams News’ Alden Gonzalez. I like this idea, but I would add to it, also. I would like to see Benny Cunningham and more play action plays involved as well. This should put a burn to these box defenses so bent on stopping Gurley.
Let’s face the fact that the Rams will be facing many teams that will be playing some form of a box defense to prevent the Rams from running Todd Gurley and trying force them to pass. Well, then we give them what they want until they choke on it.
Look I don’t like playing one-dimensional football by living by the pass, but the reality is the running game is off the table at least by using Todd Gurley. So, develop more passing plays that will get the ball in Gurley’s hands. Then he can put his moves on opposing players.
These are just a couple of suggestions. I sure that I will think of a few more.
Normally, I would have let this story go by, because it has nothing to do with the Rams. Yet, taken the Rams will have to move their quarterback Nick Foles, well could mean something.
The Daily News’ Mike Matvey has this story. He writes that apparently Jets’ quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has his house for rent. How does this affect the Rams? Well, I wrote a couple of posts concerning the stalemate in negotiations between free agent Fitzpatrick and the Jets, and judging from the for rent sign, the Jets maybe in need of a quarterback and a team willing to move one.
As of right now, the Rams need to either cut or trade Foles while the Jets need a quarterback. We will have to watch for any rumors concerning the Rams and Jets talking.
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.
