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Kershaw Saves the Day and Gruden Optimistic about Goff, McVay and Other Tidbits
I am sitting here at my desk and gazing at laptop’s screen while wondering what to write today, MY mind has been wandering in so many directions. Should I write about the Dodgers victory over the Rockies last night? How about Jon Gruden’s comments about Jared Goff and Sean McVay? Maybe I can write about the Rams signing a Patriots’ castoff. So many topics and too little time, so I guess that I’ll briefly write about them all.
I am going to tread the day that we ever lose Clayton Kershaw. If you ever need somebody that can be the clutch for an uplift, he is the one you want because he comes through all the time and last night he came through for the Dodgers.
The Dodgers went into last night’s game after a disappointing Wednesday night loss to the Rockies and adding to their three-game losing streak. They faced the division leading Rockies for the last time in their series and needed to avoid a series sweep, but one obstacle stood in their way. The last time Kershaw faced the Rockies he gave up two back to back home runs for a lifetime first and lost the game 2-4.
But, Kershaw blasted through that obstacle last night. While he did give up two runs, they were not back to back and they were the only two. While Kershaw did his part, the others scored four runs to break their losing streak get a 4-2 victory.
The Dodgers will be in Arizona Friday night to face the Diamondbacks with Ales Wood on the mound in place of Rich Hill.
Jon Gruden is optimistic about Jared Goff and Sean McVay. Before I proceed, I would like to make this disclaimer. McVay had been an assistant coach for Gruden when he coached the Buccaneers. He also had been Jay Gruden’s offensive coordinator. There could be some bias here coming from Gruden, but here is what he has to say about Goff:
“He came out early — a true junior,” Gruden said on a conference call Wednesday. “I don’t think he’s a hundred percent what he’s going to be physically; I still think he’s going to get stronger, I think he’s going to mature physically. I do think that he went into a difficult situation. That’s an offensive line that has struggled; that’s a receiving corps that has struggled. And his inexperience — I think that’s a difficult combination for a young quarterback. And I think that’s a big reason why they were 0-7 when he was the starter.”
Now His thoughts about McVay:
“I just think he’s going to bring a real positive, upbeat presence to the offensive side of the ball,” Gruden said. “And fortunately for him, he’s hired one of the best defensive minds in all of football over the last 25 or 30 years [in coordinator Wade Phillips]. I think they have a unique battery there — a young, energetic offensive coach who’s proven he can get the job done, and a very, very good, experienced defensive coach on the other side.”
All I can say is that I am not a Goff hater because I believe that he got a raw deal under Fisher and his offensive cohorts. Some people compare his play to Carl Wentz of the Eagles and that is an unfair comparison. The Eagles had a much better head coach and offensive staff. I am looking for a better performance from Goff given the positive changes in the Rams’ offensive staff.
Gruden’s quotes come from an article written by ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez which could be read by clicking here.
The LA Times’ Gary Klein reported yesterday that the Rams claimed Patriot castoff lineman Tre Jackson off waivers. The Patriots drafted out Florida State 2015 according to Klein who also wrote that he did not play a single game in 2016 because of a knee injury. In 2015, he started in nine games as a right guard.
I wonder if this pickup just to have competition at that the guard position. While I am little concern about his missing last season because of his knee, I will take a wait and see position before beginning to gripe.
You can read Gary Klein’s piece in the NY Times by clicking here.
This is it, for now, peace out.
The Dodgers Tried to Comeback in The Ninth But Fell Short to The Rockies
There was some good and bad news that came out the Dodgers’ 4-3 loss to the Rockies. The good news is Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched for more than four innings, but the bad is he gave up 4 runs giving him a .587 ERA. The other good news is while holding the Rockies, to four runs they mounted a comeback in the ninth by adding two to their one run they scored in the fourth. The bad news is that the comeback was neither good for a tie nor win the game. This is what Dave Roberts had to say about the comeback.
“We were good in the ninth inning,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “Our guys aren’t going to lay down. They’re going to keep competing. It was good to see us stress them.”
What would have been nice to into tonight’s game with a win because they will be facing their nemesis in the form of a left-handed pitcher Tyle Anderson. Even though they have been their problems facing a left-handed pitcher, they were able to rough him up the last time they met. I hope they have the same success again tonight.
They Rockies will be facing Clayton Kershaw who they roughed up the last time they met when they scored two home runs in a row. I hope there is not a repeat tonight.
Last Nights’ Finale Loss to The Diamondbacks Exposed The Dodgers Achilles Heal
Last nights’ loss to the Diamondbacks might have exposed a the Dodgers’ Achilles Heal. Some Dodgers’ fans rightfully would tell me not to worry because the season is still young. I would probably agree with them if the exposed Achilles Heal was any other area but this one. And what area am I so worry about, you ask?
And I reply. The exposed area is in their pitching rotation and to be more specific, the inning pitched.
The only pitcher that lasted well into the game is the Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw while the others bearly make it five innings. This played out again last night when Brandon McCarthy left the game after five innings.
The game Dodgers had been up 2-0 when McCarthy gave up two runs that tied the game. His early departure force overworked relievers to finish up, and it resulted in the Diamondbacks getting two more runs to break the tie and win the game.
Why were the relievers overworked? Because they had to work extra innings after early departures of other starting pitchers. Below I have statistics that will make my case.
Innings The Pitched
Clayton Kershaw 21.1
Brandon McCarthy 17.0
Kenta Maeda 14.0
Hyun-Jin Ryu 9.1
Rich Hill 8.0 (Hill played in two games because he was on the DL)
Game Logs
Clayton Kershaw
| DATE | OPPONENT | RESULT | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | GB | FB | TBF | Pit | Dec. | Rel. | ERA |
| 04/14 | vs ARI | W 7-1 | 8.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 29 | 100 | W(2-1) | — | 2.53 |
| 04/08 | @ COL | L 2-4 | 6.0 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 11 | 9 | 26 | 100 | L(1-1) | — | 3.46 |
| 04/03 | vs SD | W 14-3 | 7.0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 10 | 24 | 84 | W(1-0) | — | 1.29 |
Brandon McCarthy
| 04/17 | vs ARI | L 2-4 | 5.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 21 | 86 | — | — | 2.12 |
| 04/12 | @ CHC | W 2-0 | 6.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 21 | 91 | W(2-0) | — | 1.50 |
| 04/06 | vs SD | W 10-2 | 6.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 23 | 78 | W(1-0) | — | 3.00 |
Kenta Maeda
| 10 GAME LOG | ||||||||||||||||
| DATE | OPPONENT | RESULT | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | GB | FB | TBF | Pit | Dec. | Rel. | ERA |
| 04/15 | vs ARI | W 8-4 | 4.0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 17 | 71 | — | — | 7.07 |
| 04/09 | @ COL | W 10-6 | 5.0 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 11 | 22 | 83 | W(1-1) | — | 6.30 |
| 04/04 | vs SD | L 0-4 | 5.0 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 21 | 75 | L(0-1) | — | 5.40 |
Hyun-Jin Ryu
| DATE | OPPONENT | RESULT | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | GB | FB | TBF | Pit | Dec. | Rel. | ERA |
| 04/13 | @ CHC | L 0-4 | 4.2 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 21 | 77 | L(0-2) | — | 5.79 |
| 04/07 | @ COL | L 1-2 | 4.2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 21 | 77 | L(0-1) | — | 3.86 |
Rich Hill
| 04/16 | vs ARI | L 1-3 | 3.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 15 | 54 | L(1-1) | — | 3.38 |
| 04/05 | vs SD | W 3-1 | 5.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 18 | 75 | W(1-0) | — | 1.80 |
Alex Wood (Even though Wood isn’t part of the starting rotation, He did take Hill’s place for the Chicago series and will back in place of Hill again. Hill is on the DL again.)
| 04/15 | vs ARI | W 8-4 | 3.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 12 | 41 | W(1-0) | — | 1.00 |
| 04/10 | @ CHC | L 2-3 | 3.2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 19 | 70 | — | — | 1.59 |
| 04/05 | vs SD | W 3-1 | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 22 | — | H(1) | 0.00 |
I want to start with Alex Wood since he will be back in the rotation. He only lasted 3.2 innings in his only start. That resulted in six innings being filled by relievers,
Then you have Hill who has not got past five innings and leaving Sunday’s game after three because of a reoccurring blister. Again relievers have to come into the game for four and six innings respectfully.
These early departures from games are putting a strain on the relievers. Unlike Kershaw who last six innings and sometimes seven where you use maybe two or three relievers, you are using four to six relievers. These early departures are happening on regular basis and thus the relievers are pitching more with less rest. If this pace of early departures keeps up, the relievers will be burnt out by the All-Star Break.
So the Dodgers are either gonna have to find some way of getting longevity from their starters or seriously look into making replacements. Neither option has easy answers.
Rich Hill Will Take the Mound Against The Cubs In Game Three of NLCS
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.
Tonight The Dodgers Begin Their Post Season Journey to The World Series
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.
Will the Dodgers’ Rotation Get Lucky Against the Giants too?
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.
Meet the Three Starting Pitchers for the Dodgers Opening Series with the Padres
The Dodgers open up their season with a three series in sunny and warm San Diego and I would like to introduce you the Dodgers’ starting pitchers for the three-game series. The dependable Clayton Kershaw will be starting in today’s game. He will be followed by new acquired Scott Kazmir tomorrow, and also, newly acquired Kenta Maeda on Tuesday.
Kershaw finished spring training 2 wins and 0 losses in six games. He allowed 23 hits in the 23 innings that he pitched. He allowed just 5 runs. He finished with 1.96 ERA. Yes, he looks ready for today’s game.
While I have no concerns about Kershaw in today’s game, I do worry about tomorrow’s starting pitcher, Scott Kazmir. Maybe that is because I had grown accustomed to having the other reliable pitcher Zach Greinke in the number two spot in the rotation. But alas, the Dodgers foolishly let him go to their Western Division rivals the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Don’t think of me as to being too hard on Kazmir and that maybe I should give a chance. But then I look at his performance during spring training, I think otherwise. In the 5 games that he started, he gave up 12 runs and 25 hits. He has an ERA of 5.51. His ERA alone makes you miss Greinke’s under 2.00 ERA one of the lowest in the league last year. His pitching velocity has dropped below 90. He has been clocked somewhere between 85 to 89. Can you imagine his fastball being clocked at 85? All this makes me a little weary having him pitch in the number two spot.
But in game three, I am very happy with newly acquired Kenta Maeda starting in the third game of the series. Maeda was acquired before spring Training. He formerly played in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball for the Hiroshima Yoyo Carp. He finished this spring with 1 win and 2 losses in six starts. He gave 18 hits and 9 runs with a 2.35 ERA. This is a lot better Kazmir’s final totals.
As I written above I have no problems with Kershaw and Maeda, but I am not comfortable with Kazmir starting. I just hope that Kazmir proves my concerns wrong.
Monday’s Morning Call For 10/05/15
NFC’s Western Division Scores
St Louis: 24 San Francisco: 3 Seattle:
Arizona: 22 Green Bay: 17 Detroit:
NFC’s Western Standings W L T Prec. Streak
Arizona Cardinals 3 1 0 .750 1L
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St Louis Rams 2 2 0 .500 1W
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Seattle Seahawks 1 2 0 .333 1W
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San Francisco 49ers 1 3 0 .250 3L
The Rams’ Defence Stimies The Cardinals
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| Rams Corner E.J. Gaines breaks up pass intended for Cardinals John Brown. |
The Rams ended the Cardinals’ undefeated streak in Arizona, yesterday with 24-22 victory. While the the Rams offense showed flashes of brilliance behind rookie running back Todd Gurley and receiver Tevon Austin, it was the defense that commanded the day by shutting down the Cardinals red zone offense.
The Rams defense forced the Cardinals to settle for five field goals while in the red zone. The Cardinals only touchdown came late in the fourth quarter. It was 23 yard pass from Palmer to Johnson. This pass would be the one and only the ball would cross the goal line for the Cardinals other than by way kicking.
The Rams’s defense held the Cardinals to 113 yards rushing, but allowed 334 yards passing. They sacked Palmer 4 times for a loss of 18 yards. The defense also forced 2 fumbles and recovered one.
Jenkins also intercepted one of Palmer’s’ passes.
On the other side of the ball, Foles completed 16 of his 24 passes for 171 yards and threw 3 touchdown passes. He had no interceptions, but was sacked once for a seven yard loss.
Gurley rushed for 146 yards the longest run was 52 yards, and Austin rushed for 20 yards and his longest was 12.
Austin had 6 receptions for 96 yards and 2 touchdowns. His longest was 47 yards.
While the Rams showed some life yesterday, the big question, will they show that same life or more life next Sunday against the Packers? We must keep in mind that the Rams’ two wins have been against division opponents while their two losses have been to teams outside their division. So next week’s game against the Packers will be very important one in order to see if they have really turned the corner because this one will be against a team outside of the division.
NL Western Division Scores
LA Dodgers: 6 Arizona Diamondbacks: 5 Colorado Rockies: 7
SD Padres: 3 Houston Astros; 3 SF Giants: 3
NL Western Division Standings W L PCT GB
Los Angeles Dodgers 92 70 .568 0
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San Francisco Giants 84 78 .519 8
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Arizona Diamondbacks 79 83 .488 13
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San Diego Padres 68 48 .420 24
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The Dodgers Finished Their Season With A 6-3 Win Over The Padres
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| Attribute To Dodgers’ pitcher Clayton Kershaw. He threw 300 strikeouts this season. |
The Dodgers ended their season on high note with a victory over the Padres. So they go into the postseason, feeling good about themselves. They swept their final series from the Padres with three wins. They open up their post season with home field advantage in their series against the Mets. Yes life looks good for the Dodgers.
You know a couple of weeks ago it looked like they would have a melt down, and I was really worried going into their series with the Giants. But you know now that is all in past. We must now look to the playoffs and hopefully a deep run in the playoffs.
I know that this postseason could bring a lot painful changes, but for now lets not be concerned about those changes and enjoy the Dodgers’ run in the playoffs.
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