Any time Josh Beckett takes the mound for the Dodgers, I'm not real hopeful that the Dodgers will win that night. Sure enough both the Dodgers and Beckett lost again last night. Very few things are as easy to predict as this combination. I just wonder how many games will Beckett lose before the Dodgers seek another option.
The other bad thing about Beckett is that he rarely gives the Dodgers 6 or 7 good innings. He only pitched 3 innings last night before having to leave the game after tweaking his groin. In those 3 innings, he gave up 3 hits and 4 runs. To be fair only 2 of those runs were earned. But if Beckett hadn't tweaked his groin, would he have been effective anyway. I find that doubtful with Beckett now being 0-5 with a 5.19 ERA.
Meanwhile pitching for the Nationals is a pitcher that's an effective MLB pitcher. Jordan Zimmerman is now 7-1 and has a 1.69 ERA. Zimmerman is being paid less than 1/3rd that Beckett is.
Zimmerman had a hell of a game pitching for the Nationals, but you know starting pitchers are excited to face this anemic Dodgers lineup. Someone is going to throw a no hitter against the Dodgers this season. Although the Dodgers were only able to score 2 runs, they did have 9 hits. Once again LA was unable to string their hits together to do any significant damage. The Dodgers only had two extra base hits, one of those was on A.J. Ellis' well hit ball that Bryce Harper crashed into a fence trying to catch.
Are Dodgers hitters too impatient at the plate? How did they go through a full game and not draw one walk. I suggest Dodgers hitters need to make the opponents pitchers work harder. In contrast Dodgers pitchers walked 5 Nationals. If Beckett pitched against this Dodgers line up I wonder what the result would be. The ineffective starting pitcher vs. the anemic line up. That's my definition of must skip TV.
I consider the 2012 Dodgers-Red Sox trade to be an overall disaster for the Dodgers. It's going to haunt the Dodgers many years going forward. All the money they are
However in the short term the two most productive Dodgers are the former Red Sox players. Adrian Gonzalez was 2 for 4 and is hitting .350 this season. Also Carl Crawford continues his pleasant surprise of a season. He also was 2 for 4 and is hitting .321 on the season. Those two players have also hit 9 of the 26 Dodgers home runs.
Heck even Red Sox trade throw in Nick Punto was 1 for 3, he's hitting .338 this season. Where would this anemic Dodgers offense be without Gonzalez, Crawford and Punto. They might be the Astros.
The Dodgers nightmare season continues Tuesday. Tonight is game 2 of the Dodgers-Nationals series. The Dodgers best pitcher takes the mound. Clayton Kershaw and his 1.62 ERA will at least give the Dodgers a solid chance to win the game. Can the Dodgers draw a couple of walks, string some singles together to give Kershaw at least some run support? Can Matt Kemp (.277), Andre Ethier (.254) and Juan Uribe (.273) help the former Red Sox standouts provide some offense?
Normally I give an update on the Dodgers in the NL West standings, but it's just too depressing now. Suffice it to say the Dodgers trail the freakin' Padres!
themusicaddict
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