Hello,
On Tuesday night the Dodgers lost again, losing to Milwaukee 5-2. The Dodgers' offense remains pathetic, they only scored 2 runs. The Dodgers had 10 hits, but only 2 runs! In staying consistent with the Dodgers inept offense Greinke had 2 of the 10 hits and he also had 1 of the RBIs.
As for pitching Greinke was brutal. In only 4 innings he gave up 9 hits, 5 runs (all earned) and 3 walks. He only had one strikeout and his ERA jumped to 3.48. Too bad he only lasted 4 innings as the Dodgers could ill afford to lose his bat.
And in the least exciting race in MLB, that's the battle to avoid last place for runs scored in MLB. In a rare show of brinkmanship, and responding to the Dodgers 2 runs, the Miami Marlins scored 3 runs. That means they closed in one run on the Dodgers for 29th place in runs scored. The Marlins have now scored a total of 125 runs this season which means they only trail the Dodgers by 22 runs. Don't worry I'll keep you updated on this "exciting" race all season. Thanks as always to the fantastic stats crew at ESPN.com. (Yes, I realize on Wednesday that the Dodgers jumped to a 7-0 lead on Milwaukee, that will certainly help their stats. But even if the Dodgers win, which is never a sure thing, it still only counts as one win. How will the Marlins respond tonight? Will the Dodgers improve to 28th for runs in the MLB? Look at all the excitement!)
According to ESPN.com, the chances for the Dodgers to make the playoffs is now 2.4%. That's the 4th lowest percentage in all of MLB. $216 million just doesn't go as far as it used to. In case you didn't know how bad of a season the Dodgers are having, the numbers quantify that for you.
The Dodgers being such an anemic offensive team isn't the fault of Don Mattingly. LA was only 3 for 14 on Tuesday with runners in scoring position. Is that Mattingly's fault? Other than a few exceptions the Dodgers only seem to have two types of hitters this season. Those exceptions now are Nick Punto, Mark Ellis, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez. While I consider Crawford an exception to that rule now, his batting average continues to dwindle. However he's still hitting at a solid .297, he stays as an exception for now. If Hanley Ramirez was also healthy I'd probably include him in the exceptions. Scott Van Slyke doesn't have a big enough sample size, but the Dodgers desperately need him to hit at least 20 homers this season.
Other than those players the Dodgers have those two type of hitters. 1) They have hitters that aren't performing equivalent to their contracts. Those players include Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp (this season only) and Juan Uribe. 2) The Dodgers also have underperforming hitters like Skip Schumaker, Luis Cruz, Dee Gordon and Justin Sellers. They are players that will never be quality major league baseball hitters.
I would like to thank MLB Network for having the Orioles-Yankees game last night on their station. It was good to see Nate McLouth hit a walk off homer in the 10th inning to defeat the Evil Empire. The first two games in this series went into extra innings, will that trend continue tonight? After the first two games of this series were on national TV, the Wednesday night game is also going to be on national TV. At 7:00 EST Baltimore battles the Yankees on ESPN. Go Orioles!
Powered by Travis Snider's pinch hit homer the Pirates beat the Cubs 5-4. The Pirates continue to be one of this season's biggest success stories. Pittsburgh has won 8 of 10 and continue to be in the NL Central race. The Pirates have to compete with the very good Cardinals and Reds for the NL Central title. So although the Pirates are now playing great, both the Reds and the Cardinals are playing even better.
Pittsburgh is now 27-18 and tied for the third best record in the NL. The only problem with that for the Pirates is that the first and second best teams in the NL are the two teams ahead of them in the Central. The Pirates have to maintain near this pace for at least the next 60 games for anyone to take them seriously though. Pittsburgh still only has a 43.0% chance of making the playoffs now.
Is the NL Central as good as the AL East this season?
Meanwhile one team the three NL Central heavyweights don't have to worry about is the Cubs. It amazes me how bad the Cubs continue to be. They are 18-26 through Tuesdays night games. That's the same bad record that the Dodgers have. Chicago have lost 2 games in a row and only won half of their last 10 games. The Cubs are 10.5 games behind the first place Cardinals and have a 8.4% chance of making the playoffs.
themusicaddict
No comments:
Post a Comment