Hello,
In the final game of their four game series with the Angels, the Angels won 3-2. The offensively inept Dodgers even outdid their normal levels of futility. The team that only averages a little over 3.5 runs per game only scored two runs on Thursday. LA only had six hits in the finale of this series and remain in 29th place in MLB for runs scored. The Dodgers even produced a home run in this game, it was by Ramon Hernandez. As is typical for the Dodgers though it was only a solo homer.
I don't care who's managing this team, if the Dodgers can't score then they aren't going to win anyway. To fix the run scoring problem the Dodgers need better talent evaluators and better players. It's just that simple. LA shouldn't fire Don Mattingly for issues beyond his control.
That same standard applies to most of the Dodgers pitchers. Ted Lilly pitched a decent game, in 5 2/3rds innings he gave up 5 hits and 3 earned runs. Only giving up 3 runs in a reasonably long start by a starting pitcher is decent. Many times that should be good enough, too bad for Lilly he's pitching for the offensively anemic Dodgers.
Matt Kemp is on the 15 Day DL. With Kemp hitting .251 and only having two home runs, his bat isn't missed that much now. I hope that Kemp gets plenty of rest and I also hope the Dodgers don't rush him back. Let him get fully healthy before he plays again. For all intents and purposes this season is over. The only thing the Dodgers should do now is prepare for the future.
Another player that's injured, and who's missed even less than Kemp, is Josh Beckett. According to ESPN Beckett is traveling to meet a nerve specialist in Dallas. Beckett is experiencing numbness in his hands and says that he can't even feel the ball. I do wish him the best, but all this doesn't matter as his career is pretty much over. He's in the third year of 4 year-$68 million contract, but I'd be surprised if he's still a Dodger at the end of the contract. Beckett has been on the disabled list since May 14th and if he misses the rest of this season that would be fine with me. He's been completely ineffective this whole season anyway and again the Dodgers need to look past this season.
The Dodgers open a 3 game series with Colorado on Friday night. The pitching matchup is scheduled to be Clayton Kerhsaw vs. the Rockies Jon Garland. I always love when the Dodgers play the Rockies. Why is that you wonder? Because on our cable package one of the stations is Root Sports out of Colorado. For their next 3 games I'm able to watch the Dodgers. This is a rare, inexpensive way for me to see the Dodgers. (But of course another one of my teams, the Red Sox, is playing on MLB, it looks like I'll have choices.)
Again if you've never stumbled across this blog before and you are wondering how many teams do I have. I'm not going to recount the whole history here, but as of today I now have 6 teams. I've been a fan of the Dodgers the longest, but I also cheer for the Red Sox, Pirates, Braves and Cubs. Just today I added the Orioles to "my" teams. I've been paying attention to them about the last year or so, it's time for them to officially become one of my teams.
The Pirates are one of the hottest teams in all of MLB. Would you believe it if I told you that the Pirates have the second best record in baseball? Although I've been following the Pirates for the last couple of the years, I had to double check that statement. The Pirates having the second best record in MLB sounded just too unlikely. Don't worry I'll wait for you to go double check that yourself.
Would you believe it if I told you the Pirates have won 16 of their last 20 games? I know for all their sad history over the last 20 years that also seems hard to believe. However that's also true. I'm not sure how ESPN calculates a team's playoff chances. But I'm guessing one factor is based on past history. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the Pirates only have the 7th best chance of making the playoffs.
The last couple of years they've started out well, only to fade late in the season. Well maybe fade isn't the best word, last season the Pirates collapsed in September as they went 7-21. I don't blame long time Pirates fans for being cynical, but it seems they should also feel some hope. Honestly the Pirates aren't going to win the World Series this year, but it will be a successful year if they build for a World Series. I hope this year the Pirates can at least make the playoffs.
Other things true about the Pirates is they're 34-20, an incredible 14 games above .500. That's a rare height for the Pirates. Even though Pittsburgh has the second best record in all of MLB, they still are only 2nd place in the NL Central. That's because they play in the same division as the team that has the best record in MLB, the steamrolling St. Louis Cardinals.
themusicaddict
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