Hello,
The Dodgers defeated the Pirates 5-3 in 11 innings on Saturday. But even when the Dodgers win now, they don't necessarily look good doing it. Clayton Kershaw continues to be a hard luck pitcher. He had yet another brilliant game, but ended with a no decision due to the lack of run support. Kershaw, who remains at 5-4, pitched 7 innings and only gave up 3 hits, 3 walks and 1 earned run. He also added 8 strikeouts, which gives him 104 strikeouts this season. Kershaw is tied with the Cubs Jeff Samardzija for 4th place in MLB. Kershaw is all alone in third place in ERA with his 1.84 ERA.
Areas where the Dodgers didn't look good on Saturday:
1) Newly named closer Kanley Jansen had his second blown save of the season, when he gave up pinch hitter's Travis Snider's home run in the bottom of the 9th. After that Jansen buckled down to at least let the Dodgers to the 10th inning.
2) Beleagured former closer Brandon League then had the chance to earn a save in the bottom of the 11th inning. He was able to, but he had to make it exciting first. When Pittsburgh saw that League was pitching the 11th inning, I'm guessing they liked their chances. League has been incredibly inconsistent this season, especially of late. League has 4 blown saves this season, second in all of MLB. Entering this game his ERA was 5.76 and hadn't had a great outing in his last few appearances. On Saturday he gave up 2 hits, but was able to earn his 14th save of the season. League also lowered his ERA to 5.54, which is the kind of stat you'd expect from the former closer of a last place team.
3) Adrian Gonzalez continues to struggle, although he's still hitting over .300. Gonzalez was 1 for 5 and he's hitting .304 this season. (Meanwhile in Boston: Perhaps the most coveted player the Red Sox received in their huge 2012 trade with the Dodgers was Rubby De La Rosa. De La Rosa has worked his way up to the Red Sox. If he ends up having a great career, that trade will continue to be even worse for the Dodgers.)
4) After being on DL twice and almost being put on DL a third time, Hanley Ramirez was also 1 for 5 and is only hitting .267 this season. Although he's struggling, I'm glad to have him back.
5) The Dodgers are still playing without Matt Kemp and Carl Crawford. When they come back, will they be healthy enough to rediscover their former abilities?
6) Although the Dodgers scored 5 runs on Saturday, Washington scored 7 runs. Now those two teams are tied for 27th in MLB for runs scored. The White Sox are right on the tail of both teams. Even though the White Sox have played 2 less games than either team, they are only 4 runs behind both. It's quite possible the Dodgers could be in 29th place in runs scored soon.
But the important thing for the Dodgers is that they got the win, almost as importantly they scored at least 5 runs. The Dodgers are now 16-5 when they score at least 5 runs. In a rare occurrence the Dodgers actually had multiple clutch hits in this game. Juan Uribe drove in Andre Ethier. Then pinch hitter Nick Punto drove in Uribe.
It's good to see Ethier waking up a bit, has he finally found his stroke? Ethier was 3 for 4 and raised his batting average to .244. I'm guessing he got sick of flirting with the Mendoza Line. Ethier also scored the game winning run.
Another Dodger player that was 1 for 5 was Yasiel Puig, although he's still hitting .455.
The Dodgers remain in last place in the NL West as the top 4 NL West teams bunch together. There's only a 3 game difference between first place Arizona and fourth place San Diego. The Dodgers are 4.5 games behind the Padres. LA is now 29-38, they've won 1 in a row, but only 4 of their last 10 games. LA has a 2.6% chance of making the playoffs.
Upcoming: Today's scheduled pitching matchup is Zack Greinke (3-1, 3.68 ERA) vs. Gerrit Cole (1-0, 2.84 ERA) in the final game of the three game series. Cole had a pretty memorable MLB debut a few days ago. Greinke also had a memorable game in his last appearance, sadly it was all for the wrong reasons. He was a key player in the Dodgers second brawl of the season, in both brawls he was LA's starting pitcher. The Dodgers have Monday off before playing the Yankees in New York for a two game series. Long time fans of both teams will remember when this series actually meant something. However this Yankees team has lost their last 5 games.
Meanwhile in Atlanta the Braves finally broke their four game losing streak, they beat San Francisco in dramatic walk off fashion. Freddie Freeman had the clutch walk off single. Also B.J. Upton had his 7th and 8th home runs of the season. Although he's still hitting only a paltry .166, does this mean he's finally going to be the player he can be?
Atlanta is 40-28 on the season, first place in the NL East and lead second place Washington by 5.5 games. Atlanta has won 1 game in a row, but have only won 4 of their last 10 games. The Braves still have a 93.6% chance of making the playoffs, especially in the less than stellar NL East.
The Braves close their 3 game series on Sunday Night Baseball with the Giants. Starting tomorrow Atlanta welcomes the Mets (24-39) for a 4 game series.
Also the Red Sox-Orioles wrap up their 4 game series in Baltimore today. Baltimore has won 2 of 3 games so far.
themusicaddict
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