Hello.
The Dodgers beat Philadelphia on Thursday 6-4, this is their 6th straight win. It's the Dodgers longest win streak this season. Yasiel Puig was the hero again. He drove in two runs with his 7th inning single. Kenley Jansen was able to shut down the Phillies in the 9th inning and earn his 7th save of the season. Zack Greinke moved to 5-2 with the win, although his 3.94 ERA is nothing to brag about. But will LA be able to keep this up. They've been terrible for most of the season for a reason, it wasn't a fluke.
Puig has 16 RBIs and is hitting .427 this season. In Puig's 23 games this season, he's tied for 5th on the Dodgers in RBIs. Those 23 games are about 1/3rd of the games that most of the other Dodgers have played. In spite of that he's second on the Dodgers in home runs, 10th in number of hits and 9th for number of runs scored. The Dodgers do seem to score more when he's involved.
While I do like Puig, I think the contraversey over whether he should be an All-Star is sort of pointless. In his limited time in MLB, he has certainly played like an All-Star. If he gets voted in or selected by the manager, then I'll enjoy it. If he doesn't get selected he can rest for the second half of the season. I don't really have an opinion of whether Puig is worthy of the All-Star game. But I know there will be players that are invited to the All-Star game who aren't deserving. I'd be fine if Matt Kemp, Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford aren't invited to the All-Star game.
I'm optimistic about LA getting better throughout the season. Of the players that played yesterday, A.J. Ellis has the lowest batting average. He was 0 for 2 and is hitting .246. Skip Schumaker has the second lowest batting average, he was 0 for 3 and is hitting .249. Up next are Kemp and Ethier, both are hitting .256. It was good to see Ethier have 2 RBIs yesterday and also good to see Kemp to go 2 for 4. When .246 is the lowest average of a key player on your team, LA should feel good about their chances. The potential for this team if Kemp starts hitting .300 with some power is high.
After the Dodgers scored 16 runs in their last 3 games, they've moved up to being tied for 26th place in MLB for runs scored. Both teams have scored 283 runs, next up is the Royals. Kansas City has scored 293 runs. Again the Dodgers and Mariners are closer to the team that's behind them in front of them. Both of those teams are ahead of the White Sox by only 6 runs. (Update: The White Sox have scored 9 runs so far on Friday and have passed both the Dodgers and Mariners. The White Sox aren't even winning either.) The team with the most runs in MLB is the prodigious Red Sox, they've scored 417 runs.
LA is 36-42 and have a 7.3% chance of making the playoffs. They're still last place in the NL West, 6 games behind the first place Diamondbacks. But they're slowly crawling back into the NL West race. They are only 2 games back of the tied for third place Giants and Rockies.
Upcoming: In the second game of the Dodgers-Phillies series the scheduled pitching matchup is Chris Capuano (2-4, 4.09 ERA) vs. John Lanaan (0-2, 5.84 ERA). Capuano has had a couple of good starts, can he make it 3 good starts in a row?
Although the top of the Dodgers pitching staff seems to be rounding in shape, I'd still like to see them trade for Ricky Nolasco. That's as long as they don't have to give up too much. According to ESPN's Jim Bowden they might only have to give up two minor league starters. I'd take that trade. It would mean the Dodgers wouldn't be forced to rely on Stephen Fife, Ted Lilly or Josh Beckett for the rest of the season hopefully. I hope LA lets Fife continue to mature and LA can find a way to trade Lilly and Beckett for prospects. Even if they aren't traded for the most exciting prospects. With their abilities declining and their injury history, the Dodgers can't rely on Lilly or Beckett again. I look forward to when their contracts come off the Dodgers books.
Looking forward, LA will resign Kershaw and he'll be with the Dodgers for many years. After this season LA has Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu for five more years. It looks like they'll be set for the next few years with those 3. If Capuano can develop into a solid 4th pitcher, then they would only need one more starter. If they like Nolasco they could resign him at the end of this season or sign another free agent. Also Chad Billingsley should be able to play most of next season.
The AL East continues to be hard fought, both the Red Sox and Orioles won yesterday. Runs scored doesn't guarantee playoff success. It isn't a coincidence that the Red Sox and Orioles lead all of MLN in runs scored and are at the top of the Al East. Currently Boston leads Baltimore by 3.5 games. The Red Sox have scored an incredible 417 home runs, Baltimore has scored almost as impressive 391 runs.
In third place is the soap opera Yankees (As The Yankees Turn?), they are 4.5 games back and seem to be fading. New York is 22nd for runs scored, but still third in their division. Tampa Bay is in 4th place in the AL East, 6 games back of the Red Sox. However in runs scored the Rays are 8th in MLB, but trail the Yankees. Meanwhile after the Blue Jays won 11 games in a row, they've lost 3 of 4. They are 7.5 games out of first place. Toronto is 10th in MLB in runs scored, yet last place in the very tough AL East. The AL East continues to look like it will be the best pennant race.
Obviously pitching is a key component of a winning team, obviously no one can discount that.
themusicaddict
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