Hello,
On Saturday the Dodgers beat the Phillies 4-3, this is the Dodgers 7th win in 8 games. Yasiel Puig seems to be cooling down, yesterday he was 1 for 4 and his batting average lowered to a still amazing .417. However Hanley Ramirez seems to be heating up, yesterday he was 3 for 4 and is hitting .394. He seems to be fully healthy now.
I love Hyun-Jin Ryu, but he gives up too many hits. However he's usually able to scatter the hits so that teams don't score many runs against him. On Saturday he gave up 7 hits in his 7 innings but only two earned runs. That explains his solid 2.83 ERA. Ryu ended with a no decision, which keeps his record at 6-3.
The Dodgers led 3-2 going into the top of the 9th inning with Kenley Jansen coming in to secure the victory. Jansen has been the Dodgers best closer this season, getting 7 saves in 9 attempts. Jansen came in for the save attempt, but allowed the tying run in the top of the 9th. He wasn't helped by the errors of Matt Kemp or Puig. He also wasn't helped by giving up two hits. Thankfully the Phillies didn't score any more runs in the 9th inning. That gave LA a chance to win the game in the 9th inning, which is what they did. Ramirez had a single, Andre Ethier walked followed by A.J. Ellis with a single. That hit drove in Ramirez. Ramirez was 3 for 4 and is hitting .394 this season. He was involved in every Dodgers run.
The Dodgers usually don't get the timely hit, in the fourth inning the Dodgers had the bases loaded and no outs. A.J. Ellis hit into a double play and then Juan Uribe grounded out. The only two players of late to get the timely hit are Ramirez and Puig. Ramirez's mammoth first inning home run was timely and gave LA 3 quick runs. He also had the timely hit to get on base in the bottom of the 9th inning. It was good to see A.J. Ellis have the timely hit in the bottom of the 9th inning that drove him in.
Although the Dodgers have won 7 of 8 games, I get the feeling Dodgers success is built on a faltering foundation. If the Dodgers start averaging 5 runs per game, there's no reason they shouldn't, and crawl their way back to .500 I'll have a lot more belief in their success.
I'm beginning to wonder if we've seen the peak of Matt Kemp. Yesterday he committed his 5th error of the season and was 0 for 3 from the plate. Kemp is hitting. 249 this season. He's committed more errors than has home runs, he only has two home runs. Is he fully healthy or is he on the downside of his career?
Somebody has stumbled on this blog wondering what Scott Van Slyke's walk up music is. I can't say for the rest of the season, but on the night of June 29th it's Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee Breaks". It's one of the many amazing songs on the greatest CD ever, Led Zeppelin's 4.
"When The Levee Breaks":
To no Dodgers fan chagrin, Josh Beckett is going to have surgery in the next few days. He'll be out for the rest of the season. Where or where will the Dodgers be able to find a player who will be able to replace Beckett's 0-5 record and .519 ERA. In a weird way, that's good news for the Dodgers. They know he's not coming back, that's one less thing to worry about in trying to trade for another starter.
LA is now 37-43, but still last place in the NL West. Although they are still in last place, they're closing in on the rest of the NL West. The Dodgers trail the first place Diamondbacks by 5 games, but I believe at one point LA was as far back as 8.5 games. With the Giants losing 6 straight games, LA is only one game behind them. LA has a 5.3% chance of making the playoffs. Although it's a long shot for LA to reach the playoffs, winning 7 of 8 certainly increases their chances. But this offense needs to learn how to score more runs. The Dodgers remain in 28th place, of 30 teams, in MLB for runs scored.
Upcoming: The Dodgers play their final game in this 7 game home stand today. They are 5-1 so far and have one more game with the struggling Phillies. Today's scheduled pitching match up is the goggled Stephen Fife (2-2, 3.41 ERA) vs. Kyle Kendrick (7-4, 3.46 ERA).
The Pirates continue their incredibly hot streak, when was the last time they played this well? Was it the last time they made the playoffs or was it before then? They're the first team in MLB to get to 50 wins. Pedro Alvarez hit his 20th home run and Garrett Jones added his 7th home run. Those two runs were just enough to support Franklin Liriano's 7 hits and 1 run allowed over 6 innings. Jason Grilli came in to clean up the Brewers with a perfect 9th inning, getting 3 outs on 6 hits. That's the definition of efficiency.
The Pirates are now 20 games over .500, if nothing else this will be the first time in 21 years that they finish above .500? Right? I don't expect them to win the NL Central, the Cardinals are probably too good, but a wild card spot would be nice.
Baltimore continues to roll, they steamrolled the sliding Yankees today 11-3. I love Alex Rodriguez's imitation of Dwight Howard in whether he'll play for the team he's with or not. (Let's hope Howard decides where he's playing tomorrow, the first day of free agency. I won't tolerate another Howard attention tour. Some team is going to overpay him and they'll regret signing him in 2 or 3 years. Let's not endure a long drawn out process now. Howard says he's about where he can get the most rings. No he's not, he's about where he can get the most attention. If he cared truly about rings he'd be a hell of a lot better free throw shooter.) Boston continues to lead the AL East, although they haven't played well of late. Baltimore hasn't played great lately either. However they've won 3 games in a row and only trail the Red Sox by 2.5 games. The Yankees continue to fall apart right before our eyes, they've lost 4 in a row and 7 of 10 games. They trail the Red Sox by 5.5 games.
Congrats to Michael Cuddyer, tonight he had a hit in his 26th consecutive game. Congrats to Pedro Alvarez for getting a hit in his 12th straight game and for smashing 20 home runs. Also a tip of the hat to Chris Davis, he hit his 29th and 30th home runs of the season.
themusicaddict
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