Hello,
The Dodgers beat San Diego Tuesday 9-7 in the second game in their 3 game series. LA was powered by phenom Yaiel Puig. Puig was 3 for 4 Tuesday, he had 2 homers, a double and 5 RBIs. Everything wasn't perfect for Puig though, he also committed an error that gave the Padres a 4-2 lead. However Puig redeemed himself by hitting homers in the 5th and 6th innings. I know it's early in his career and many players have started out great only to quickly fade from memory. It's a long season and as with yesterday's error, there will be a few hiccups along the way. But if the offensive production continues, I'll take the few hiccups of a young player. It's so much more fun to win 9-7, than lose 7-4.
The following isn't to hype Puig, but to show how anemic the Dodgers offense has been this season. In two games only, Puig is already tied for 13th place on the Dodgers in RBIs. He's also tied for 4th place on LA with his two homers. He has a bit of a ways to go to catch Adrian Gonzalez, who leads the Dodgers in nearly every offensive category. Thank goodness for Gonzalez's contribution this season.
I hope MLBN shows a bit of the Dodgers-Padres game tonight.
Even with Puig playing for the Dodgers and Hanley Ramirez being activated off of DL, this Dodgers line up still has a couple of holes. Andre Ethier continues to struggle, he was 0-2 on Tuesday and is now hitting .234 this season. And it's not like he's getting better, in fact he's getting worse. I don't know what his issue is, but he needs a break out game to get him back in the swing. I realize Luis Cruz had a big hit yesterday, but he's still only hitting .128 this season. Cruz's most impressive feat yesterday was the High 5 celebration he had with Puig.
I'm glad LA scored 9 runs as they needed every run as Dodgers starting pitching remains brutal. Ted Lilly only lasted 4 innings. He have up 6 hits, 4 earned runs- which included 2 home runs. Lilly earned a no decision, but his ERA is a brutal 5.09 ERA. The Dodgers need to do something about their weak starting pitching. After Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu, there is not much there there. The $147 million Zack Greinke has been less than impressive. Ted Lilly has been horrible and I don't expect much from him this season. Chris Capuano and Josh Beckett are both injured, not that they are very effective even when they are healthy. Chad Billingsley is out for the season. Stephen Fife had a decent start the other day, but he's probably not ready to be a full-time MLB starting pitcher.
The Dodgers are now 25-32 and still last place in the NL West. They are 7.5 games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks and .5 games behind the 4th place Padres. LA has one more game with the Padres in this series, if LA wins they'll move to 4th place. The Dodgers have only won 5 of their last 10 games, but they've won 2 in a row. They now have a 3.9% chance of making the playoffs.
The Dodgers were tied for 27th place in runs scored following Monday's games. Following Tuesday's games, the Dodgers are in 27th place all by themselves. Look at them go! Scoring 9 runs in a game will do that for you. The Dodgers are 4 runs behind 26th place Kansas City, that's their next target on the runs list. So far this season the Dodgers have given up 38 more runs than they've scored, there's still a lot of work to be done. Let's see, if they keep on scoring 9 runs every game......
In contrast, following the Red Sox 17-5 blowout yesterday, the Red Sox have scored exactly 100 more runs than the Dodgers. Boston has also out scored their opponents by 72 runs. Obviously that has a lot to do with them being first place in the AL East and having a 84.8% chance to make the playoffs. And getting rid of Bobby Valentine doesn't hurt, I'm so glad they didn't give him a second year. I look forward to seeing at least some of Red Sox-Rangers game on ESPN 2 tonight. Go Red Sox!
Tonight is the final game of the Dodgers-Padres series. Today's expected pitching matchup will be the man Clayton Kershaw (5-3, 1.85 ERA) vs. the very good Jason Marquis (6-2, 3.82 ERA). LA then welcomes the hot Braves for a 4 game series starting tomorrow, the Braves could be coming off a 3 game sweep of the Pirates. Atlanta should be much more of a challenge than the Padres. Atlanta is now 36-22 and have the second best record in MLB. As of Tuesdays game they've won 6 of 10 and 4 in a row. In the NL East, they lead the second place Nationals, by 7 games. By the way the Nationals are 27th in runs scored.
themusicaddict
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