Hello,
In the first game of their 4 game series with the Braves the Dodgers won 5-0. The Dodgers are now 3-1 in their 10 game home stand. If LA wants to be a significant player in the playoff race, it's crucial the Dodgers win at least 7 games in this series. The Dodgers need to start making up ground now. As bad as the Dodgers have been this season, they only trail the Diamondbacks by 7.5 games. Arizona may be in first place, but they are a young team. They'll have many ups and downs as the season goes on.
Again Yasiel Puig was the offensive stud of the game, in his 4 games with LA he's been carrying them. LA held a tenuous 1-0 lead and Puig was 1 for 3 when he came up in the bottom of the 8th inning. With one out in the inning Skip Schumaker, Luis Cruz and Hanley Ramirez had already reached base. The bases were loaded when Puig came to the plate and:
The Dodgers went on to win 5-0. In his 4 career MLB games, Puig has 3 homers, 9 RBIs and is hitting an incredibly hot .438. He's the first Dodger to have 9 RBI's in his first 4 career games and in that time he has 50% of LA's RBIs. This season Puig is now 5th for the Dodgers in home runs and 11th in RBIs. Clearly he's brought a much needed spark to the Dodgers anemic offense.
Obviously Puig has been a fun story, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. This hot streak isn't going to last. In the third game of his career he was 0 for 4 and he'll have more games like that. I hope he uses this season to learn how to be a consistent MLB professional in every sense of the word. If he can do that this season will be a success for him, anything beyond that is gravy.
While one player was living up to his incredible potential, another player was finally living up to his incredible paycheck. For one game at least. Zack Greinke, earning $21 million this season, had his first good start in 4 games. He pitched 7 innings, allowed 4 hits, 0 runs and also had 7 strike outs. Greinke is now 3-1, with a 3.89 ERA this season. He needs to continue having more games like that if LA wants to be legitimate contenders this season. Obviously Matt Kemp and Carl Crawford are going to be near their peaks for the Dodgers as well.
Andre Ethier was 1 for 3 and nudged his batting average to .232. He had his 10th double of the season. In Ethier's 57 games for the Dodgers he's 4th in homers and 3rd in RBIs. When Kemp and Crawford come back from the DL, what will Ethier's role be? What version of Kemp and Crawford will LA be getting? Ethier's role will obviously be less, but I hope they don't trade him away in desperation. If the Dodgers do trade away Ethier, they'll still end up eating most of his salary. If LA is still going to be paying most of his salary, it would be nice to have Ethier as an insurance policy. Kemp and Crawford have been injury prone the last couple of seasons. I'm holding out hope that Ethier can bounce back and be at least a .270 hitter with about 20 home runs.
The Dodgers have now scored at least 5 runs in 30.5% of their games, in those games their record is 14-4. The Dodgers remain in 27th place in MLB for runs scored. They are within 10 runs of Seattle, Pittsburgh and Kansas City. If Puig can continue to be a spark plug and the other players step up their games a bit the Dodgers can surge into the Top 25 in runs scored! Happy days! Second highest payroll and the projected 25th highest scoring offense! (As always thanks to ESPN for the always excellent stats and how well they have those stats organized.)
Upcoming: Friday's scheduled pitching matchup is Hyun-Jin Ryu (6-2, 2.89 ERA) vs. the Braves Paul Maholm (7-4, 3.68 ERA). Can Ryu continue his strong play? He's had many great games for LA with his pitching, he's also helped himself with some timely hits. Can Puig continue his hot start? Is this a fluke or a sign of things to come? Can Ethier regain his confidence and his batting stroke? Can LA be a contender in these playoffs?
Meanwhile in Boston, David Ortiz continues his amazing season. I have to admit I wondered how wise it was when the Red Sox signed Ortiz to a two year contract. But Ortiz has definitely showed that the Red Sox were right in signing him. Big Papi has had a great season, he's hitting .325 with 11 homers and 42 RBIs. He also hit the walk off homer for the Red Sox last night, as Boston turned away the Rangers 6-3. Boston won 2 of 3 games in that battle of first place teams.
Boston remains in first place in the AL East and leads the second place Yankees by 1.5 games.Boston now has a 84.5% chance of making the playoffs. I have nothing against the Evil Empire, but I laugh about the whole ARod PED situation. I love how Rodriguez says he'll speak when the time is right. I know he's just saying that because that's what his lawyers and PR people tell him to say. But why isn't talking now the right time? Wouldn't it be refreshing if a professional athlete actually admitted to doing something illicit? Confession cleanses the soul and it's not like people believe Rodriguez is innocent.
The Yankees have admitted signing ARod to a 10 year contract back in 2007 was a bad decision. He probably won't even come close to living up to even half of his contract. In fact, if he's suspended for 100 games in 2014, that will probably save the Yankees about $15 million dollars. With his surly personality, poor performance of late I've got to believe that secretly the Yankees are hoping ARod gets suspended. If Rodriguez is suspended, it will be without pay. A suspension, depending on its length, will save New York either $7.5 million or $15 million. With so many sports contracts messed up, isn't that funny that it's better for a team for one of their players to be suspended rather than actually play?
themusicaddict
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