Hello,
The Dodgers beat the Nationals 3-2 in both teams first game following the All-Star. Surprisingly the hero of the game was Andre Ethier, a highly paid player who rarely is the hero. His 6th home run of the season snapped a 2-2 tie in the top of the 9th inning.
With the Diamondbacks loss to the Giants, LA is now within 1.5 games of Arizona. Again the only way a team from the NL West is going to get in the playoffs is to win the weak NL West. That division is probably the weakest division in all MLB.
Despite the Dodgers winning they continue their alarming recent streak of forgetting how to score. In their last 4 games they scored 0, 1, 1 and 3 runs, a grand total of 5 runs. It's amazing LA actually won 2 of those games. Are the Dodgers battling with the Pirates to be the lowest scoring team to have a shot at the playoffs? So far LA has scored 363 runs, 25th in MLB. The Pirates are 3 runs behind and 26th place in runs scored. The 4 teams scoring less include 1 mediocre and 3 dreadful teams.
Washington is 27th place in runs scored and have won exactly half of their games, which is surely the ultimate sign of being mediocre. Washington is 7 games behind the clearly not all cylinders are firing Braves, but I predict the Braves win the NL East. That's probably the second weakest division in MLB. I expect the Braves to make the playoffs and then have their annual playoff flameout. The other 3 lower scoring teams are all absolutely dreadful, the Marlins, White Sox and Astros. Each of those teams are last place in their respective divisions and have .1% or less chance of making the playoffs.
Yasiel Puig keeps on coming back to reality, he was 0 for 4 and his batting average slipped to .381. It's a good thing Hanley Ramirez has become hot, he was 2 for 4 and is hitting .382. He had his 9th homer of the season and also has 27 RBIs. He has comparable numbers to Ethier in quite a few less games. Meanwhile Adrian Gonzalez continued his season long flirtation with .300, he was 2 for 4 and is hitting .299.
Carl Crawford was 0 for 4 as his batting average continues to plummet, he's down to .268. The 2012 trade with the Red Sox continues to look worse and worse for LA. Essentially LA took on way too much money to acquire Gonzalez. Nick Punto for a time looked like he was going to be the second best player for the Dodgers in that trade, but he's fallen back now. On this July day that trade looks like Adrian Gonzalez and the Pips. Josh Beckett will never end up making a significant difference for LA and it's only a matter of time before Crawford goes on season ending DL.
Meanwhile Dodgers fans hope that Matt Kemp, who is eligible to come off the DL soon, will be back to his former great play. Hopefully he'll be able to help carry the Dodgers down the stretch and inject some life into this suddenly wimpy offense.
The Red Sox continue to surge in their bounce back year, they're currently leading the AL East. The win Friday was a double victory as Boston knocked off the Evil Empire 4-2. The heroes of the game were Jacoby Ellsbury and Jonny Gomes. Ellsbury was 2 for 3 including his 4th home run of the season. Ellsbury is hitting .308 this season. Meanwhile Gomes added his 7th home run and has 24 RBIs this season. Gomes is only hitting .242 this season though.
Boston leads the blisteringly hot Rays by 2.5 games. However the Red Sox have only won half of their last 10 games while the Rays have won 9 of 10. Baltimore is also hanging out in the tight AL East race, they are 4.5 games out. The Orioles have won 2 in a row and 6 of their last 10 games. New York is desperately clinging to playoff relevancy, they are 7 games behind Boston. They've also lost 3 games in a row. Alex Rodriguez may come back soon, but honestly how effective is he going to be?
Congrats to my other teams who won yesterday, the Cubs, the Braves and the Orioles.
themusicaddict
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