Hello,
The LA Dodgers continued their amazing winning streak. After sweeping the Blue Jays, LA has won all 6 of their post All-Star break games. LA has won 10 straight road games, which is their longest such streak since 1955 according to one ESPN source. (ESPN LA's Mark Saxon says it's a LA Dodgers longest road winning streak ever. Perhaps the other streak refers to the Brooklyn Dodgers?) LA has won 23 of their last 28 games.
All those wins and this great momentum usually would make me ecstatic. The Dodgers are one of the teams I've been following since I was a kid. My favorite player growing up was Steve Garvey. Usually I would be ecstatic about that team actually looking like they could make the playoffs. After playing very miserably for the first 70 games of the season and now they're playing lights out I wonder if this recent streak is too good to be true? Is this just a mirage?
The Dodgers hitting has been pretty great as of late, but pitching has only been okay. Hyun Jin-Ryu and Ricky Nolasco didn't overwhelm anyone lately. Ryu won his recent start, to move to 8-3 on the season. However he gave up 9 hits, 4 runs and 2 walks in only 5.1 innings. Ryu has a tendency to give up a lot of hits but not necessarily a lot of runs. His win loss record and 3.25 ERA bears that out. Last night Nolasco wasn't exactly dominant either. He was better than Ryu, but still gave up 2 hits, 2 runs and 4 WALKS in 5.2 innings.
For the most part LA's relief staff has been pretty decent. Kenley Jansen has been a solid closer. Paco Rodriguez seems to be automatic every time he pitches. I've noticed that Brandon League has been decent in his recent appearances, I just hope that Don Mattingly doesn't go to that well one too many times.
I wonder how strong of a foundation this Dodgers team is built on, especially when LA's scoring inevitability drops off? I also wonder how good this team will be with Matt Kemp going on DL for the second time this month and third time this season. With all the games he's missed and how relatively ineffective he's been the Dodgers haven't missed Kemp as much as you would think they would. If he could somehow come back healthy and hitting .280 with some power how good could this Dodgers team be?
I'll write that blog if it comes to that, until then I'm going to celebrate this Dodgers team surge. LA expanded their lead over the Diamondbacks to 1.5 games on Wednesday. The lowly Cubs knocked off the Diamondbacks in Arizona last night.
Yasiel Puig had a rough stretch right before and shortly after the All-Star break, but he seems to be bouncing back now. He had his second good game in a row on Wednesday. Puig was 3 for 5 and is hitting .376. He also hit his 9th homer of the season and has 22 RBIs this season. He's battling Hanley Ramirez for best batting average amongst the Dodgers. Ramirez had a rough game last night, he was only 1 for 6, his batting average decreases to .381. Obviously he's hitting incredibly well.
Mr. Consistent, Adrian Gonzalez, was 2 for 5 and is hitting .301 this season. Even Andre Ethier had 4 hits and raises his batting average to .275. My excitement level would definitely go up with a healthy Kemp and a consistently good Ethier. Up to this point Ethier has been consistently mediocre.
Upcoming: the Dodgers start a 4 game series against the Reds. The series is at Dodgers Stadium. The scheduled pitching matchup is Zack Greinke (8-2, 3.36 ERA) vs. Mat Latos (9-3, 3.53). Maybe Greinke can get the Dodgers pitching staff going in the right direction and gaining positive momentum.
I don't know how to put it, but the NL West and the NL East are pathetic. Other than those two divisions winning team, nobody else in the race for the playoffs. If the Dodgers were in the NL Central with their record, they'd be in 4th place. If the Braves were in the NL Central they would also be in 4th place.
As of now it looks like 3 of the 5 NL playoffs team will be from the NL Central. Let's review: First of all the top 3 NL Central teams won Wednesday night. That division's 1st place team is the Terminator like St. Louis Cardinals. Like the Terminator they are steam rolling over whoever they encounter. It's hard to believe St. Louis lost Albert Pujols and seem to be better now. The Cardinals are a lot better than Pujol's current team. The Cardinals are 61-37 and have a 99.2% chance of making the playoffs. They've won 3 in a row and 7 of 10 games. The NL Central's 2nd place team is the Pirates, they have a 95.3% chance of making the playoffs. Pittsburgh has won 4 in a row and also 7 of their last 10 games. It would take a monumental collapse for the Pirates to not finish at least with a .500 record. Then in 3rd place is the Cincinnati Reds, they have a 90.1% chance of making the playoffs. They've only won 1 game in a row, but they've also won 7 of their last 10 games.
The Reds just took 3 of 4 games from the defending World Series champs Giants in San Francisco. Now the Reds will play against the Dodgers for 4 games.
themusicaddict
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