Hello,
LA has been one of the hottest teams in MLB over the last couple of weeks, they had won their last 6 road games. Coming into their game against the Reds the lead the NL West by 1.5 games. Anytime that a team wins a road game that's impressive, especially 6 games in a row since the All-Star break. But to be fair LA beat the not very good Blue Jays and Nationals. Despite LA returning home, they currently are playing a very solid baseball team in the Reds. Although the Reds are 3rd place in the extremely competitive NL Central, they still have a 92% chance of reaching the playoffs.
LA returned to Dodgers Stadium on their fantastic run, however they ran into a determined Reds team. As of now Cincinnati would qualify for the playoffs. They would play the Pirates in a one game series to advance in the playoffs. After 162 regular season games the Reds want a better shot at being in the playoffs for awhile. (MLB's regular season is way too long. Due to greed the regular season will never be shortened, but wouldn't about 140 games be much better?) I don't think Cincinnati, or anyone else, is going to catch the Cardinals. St. Louis is on too much of a roll and they are too loaded. However if at least they could pass the Pirates, then at least they'd have home field advantage for the one game Wild Card playoff.
Of course the Dodgers are probably equally determined, they have to win the NL West or they aren't going to be in the playoffs at all.
With that as the backdrop the Reds went into LA and won the first game in the series 5-2. Dodger starting pitchers continued a not very good trend of outings. Zack Greinke wasn't horrible, but he also didn't deliver the kind of performance you'd expect from someone with his kind of salary. In 7 innings he gave up 6 hits, 4 runs and a walk. Greinke finished with the loss and drops to 8-3 on the season, his ERA rises slightly to 3.49. I'm sure that Don Mattingly has his reasons, but I don't understand why the ineffective Carlos Marmol ever plays. In one inning of work Marmol gave up 2 hits and 1 run. He has an unbelievable ERA of 6.53.
The two Dodgers that have been the most effective over the last few weeks continue that way. Hanley Ramirez remains in first place for the Dodgers in batting average. He was 2 for 4 and is hitting .384. Yasiel Puig has bounced back from a brief slump. On Thursday he was 2 for 4 and he's hitting .379 this season.
The Dodgers were hoping for some help from the Cubs. Chicago ended their 4 game series with Arizona last night by losing 3-1. With the Cubs trading away many of their veterans, their already slim chances of winning continue to decrease. Although trading away Alfonso Soriono isn't a big loss to the Cubs. In fact, the postscript on that free agency signing a few years ago is that was a deal that didn't work out for the Cubs. The 8 year $136 million dollar contract Soriano signed looks ridiculous now.
I'm glad the Cubs got rid of the dead weight, although they should have held out a bit longer to make the Yankees pay more of his contract. Soriano's contract runs out at the end of 2014 season. Even though he won't be playing for the Cubs then, the Cubs will still pay him about $17.7 million of the approximately $24.5 million he's still owed.
With Chicago recently trading away both Matt Garza and Soriano they're clearly going to a youth movement. Nearly always I think that's the right idea once reaching the playoffs becomes unrealistic. Despite all the player turmoil the Cubs were able to take 2 of 4 against the Diamondbacks. However Arizona won the final game of the series last night. That meant Arizona moved back within into a 1/2 game of the Dodgers in the NL West. Arizona has 3 more games left in their 4 game series with the Reds.
Today's Dodgers-Reds scheduled pitching matchup is Clayton Kershaw (9-6, 2.01 ERA) vs. Homer Bailey (5-9, 3.84 ERA). Bailey has pitched a no-hitter both this season and last season. No disrespect to Bailey but my prediction is that most GMs would prefer Kershaw on their team. Although nearly ever GM would be happy as well to have Bailey in their starting pitching rotation.
While the Dodgers are playing a team better than them, the Diamondbacks will be playing a team that's worse than them. Arizona is playing the terrible Padres (46-57, 1.2% Poff). How bad are the Padres? They are so bad that they are last place in one of the two worst divisions in MLB, the NL West. It's hard to be that bad.
themusicaddict
No comments:
Post a Comment