Hello,
In the finale of the 3 game series between the Dodgers and the Red Sox, Boston thumped LA 8-1. Jake Peavy pitched an outstanding game, Chris Capuano didn't and just like that Boston takes 2 of 3. Peavy only allowed 3 hits and 1 run to improve to 10-5 on the season. Also he decreased his not very good ERA to 3.99.
Due to Peavy's excellent outing, the culprit of this game was LA's so called "offense". LA's close to $215,000,000 million payroll could only produce 3 hits and 1 run. Lack of offense was the theme for LA this entire series, they only scored 5 runs in 3 games. LA was an Adrian Gonzalez solo homer from being shut out on Sunday.
This wimpy offense hearkens back to the early part of LA's season, they were around the bottom of the league in runs scored. They were being out scored by teams that were paying 9 or 10 times less. As of now the Dodgers are 15th in MLB in runs scored, I'm guessing that's about as high as they'll finish this season. As of Sunday they have scored 33 runs less than the 14th place Diamondbacks. On the other hand that does show how good LA's pitching has been this season. Although Arizona has scored 33 more runs than LA, the Dodgers lead Arizona by 9.5 games in the NL West.
Adrian Gonzalez had his 17th homer and 80th RBI of the season Sunday. Gonzalez is the only Dodger with a chance of reaching 100 RBIs this season. Matt Kemp is suppose to start playing rehab games this week. That's good news, but I hope they aren't rushing him. If he could come back and inject a bit more life into this offense, this Dodgers team would just be that much more tough to beat. Although my fear is that Kemp is going to get injured again and go on season ending DL. If that happens that would be the 4th time this season that he goes on DL. I'm also a bit nervous about Carl Crawford and Hanley Ramirez making DL appearances down the stretch run or even worse in the playoffs.
The Dodgers have almost a 99% chance of reaching the playoffs, I'm not really worried about them losing this series. Besides I'm a fan of the Red Sox as well and they needed the wins so much more than did LA.
Next up LA welcomes the terrible Chicago Cubs to LA, the Cubs are one of my teams as well. I don't want to say the Cubs are bad but..... 1) They are 55-75 and last place in the NL Central. 2) They have a 0.1% chance of reaching the playoffs, in other words if their chances were any less they would have a 0% chance of reaching the playoffs. 3) They're 21 games behind the tied for first Cardinals and Pirates.
LA gets Thursday off. Other than a 3 game series against the very good Reds, LA closes out the season playing teams from their own very weak division.
Meanwhile Boston moves back to being alone in first place in the AL East, they lead the Rays by 1 game. I'm interested to see how the 4 more games the Rays have to play than the Red Sox will affect the AL East race. Meanwhile Baltimore continues to hang on to a slim chance of reaching the playoffs. As of Sunday, they trailed Boston by 5.5 games. Boston has a day off and then they welcome those Orioles for a 3 game series. That series possibly could effectively eliminate Baltimore from playoff contention. Next Boston plays a 3 game series against the low scoring and not very good White Sox. The Red Sox then close out their 9 game series with the Tigers, that should be a high scoring series.
The Atlanta Braves are coasting along, they lead the NL East second place Washington by 13 games. Atlanta maintains a 99.9% chance of reaching the playoffs. They've been at that percentage for about a month now, sooner rather than later it will be 100%. About the only thing the Braves have to play for now is to finish with the best record in the NL, they currently lead the Dodgers by 2 games for that #1 playoff seed.
themusicaddict
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