Hello,
As always thanks to ESPN for all their great facts and nuggets of information that are sprinkled throughout this blog.
On Monday LA opened up a 4 game series with the Cardinals, a series that figures to be much more challenging than the series with the Cubs was. However in the first of four games the Dodgers won 3-2. LA continues their unbelievable run of late, this is their 15th straight road win. The Dodgers are also 15-2 since the All-Star break. I'm loving the roll LA is on, but it seems like I'm in a dream. I keep on waiting for the dream to end. This hot streak has that too good to be true feel to it.
I cheer for 7 MLB teams, yes I realize that is way overboard. But it is what it is and I'm just going to stick with it now. It's not just the Dodgers that are doing well, most of my teams are doing well. The Cubs aren't, but they are the Cubs, they rarely do well. My other 5 teams are strong, at least above .500.
In the NL Central the Pirates are in first place, leading second place St. Louis by 2 games. In the AL East Boston is in first place and Baltimore is in third place, although it does look like the Orioles won't be in the playoffs. The Oakland A's are leading the AL West, they lead the Rangers by 2 games. Texas has lost Nelson Cruz for 50 games due to a PED suspension. The Braves are also in first place and making a mockery of the NL East. Of my 7 teams 5 are in first place and have a decent chance to reach the playoffs. For those keeping track at home I have teams in 5 of 6 divisions but I'll not be adding a team from the AL Central to my favorites. Although if I did it would be.... , never mind I'm not even going down that road.
Back to the Dodgers, who are currently living the dream. Zack Greinke bolstered LA with both his pitching and his batting. With LA's offense so anemic at scoring runs as Hanley Ramirez and Matt Kemp are injured, their pitchers are realizing they need to help themselves when they can. The little of the game I saw Greinke looked sharp. But his stats show that he struggled more than what I saw. In 6.1 innings, he gave up 8 hits but only 2 runs. Greinke runs his record to 9-3, but still has a bit too high ERA at 3.40.
The stalwart Paco Rodriguez pitched the final two innings to earn his second save of the season. It's good to have Kenley Jansen as your closer and it's even better with Paco Rodriguez that can give him a rest. I'm glad that Carlos Marmol and Brandon League stayed comfortably out in the relievers area.
As for the Dodgers offense I'd really like to write something nice here, but there's not much nice to write. LA only had 7 hits total and 1 of those hits was by Greinke. In fact Greinke was the one that had the game winning RBI. I realize it's a limited sample size, but Greinke leads the Dodgers with a .405 batting average.
With Arizona not playing last night, LA expanded it's NL West lead to 5 games. With LA's recent domination their chances of reaching the playoffs have improved to 86.5%. Arizona is in second place and essentially looks like they are done. They have a 25.5% chance of reaching the playoffs. But over the last few weeks they are trending downward and have only won 4 of their last 10 games.
Today's Dodgers-Cards scheduled pitching matchup is the killer Clayton Kershaw (10-6, 1.87 ERA) vs. Joe Kelly (2-3, 3.10 ERA). If the Dodgers can muster some offense, things look good for them winning again today with Kershaw pitching. However LA sometimes forgets how to score when Kershaw is pitching.
What I would also like to know is what is going on in the NL East? That division has turned into a complete joke, how did the Braves become so dominant? Are the other 4 NL East teams even trying any more? And if you say that they are, do you have proof of that?
Granted the Braves are playing out of their minds right now, they've won 11 in a row. They are almost as hot as the Dodgers since the All-Star Break and have gone 14-4 since then. Atlanta is playing the best they have all season, will anyone stop them? Of course the Braves will have times ahead when they don't play so well. In the last several years the Braves nearly always have been a good regular season team, it's how they'll do in the postseason which is the question. Can Braves supporters point to one thing to show that this year will be different? I can't see one thing that sets them apart.
After Justin Upton seemed to disappear he's reemerging again. Upton was 3 for 4 in this game, raising his batting average to .265. Even more importantly he had the game winning homer in the 8th inning, that's his 20th homer of the season. Upton also has 57 RBIs this season.
I'd love for the Braves to have some competition, it's way too early in the season for a team to have a 99.9% chance of reaching the playoffs. Atlanta is the only team in that division that has a winning record. I honestly think the rest of the division has given up on the season. The second place team is Washington, they are 54-58 and trail Atlanta by 13.5 games. It just gets uglier from there, in third place is the Phillies. They are 50-61 and tied for third place with the Mets in number of games behind. The Phillies and Mets have the same winning percentage, and both are 17 games back. Perhaps for the rest of the season MLB should allow the other 4 NL East teams to use steroids.
themusicaddict
No comments:
Post a Comment