Hello,
On Saturday Boston beat LA 4-2 in the second game of this Dodgers-Red Sox three game series. LA won the first game on Friday. Although I have 7 MLB teams I follow/ cheer for my favorite team is the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers are still playing hard, but I'm sure they are still on cruise control. It would take a spectacular collapse for LA not to reach the playoffs. As of right now they on their way to the NL West title. The fact that Boston beat LA on Saturday doesn't bother me much. The Red Sox needed that win a lot more than the Dodgers did.
With the Red Sox playing earlier than the Rays on Saturday, they didn't know if they needed to win to maintain a virtual tie with Tampa Bay. The Red Sox scored 4 runs in the first inning and that ended up being enough runs to win the game. The Rays later won so Boston did need that win to remain in a virtual tie for first place in the AL East. The Rays have played 4 games less than the Red Sox, will that serve as an advantage or disadvantage for the Rays? I think I'd rather have a couple of wins in the bank like the Red Sox do. The AL East is quickly becoming a two team race.
Jonny Gomes hit a 3 run shot off of Hyun-Jin Ryu in the first inning. That was his 11th homer and he has 50 RBIs this season. Neither team would score another run until the 8th inning, that's when Adrian Gonzalez doubled to deep centerfield. With his only hit of the game he drove in Yasiel Puig and Carl Crawford. However it was too little too late and Boston went on to win.
This was a battle between two very good pitchers. Ryu dropped to 12-5 and only gave the Dodgers 5 innings. Usually teams get a lot of hits against him, but don't do much with those hits. However in this game the Red Sox scored 4 runs on the 5 hits they had off of him. On the other side, Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester had a bit more effective outing. One day after Jon Lackey pitched a complete game and only gave up 2 runs, Lester lasted 7.1 innings and only gave up 1 run. Lester improved to 12-7 on the season but has a bit of a scary ERA at 3.97.
The inept offense bug bit the Dodgers again, for the second straight game they only scored 2 runs. LA only had 5 hits, two of those hits were by Yasiel Puig. Puig is hitting .345 on the season. He's tied with Hanley Ramirez for the Dodgers batting average lead. Ramirez was 0 for 2, but did walk twice. The other Dodgers with hits were Gonzalez, Andre Ethier and Mark Ellis.
The third and final game of this series is this week's Sunday Night Baseball game. Sunday's scheduled pitching matchup is Chris Capuano (4-6, 4.70) vs. new Red Sox pitcher Jake Peavy (9-5, 4.25).
Meanwhile in Philadelphia a war of attrition was occurring. Citizens Bank Park was the setting for an 18 inning marathon between Arizona and Philly. The game that eventually lasted 7 hours and forced two Phillies outfielders to pitch. Arizona scored 5 runs in the top of the 18th and ended up winning 12-7. Sunday's finale in this series is scheduled to start about 12 hours after Saturday's marathon. (Thanks to ESPN for that little nugget.) It's good to see Arizona isn't giving up, ultimately though does it matter? I'd say "no" as the Diamondbacks still trail the Dodgers by 9.5 games with Arizona only having 34 games left in the season. The fact that Arizona has only won half of their last 10 games doesn't give me a lot of faith in their playoff chances either. It's not like they are picking up their game for the stretch run.
Pittsburgh is now tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for first place in the NL Central following St. Louis' 4 game winning streak. Although Pittsburgh has only won half of their last 10 games, I wouldn't say they are collapsing. To me it seems like they are playing like a team who hasn't been here before. Just get to 82 wins first and get the finishing below .500 for 20 consecutive seasons monkey off their back. Then they can focus on making the playoffs. It would take a complete and utter collapse to not qualify for one of the two wild card spots. When they make the playoffs this season it will be an amazing accomplishment and anything beyond that will be good preparation for next season.
themusicaddict
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