Hello,
The Dodgers won yet again on the road, they've won 13 straight road games. That's the Dodgers team record. They've also won the first 3 games in this 4 game series with the Cubs. I don't want to say the Cubs aren't trying. But I do wonder if they are really as bad as the last 3 games would indicate. The Cubs have scored a grand total of 6 runs in those first 3 games.
LA is in the midst of playing a brutal stretch of games, 26 games in 27 days. They have 11 games over the next 11 days remaining in that brutal stretch. I'm sure August 15th is circled on the Dodgers calendar, that's their next day off.
LA has won 13 straight road games, breaking the record from 1924 by the Brooklyn Robins. (Thanks to ESPN.com.) The heroes of this game include Carl Crawford, he was 3 for 5 and raised his batting average to .284. He also had two RBI's which gave the Dodgers more than enough runs needed to win. That gives him a pretty wimpy total of 18 RBIs this season. He also was caught stealing in this game. Crawford will never live up to his contract, I just hope he can have occasional flashes of brilliance like he did Saturday.
In a pretty lackluster game devoid of much excitement, the heroes don't leap out. I'd say two other heroes were starter Chris Capuano. Don Mattingly called on Capuano to play in place of Zack Greinke, to give Greinke some rest during this brutal stretch. In 6.1 innings Capuano gave up 6 hits, but no runs. He improves to 4-6 as he lowers his ERA to 4.16. The other hero was Kenley Jansen, he struck out 2 and didn't give up a hit in his one inning. Jansen has 16 saves and his ERA decreases to 2.08.
Thanks to Boston and new pitcher Jake Peavy for their 5-2 victory over the Diamondbacks. With Arizona's loss, they now trail the Dodgers by 4.5 games. There's no one else to challenge the Dodgers in the NL West, Colorado is in third place and they are 9.5 games back. Unless LA reverts to it's early season play, they will coast to the NL West title.
Also my Red Sox continue strengthening their hold on a playoff spot. It's quite likely at this point that Boston and Tampa Bay will make the playoffs, the question is which one will be the AL East champs? (Sorry Baltimore I don't think that's going to be you.) Both teams have won 6 of their last 10 games and the Red Sox leads the Rays by 1 game. By adding Peavy to an already good pitching staff, I like the Red Sox chances of winning the World Series this season.
It seems Boston has figured out a solution to the closer situation. With both Joel Hanrahan and Andrew Miller out for the season, the closer burden has fallen on Koji Uehara. In not the best situation, he has performed admirably. He earned his 10th save Saturday night and has a sterling ERA of 1.43.
Upcoming: Sunday is the 4th and final game in the Dodgers-Cubs series. I wouldn't be surprised if LA wins and sweeps the sacrificial lambs. Today's scheduled pitching matchup is Stephen Fife, who is just barely coming off of the DL. Fife (3-3, 2.76 ERA) vs. Carlos Villanueva (2-7, 4.33 ERA).
Once this series is complete, the Dodgers task becomes much more challenging. They go to St. Louis to play a 4 game series with the Cardinals from Monday to Thursday. St. Louis is 64-45 and has a 98.6% chance to reach the playoffs. Although St. Louis has the fifth best record in MLB, they are only 2nd place in their division. They trail the Pirates by 1.5 games. Obviously it's a big series, two of the games will be on ESPN.
Meanwhile the Braves are even making more of a joke of the NL East than the Dodgers are making of the NL West. At least in the NL West there's at least one other team that has a pulse. The Braves won their 9th straight game to improve to 66-45. They have a 99.7% chance of reaching the playoffs. The second place team in the NL East is the Nationals (54-56, 6.4 Poff%). They trail the Braves by 11.5 games.
Although Cincinnati has fallen off a bit of late, it looks highly likely 3 NL Central teams will make the playoffs. That's a pretty amazing feat and tells you how bad the rest of the NL is this season. Of course that also tells you how good the Cardinals, Pirates and Reds are.
themusicaddict
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