Hello,
On Thursday there were only 7 MLB games played. Four of my seven teams played and two of those teams won. LA and Pittsburgh won while Boston and Chicago lost.
LA beat St. Louis 5-1 on Thursday, winning 3 of 4 games against the Cardinals in St. Louis. I keep on thinking this Dodgers hot streak could come to a screeching halt any time. I just don't believe that LA is this good. I'm sorry, just keeping it real.
Yesterday the Dodgers completed their 8 game road trip, finishing 7-1 on that road trip. The fact that they beat the have given up on the season Cubs isn't a big shock. But I'm a bit shocked that the Cubs were swept at home. The fact that LA took 3 of 4 from the powerful Cardinals is simply amazing. This Cardinals team is truly loaded and a fantastic organization from top to bottom, I have a tremendous amount of respect for them. By no means do I think they are done though, not even close. St. Louis will still be one of the 3 NL Central teams that qualifies for the playoffs. Although I do understand they want to avoid the one game wildcard playoff.
LA is 64-50 and has a 87.0% chance of reaching the playoffs. The Diamondbacks didn't play yesterday and they have dropped 5.5 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West. The NL West remains the second weakest division in MLB, only stronger than the pathetic NL East.
The big blow in LA's victory was A.J. Ellis' 3 run homer. That home run turned a 1-1 tie into a 4-1 Dodgers lead, which ended up being more than enough runs to win. Ellis is hitting .260, has six homers and 38 RBIs on the season. It's players like Ellis that LA needs consistent production from if they want to make a lot of noise in the playoffs. Hyun-Jin Ryu also had a good game. He has a good win-loss record, but has had a tendency to give up a lot of hits. He pitched 7 innings, only allowing 5 hits and 1 run. His record improves to 11-3 and his ERA dipped below 3.00, it's now 2.99.
After winning 7 of 8 games on their road trip the Dodgers return home for a 6 game home stand. First they play 3 games against the very tough Rays, followed by 3 games against the not so tough Mets. LA- Tampa are this week's Sunday Night Baseball telecast. On Monday the Dodgers are set to play against Mets ace Matt Harvey. I was hoping the Dodgers would be able to avoid him. Harvey is 9-3 this season and has a Kershaw like 2.09 ERA. Harvey was absolutely dominant in his last start.
Anyway for tonight's game the scheduled pitching matchup is Chris Capuano (4-6, 4.16 ERA) vs. David Price (6-5, 3.36 ERA). Tampa Bay is currently second place in the AL East, trailing the Red Sox by 2 games. I'd be very surprised if the Red Sox and Rays don't make the playoffs.
Thanks to LA beating St. Louis and Pittsburgh beating Miami, the Pirates now lead St. Louis by 4 games in the NL Central. The Reds are falling off the pace a bit, although the Reds are still 63-51. They trail the first place Pirates by 7 games. Pittsburgh's chances of reaching the playoffs is now 99.2%. The Pirates are making any talk of them collapsing obsolete, all Pittsburgh has to do is finish the season 12-36 and they'll finish above. 500 for the first time in 20 years. Even the bad old Pirates could win 1/4th of their games.
I wish the Pirates would score a few more runs, they are only 22nd in all of MLB in runs scored. I've been frustrated by the Dodgers inability to score runs all season and Pittsburgh has even scored fewer runs than LA. LA has touched home plate 12 more times than Pittsburgh.
By not scoring as much as other teams, the Pirates are putting a lot of pressure on their injury prone pitching staff. The Pirates currently have 5 pitchers on the disabled list, including Wandy Rodriguez, James McDonald and Jason Grilli. Good news is coming now about Grilli though. According to ESPN, Grilli will start playing catch today this week and optimistically he could be back on the active roster by the end of August.
Sorry I'm a day late on this, but I congratulate the Red Sox for winning their 70th game this season on Wednesday. With their 70th victory, Boston has won more games this season than all of the disastrous 2012 Year of Valentine. Every time I see Terry Francona in a Indians jersey, I grind my teeth just a bit. Sure it may have been time for Francona to move on, but what the hell was the Red Sox brain trust thinking when they hired the combustible Bobby Valentine?
themusicaddict
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