Thursday, August 15, 2013

Dodgers Daily: Dodgers Top 40-8 Stretch By Winning In 12 Innings, Enjoy Your Day Off LA

Hello,

The Dodgers finalized their sweep of the Mets with a 5-4 come from behind victory on Wednesday. After playing 26 games in 27 days the Dodgers finally get a day off. It's this kind of insane schedule that calls for a reduction in games played. I believe a perfect season would be about 140 games. Take about one week away from the season and let the extra days be days off. Do division rivals need to play each other 19 times a season? Not only that but the Dodgers are in a span from July 15th to August 28th when they don't play a NL West opponent. That seems to be a big swath of games that could be cut. The MLB season has too many games, teams could play at a higher level with more days off.

On one hand I'm very nervous about this Dodgers team and it feels like the bottom could drop out any minute. However on the other hand I still get the feeling that LA will find a way to win each game they play. Even though LA quickly fell behind 4-0 after only 2 innings yesterday, I still expected them to find a way to win. As I was going to bed LA scored 2 runs to cut New York's lead to 4-2. I woke up this morning seeing Adrian Gonzalez being interviewed on ESPN following LA's walk off win. After I went to bed Andre Ethier came in the game and hit a game tying two run homer to force the game into extra innings. In the bottom of the 12th inning the aggressive Yasiel Puig stretched a dribbly single into a double. Then Mr. Consistent, Gonzalez, came up and hit a double into the left field corner. And just like that the Dodgers won again. That caps a streak of LA winning 40 of their last 48 games. I don't think I've ever had one of my teams play this well ever.

Gonzalez continued his season long flirtation to hit .300. He was 3 for 6, including that clutch 12th inning double, and is hitting .298 this season. Gonzalez is the only Dodger that has a chance to finish with at least 100 RBIs, he had his 76th RBI. Welcome back Hanley Ramirez, in his first game back following an injury he was 2 for 5. That included his 18th double of the season, Ramirez is hitting .360 this season. I hope that Ramirez is able to avoid the injury bug that has plagued him and play the rest of the season. He also continued his personal battle with Puig to lead LA in batting average. Puig was 1 for 6 and is hitting .368.

LA gets Thursday off (finally!). They go on a East Coast, they have no chance of making the playoffs trip. First up LA will play a 3 game series with the Phillies. The Phillies are terrible this season, 53-67 with a 0.1% chance of reaching the playoffs. Following that series the Dodgers travel to Miami to play the even worse Marlins. Miami is 46-73 and have 0% chance of reaching the playoffs. Literally the only thing the Marlins are playing for now is pride.

LA then returns home for a 3 game series against AL East leading Boston. That series will culminate on Sunday Night Baseball on August 25th. It will be the last interleague game LA plays until the World Series (fingers crossed.). Starting August 26th LA will mostly be playing less than frightening NL West teams.

themusicaddict

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