Hello,
With the Dodgers rolling along, I've decided to switch the focus of this blog to some of my other teams. I'll still write about the Dodgers and this blog will resume being Dodgers centric as the playoffs get closer. Of course with so many of my teams likely to make the playoffs this season, I'll be keeping an eye on them as well. For now I want to focus on the other 4 teams I follow that have a chance to make the playoffs. That would be the Pirates, Red Sox, A's and Braves. I also follow/cheer for the Orioles and Cubs but both won't be in this season's playoffs. With the high likelihood that 5 of my teams will reach the playoffs, one of them has to win the World Series right?
The Dodgers 6 game winning streak came crashing to a halt yesterday, but honestly I'm not concerned. LA is going to lose occasionally and they still took 2 of 3 in Colorado against the not terrible Rockies, a team they've struggled against this season. LA continues to sail along at 83-56 and have a 99.9% chance of reaching the playoffs. The Diamondbacks remain a playoff afterthought, even though they won their game last night. Arizona moves to within 12.5 games of LA and increase their playoff chances all the way to 1.7%.
To show that the Dodgers weren't overly worried about this game they sent Edinson Volquez to the mound. He has been so bad this season that the Padres released him a few days ago. Anyway he lasted all of 4 innings, gave up 6 hits and 4 runs. His record drops to 9-11 and his ERA is at an atrocious 6.05. Another in season Dodgers pick up was Carlos Marmol. Once again he was brutal, he lasted 1 inning, allowed 3 hits and 3 runs. Although only 2 of the runs were earned. Marmol has a 5.27 ERA this year, please someone assure me that he's not going to be on the playoff roster.
I was able to see a bit of this game and saw J.P. Howell pitch. He has an interesting delivery motion, but it's effective. In his one inning he faced 3 batters and struck them all out. Howell has a 2.24 ERA this season.
Another thing that reassured me about this loss is how little the LA's main offensive studs played. (No disrespect intended to Hanley Ramirez.) Matt Kemp is still rehabbing, although I'm beginning to wonder if he'll make it back this season. Yasiel Puig, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez each only had one pitch hit at bat in this game. Clearly Don Mattingly was getting some Dodgers much needed rest after a long and grueling season. Another thing that makes me feel good about the Dodgers chances this season is their recent pickup. That's former Phillie Michael Young, he was 3 for 5 and had 2 RBIs. He's hitting .278, has 44 RBIs on the season and isn't a bad late season pickup.
The Dodgers get Thursday off then play 3 games against the last great team they'll face in the regular season. That's the Reds, one of 3 very tough NL Central teams. After battling with the Reds, LA closes out their season playing the awful to mediocre teams in the NL West. I do realize Arizona is over .500, but would you consider them a good team? With LA's final 20 games against the NL West the Dodgers will coast to one of the easiest NL West titles ever.
Speaking of running away, that's what Boston is doing in the AL East. On Wednesday, they destroyed the Tigers 20-4. Boston hit 8 homers in their very easy victory over the Tigers. Stephen Drew hit his 12th homer of the season, he has 56 RBIs and is hitting .250. Jacoby Ellsbury hit his 8th homer, he has 51 RBIs and is hitting .296. David Ortiz hit his 25th and 26th homers, he has 89 RBIs and is hitting .313. Will Middlebrooks had his 12th homer of the season, he has 38 RBIs and a .238 batting average. Daniel Nava hit his 11th homer, he has 58 RBIs and a .300 batting average. Ryan Lavarnway had his first home run this season, he has 10 RBIs and is hitting .306. Last but certainly not least is former Ranger Mike Napoli. He has 18 homers now, 77 RBIs and is hitting .251.
The Red Sox are 84-57 and have a 99.5% chance of reaching the playoffs. They've won 8 of 10 games and lead the second place Rays by 5.5 games. The Rays have only won 3 of their last 10 games. The Yankees and Orioles are still lingering, but almost assuredly won't be in the postseason this year. That will give Arod less chances to tie the great Willie Mays for career home runs. Rodriguez has it written in his contract that if he ties Willie Mays for number of career homers the Yankees will pay him a $6 million dollar bonus. Rodriguez must have a hell of an agent to convince the Yankees of that.
Lastly the A's weren't quite as explosive as the Red Sox, but they did score 11 runs against the great Yu Darvish who was pitching for the Rangers. Oakland won 11-4, are now 80-59 and have a 96.4% chance of reaching the playoffs. They're tied with the Rangers for first place in the AL West, both teams ahead a ridiculous 15.5 games over the third place and over paid Angels.
Oakland is currently in a 10 game home stand and they are 5-1 so far. They close out this home stand with 4 games against the awful, 47 games below .500 Astros. Oakland needs to sweep the Astros to improve their chances of making the playoffs and then making noise in the playoffs. In other words they need to win their division so they won't be stuck in the one game wild card matchup.
themusicaddict
No comments:
Post a Comment