After an interesting weekend in San Francisco, the Dodgers now head back to Southern California, albeit not to their home stadium quite yet.
Los Angeles took two of the three games in the series from the Giants, and won their eleventh series of the season. The pitching held it together when they needed them to, especially Sunday when the Dodgers were only able to muster one lousy run. Now that one run was majestic, into-the-bay, make Madison Bumgarner mad kind of run, but it was just one nonetheless. They also only scored one run Friday, and weren’t really scoring much Saturday until they got four runs in the eight.
The pitching staff allowed only four runs the whole weekend in San Francisco. They have nine shutouts in their last 29 games, and in their last 10 starts, the Dodgers pitching staff has
7-1 record
1.22 ERA
67/10 Strikeout to walk ratio
.171 opponents average
.453 opponents OPS
Pretty impressive if you ask me. The Dodgers as a team also have the highest run differential in the National League, and second in MLB behind the Minnesota Twins with +109. Some other interesting, random bits of info to start the week – Alex Verdugo is in the fourth longest active streak of plate appearances with hitting a home run at 139. Max Muncy is quietly having a ten game hitting streak. Cody Bellinger is still leading the NL in batting WAR, with 5.6.
And so the Boys in Blue taking that excellent pitching staff and run differential over to Orange County to take on the Anaheim Angels for a quick two game series. The Angels are 31-35, 13.5 games behind the first place Houston Astros in the AL West.
The Angels of course have the best player in baseball in Mike Trout. He leads their team in home runs with 17, and most other offensive categories. Trout also have 15 multi-walk games. Something to keep an eye on with a staff that doesn’t walk very many batters.
In addition to Trout, the Angels have Tommy LaStella who leads the team in batting average with .315, and third baseman who sports a .308 batting average and is leading the team in hits. Shohei Otani has finally returned from the injured list, although he is playing just in the field at this point. He has six homers in 28 games.
Monday night’s game will see the Dodgers’ best pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu taking his stellar record up against Griffin Canning. The righty is 2-2 on the year in seven games, with a 3.52 ERA and 42 strikeouts. He went six innings and gave up four earned runs in the last game against the Oakland A’s in his last start last Tuesday.
Kenta Maeda and Felix Pena will face off in Tuesday night’s game. The Angels’ right hander is 3-1 in 12 games with a 4.53 ERA. He has 54 strikeouts in 51.3 innings of work.
Both games in Anaheim start at 7:07 PST. The Dodgers will have an off day on Wednesday before starting a four game series against the Chicago Cubs at home on Thursday.
Belly will get a chance to see a superstar who has done it for 6 years and not just 2 months! Every year we compare someone different to Trout but only he does it year and in year out. Now that’s a superstar!
There is nobody like Trout. He’s a larger version of Mickey Mantle.
Dodgers favored -143. 9 O/U. I’ll take the Dodgers and the under. 25 push-ups.
If trout played on the east coast somewhere we would never stop hearing about him, as good as he is we should hear a lot more about him. If he was a yankee he would be a god.
Gotta love that Dodger bullpen!
Yep. ERA of 9 against a sub .500 club. And I start the day with coffee and and 25 pushups. Invigorating.
I wonder if Andy still thinks the pen is not so bad? Plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise.
It took Kelly 31 pitches and 7 hitters to get through 1 inning. This is our 8th inning guy.
Joe Kelly. What? Where do you go with this guy from here? WOW!
Not much you can say after a meltdown like that. Painful to watch. But a little of the onus is also on micromanaging DR. Why he did not walk Trout in that spot is unfathomable. Giants avoided all sorts of disaster over the weekend walking the Dodgers most consistent hitter all year, Belli. But DR thinks so much of his mediocre pen that he lets Floro take on Trout and the predictable happens. And yes Scoop, Ol Andy still thinks his BP will be fine…..
I think we should all get together and make sure Andy reimburses us for the cost of anti acid tablets taken while watching the BP pitch.
Quit picking on the bullpen! If the offense just gives them a 5 run lead then they’re fine! That shouldn’t be a problem in the playoffs. Right Andy!
I like it Rich. Just average over 9 runs a game and who gives a rat’s ass about a bullpen. Of course it’s only been done once – the 1894 Boston Beaneaters averaged a stunning 9.24 runs per game. Hell, we’re the Dodgers. We can do it. It’s a simple formula really… we just need to…. Score More!
Get the t-shirts ready Jefe.
They pitch better and I will quit giving them the frippen grief they give me. Dodgers not scoring 9 runs a game. Dodgers still not great with RISP. Dodger BP is still the Alka-Seltzer squad. Lots to bitch about. Andrew waits until the last minute to do anything anyway. I would love to see them get home field through the entire playoffs, not just make it there. Not enough anymore. I want that frippen title again,and with this gas can bunch, they do not make it to the Series. Get some shut down arms in here so we can have settled stomachs come playoff time.
To quote an old song by the Kinks, so tired, tired of waiting,, tired of waiting for you….to do something Andrew you slug! Fix the pen dang it!