The Dodgers had a truly historic weekend series against the Colorado Rockies. Not only did they have three walk-off wins in a row, they were all off of the home run, and they were all hit by a different rookie.
Matt Beaty, then Alex Verdugo, and then a freshly recalled Will Smith each provided the heroics in the bottom of the ninth inning to provide the Dodgers with a sweep of their divisional foes. They are the first team in the major leagues to have two games, and then three games in a row to have rookies hit a walk-off homer.
Walker Buehler took matters into his own hands on Friday night, going for the complete game win, racking up an incredible 16 strikeouts along the way. That was the most by a pitcher on the Dodgers’ staff under the age of 25 since Ramon Martinez. Cody Bellinger also reached 25 home runs on the season, an amount he had for the total of the 2018 season.
Now another rookie seems poised to help the Dodgers. Tony Gonsolin is expected to be called up to help the pitching staff. As he is not quite built up yet, it will be expected that he will help out of the bullpen to start. He has a 2.57 ERA in Triple-A Oklahoma City, and had spent a little bit of time on the IL. Since then he has slowly been building his innings up, with 77 pitches being the most amount he’s thrown since late May. The righty was the Dodgers’ Pitcher of the Year in the minors last season.
After going 9-2 on this last home stand, the Dodgers now head out on the road, and will only be facing divisional opponents until the All-Star game, in the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, and San Diego Padres. The Dodgers so far this season are 34-9 at home, while their road record is a more pedestrian 20-16. To counter that, they are 23-8 against the rest of the NL West this season.
Monday night’s pitching matchup should be a good one. Clayton Kershaw will go up against old friend Zack Greinke. The righty is 8-3 so far, with a 2.91 ERA. He took a no-hitter into the eighth inning two starts ago, and afterwards was upset by losing it because dealing with the press after would be too much of a bother to deal with. Never change, Zack.
Tuesday’s matchup will be Robbie Ray for the DBacks, and a yet-to-be determined starter for the Dodgers, as it would be Rich Hill spot in the rotation. The general consensus though is that Ross Stripling will be taking that slot, although it has yet to be formally announced. The Dodgers last faced Ray on June 3rd, when they got three earned runs off him, thanks to a three-run homer off the bat of Corey Seager in the fourth inning.
Wednesday’s matinee will see Taylor Clarke and another yet-to-be-named starter for the Dodgers. Clarke last faced the Dodgers June 4th, where he allowed only two earned runs, in a game where the Dodgers ended up scoring nine and blanking the DBacks. The Dodgers will then fly to Denver to face off against the Rockies again for a four game set at Coors Field.
KEEP EM COMIN!!!!!!!!!!!
Keep settin em up and we’ll keep knockin em down!! Who would trade Keibert Ruiz for Felipe Vazquez or brad Hand right now? Count me in. I’m 137% certain we have our catcher for the next decade so let’s go get the missing piece that puts this team over the top.
Not sure that the Pirates or Indians for that matter would give up those guys for just Ruiz. I am pretty sure they would want a MLB ready player in return also, maybe more than one. Indians still in the race, so Hand is pretty much off the table for now, as for the Bucs, I read a story by their beat writer who says that trading Vazquez is pretty much not happening. Some of their other pieces might be available. But not him. I say take a long look at Shane Greene over with the Tigers. 30 years old on a team going no where with plenty of saves and a WHIP under 1.
Will Smith will be your #1 catcher, Roberts. Do you hear?
Smith to Smith. Has a nice ring to it!
Bear, how about Greene and Smith?!!!!! That would put us over the top! Call me crazy but I think Kelly is gonna figure it out and give us some valuable innings!
Gonsolin starts Wednesday. They just need to clear space for him on the 40-man roster and then on the 25-man.
Been waiting for him.
Every night somebody new steps up to suck in our bullpen! And boy did Floro do a good job tonight!
It’s what they call passing the baton.
Yeah, Floro. Nice baton pass there Dylan. No way around it – our bullpen is our Achilles heel.
Gonsolin May help. (see what I did there?). They are next. If nothing else we can audition them. I don’t see us finishing this thing off with the current bullpen.
That was some pitchers duel, Each ace 4 earned in 6. Well, ok, Kershaw is no longer an ace. He’s a $35 million #3. Good gig if you can get it. He got it.
Looking at the numbers, and I know some don’t like the numbers, numbers just get in the way of opinion, I’m thinking Minnesota, Atlanta, Boston and the Yankees will be looking for bullpen help soon. Houston, 4th in ERA, 2nd in BAA does have 10 blown saves. Atlanta 14, Boston 15. Cubs have 12. St Louis, contenders for a playoff spot, are down there with us in pen ERA. Any way you look at it the bidding will be high on the few available bullpen arms. Be prepared to give up multiple good prospects. Or, just put the rooks in there and hope.
The league has caught up to the 95+ arms in today’s bullpens. Too many throwers and not enough pitchers with command of multiple pitches.
Put a little downward spin on 95 and you have a barrel missing 93 cutter or a swing and miss 91 two seamer. Get Orel out from behind the mic and in a uniform somewhere teaching those pitches.