Well, that was a strange series, wasn’t it? Coors is always an adventure, and mostly you just hope to survive it without any disasters or injuries.
The Los Angeles Dodgers won three of the four against the Colorado Rockies and started off their quest to repeat as World Series champs. The pitching was mostly good, the batting was not as good as it could be, (only one out-of-the-park home run at Coors!), and the defense and base running appears to need a lot of work.
Corey Seager has remained hot, with a .667/.750/.833/1.583 with two doubles. Zach McKinstry has been so fun to watch, as he plays with such a joy of being in the big leagues. His inside-the-park home run was delightful and although it’s early, it seems as if he will make a suitable replacement for Kiké Hernandez.
But the Dodgers committed multiple errors, two from Seager, while making a bunch of bad judgements on the base paths. They definitely did not look like a championship team.
The Dodgers now start a three-game series in Oakland where we could maybe see if those issues were just symptomatic of being at high altitude to start the season, or something more.
For their part, the Athletics are 0-4, having been swept by the Houston Astros. They scored only nine runs over the four games, scoring just one run twice, while allowing 35 runs to the Astros, with Houston scoring eight the first game and nine in each of the next three games.
Although they were excellent at musically trolling the Astros with playing songs about cheating, the team did not perform well. Most notably Matt Chapman has one hit in 11 at bats with six strikeouts.
Dustin May will make his 2021 debut Monday evening, facing off against former Dodgers prospect Frankie Montas. Tuesday will see Clayton Kershaw return to the mound, as he hopes to have a better start than he did in Coors Field. He will go up against Chris Bassitt, who allowed three runs in 5.1 innings on Opening Day. Wednesday’s matinee will be Trevor Bauer and Jesus Luzardo, who allowed five earned runs in 5.0 innings on Friday.
Some News and Notes:
– The Dodgers are hitting .531 to lead off innings so far this season
– Tony Gonsolin is dealing with shoulder soreness and was placed on the 10-Day Injured List
– According to Eric Stephen on Twitter, only three Dodger starting pitchers have recorded win in Oakland: Orel Hershiser and Tim Belcher in 1988, and Rich Hill in 2018
– The Washington Nationals will begin their 2021 season on Tuesday against the Atlanta Braves. They will play a double header on Wednesday before hopefully being able to travel to Los Angeles for the Dodgers to have their home opener. The Nationals have been sidelined by a Covid-19 outbreak and have yet to play a game.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
I never like to go into a series where the opposing team is on a losing streak. I guess I just believe in reversion to the mean, especially with a good team, so I would be very surprised to see us sweep this series. I’d be happy with 2 out of 3.
Speaking of reversion to the mean, I’m not thrilled to see that Chapman is 1-11 with 6 k’s. He’s highly unlikely to go 2-22 with 12 k’s.
On the other hand we’re due for some homers so I’ll be interested to see how this plays out.
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I think everybody will be better at sea level.
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Smith with his second dinger in two games. Offense is clicking. Muncy 3-3 so far. Taylor leaves after being hit on the elbow. Tatis out with elbow injury. All Star game will be in Denver.
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Agree about ZacMac he has been fun to watch and has so far made all the baseball fundamental moves. May is dealing throwing strikes and hitting 100 occasionally. May has been painting the corners it’s beautiful to watch at 97-100.
Smith has Hr now in two games in a row. With Buehler, Urias, and May the future is bright especially with Gonsolin and some others competing to get to the Show. May has amazing potential, he will get better look out league.
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May pitched great. Price still looks rusty. I know he gave up 3 but Roberts is just trying to get him some innings since he did not pitch a lot in spring. He just missed on a bunch of pitches. McKinstry looks like the real deal. Kike with a better batting average. Hoping Taylor has nothing but a bruised elbow. Same with Cody. He was really limping after getting spiked. Tatis may be out a while. He hurt his shoulder pretty bad last night. Verdugo and Kike drove in their first runs of the season for the Sox last night. Joc was on the bench. He has had a rough start to the year. Should not have left it all in spring training., Turner with a monster shot to center is the second player with a legitimate HR. He should donate it to Cody for messing his up. All Star game moved to Denver.
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Sorry to hear about Tatis. Had it been Machado? I wouldn’t say much.
Price and Bellinger look a few days, if not weeks behind. Hopefully they both catch up.
This team is deep. If everyone does what they are capable of doing it’s another West Title wirh at least a week to spare.
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This team can rake. They are hitting .332 as a team and getting 10 plus hits a game except for Sunday’s game. Scoring without the long ball, and also still scoring a lot with 2 outs. Stuff they did in the playoffs. I would not trade McKinstry for Kike or Joc.
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McKinstry plays fundamental baseball. Last night in Oakland batting 9th he comes up with a runner on 3rd, one out and hits a fly ball to drive in the first run of the game. I love it when the players give themselves up to drive in the run or sacrifice a runner into scoring position those plays win contested games.
Kershaw’s loss of velocity in the spring and his first start are cause for concern.
This team can rake with Bellinger still struggling and Pollock at .188. Will Smith is impressive he looks in control at-bat and behind the plate.
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Not really. Kersh never was above 93 all last year. And he hit that a couple of times in Colorado. And if he is not locating his split, he has problems. Look, velocity is over rated. It is all about location and movement. Greg Maddux could not break glass with his fast ball, neither could Hill. But when their control is working, they won. Kersh has not been a fast ball pitcher the last several years. His problems always stem from leaving the ball right over the plate. Same with Jansen.
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True about velocity. Kershaw has to be a control pitcher. Maddox was brilliant . He lived on the outside corner.
Pitching is all about control , location and changing speed & eye level. Kershaw & Jansen lose control I believe because they have lost velocity and are sometimes throwing harder than they can control at this stage in their careers. I watch Jansen pitching to see how close to the catcher’s target he is. When he has issues he is all over the place. Same with Kershaw. Kershaw doesn’t throw an effective change. He has to find a pitch that is 10 mph slower than his fastball. Urias destroyed the Rockies as his fastball was 93-96 & the change was 83-80. Granted Kershaw has never pitched well in Denver. Let’s see how he does the next few games.
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Well Kersh proved me right after the first inning. He lived on the edge and close to 60 percent of his pitches were sliders. Jansen over throws way more than Kershaw does and he made the 9th inning more interesting than it should have been. But they got the win.
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When Kershaw’s split is working, it makes his fastball and his curve better pitches. His control in Denver has never been that great anyway. Even though he in now 11-6 there in his career, his ERA there is well over 4. I am not worried about spring stats because they mean nothing, nor a bad start in a stadium where he is not that good anyway. The other ball park he has real problems at in the West? Chase Field in Phoenix. As for Spring stats, just look at how bad Kike and Joc have been after tearing it up in spring with their new teams.
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