After a brief home stand against American League opponents where they went 4-2, the Los Angeles Dodgers will now hit the road, this time heading to the East Coast to kick things off.
Currently, there are only 50 games left in the season, which went by in a blink. The Dodgers are 67-45, four games behind the first-place Giants in the NL West.
During this six-game road trip, the Dodgers will face a couple of National League East opponents in the Phillies and Mets, who are trending in different directions.
Currently, the Phillies are 59-53, while the Mets are 56-55. It is quite astonishing to see teams with those records lead a division while the Dodgers are 67-45 and in second place.
Just yesterday, it was reported that the MLB was talking about possibly implementing a 14 team playoff this off-season.
The Phillies are one of the hottest teams currently in the league. They’ve won eight straight games and have overtaken first place in the division. Bryce Harper has emerged as a front-running MVP candidate.
As of now, pitching matchups have only been announced for the first two games, and they’re good ones.
The Dodgers will send Max Scherzer to the mound for the first game against a team he’s quite familiar with, while the Phillies will send out righty Aaron Nola. Scherzer has made. four starts in Philadelphia in just over two months. However, this time he will be wearing Dodger blue.
For the second game, the Dodgers will send veteran left-hander David Price, while the Phillies will send right-hander Kyle Gibson, who’s been a great trade-deadline acquisition.
Scherzer will make his second start for the Dodgers after going seven innings and allowing two runs while striking out ten batters against the Astros last Wednesday. So far on the season, Scherzer is 9-4 with a 2.75 ERA. Nola has had an excellent career resume, but this year he’s struggled a bit going 7-6 with a 4.46 ERA.
After facing the Phillies, the Dodgers will visit the Mets, who this weekend dropped from first place to third place and seem to be headed in the wrong direction. They’re 2-8 in their last ten games and have lost four straight. In fact, the Mets will play the Dodgers and Giants for 13 straight games.
Playing a team that’s as hot as the Phillies will be a test for the Dodgers, as manager Dave Roberts said it’s time for the team to play with a sense of urgency.
The Dodgers will take on the Phillies and Mets on the road each for three games, then will return home to play the Pirates.
The first pitch for Tuesday’s opener is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. Pacific.
Doc says Mookie is very likely to go back on the IL. I don’t expect to see much of him for the rest of the season. For every 10 days he spends on the IL, he comes back to play 2 or 3 before heading back to the IL. Somehow I doubt that Mookie’s hip problem will be cured by just resting. I expect he’ll need surgery. Only question is when will that happen? Maybe they’ll just save him for the playoffs.
Gavin Lux is starting at third base tonight in his rehab game. What does that say about a quick return for JT? Lux has never played third base in his major or minor league career.
I think the World Series champ this year will just be a matter of which team gets lucky enough to have most of their players healthy at the right time. There are a lot of good teams who could wind up with the grand prize this year, including, of course, the Dodgers.
Lux got 2 hits last night in OKC’s 11-10 win. Reks hit a HR, as did Raley and 2 others. Pazos got the save. Wolters went 2-5. Dodgers offense woke up after Nola was out of the game. Bruihl looked good. Turner’s slide home called the coolest slide ever on MLB.com and I would have to agree. It was smooth. Nice to see Muncy finally tag one. He has not been hitting for power lately. Seager looks like he is getting locked in. If he is, it makes losing Betts a little less crucial. As we saw in the NLCS, Corey can carry the team offensively. Belli got another hit. But he also struck out twice on high fastballs, so he still is missing that pitch. Greene did a good job and threw strikes. His problem is supposed to be his control. Christian Walker probably wanted to crawl in a hole after last nights embarrassing 9th inning performance. After walking in a crucial at bat to help Az tie the Giants in the 9th. He made 2 errors in the bottom of the inning, one allowing the first runner to get on base, and the second allowed the winning run to score with 2 outs.