On the final leg of their current road trip, the Mets used three first-inning runs on Sunday to power past the Dodgers 7-2, preventing a Los Angeles sweep and a 10th straight victory.
After a San Francisco win against Oakland on Sunday, the Dodgers now find themselves trailing the Giants by 2.5 games for the NL West division lead.
Cody Bellinger put Los Angeles on the board in the fourth inning after driving in Chris Taylor and Corey Seager with a single to right field, but that was about the extent of the offense Los Angeles could muster. The team collected just five hits and two walks on the afternoon. AJ Pollock landed the club’s only extra-base hit of the day with a double against New York reliever Jeurys Familia in the seventh.
Lefty David Price started the game for the Dodgers and went four full innings, surrendering three earned runs on three hits and two walks while striking out four. The loss was Price’s second of the season. He threw 75 pitches.
Marcus Stroman notched the win for New York, improving his record to 9-12. Stroman went six full innings and allowed two earned runs on four hits and two walks while striking out six.
The Dodgers used a total of six pitchers on the afternoon. Interestingly, a pair of veteran relievers in Neftali Feliz and Shane Greene both made their Dodger debuts.
Feliz looked decent, often touching north of 95 MPH with his four seam and locating it well. The 33-year-old righty threw a perfect eighth inning with one punchout.
Greene, on the other hand, had a nightmare of an appearance. The 32-year-old right hander was credited with the two earned runs that seemingly put the game out of reach for the Dodgers. He managed only to log one out after allowing a base hit, a walk and a hit batsmen.
Brandon Nimmo, Javier Baez and J.D. Davis all collected two hits for the Mets. Davis tallied four RBI on the afternoon, powered by a two-run homer off Los Angeles righty Phil Bickford in the fifth inning.
After a day off on Monday, the Dodgers will begin an important three-game series against the Padres on the road Tuesday, which should see the return of lefty starter Julio Urias for the opener. Walker Buehler and Max Scherzer are set to throw on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
Now that we pretty much have our entire offense back, except for Mookie, we still don’t have a very good offense. The players are good (just look at the lineup on paper), but they really haven’t produced the way they should.
We went 9-1 in our last 10 games but only scored more than 4 runs 3 times. 26 of the 30 MLB teams are averaging over 4 runs a game for the season. As we have discussed here before, our runs per game average is excellent (3rd in MLB) but we tend to have a big game followed by a few games where we have a hard time putting runs together.
Our pitching is what is responsible for our success. The hitting has been far too inconsistent. Maybe once Mookie returns, we’ll put it all together and do what we should have been doing all year.
Our problem for years has been an inability to hit with runners in scoring position. We haven’t had any clutch hitters with the ability to drive in runs. Almost impossible to have one of the higher scoring teams for years and nobody who can drive in 100 runs. Bellinger looked like he may have been one of those guys a few years ago. Haven’t had a clutch hitter sinse Kemp. It’s awfully frustrating because we have a lot of guys who can get on base and nobody who can consistently drive them in. Part of that is the way they play, always looking for the long ball.
Well, when they continuously grab guys off the scrap heap, you will sometimes get crap and maybe get lucky. I’ve never seen anything like this season with them seemingly signing another pitcher every other day, just to move them in some manner after a brief stay.
Mookie will be back Wednesday. Urias tomorrow and Kelly sometime this week. Yes, the offense has been inconsistent. But they still have the largest run differential in the league, the second best record in the majors, and plenty of time to catch and pass the Giants. Sweeping a 4 game series is not easy. The Padres and Giants play each other 10 times between now and the end of the season. Let them beat each other up, and we win. Giants lost Longoria and Desclafani to the IL today. Padres fired their pitching coach.
I’m definitely hoping that the Giants and Pads beat each other up in those 10 games, mostly the Pads beating up the Giants. But keep in mind, we still have 9 games left with SD, so what they do to SF they might also do to us. I’ll be interested to see if they just throw in the towel now or get mad and get themselves back on the right track. I still think they have a better team than they’ve shown lately, but their pitching isn’t as deep as ours so their injuries to their staff have hurt them even worse than ours have hurt us.
I am thinking right now that they are pretty demoralized. They just fired their pitching coach. Can you say scapegoat>?
No matter how demoralized they might be, I don’t think they’ll lie down for us, or for the Giants.
We’ll know soon enough.
I think their pitching is a lot weaker now than when we first faced them. We get Mookie back Thursday and Urias tomorrow. Urias, Buehler and Scherzer. I take that anyday against any opponent.
With those guys back, on paper we’re stronger than everyone. But, as you know, you have to play the games on the field and anything can happen.
At this point we’ve got to be the odds on favorite to win the division. Now someone please go tell the Giants.
I am typing a letter to Farhan as we speak informing him to tell his team to surrender.
Tell him to make sure to tell Wade and Solano. Those guys are real pests.
I told him to put both those guys on waivers or the IL> Especially for the Dodger series. He can bench Posey too.
Solano hit .327 for Dodgers in minors in 2018, but didn’t have room for him with Taylor and Hernandez on the team. So far 2019-2021 with Giants, he has hit a cumulative.307 at MLB level. I think his career MLB average is about .277. Good guy to have.
I wish we could have found a spot for Solano when we had him, but I agree that between Kike and CT3 there wasn’t going to be room. Our loss is the Giants gain and Farhan knew exactly what he was getting when he grabbed him.
yep.
Sooner or later you guys are going to realize that the padres not a competitor in this division. They were a 60 game wonder last year and folded and a 60 game wonder this year then folded again. Limited talent , no depth bunch of anchors and not much on the farm. Built a rotation the past off season but that didn’t even work out. I’ve never understood why everyone is in love with them. The giants I understand even less but they are getting scary.
I think SD has an excellent team but not nearly as deep as ours. Injuries have wrecked their pitching staff this year but I expect them to be a strong competitor again next year.
But, as they say, “Scoreboard”. They aren’t getting it done right now so I can’t argue with you. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go on a winning streak at any time and still make the playoffs. Once they do that anything could happen.
As far as their farm system is concerned, most evaluators consider it to be a little stronger than ours at this point.
Well we a know how bad our farm system is. They’ve been talking about the Padres farm system for 4/5 years and so far nothing. Well a shortstop and centerfielder (sound familiar)? And I’m not sure they have ever been a strong competitor ( please don’t count the 60 game season) .
I guess we just look at our farm system differently Gordon. We have nothing much at the higher levels but quite a number of really good prospects at the lower levels. Yes, I realize that lower level prospects are not guaranteed HOF careers, but Belli, Seager, Smith, May, Gonsolin, Urias and Buehler were all lower level prospects at one time.
If we can’t count the Pads 60 game 2020 season does that mean you also don’t count our 2020 World Championship?
2020 was nice but not much of a championship. If you remember 2 years ago the worst team in the league after 60games was the best team in the league in the final 100 games and won the world series. After 60 games you know who the 10 bad teams are but little else. And the players you mention weren’t hanging around the low minors when they were 23/23 years old