By Jon Weisman
A.J. Ellis has gone back on the disabled list, this time with a right ankle sprain. Tim Federowicz has been called up from Albuquerque to take his roster spot, while Drew Butera starts tonight’s game.
Ellis was 4 for 23 with two doubles and eight walks (.387 on-base percentage, .261 slugging) since coming off the disabled list May 14 post-knee surgery.
Federowicz has a .345 OBP and .436 slugging for the Isotopes in May, with three walks, four doubles and a home run.
By Jon Weisman
Here’s a bunch of news, notes, links and quotes in the afterglow of the past 24 hours:
From the Dodgers public relations department:
Vin Scully will miss today’s and tomorrow’s games due to a chest cold. Charley Steiner, Orel Hershiser and Nomar Garciaparra will have the call on SportsNet LA, while Rick Monday and Kevin Kennedy will be heard on AM 570 Fox Sports Los Angeles. Get well soon, Vin!
Our best wishes for a speedy recovery are with you, Vin.
– Jon Weisman
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By Jon Weisman
Memorial Day comes to Dodger Stadium today and yes, there is a fun giveaway and a great pitching matchup. But the true purpose of the day is also being remembered through several activities and events.
By Jon Weisman
I stopped caring about batting average as a be-all and end-all years ago, but I never stopped caring about no-hitters.
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See all of Josh Beckett’s triumph, from its humble beginnings through to its exciting finish.
— Jon Weisman
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By Jon Weisman
It’s been nearly 18 years since Dodger fans could exult in a Dodger no-hitter. Thank you, Josh Beckett.
Beckett threw the first Dodger no-hitter in 17 years, eight months and eight days, since Hideo Nomo’s at Colorado on September 17, 1996. The 17 1/2-year gap between no-hitters was the longest in Dodger history, surpassing the 17 years and eight days between Nap Rucker on September 5, 1908 and Dazzy Vance on September 13, 1925.
The right-hander, coming back from an injury-shortened 2013 season, threw 128 pitches. Beckett threw 100 pitches through seven innings, then needed only 16 to get the next five outs. But then we really got down to the nitty gritty.
He was within a strike of completing the no-hitter but lost Jimmy Rollins for a two-out walk in the ninth (Beckett’s third of the game) then fell behind Chase Utley in the count 3-1. But a beautiful 71-mph curveball at 3-1 dipped in for strike two, and then Utley took a strike three on the bottom line of the strike zone for the final out.
Beckett walked Utley in the first inning and Marlon Byrd to lead off the second, but then retired the next 23 batters he faced before the walk to Rollins. Domonic Brown had a hard-hit fly ball to left field in the sixth, but there were no diving plays or near-misses to jeopardize Beckett’s bid for history.
He lowered his ERA for the season to 2.43. Last year, he had a 5.19 ERA in eight starts.
“The surgery’s been a blessing for me,” Beckett said after the game, referring to the operation that ended his 2013 season 10 1/2 months ago.
Beckett surpassed his previous career high in pitches of 126; his high as a Dodger was 113 on May 2. In his most recent start, Tuesday in New York, Beckett threw 99 pitches, his lowest total of the the month.
Beckett’s previous low-hit complete game was a one-hitter for Boston at Tampa Bay on June 15, 2011. Beckett walked none in that game.
The best shower of Josh Beckett’s life: pic.twitter.com/ebj9ebB7pZ
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 25, 2014
Saturday in Jon SooHoo can be found at the LA Photog Blog.
By Jon Weisman
Don Mattingly told reporters in Philadelphia today that Hanley Ramirez’s lower calf injury is continuing to receive treatment but that an MRI could be in the future.
Mattingly said he didn’t want to speculate yet on whether Ramirez, who missed Friday’s game and was a late scratch Saturday, would go on the disabled list.
Mattingly didn’t rule out Hanley’s injury being an Achilles injury. More tests to come in LA.
— David Vassegh (@THEREAL_DV) May 25, 2014
As for Matt Kemp, also out of the starting lineup for the third game in a row (but a pinch-hitter Saturday), Mattingly said he will be worked in left field as well as center. Mattingly said Kemp would participate and that it wouldn’t be an issue, and that Kemp remained a big part of the team, but that Mattingly likes Ethier’s routes in center field, even if Ethier isn’t a prototypical center fielder from a speed standpoint.
Jon SooHoo’s Friday shoot can be found at the LA Photog Blog.
By Jon Weisman
In addition to his key diving catch in the seventh inning Friday, Carl Crawford singled and homered, raising his OPS since May 3 to 1.097.
He is 22 for 53 with a double and four home runs in his past 16 games (13 starts). Crawford has tied Hanley Ramirez and Adrian Gonzalez with four home runs this month, trailing only Yasiel Puig’s seven, and he is second behind Puig in May OPS (.971).
Crawford is still walking at a low rate – 3.6 percent of his plate appearances – though this isn’t that big a change. His career walk rate is 5.3 percent and his career-high is 7.6 percent in 2009. Puig, by comparison, walked 8.3 percent of the time last year and has done so 11.7 percent this year.
By Jon Weisman
In the bottom of the fourth inning of tonight’s 2-0 victory over Philadelphia, the Dodgers recorded all three outs on Clayton Kershaw strikeouts in the dirt that required A.J. Ellis to throw out the runner at first base.
Ellis became the second Dodger catcher and first since Bruce Edwards on August 15, 1946 to rack up three assists in one inning. And according to Baseball Almanac (though I don’t know how up to date that site is), Ellis is the seventh MLB catcher and first since 1976 to do so.
Update:
@DodgerInsider @AJEllis17 Brad Ausmus had 3 assists on 5/7/2006 in 8th inning. In a very hard way. http://t.co/X9ksfUhgNJ
— Bob Timmermann (@bobtimmermann) May 24, 2014
Timmermann found at least two other instances of catchers getting three assists in an inning, including Drew Butera’s father Sal on September 7, 1981.
Update No. 2: Having gone through the records with Timmermann, I’m confident, if not completely sure, that Ellis is the first catcher ever to get three assists in one inning on strikeouts that required throws to first.
Speaking of threes: Kershaw pitched three innings before a 43-minute rain delay and three innings after, and his strikeout total for the game was 3×3. Dee Gordon stole three bases in three tries. Yasiel Puig raised his batting average to .343 with a rhyming 3-for-3.
And Brandon League put three runners on base in the seventh inning, before J.P. Howell got three consecutive outs to end the threat, the start of three shutout innings by the Dodger bullpen, to complete the combined three-hit shutout.
HELL, PA – As temperatures dipped below 32 degrees, the Dodgers retired Carlos Ruiz with the bases loaded.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) May 24, 2014
Dodger bullpen this week: 14 innings, three runs, 13 hits, 1 walk, 15 strikeouts, 1.92 ERA.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) May 24, 2014
Jon SooHoo was all over the Yasiel Puig catch Friday. Check out his photos at LA Photog Blog.
By Jon Weisman
Erisbel Arruebarrena gets his first Major League start tonight, as Hanley Ramirez takes a day off.
Andre Ethier is starting in center field, and there are hints that we might see more of him out there, as concern over Matt Kemp’s defensive performance has become more explicit. From Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“We continue to look at it and give Matt the opportunity to keep working and get better,” Mattingly said. “He doesn’t look the same. The burst, the outrun-the-ball thing. We’ve talked to Matt and don’t hear anything medically that he’s not feeling good. We just want to see the same burst. We don’t know if it’s a matter of him being out a few years. He’s trying, been working and we’ll continue to go from there.”
Four extra-base hits cleared Kemp’s head, contributing to all four Mets runs, one of them scoring because Kemp dropped a ball he picked up off the warning track.
“I just need to play better defense,” said Kemp. “Burst or anything, I’m not getting as good a jump as I need to. I cost us one run bobbling the ball, and it’s nobody’s fault but mine. No excuses. I’ve made a couple bad plays in the outfield. It happens.”
Either’s on-base percentage fell to .247 on April 24. Since then, in 62 plate appearances, he has a .419 on-base percentage and .455 slugging, with no home runs but six doubles and six walks. He has started 12 of the Dodgers’ 23 games in that stretch.
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By Jon Weisman
More than 80 boxes of clothing, bedding, toiletries, toys and food donated by Dodger fans were received today by the San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission, which was devastated by a fire earlier this month.
These items will be used either by shelter guests or sold at the Mission’s Super Thrift Store, which provides financial support for the Mission.
“The Mission does such great work to help those in need, the Dodgers were happy to be able to do our part to help in the rebuilding process,” Dodger senior vice president of external affairs Renata Simril said.
By Jon Weisman
Clayton Kershaw has been many things so far in his young career, but a no-hit pitcher isn’t one of them.
In fact, given his dazzling stuff, it’s remarkable how rarely he has threatened to throw a no-no, and how rapidly he usually loses them.
In 192 career starts, including the postseason, Kershaw has taken a no-hitter past the sixth inning only once. Nolan Ryan finished nine innings without allowing a hit more times than Kershaw has finished five innings.
The breakdown to date of when Kershaw has lost his no-hit bids:
What follows is a brief history of Kershaw’s hitful wonders …
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By Jon Weisman
Not since that sunny day in San Francisco have we taken such a big bite out of the entire Yasiel Puig experience, but my takeaway from tonight’s 5-by-3 loss is that Puig’s experience is just a drive-thru of everyone’s experience.
Puig comboed his great catch with a double, but was twice grilled onions on the bases. Justin Turner made a cheesy error and hit a two-run home run. Zack Greinke was left unbunned by the Dodgers’ protein-style defense for two unearned runs, but was also served by Puig’s second-inning spread. Daniel Murphy of the Mets had his own glop of animal-style fielding and went 0 for 4, but by July, he could be going to the All-Star Game.
Nobody’s perfect, nobody’s worthless. It’s not chocolate or vanilla – it’s a black-and-white. What matters is whether we taste the good or the bad in the end. For the Dodgers, the good has had the edge, but not enough to satisfy even themselves.
That’s what baseball is all about.
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By Jon Weisman
In the bottom of the second inning, Yasiel Puig made a catch he had no business making. And he comes oh-so-close to a double play in the process.
Puig’s not even in the picture at first.
And as the ball is coming down, it still doesn’t seem possible he’ll get there …
What happens when three old friends in crisis fall into an unexpected love triangle? In The Catch, Maya, Henry and Daniel embark upon an emotional journey that forces them to confront unresolved pain, present-day traumas and powerful desires, leading them to question the very meaning of love and fulfillment. The Catch tells a tale of ordinary people seeking the extraordinary – or, if that’s asking too much, some damn peace of mind.
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