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By Jon Weisman
After stoking more fears about the offense with four no-hit innings to start the game, the Dodgers traded that quartet for four home runs — two by Joc Pederson — ending their three-game losing streak with a 7-4 win at Arizona.
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By Jon Weisman
On a night the Dodger bats broke out with four home runs to take a 7-4 lead into the eighth inning at Arizona, the celebratory swings were muted by a potentially serious injury to Kenta Maeda.
The good news: X-rays on Maeda’s leg were negative, and the initial diagnosis was a right lower-leg contusion.
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
By Jon Weisman
Having gone without a left-handed bat off the bench since Carl Crawford was designated for assignment June 5, the Dodgers have signed outfielder Will Venable.
Austin Barnes, who was 0 for 4 with a walk since being called up to replace Crawford on the 25-man roster, was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City to make room for Venable, who will wear No. 25 (which coach Mark McGwire had most recently used).
Andre Ethier poses with former Dodger infielder Mark Ellis prior to Monday’s game.
By Jon Weisman
Some items to catch up on …
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers celebrated legendary pitcher Don Newcombe’s 90th birthday at their most recent homestand finale six days ago, but today’s the actual day. We all wish Newk a happy 90th!
— Jon Weisman
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By Jon Weisman
Zack Greinke didn’t exactly dominate the Dodgers, least of all Corey Seager, who had a single, walk and career-best 440-foot home run off his former teammate.
But Greinke was one run better than Mike Bolsinger, who gave up two solo homers of his own — and then a tiebreaking score in a fifth inning that began with a Greinke single. That meant in the Dodgers’ sixth consecutive one-run game, they lost for the third straight time, 3-2.
Starting at 5 p.m. today and continuing for the next 48 hours, you can get up to 60 percent off tickets for the Father’s Day game at Dodger Stadium between the Dodgers and Brewers on Sunday.
That includes a pair of Dodger boxer shorts for the first 40,000 fans in attendance (compliments of Chef Merito Seasonings), and the opportunity to participate in a postgame catch on the field. Of course, you can begin your day by visiting Viva Los Dodgers at the Historic 76 Station behind center field.
Visit dodgers.com/fathersday through Wednesday at 5 p.m. to get your discount.
— Jon Weisman
Zack Greinke on the mound against the Dodgers. (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
By Jon Weisman
The more things change … the more things change.
Zack Greinke faces the Dodgers tonight for the first time since he came with the Milwaukee Brewers to Los Angeles on May 31, 2012. That night, the Dodgers offered this starting lineup:
Elian Herrera, CF
A.J. Ellis, C
Bobby Abreu, LF
Andre Ethier, RF
Jerry Hairston Jr., 2B
Adam Kennedy, 3B
Scott Van Slyke, 1B
Dee Gordon, SS
Chad Billingsley, P
One of those Dodgers is in tonight’s starting lineup. Another is on the bench. A third is on the disabled list. That, plus Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen, is all that remains to link that Dodger team and this one, four years later.
By Jon Weisman
The growth of Julio Urías is so apparent, his progress so steady, that it almost makes the struggles of the Dodger offense not seem so agonizing.
By Jon Weisman
I’ll begin, inappropriately for a day that woke up to the news from Orlando, on a hopeful note.
By Jon Weisman
Yep. Uh-huh. Yeah.
You figured Clayton Kershaw would pitch well at San Francisco. He did. You figured the Dodger offense would struggle at San Francisco. It did.
But how would it end?
Thanks to Justin Turner’s heroics, happily for the Dodgers.
Turner’s ninth-inning home run off Santiago Castilla — the Dodgers’ first hit since the first inning — made a winner of Kershaw and Los Angeles over Johnny Cueto and the Giants, 3-2.
By Jon Weisman
Adjective-defier Clayton Kershaw takes the mound for the Dodgers tonight, but in a sense, the spotlight will be at least as much on the Dodger offense as Kershaw.
Dodger hitters batted .119 with a .237 on-base percentage and .190 slugging percentage in their three-game series against the Rockies this week. In 98 plate appearances, they had eight singles, 11 walks and as many extra-base hits (two) as hit-by-pitches.
Even including their 12-run outburst Sunday against Atlanta, the Dodgers are hitting .171/.263/.326 in their past 10 games — winning five of them thanks to some favorable pitching. They have 13 homers in those 10 games: six by Corey Seager, three by Trayce Thompson, two by Kiké Hernandez and one each for Yasmani Grandal and Justin Turner.
Roberts said Trayce Thompson has played himself into everyday status. Thompson could play LF, Puig RF.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) June 11, 2016
The potential for a turnaround is unmistakable. Nos. 3 and 4 hitters Turner and Adrian Gonzalez are a combined 6 for 48 with three singles and three extra-base hits, for an OPS in the mid-.400s. Just a dose of their normal selves would go a long way.
But for that turnaround to begin tonight, it will have to come against a pitcher, Giants right-hander Johnny Cueto, who is sixth among MLB pitchers in wins above replacement. And it will have to come at AT&T Park, which has been very much a mixed bag for Los Angeles.
Weird fact: Since the start of 2015, the Dodgers have averaged 4.1 runs per game overall. But in their past 14 games at San Francisco, the Dodgers haven’t once scored four or five runs.
They’ve been held to three runs or less 11 times (2-9 in those games). And on the three occasions that the Dodgers have busted out for six runs or more, they’ve won only once.
I wouldn’t want to say the Dodgers are due, any more than I’d want to say, paraphrasing Vin Scully, that we aren’t all day to day. But to quote another memorable source: “When it’s time to change, then it’s time to change …”
Eighth-round draft pick Andre Scrubb of High Point University (High Point Athletics)
By Jon Weisman
As the Dodgers completed the first 10 rounds of the 2016 MLB draft, some fans scratched their heads over the selection of three shortstops, considering that the team has a 22-year-old future All-Star at the position.
But in discussing the Dodgers’ selections today, director of amateur scouting Billy Gasparino explained the thinking — and no, it’s not that the Dodgers have forgotten about Corey Seager.
“The theory is that looking throughout the history of the draft and how athletes develop and age, when they’re athletic enough to play shortstop, it’s a pretty good recipe — as they age and get older and their skills develop and their bodies go forward or backwards — they can usually play other positions,” Gasparino said. “So many players today who are left fielders or right fielders, third basemen, second basemen, started out as shortstops. If you can start there, it’s a lot easier to transition to other places on the field, and gives you more avenues of versatility that way.”
In other words, this isn’t the NBA. With development such a long, protracted process in baseball — and almost no such thing as a quick fix — the overwhelming tendency is to take the player with the greatest potential, regardless of what the current Major League roster looks like. If the worst-case scenario is the Dodgers have multiple quality shortstops, they’ll live with that.
Gasparino also said that the drafting of several players from smaller four-year or community colleges illustrates an attempt to find value within a draft landscape where so few rocks go unturned.
“The depth of the draft is a priority and something we preach,” he said, “so in many ways it leads you to go look for those players, and you kind of think you have value there, whereas (for example) the junior center fielder from the University of Georgia has been well seen.”
Though players at different levels — or even at the same level but from different regions — obviously don’t face the same level of competition, the Dodgers are confident in their ability to translate performance.
“That’s why we have the tool grades, and you just look at the physical tools,” Gasparino said. “And I think our analytical staff does a very good job of analyzing the numbers and trying to correlate different levels of competition with a lot of different factors. And just our scouts’ experience: We have a lot of experience on the staff, and they seem to have a very good knack of trying to cipher through that stuff and figure out who the better players are.”
Gasparino said that advanced scouting stats such as exit velocity and spin rate have migrated to the Division I colleges and high-school summer showcases, further enhancing their ability to evaluate.
And with that, here are quick thoughts from Gasparino on each of the Dodgers’ draft picks today:
By Jon Weisman
Left-handed pitcher Devin Smeltzer was the Dodgers’ fifth-round selection in the 2016 MLB draft.
The 6-foot-2, 170-pounder from Voorhees, New Jersey was previously drafted by the Padres in the 33rd round in 2014. A former top-100 prospect of Baseball America, he instead attended Florida Gulf Coast University, before transfering to San Jacinto College in Texas to accelerate his path to the pros, according to Dana Caldwell of the Naples Daily News.
He had a 1.18 ERA and 12.6 strikeouts per nine innings with SJC this year, finishing his season with a 20-strikeout two-hitter, in which he threw 140 pitches.
This figures to be the final 2016 draft pick we’ll do an individual post on. We’ll round up the rest of the Day 2 selections later today — in the meantime, follow the action at MLB.com’s Draft Tracker.
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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