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By Jon Weisman
Lima Time.
It was the perfect antidote to sadness, the perfect break — however temporary — from gloom.
Thursday is the 10th anniversary of Jose Lima’s shutout of the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 3 of the 2004 National League Division Series — the first Dodger playoff victory in 16 years — but today seems like the right day to remember it.
What pitcher blew a lead in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series against the Cardinals, then blew another lead in his very next postseason game — during a Cy Young-winning season?
– Jon Weisman
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
At the halfway point of the 2014 season, we gave you the Dodgers’ top 40 plays of the first 81 games. Without further ado, as part of our drumbeat of excitement heading into the postseason, here are the Dodgers’ top plays of the second half — with a bonus 10 to deliver a nice 50.
Yeah, you’re gonna want to be here a while …
* * *
June 29 vs. St. Louis: Adrian Gonzalez teaches the Cardinals a lesson about the shift.
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Now let’s get ready for @Dodgers Playoff Baseball!
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) September 28, 2014
With home runs by Matt Kemp, Adrian Gonzalez and Roger Bernadina, the 2014 Los Angeles Dodgers ended their regular season with their 94th victory, defeating the Rockies, 10-5.
The last year the Dodgers won 94 games: 1988.
— Jon Weisman
Team of destiny, or team of doom?
By Jon Weisman
Well, here we are at the end of the 1988 regular season, and pennant fever is high in Los Angeles. And why not?
It’s been seven long years since the Dodgers went to and won the 1981 World Series. In the 26 years since Dodger Stadium opened, the Dodgers remain stuck on seven trips to the Fall Classic — barely one every four years — and a mere three World Series titles. That kind of drought just isn’t the Dodgers’ style.
Now, led by shutout streaker Orel Hershiser and the gritty but productive Kirk Gibson, the Dodgers are back in baseball’s Final Four, four games away from a National League pennant and eight games away from a parade. There’s no limit to what the Dodgers can do in the coming postseason.
But just as a reality check, here are 10 reasons that the Dodgers will have to wait another year to hang any banners. Take a deep breath and read on …
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Today is the eighth anniversary of the Dodgers’ remarkable 4+1 game, which Sports Illustrated and Tom Verducci called the game of the year. SportsNet LA has produced a remembrance of the incredible night through the eyes of Vin Scully. You can also read my own essay about the game here.
— Jon Weisman
By Jon Weisman
Ten games to go. Ten games to find starting pitchers for.
That’s the puzzle I imagine most Dodger fans are trying to solve after Carlos Frias managed the near unthinkable – a game score of 0 – in today’s 16-2 loss at Colorado.
In allowing eight runs on 10 hits in two-thirds of an inning, Frias produced the lowest game score by a Dodger starting pitcher in 28 years, since Jerry Reuss allowed nine earned runs and 15 baserunners in four innings against the Phillies. Frias also recorded the fewest outs by any Major League starting pitcher who allowed at least 10 hits since at least 1901.
And Frias might have been lucky to get those two outs. One was an inexplicable caught stealing on a 2-0 pitch after the first five Rockies had combined for three singles, a double and a home run, the other an equally inexplicable squeeze bunt attempt when the team was 7 for 7 off Frias.
Asked to mop up, Kevin Correia fared well only by comparison, allowing five earned runs on seven hits and a walk in three innings without a strikeout.
The Dodgers have allowed at least 10 runs in three of their past six games, a disturbing ratio to be sure, though I would argue that in defeat, it doesn’t matter whether you lose by one run or 10.
Milwaukee lost its game to St. Louis tonight, lowering the Dodgers’ magic number to clinch a playoff spot to four. But San Francisco cut the Dodgers’ National League West lead to two games by scoring two in the ninth to defeat Arizona, and with the divisional magic number at 9, it’s natural to wonder how the Dodgers will play out the final 10 games of the season.
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Today, the Dodgers are in Colorado, where they can celebrate the 18th anniversary of what for 17 1/2 years was the most recent no-hitter in Dodger history — and to this day, given the site and the gloomy weather, was perhaps the least likely.
— Jon Weisman
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By Jon Weisman
Tonight wasn’t the Dodgers night — it was a 10-4 over-and-out night — but it wasn’t for lack of baseunners. The National League’s No. 1 team with runners in scoring position had three hits but 11 outs, stranding 10 runners and wasting most of their 16 hits, including three by Justin Turner and Yasiel Puig’s first home run since July 31.
That was more than unfortunate — that was very rare.
The last two times the Dodgers had at least 16 hits without scoring more than four runs, the games went more than 20 innings: their 1-0 victory in 22 innings at Montreal on August 23, 1989 and their 21-inning victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field that took two days to complete, August 17-18, 1982.
Before that was a 14-inning victory over Pittsburgh on September 1, 1981, a 15-inning win over St. Louis on July 20, 1973, a memorable 19-inning, 7-3 loss to the Mets on May 24, 1973 (Willie Davis went 6 for 9) and a 12-inning loss to the Astros on April 10, 1973.
You get my drift? Before tonight, the last nine-inning game in which the Dodgers had at least 16 hits and at most four runs was June 20, 1970, when they lost at Cincinnati, 5-4. Nine Dodgers had hits and five had multiple hits, led by Wes Parker with three. They even went 4 for 13 with runners in scoring position and, like tonight, had a ninth-inning home run. But it wasn’t enough.
My philosophy: It’s better to have had baserunners and lost than never to have had baserunners at all.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPUDhIPpAnA&w=550&h=413]
Don Drysdale threw a lot of mean pitches in 1968, but he didn’t throw any greaseball. Thanks to Mark Langill for passing this along.
— Jon Weisman
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By Jon Weisman
Although, with a 1.40 ERA, no pitcher in baseball history has been tougher on the Giants than Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers have lost two of the past three games he has started against them — and the Dodgers are a relatively modest 14-9 in Kershaw starts against San Francisco.
On May 11, Kershaw surrendered a 3-1 seventh-inning lead when he allowed a two-run home run to Brandon Hicks, in a game the Dodgers eventually lost in 10 innings, 7-4.
And 366 days ago, Kershaw took a 2-0 lead into the seventh but gave up four consecutive singles in what became a 3-2 loss. The third run was unearned because of a Scott Van Slyke error.
In 23 career starts against San Francisco, here’s the breakdown of earned runs allowed by Kershaw:
0: eight times (Dodgers are 8-0.)
1: six times (Dodgers are 5-1.)
≤1: 14 times (Dodgers are 13-1.)
2: seven times (Dodgers are 1-6.)
≤2: 21 times (Dodgers are 14-7.)
3: one time (Dodgers are 0-1.)
4: one time (Dodgers are 0-1.)
Amazingly and horrifyingly, the Dodgers are 1-6 when Kershaw allows the Giants exactly two earned runs.
With a win today, Kershaw would match Orel Hershiser (19-3, .864) for the best winning percentage by a Dodger pitcher in 29 years and the second-best all-time. Hershiser won five consecutive starts from September 13-October 2, 1985 to reach 19-3, but his final appearance of the years was a two-inning tuneup in relief to prepare for the 1985 National League Championship Series. He had a complete-game victory in Game 2, but was also the starting pitcher in the Game 6 loss.
Dodger run support for Kershaw’s starts has improved from 3.9 runs per game in 2013 to 4.8 this year.
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By Jon Weisman
Tonight’s combination of Augustus Gloop, Mr. Creosote, Charles Bronson and Ed Grimley is brought to you by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In a dish of revenge as cold and overflowing as a jammed frozen yogurt machine, the Dodgers avenged Friday’s 9-0 loss to the Giants with a record-shattering 17-0 victory over San Francisco.
The Dodgers scored the most runs ever by an opponent at San Francisco’s AT&T Park and shattered the record for the biggest shutout in the history of the Dodgers-Giants series — by either team. Los Angeles came within two of its franchise record for largest shutout victory, a 19-0 defeat of the Padres on June 28, 1969.
For the Dodgers, their biggest shutout ever of the Giants was 12-0 on April 19, 1940. For the Giants, it was 16-0 over the Dodgers on July 3, 1949. Tonight’s game also happened to come 40 years and one day after an 11-0 Dodger victory at Candlestick Park.
The last time San Francisco lost, 17-0, the winning points came on November 19, 1950 on a George Blanda field goal.
The Dodgers scored four runs apiece in the first and second innings to knock out Giants starter Tim Hudson before he recorded his fourth out, the shortest start of his career, an event eerily similar to Hyun-Jin Ryu’s the night before. In their first two trips through the lineup, the Dodgers were 11 for 16 with a walk, a sacrifice fly and four doubles — two by Matt Kemp, who had three hits and three RBI in the first three innings, while also throwing out Angel Pagan at the plate (mid-bubble!) in the first inning to stop the Giants’ most significant scoring threat.
And that’s where the difference from Friday was. As bad as the San Francisco rout was, the Dodgers nearly doubled it, like a sudden shift in a backgammon game.
Yasiel Puig, who ignited the Dodgers with the first hit of the game, stretching an apparent single into a leg double (pictured), had three hits and was hit by a pitch. Hanley Ramirez had three singles and a double. Juan Uribe had a single and a home run. Dee Gordon had two singles and his 60th stolen base of the season while becoming the first player in Los Angeles Dodger history to record seven at-bats in a nine-inning game.
And Zack Greinke was more than the beneficiary. In addition to six shutout innings on 84 pitches, Greinke walked, doubled off the top of the wall and hit his fourth career home run, his first as a Dodger.
Don’t expect Greinke (.204/.271/.352) to catch Madison Bumgarner (.242/.273/.419) in the Silver Slugger race, but he made up a chunk of ground tonight. Greinke is 5 for 10 with a walk and a .900 slugging percentage in his past five games.
Off the bench, Scott Van Slyke hit the Dodgers’ other home run, Alex Guerrero played left field and got his first Major League hit, and Roger Bernadina became the third Dodger to be hit by two pitches in his only two plate appearances of the game.
With 24 hits, the Dodgers were one away from the Los Angeles record for a nine-inning game. The Dodgers went 11 for 19 with runners in scoring position.
Oh — and not to be forgotten, Scott Elbert pitched a shutout inning in his first Major League game in 25 months. So very happy for him.
I know there are bigger fish to fry, but the #Dodgers magic number to clinch a playoff spot is down to 7.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) September 14, 2014
The More You Know …
The educational moment from tonight’s game is that while they don’t often come back from an in-game deficit, you can hardly do better after a defeat than the Dodgers. Tonight, the Dodgers improved their record to 43-21 after a loss.
It’s not as dramatic as coming back in a game, but it’s more meaningful.
… The More You Know
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Every year at Dodger Thoughts, I would run this remembrance of the September 11, 1983 game at Dodger Stadium that was, at least until 2006’s 4+1 game (four homers in the ninth, one on the 10th), the most incredible game in Dodger Stadium history. (It’s amazing to me that the story itself is now 11 years old.)
— Jon Weisman
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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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