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By Jon Weisman
Brandon McCarthy and the Dodgers had only one bad inning today out of nine, but it counted.
Category: Postgame (Page 5 of 21)
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By Jon Weisman
Bud Norris began his Dodger career July 1 by throwing six innings of two-hit shutout ball. That seemed like a nice thing to do, so why not a sequel?
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By Jon Weisman
When this year’s Dodger transactions are tallied, let’s not forget Brandon McCarthy being acquired in exchange for 14 months of suffering.
In his third start since completing his recovery from Tommy John surgery, McCarthy again asserted himself against the void of opposing bats, throwing six shutout innings for the Dodgers at Arizona tonight.
McCarthy sliced up the Diamondbacks on only 77 pitches — fewer than 13 per inning — allowing three hits and no walks while striking out eight. He wasn’t fazed at all by a delay of more than 10 minutes after he had thrown only two pitches, when home-plate umpire Dale Scott took a foul ball to the face mask and ultimately had to leave the game.
So far in this comeback season, McCarthy has thrown 16 innings with an ERA of 1.69, walking four, striking out 22 and looking every bit like a key second-half figure for the Dodgers.
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
In his 97th Major League game and 11th as a Dodger, Chris Taylor had a night to remember.
Taylor tripled, doubled and hit a grand slam home run, driving in six runs in a 13-7 Dodger slugfest victory at Arizona, a game that saw every Dodger starter score by the sixth inning.
The 25-year-old, who was acquired June 19 in exchange for Zach Lee, had a chance for the cycle in the eighth inning and tried to sneak a bunt to get the necessary single, but reliever Josh Collmenter was able to lunge and backhand the ball to throw him out.
Taylor became the 13th Dodger to have a homer, triple and double in a game without the single. The Dodgers also had nine starters score in a game in their Opening Day, 15-0 win over San Diego.
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
Kenta Maeda took a hammer to the Dodgers’ streak of 18 straight games without a starting pitcher reaching the seventh inning, striking out a career-high 13 in seven innings before leaving with a 3-1 lead.
Maeda fanned two batters in each of the first three innings, one in the fourth and then six batters in a row from the fifth into the seventh. His previous big-league high of nine strikeouts came June 8 against Colorado.
No Dodger starter had retired a batter in the seventh inning since Clayton Kershaw on June 20. None had even reached the sixth inning since Scott Kazmir on July 2.
Kershaw has the Dodgers’ season high in strikeouts with 14. Those also came on a Sunday afternoon against the Padres, on May 1.
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Adam Liberatore has become a key face in the Dodger bullpen. (Not pictured: Adam Liberatore)
On Pups in the Park Day at Dodger Stadium, Adam Liberatore struck out both batters he faced to set a Dodger record with his 24th consecutive scoreless appearance, helping preserve a 4-3 Dodger victory over San Diego.
The 29-year-old Liberatore has thrown 18 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings during the streak, retiring 54 of 66 batters, 23 of them on strikeouts. Two of 14 baserunners he has inherited have scored, both harmlessly enough in Dodger victories.
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By Jon Weisman
There was no grand slam, but three slams that were grand for Yasmani Grandal.
Grandal became the third Dodger catcher ever to hit three homers in a game, joining Roy Campanella (1950) and Mike Piazza (1996), in the Dodgers’ 10-6 victory tonight over San Diego.
Grandal added a bunt single and a line-drive single, finishing the night with five hits and six RBI, becoming the third catcher in MLB history to have at least five hits in a game with three homers. The previous two: Walker Cooper of the Reds in 1940 and Victor Martinez of the Indians in 2004.
For good measure, Grandal also had a great throw to nail Wil Myers attempting to steal second base.
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"So there are many, many ways to spread the parsley around the fish, and Grandal knows every one." – Vin
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) July 9, 2016
All this despite taking a foul ball to the jaw midway through the game.
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By Jon Weisman
The question with Hyun-Jin Ryu tonight, or at least one of the big ones after he spent more than a year recovering from shoulder surgery, was about the effectiveness of his fastball.
The San Diego Padres didn’t have much trouble answering it, knocking eight hits and scoring six runs over 4 2/3 innings, the length of Ryu’s first big-league appearance since the 2014 playoffs, in a 6-0 victory.
Matthew Mesa/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
As this sentence was being written, the Dodgers and Orioles were tied, 4-4, in the ninth inning. At that moment, two things were certain:
If there were going to be a Dodger hero today, a fine young man carried off the field, it would be a hitter.
And some Dodger reliever would either be a goat, or lost in the shuffle.
So what happened?
In the Dodgers’ longest game since they played 17 innings at San Diego on May 22 — on a day that Chase Utley became the first Dodger to have six hits since Shawn Green’s memorable day in Milwaukee on May 23, 2002 — Jonathan Schoop hit a two-out, sinking line drive in the 14th inning that barely eluded Trayce Thompson’s glove, driving in two runs for a 6-4 Baltimore win.
Chris Hatcher, who had thrown 31 pitches the previous night, took the loss. He also had the burden of making the final out, with the bases loaded, long after the Dodgers ran out of pinch-hitters.
Painful as that is for Dodger fans to process, the Dodger bullpen deserves a collective bow. In the six games of this homestand — in the midst of what has really become a rebirth for the relief core — Dodger relievers have done the following.
The bullpen has averaged approximately five innings and 80 pitches per game for the past six games, yet had a 0.94 ERA on the homestand before the game-winning hit.
Dodger relievers are on pace to throw 524 innings this year, which believe it or not, would not be a record. In 2009, a National League Championship Series season, the Dodger bullpen racked up 553 innings.
Footnote: The Dodgers and Orioles combined to set a Dodger Stadium single-game strikeout record with 36. The previous Dodger Stadium strikeout record of 32 was originally set by the Padres and Dodgers in a 17-inning game June 27, 1989, and matched in an 18-inning Braves-Dodgers game August 3, 1996.
Also, Adam Liberatore, who pitched a scoreless seventh inning of relief, has made 23 consecutive scoreless appearances, tying the franchise record set by John Candelaria in 1991.
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By Jon Weisman
Kenta Maeda never really had it tonight.
A superb first-inning catch by Trayce Thompson and a second-inning 9-6 forceout by Yasiel Puig bought Maeda some time, but the outcome hung in the balance about as long as the aching 75-mph curveball that he threw to Manny Machado with two on and none out in the top of the fifth.
Machado — who had been the victim of Thompson’s theft — slammed that tetherball off its rope, sending it to the back of the Left Field Pavilion, 453 feet away, breaking a 1-1 tie in what would be a 4-1 Orioles victory, ending the Dodgers’ winning streaks of five overall and 10 at home.
It was Baltimore’s first victory at Dodger Stadium in 49 years and nine months, since the infamous Game 2 of the 1966 World Series. (Mark Langill will have more on that game Wednesday morning.) Los Angeles had won all four of its regular-season home games against Baltimore.
#WeLoveLA pic.twitter.com/z0MWdW09Ud
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 5, 2016
By Jon Weisman
With an innings milestone near and no starts remaining before the All-Star Break, it was no surprise for Dave Roberts to tell reporters after tonight’s latest Dodger comeback victory (7-5 over the Orioles) that the Dodgers will probably option Julio Urías on Tuesday.
By Jon Weisman
It was like he never left, or that he was gone too long.
Either way, Brandon McCarthy was a sight for no longer sore eyes Sunday at Dodger Stadium, striking out eight in five shutout innings of a triumphant return from Tommy John surgery, in the Dodgers 4-1 sweep-completing victory over Colorado.
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Dylan Buell/Getty Images
By Jon Weisman
Forget the National League Rookie of the Year race for a moment. It’s time to start thinking of Corey Seager as a potential NL Most Valuable Player.
The 22-year-old shortstop ranks second among NL position players in wins above replacement, and that doesn’t account for Seager hitting his 17th home run and reaching base three times in the Dodgers’ 8-1 pounding of Milwaukee today.
Dylan Buell/Getty Images
By Jon Weisman
Maybe Brock Stewart didn’t deserve better in his MLB debut tonight.
He did allow Kirk Nieuwenhuis’ no-doubt, three-run homer that put the Brewers ahead for good in a 7-0 victory over the Dodgers. And there were a couple of hard outs, including a 97-mph liner by Scooter Gennett that turned into an inning-ending double play.
On the other hand, after a three-batter, two-strikeout first inning, the two hits (right) that preceded Nieuwenhuis’ blast barely would have traveled hole-to-hole on a putt-putt course. More importantly, after taking his licks in a five-run inning, Stewart showed a level of competitiveness and resiliency that spoke loudly for him, even if it won’t be much comfort in tonight’s update of the standings.
Despite allowing eight hits and two walks (one intentional), the 24-year-old finished with seven strikeouts, more than all but three pitchers making their debuts in Los Angeles Dodger history. Reaching 95 pitches in his fifth and final inning, Stewart wiped out Ryan Braun, Jonathan Lucroy and Chris Carter in a row, with a particularly nasty changeup felling Lucroy for strike three.
