The Dodgers bullpen held fast last night and Alex Wood did his part to help beat Greinke and the D-Bags. It wasn’t pretty but our cleanup hitter banged out his 33rd Home Run and our 2nd cleanup hitter drive in another run. If 4th is cleanup, then 8th is second cleanup – right? It was good to see Joc get a solid double as well. If he can get it going, it will be a huge boost for the Boys in Blue!
These guys just keep on doing whatever is necessary to win and it was nice to see Greinke knocked out of the game. I can’t blame him for taking the money, but right about now, he is probably thinking he should have stayed a Dodger.
Rants & Raves
- Andre Ethier is set to start a rehab assignment on Saturday in RC, but allegedly won’t be added to the roster until September 1st.
- Clayton is chomping at the bite to get back and will throw a bullpen session on Friday. I suspect we will see him on a rehab assignment early next week.
- After some rest, Alex Verdugo returned to the lineup at OKC as a DH and went 2-4 with a HR and 3 RBI as A-Gon also got a hit and drove in 2 runs.
- The Dodgers are serious about calling Buehler up as a reliever and he pitched 2 scoreless innings last night. He is struggling with his control in his new role.
- We aren’t hearing anything about Brandon McCarthy. Is it possible he has been abducted by aliens?
- That’s all, Folks!
Discussion (70)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Darvish is strange to watch in that he is nearly always pitching from behind the count, making things difficult for himself.
He does have a great assortment of pitches though, and is certainly fun to watch.
Is it just me, or do the D’Bags have the worst Uniform in MLB?
Huge job by Cingrani. You just know he’ll become our Andrew Miller because Farhan is a damn genius!
I’m also glad Morrow struggled. Get the crap games out of the way now!
Rough night for the Dodgers pen, the 2 new guys did their jobs.
Get Stewart out of there
another HR for the pen.
Bananaman comes up big time.
Darvish has a lead to work with.
Dodgers showing no mercy to young D-Backs’ rookie.
Mark touched on Alex Verdugo and Walker Buehler, but there were a couple of other good to very good performances yesterday.
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AAA – Tim Locastro went 4-6 (2 doubles) and is now batting .385 at AAA.
Trayce Thompson and O’Koyea Dickson also had 2 hits.
For all of you just dieing for Chris Hatcher updates, Hatcher pitched in his 5th game at OKC and 1st back to back games in rehab. He has gone 6 innings, allowing 1 run on 4 hits, 1 walk, and 9 strikeouts.
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AA – Yusniel Diaz went 3-4 (1 double). In a small sample size, in this 20 year old’s 7th AA game, Diaz is batting .360/.429/.440/.869. He also got a hit in his first AB tonight.
Andrew Sopko went 7.0 innings allowing 4 runs on 7 hits, 0 walks and 5 strikeouts…plus 3 HRs. Shea Spitzbarth gave up a walk off grand slam for the loss.
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A+ – Zach Recks went 3-5 (1 double), and Omar Estevez 2-4 (1 double). Jordan Sheffield did not have a good start to his RC tenure.
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Rookie (Ogden) – Luis Paz, Rylan Bannon, Romer Cuadrado, Gersel Pitre, Kevin Lachance, and Garrett Hope all had 2 hits. Luis Paz had hit his 11th HR.
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For those interested in Melvin Jimenez, he pitched in his 4th game at Great Lakes. He pitched 2.2 innings allowing 0 runs, 0 hits, 3 BB, 3K. In his 4 games at Great Lakes he has pitched 12.2 innings, 0 runs, 3 hits, 1 HBP, 16K, but the one minor concern are his 9 walks.
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Finally Starling Heredia was named the Player of the Month of July in the Pioneer League. He batted .429/.489/.732/1.221 in July. He had 11 doubles, 1 triple, and 4 HRs. He received his 2nd 2017 promotion, this time to Great Lakes, after appearing in the Pioneer League All Star Game.
I agree Mark. He is our weak link.
Roberts: Joc is not a very smart player. It takes him ten times longer to figure something out than it should. He does get lucky occasionally, but if he doesn’t get it together soon, I am going to bench his ass!
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Maybe Doc should have said that instead?
Roberts said after the game that Pederson is a big part of what the team is trying to do. Sounds like management likes him more than we do.
Interesting that Joc is starting tonight against a lefty. and Puig is sitting.
Joc reminds me of Jim Edmonds in CF. many of you may not agree but i think he’s a fine fielder
Rudy, the trouble with Joc is he has been starting for three years and just now he figures this out. I agree with you. Slow learner. In my opinion he turns it around in the next month or the Dodgers will start looking for other option. I can see Taylor moving to center with Verdugo and Ramos getting playing time. We do have Either and Agon coming back. Someone said he would play Pederson every day Until the end of August. We need to find out what we have, I am afraid Joc is not going to make it. I hope I am wrong.
Joc can handle one pitch, a fastball on the inner half which he pulls. He rarely goes up the middle or the other way with a pitch on the outer half. Because he is looking fastball he is vulnerable to the change up and breaking balls. He has trouble with lefties and their sliders away. He does not choke up or shorten up his swing with 2 strikes, and takes too many borderline pitches with 2 strikes. It is an all or nothing approach and he is prone to streaks both hot and cold. There is a lot to work on with him but I would start with a lighter bat. He has massive upside but it begins with confidence and it is hard if he keeps tinkering with his mechanics or ‘changing things’. I like him and am rooting for him to turn things around and become more consistent.
Pederson said working with organizational hitting instructor Shawn Wooten the previous two days had a lot to do with his clutch hit, which followed strikeouts in his first two at-bats against Greinke.
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“It was really nice. First hit in a long time,” said Pederson. “To have it come up big and help the team win a ballgame is a nice feeling. What’s really big is to get away from the results and sticking to the process. Wooten’s here and I was able to come to the field the past two days and work on a consistent routine no matter what the results are. I have a bad habit of changing stuff and getting away from the process and chasing hits, and it’s not a line for success.”
Joc career stats against Greinke here: http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/sortable_batter_vs_pitcher.jsp#season=2017&batting_team=119&batter=592626&pitching_team=109&pitcher=425844
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.333 .385 .833 1.218
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2015 and 2016 totals with 12 AB
One more point about Jansen and J.T. I hink they sensed something good was happening in LA. They had a new manager and new coaches. That may have been the strongest reason they signed with the Dodgers.
Last night’s game proved again that with these Dodgers, it’s a different guy (or group of guys) getting it done every day. I’m sure that management is concerned with Pederson’s recent slump – he, Puig, Cody (again), Wood (even though fatigued) and Fields (2 innings!) got it done and got the W.
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Who will be the guy(s) bringing the W tonight? Wait and see.
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As for the postseason, Ethier will get a shot at a little PT in September but hopefully won’t be on the playoff roster. I assume that Gonzalez will be there, and will probably pinch-hit (or DH in the World Series). There won’t be room for all of the starting pitchers. After the top 4 in the rotation, they will have to decide whether Maeda, Ryu or McCarthy will be better than the current group of guys in the ‘pen. I can see one making it as long-man/emergency starter but I assume that 2 may be left off of the post-season roster.
I am certain Joc and Piug enjoyed last night. Grienke speaks his mind. He said some things about those two that were not that kind.
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Jansen and JT signed for less money to stay with the Dodgers chasing the most money is not always the best. Puhols would be revered in St Louis if he had stayed. After you make so many millions, what is a few more millions. Maybe the most money means something to some players. Thanks goodness it did not to Jansen and JT.
Bill Russell, one hit in his last 30+ AB’s is not going to dissuade anyone from their opinion of Joc, whatever that may be. It was a clutch hit, but he needs to get it together to show he belongs in the starting line-up. I believe even his harshest critics hope he turns it around. Time will tell.
What are we planning on doing with Ethier? AGon can help this team but not sure I see a role for Andre. I don’t think we can trust McCarthy in a high leverage situation moving forward this year. Just my take. I guess I like Hill better than Jonah but we have sometime to determine what the best options are between Hill, Ryu, and Maeda. I am hoping that Darvish can put together another great outing tonight. That would be huge. Also a great team to test his stuff against. It was a great playoff type of game last night watching Wood vs Greinke. Joc and Puig came up big in the clutch last night, just throwing that out for the Joc haters (dislikers) in here. Belly bombs never get old. Let’s continue with another series win tonight in the Desert. GO BLUE
I hope the aliens abducted McCarthy…. with Kazmir under one arm and Hill under the other. I know Hill does add a little to the team but he’s a real worry with his fragility and with Ryu and Maeda and the young ones, we don’t need him.