Month: August 2021

Aug 30-Sep 1: Big series vs hot Braves, especially after losing a series to worst team at home. We need our bats to come alive.

Game 1- Muncy comes alive and smokes a high fastball (his fav) for a 1-0 lead. (Muncy won’t see another fastball.) Rest of Dodgers look like Little Leaguers trying to hit a curveball. But they sure can hit high fastballs, as Will Smith continues his homerun tear with a solo: 2-0. Then even El Torito Urias gets a taco — line drive hit. Turner reaches out for a low curve and scores a hit (didn’t try to pull it!). Muncy ends it on a comebacker off a curve (duh). All Betts are on for Mookie Bobblehead (and his mom) for a 3rd solo jack in the 3rd: 3-0. And next a 2-run homer, as Seager bangs a hanger going with it to LF: matching Seager’s number (5). Seager up again in the 5th and gets wrung up on a check swing (correct call). Seager (I repeat) up again in the 8th gets another hit. Will Smith ropes one to LF looking like a double, but Will gets picked rounding 1B (yet again) to end the inning (cardinal sin).

Pitching: Urias dominates at start with K of first 3/4 batters, and is perfect through 4. Julio gives up a pair of hits in the 5th but survives. Then appears to tire in the 6th, as the Braves start playing jacks too — 2 of them (last one a cookie to Freddy). Julio barely survives the 6th and appears done. Now 5-2. Reliable Bickford for the 7th gives up the Braves’ 3rd solo (6th solo of game) on a high fastball (bad pitch call) to powerful Duvall (who ties Muncy at 29 for 2nd in NL). Now 5-3. Can the Dodgers hold on? Strange play ensues: Braves batter called for interference as Smith’s attempt to throw out a baserunner at 2B goes into CF. All good, but umps can’t figure out the latest version of the rule: who is out, the runner or batter? After review, they get it right: batter is out, runner has to go back to 1B.

We go to the 9th 5-3. Treinen still in after getting out FF, gets 1st out, but then gives up 2 hits. Nail biter with slugger Duvall up, Blake goes full and gets him looking on a masterful front-door slider. End of Home Run Derby (all 8 runs scored by homers).

Game 2- Nice catch of long fly in RF by Mookie to save a cheap homer. (Mookie should have gone all the way to the fence first, so as to not bang into it — “find the fence”.) 2nd inning JT leadoff double and stays there, as Morton strikes out the side — with both Smith and AJ looking at fastball after fastball (swing!). 3rd sees a Joc pop (what’s with the blond hair?) to deep RF on a tomahawk of a very high fastball — 1-0. Belli squares one up finally but pulls it into the shift. Dodgers finally score in the 4th on yet another solo, kiss by Mookie: 2-1. But Dodgers leave 2 on. 5th: Belli rinse and repeat hitting into the shift (at least he is hitting it hard and not popping up). Dodgers quiet 6th, but score the tying run on a PH CT3 sac fly in 7th. In the 8th, Mookie, after a walk, scores all the way from 1B on a Seager double to the gap to take a 3-2 lead.

Pitching: Buehler good through 2, Joc pop in 3rd, then 2 cheap hits for another run in 4th: 2-0. Walker leaves Joc stranded at 3B in the 5th on a great curve K. Walker clean through 7. The Great Treinen strikes out the side in the 8th on wicked sliders. Now here comes Jansen for the save: Jams hot Riley; K D’Arneau on cutters; K Swansby on sliders. Dodgers hold on for 3-2 win. Squeaker. Too bad Buehler didn’t get the win (Treinen did).

Game 3 (for the sweep)- Sweeping a hot Atlanta would be a big deal. Muncy starts it off with his 30th homer off Braves ace (and Harvard-Westlake grad) Max Fried. Then in the 3rd, an unlikely solo from Barnes, followed by a triple by Muncy (high off the wall for the hard half of the cycle), who is stranded: 2-0. In the 7th, Dodgers get 2 on, 2 out, and send up Belli to PH, but he grounds out (predictable). In the 8th, the Dodgers get a leadoff double by Trea, who makes it to 3B with 2 outs, but finally the Dodgers get 2 big-time hits with RISP — by JT, walk to Seager, single by AJ for a 4-3 lead.

Pitching: Max Scherzer strong with a 3-hit shutout through 6. But he is removed due to a tight hamstring. Graterol takes the hill in the 7th, but gets ambushed on a 100 fastball for a 2-run homer by Rosario to tie the game at 2. Vesia for the 8th, also gets ambushed for a jack, this time by Swanson for a solo: 3-2 Braves. After the Dodgers re-take the lead 4-3, Joe Kelly is called upon for the save, and he retires them in order. The Dodgers win 4-3 for the sweet sweep.

Aug 27-30: Rockies come to Los Angeles with the NL’s worst road record. We should sweep, but we’ll take 2. We still have to use bullpen games.

Game 1- Dodgers go with a bullpen game and an opener, Graterol, who got ambushed by Dodger killer Blackmon for a 2-run homer (Charlie’s 4th vs Dodgers this year). Dodgers get started in the 3rd, with a solo jack off the LF foul pole by Will Smith (21st, and 3rd game in a row), with an add-on solo blast in same area by Trea. So 2-2 after 3. (Keep pitching Will up and in, thank you! And please, everyone, stop calling it the “fair pole”! It is the extension of the foul line.)

Sad, bad play by Rox ends inning on a foul popup near home caught by catcher as he was run over by big 1B CJ Cron, twisting his ankle. That should never happen: pitcher should have made a 3rd party call (directed traffic). Also, scare on AJ fouling a pitch off his front foot (hope OK).

Dodgers still not hitting, but at least we are into the Rox bullpen. Dodgers go quietly in the 7th and 8th. Last chance 9th features the heart of the order. Mookie leads off with his 1st hit since being back, and is WP to 2B. Muncy PH for Pujols: K (wicked backup change). Seager works the count full but gets wrongly wrung up on another outside change. Last dance with AJ (Petty remark), but he steps on his own toes with a check swing strike 3. Game over.

Pitching: Graterol opener marred by Blackmon homer. Rook Andre Jackson takes hill for 2nd time this month (and in his career). Andre is clean through the 4th, but 2 walks in the 5th to face killer Blackmon, and he induces a grounder to 1B (whew). Rox start all-star LHP Freeland, who is pretty tough through 5. Top of 6, Jackson hangs a change to slugger CJ Cron (23rd) for 482 feet! (Still only counts for 1 run, but get out the tape measure.) Jackson gets pulled after a bunt hit (looked foul) in the 6th, for Bruihl (spell check?). 7th brings in Shane Greene with Dodgers down 3-2. HBP sets up a DP. Grounder to Trea at 2B should have been a simple DP, but Trea decided to chase the runner first (usually a bad pay), missed him, but got bailed out by the ump making a correct call of “out” on the runner for going too far out of the baseline on the attempted tag (but it was a close call and we could have lost the DP). Greene starts the 8th, but relieved by Vesia. Vesia pitches the whole 9th, but surrenders a scant homer just over AJ’s glove for a 4-2 deficit.

So we lose 1st game to Rox (should not happen). Rox out-homer Dodgers 3-2, in a game where all 6 runs (4-2) resulted from home runs.

Game 2- Dodgers load bases with 2 outs in the 1st, so here comes the key #6 hitter: oh no, it is Belli! (stupid Roberts.) Gray off to Rocky start goes full count again (3rd straight), and so Belli gets a pitch in the middle of the zone, but Belli flies out (at least he hit it, and he will fly out again). Where is our hottest hitter, AJ? McKinney replaces Seager? Why is Mookie hitting 3rd when he is not yet back to his good hitting? So bad lineup leaves ’em loaded (and not laughing). Trea leadoff single again in the 3rd, takes 2B on overrun, takes 3B on a steal (what else can he do?) Muncy walks on 4 pitches (3rd walk by Gray). Gray delivers 1st pitch to Mookie but hurts his arm and leaves. New pitcher walks Mookie on 4. Bases loaded again, no outs. JT too aggressive on a low pitch and hits into a DP (ugh). But at least we scored the only run of the series not due to a homer. Smith waves at a high fastball for 3rd out. We should have gotten more than 1. [1-1] CT3 launches a big fly for yet another solo jack in the 4th. [2-2] Trea leads off the 5th yet again (walk). Unfortunately Muncy ropes one into a DP. Bats quiet in the 6th — why can’t we hit Rox pitching? Insult: Trea gets backpicked to end the 7th. Finally, in the 8th, Muncy slaps a parachute into LF to leadoff. 2 walks load the bases yet again (3rd time). Tense drama. Clutch Will Smith works the count 3-1 to get a good pitch and slugs it into LF to score 2 — ballgame. PH AJ singles for the insurance run: now 5-2. Will Smith again goofs by getting thrown out taking 3B to end it.

Pitching: Dodgers go with Knebel as the opener in yet another bullpen game. Then the Price is right after 1.2 innings. Not so right in 3rd, giving up a run on a hit. [1-0] later [1-1]. In the 4th, a long fly to RF that could have been caught by McKinney wasn’t, so runners at 2nd and 3rd. Grounder to 2B scores a run. [2-1] Price is removed in the 6th (low pitch count) for Bickford. First batter hits a long fly for an out. Another loud fly but foul by a hot CJ Cron, then a soft fly out. Treinen is clean in the 8th, and Jansen likewise for a nice save in the 9th. Dodgers win 5-2, and stay even with the Giants (also won 5-0).

Game 3- Giants and Dodgers in parallel, and the Giants got shutout — so Dodgers jinxed. But hope Dodgers can stay focused and win this game, despite Roberts pulling both Mookie and JT for McKinney and Belli, so our “deep” lineup isn’t (only 1-5 are good hitters). Dodgers perfectly awful through 4 (no hits). But in the 5th, we get 2 hits — by Seager and Belli (went the other way!) to get them cornered. But Senzatela gets sneaky 3-2 fastballs by CT3 and McKinney, with Barnes grounder to end the threat. Senzatela is tough through 7 (still only 2 hits). Dodgers going quietly still in the 8th, until a gift pop sun ball falls, then a walk to Muncy. But AJ K’s (a straight flush). Rox have not shutout the Dodgers in 5 years — until now. Sad. [0-3-0] Rox get only their 2nd road series win.

Pitching: yet another bullpen game, led off by Mitch White (who was good last time). This time White gets ambushed in the 1st for 3 runs by carelessly hanging curves to killers Blackmon and CJ Cron. Mitch settled down in the 2nd, and got out of a leadoff double jam in the 3rd by finally locating his curve low. 4th sees a center cut fastball ripped for a hit, followed by a stolen base when Barnes can’t grip the ball. Walk, so 2 on. Pitcher bunts and Dodgers screw up — bases loaded, no outs. White gets a K, then is replaced by Graterol. K. Popup on Blackmon — inning over (whew). Still 3-0. Grat clean 5th. for the 6th, we order up Creme Bruihl. In the 7th, Kelly has a mess and gives up 2 runs. Jansen gets some work in the 8th. But in the 9th, Roberts goes nuts: has JT pitch! Red Dream throws some BP but escapes on 2 long flies after 2 hits (fun but stupid). So in all, the Dodgers give up 5 — to the worst road team. One defensive highlight: Belli made a great overhead leaping/lunging snow cone catch of a liner to deep CF.

Aug 24-26: Ascendant Dodgers need to take a series from the descendant Padres for once — for all our sleepfulness.

Game 1- Anyone seen the Dodgers bats? They are missing. Only 1 hit through 6: Smith homer. And with Padres bullpen game. Finally, in the 7th bats wake up: JT 1B, Seager 2B — 2nd and 3rd, 1 out. CT3 rips one down 3B line, Manny dives and knocks it down (his glove wasn’t open enough), runners hold. Manny hurts himself and leaves field, but then returns after getting patched up. Bases loaded — we need to score! In comes old (34) been around Daniel Hudson, who must be on PED to hit 97. Up comes our most reliable hitter, HR robber AJ, who bangs a single to RF — 2 huge runs score. Now popup Belli at bat: fouls off 2 hittable fastballs, then pops up (duh). Matt Beaty to PH — battles, but also pops up. Now a more comfortable 3-0 (muchas gracias AJ). Trea, after 2 K’s, leads off 8th with a double. Max with his usual walk, but Trea steals 3B (nice! Pads napping.). JT swats a long sac fly: 4-0. Nice takes for a walk by Smitty. WP moves runners up. another sac fly by Seager for 5-0. (But Smith makes base running gaffe getting thrown out at 3B — at least he has the smarts to stop and wait until sure the run scores.)

Pitching: Urias again is brilliant — no hits through 4 — but with a lot of help from a homer robbing AJ in the 3rd on a Manny big fly. Then a little trouble in the 5th when he gets careless on location. Julio toughs it out for no runs, but appears to run out of gas on that rough 5th (even with a low overall pitch count). First in is the usually reliable Bickford, to face the Padres killer top of the order (Tatis, Machado). Done — with Manny caught looking (he never does that). For the 7th, Dodgers turn to exceptional of late Vesia, who is: 1-2-3, sit down. Usually tough Knebel gets careless and gives up a homer to Profar (only his 3rd!). So lead slips to 5-2. (Those add-on 2 runs in the top of the inning were huge, as Padres get them back.) Roberts did good bringing in Treinen to face trouble: Tatis and Manny. But they didn’t follow the script, as both hitters spit on close 3-2 pitches and walked. More trouble: pesky all-star Cronenworth as tying run (oh no!) — but he whiffs! (Breathe.) Now, 5-2, going to the 9th. Closer Kenley makes us sweat, allowing tying run to the plate, after a long 12-pitch AB walk to Profar. [2 on, 2 out.] Facing all-star Adam Frazier, strike 1, 2, 3. See ya Padres. Dodgers hold Padres to just 3 hits, but Dodgers only got 6 hits.

POTG: easily AJ Pollock: home run robbery and critical 2-run hit.

Lineup: AJ a top 5 batter in NL and 2nd on team at .305. So why is he batting 7th? For no good reason. He should be the cleanup hitter not Will Smith (hitting .258). When Mookie returns, he should bat 2nd, behind Trea. then JT 3, Muncy 4, AJ 5, Seager 6, CT3 7, Smith/Barnes 8. Belli, Beaty, Lux, Pujols sit and wait to PH.

Dodgers now 14/16 game streak; Yankees win 11th straight, while Orioles hole out with 19 straight loss!

Game 2- We might expect Dodgers to get shutout tonight, and it looks that way. So far, only 2 hits over 7 innings (including 2 homers that weren’t). Doomed vs. an on-point Snell, Will Smith unexpectedly launches one into the LCF bleachers: 1-1. Impressive outing for Snell ends in the 8th after 122 pitches! Then Melancon cleans up the 9th. Nothing in the 10th or 11th. 12th is interesting, as Dodgers get them cornered with no outs. AJ rips a 1-hopper scooped by agile Machado just off 3B line, trapping Muncy for 1st out — now 1st and 2nd. Hopes fade when Seager swings under a cement mixer (ugh) for K. 2 outs and CT3 walks to load them up. Will Smith sidles up to the plate and works the count full: fly out. Ugh, leave ’em laughing but not loaded, please! 13th more of the same futility: Dodgers get them cornered with 1 out, top of the lineup coming up. Trea works the count full, battles but hits a comebacker — now Smith is trapped in a rundown to home and gets knocked over by catcher. Runners alertly move up to 2nd and 3rd. Muncy waves at a way outside changeup to end it (ugh!!). Why can’t the Dodgers hit changeups when they know it’s coming? We are all drowning in a sea of futility. But now hope: Padres forced to bring in a sketchy callup. Dodgers will bat 3-4-5. (Both teams are now 2-34 with RISP!) JT looks at strike 3. AJ grounds out, runner holds. Seager IBB. CT3 check swing K. More futility — go home Dodgers, I can’t watch this. 15th brings up 7-8-9. Smith infield single. Dodgers shake it up with a double steal: 2nd and 3rd, no outs. Belli yet another popup. McKinney PH and wham: base hit with RISP! Why didn’t 2nd runner score? Moot, as Trea finally gets a hit, scoring 2nd run. Muncy K (0-7!) for 2nd out. JT grounder FC. Now 3-1. Little later, 3-3. AJ, 0-6, jacks one — to match Tatis homer, and puts Dodgers up by another 2, at 5-3. CT3, 0-5, bangs a double. Smith IBB — 3rd for Padres; new MLB record of 8 for Dodgers! Belli long fly out (still popping up). Lux PH (been a while), works the count full and turns on one for a deep fly, and she is — caught at the wall. Hope we can hold our 2nd 2-run lead.

Pitching: Yet again, Buehler was stellar: only 1 unearned run (error by Trea) over 6 innings. Exceeds 100 pitches in the 7th and is pulled for Kelly. Sadly, Buehler loses yet another chance for a win. Treinen takes care of the 8th, and Jansen is sharp and clean in the 9th. So we go to extras — where the Dodgers have been awful, but better lately. Vesia masterful in the 10th. Bickford escapes with a K in the 11th, after Roberts rolls the dice with 2 intentional walks to load the bases to face a weak PH. (Whew!) Running out of pitchers, Dodgers throw Bruihl in the 12th, and the kid is good (with help from Muncy flagging JT’s wide throw). We live to die another inning: lucky 13th. uh uh. 13th brings in Bazooka Graterol. Roberts rolls the dice one more time (Don’t Stop Believing in 6 IBB’s) by 2 more IBB to Manny and Cronenworth. I would not do that, because Graterol will likely walk in the winning run with so much pressure to throw strikes. But Graterol pounds the zone with 101 and gets a comebacker. Now in record territory: the longest extra inning game since the new rule at 14 innings — and counting. Graterol comes back for the 14th. Ground out, advancing runner to 3B. Then, oh my, comebacker gives Dodgers their own rundown between home. Midnight strikes (game 5 hrs long). Graterol survives the 14th. With Dodgers up 3-1, Knebel for the 15th inning save (Dodgers 9th pitcher of the game), facing top of the order. Praying. F-7. Then Dodgers intentionally balk runner to 3B (to avoid sign stealing). Boom: Tatis homers off the top of the RF fence! Game tied at 3. Unbelievable. Why not. Madness. 8th IBB issued to Cronenworth. K for 3rd out on pitcher. And we go to the 16th! Who now? (Where is Kike Hernandez when we need him? LOL) It is new hire Shane Greene (Tigers all-star in 2019), who starts with a K on Hosmer. High slider for 2nd K on Pham. Standing in the way is all-star Adam Frazier, who obliges with a grounder to Seager. GAME OVER!

J Hair with the great post mortem, channeling Dickens (“A Tale of Two Games”?): It was the best of games, it was the worst of games. A lot going on for nearly 6 hours (2 games worth), sweet 16 (and 47 players, 18 of them pitchers), plus a record 12 IBB.

Game 3– Seems unnecessary, since last night’s game should have counted for 2. We are all still exhausted. But this game is another matchup of Cy Young’s. Scherzer very sharp through 7.2 (0 R, 2 H, 10K) and is pulled after 104 pitches. Darvish spinning hangers in the 3rd for a homerun by unlikely Barnes (only 5th), followed by a pair of doubles by Trea and Seager. Yu lasts 6 (4 R, 5 H).

Big story is return of Mookie (but he should not be in the 3 hole), 0-3 to start, including 2 K. And the dominoes fall: Belli should be out, but Muncy (0-7 last night) and CT3 rested. Also roster moves yet again: swap in a pitcher (Nunez) and Mookie, for Lux (expected) and Beaty (not expected or deserved). Surprise move: McKinney starts at 1B.

OK, back to the game. AJ leadoff triple in the 4th, cashed in by sac fly from Belli (a deep popup). Dodgers 4-0. Then yawn: Dodgers’ offense goes to sleep (only 5 hits through 8). Murmur by AJ in the 9th getting robbed of a homer by Grisham — the 4th or 5th homerun robbery, all by Padres on Dodgers after AJ’s great rob. Turnabout is fair play? Still 4-0 into the 9th, as Joe Kelly comes in for a save.

Dodgers take a sweet sweep (for 16/18 wins) with a 3-hit shutout.

Aug19-22: Mets return to Dodger Stadium for 4 more games. We get them while they are slumping, so let’s sweep (or at least 3/4).

Game 1- Dodgers get off early with a pair of runs (both score on outs), then score 2 more in the 5th: Billy McKinney climbs out of the fan doghouse with his 3rd straight XBH (a PH double) to drive in 1, then Trea follows with a run-scoring single and steals 2nd. (Mets 2B-man should have been called for interference when he blocked the base without the ball. Next time Trea will come in cleats first.) Score end of 5: 4-1 Dodgers. Dodgers doing much better vs. Taijuan Walker this time by attacking his fastball early in the count.

JT leads off the 6th with a bullet off the left butt cheek of RHP Walker 99, who picked it up and threw wildly — JT safe at 1B. But then Walker goes to his splitter and K’s Seager and Smith, with AJ F-9. In the 7th, Belli finally ropes one to the RCF gap, only to have Mets CF make a diving catch (and guess who leads off next for Mets). Dodgers get a walk to JT only to be erased on a DP off a scorched short-hopped liner by Seager (another great play by Villar).

Pitching: Dodgers use Evil Knebel as an opener, and he survives the 1st. Next comes the Dodgers latest newbie (134th?) they just picked up on waivers from the Rays, Evan Phillips (who?), who lasted into the 3rd. He was picked up newly re-activated Gonzalez (remember him?), followed by the reliable Bickford (who was). In comes the Bazooka, Graterol, who plunks a batter on the foot with a big breaker, then survives a long fly on a great catch by Taylor in RF. Then some 100+ heaters to get ahead, but a very wild pitched curve to move the runner up. Stick with the pitch you can control, the heater. Grat did and done. End of 7th on a bullpen game. Reliable Vesia gets a clean 8th. Who will be the closer? Yay, it is Treinen. And he is unhittable, striking out the side on a barrage of hellacious curves for the 4-1 save.

Game 2- Speed has no slump: Trea Turners it on to score the 1st run on his speed alone, after a leadoff double. Then Trea does it again in the 3rd: scores from 1st without a play on a Muncy double — 2-0. A few more hits and it’s 3-0. Still 3-1 through 7, owing to the Dodgers offense gone to sleep — no hits the rest of the game and end up with only 5 hits. Now 3-2 in the 9th. Jansen for the save! So now Dodgers have won 3 straight 1-run games vs Mets (other than the 2 blowouts).

Pitching: Buehler looking sharp, gets through 3, then allows Alonso to jack a mediocre curve for 3-1 in the 4th. (Been 8 starts since Walker allowed his last homer.) Walker sailing through the Mets like an armada — through 7. Retired the last 12 in a row, with the last batter of the 7th adding a footnote (ground ball to 1B called foul, off his foot). Then in the 8th some bad luck caused the wheels to come off. (That’s the problem with “sailing along”.) Vesia to the rescue with some gutty relief, ending in a called K with bases loaded (yikes!). Buehler still pitcher of record after 107 pitches at 3-2, and we hope a save is coming — but from whom? Uh oh, it’s … Jansen (predictably). Let’s hope for the angry version. (I can’t watch, can you?) Long fly — OK, breathe. JT throws low to Muncy but he handles it. One more out. Kenley smokes the last chance batter on a 96 heater off the plate. Yay Kenley! (We take it all back, right?)

Uniforms: too much blue. Ok for Little League. Pants should be white or gray. Maybe add a pinstripe along the leg. But, at least New Jersey edged out New York LOL.

Game 3 (I attended this Sat game)- What a fun game, especially since we won our 9th in a row, courtesy of 6 from the Mets, including 4th 1-run win out of last 6 games vs Mets. Dodgers get solos early from Trea (leadoff), Tio Al and CT3, and take a 3-0 lead. Then again go to sleep. Finally in the 6th, Dodgers load the bases courtesy of a parade of walks, with the 3rd one walking in the 4th run. Then a pox of popups to leave ’em loaded. To be fair, the Mets left them loaded twice too. Highlight: battle of 41 YO’s when Pujols faced Rich Hill and roped a homer.

Pitching: Still can’t believe that we have 3-time Cy, Scherzer now on our team! Fun watching 41 YO friend Rich Hill take on Dodgers and Scherzer using a mix of slow and slower crazy breaking balls. Max struggled through 5 innings (100 pitches), with a lot of traffic, especially from Mets leadoff Nimm who cycled on him (1B, 2B, HR — a prodigious blast high off the RF pole), costing Max a shutout over 5. Max continued struggling by hitting Alonso, walking bases loaded, but extricating by K-ing Davis. He left with a 3-1 lead, and got the win (barely). But a tired pen had to cover the final 4. 6th went to a shaky Buiehl, who escaped. 7th went to usually wipeout Treinen, but for some reason he didn’t use his unhittable wipeout slider, especially to hot Pete, who dug out a cutter for a 2-run homer. (Both Pete’s and Trea’s homers landed on the top of the LF fence.) Fortunately, we still had a 4-3 lead, but a shaky one. Evil Knebel had some traffic too in the 8th, but ended it with a K. Now we held our collective breath, while rising to our feet to summon the angry Kenley for the finish in the 9th. 1st batter: HBP (oh no!). 2nd batter (dangerous, hot Nimm) sends a long fly to AJ in LF, and runner Pillar took a big gamble to try to advance to 2B. He should have been out by a lot, but Trea could not corral the short-hop throw. So now tying run on 2B, with 1 out. Kenley K’s light hitting McNeill, and now here is the big showdown: Jansen vs. Alonso! Game is on the line. Kenley huffs and puffs and blows the big bad Pete down! Dodgers win 4-8-1 to 3-8-0! (But it could have gone the other way.)

Game 4- Dodgers going for a 4-game sweep, but they seem ready to phone it in — we have a Price to pay? 1st inning is a big mess for the Dodgers, capped by a series of unfortunate throws (Will Smith learn to not throw so off balance) for 3 runs (and 33 pitches). In Dodgers 1st, they play 3 flies up, but on hard hit balls. Dodgers can’t seem to find Nemo, I mean Nimmo, as he continues to get on base every time (the pest). 2nd is clean for Price, but Dodgers get called K’s twice, sandwiched around a CT3 BB and steal. Surprise: Price collects Dodgers 1st hit in 3rd, and Price is right as he settles in for clean 3rd and 4th. Then the Dodgers wake up in their half of the 4th: 2 hits and a walk load the bases with 2 outs, and here comes Belli (oh no, he hasn’t had a hit in 5 games). But inexplicably, Mets’ Stroman’s 1st pitch is right down the middle — base hit by Belli to score 2 (barely): now 3-2 Mets. But the inning ends strangely, as Belli apparently misreads the sign and takes off for a delayed double steal play, but just gets tagged out to end it. In the 7th, Dodgers waste a double by AJ (Belli another K).

Pitching: Dodgers PH for Price in the 4th, and they replace him in the 5th with Bazooka (Adderol Graterol), who escapes a 2-on, 1 out with pitchers BF (DP). But apparently Bazooka can’t pitch a clean inning, and so in the 6th, he gets rocked for 2nd and 3rd no outs. Somehow he and the Dodgers magically escape with no runs. (They might have even gotten a DP earlier if JT had been heads up at 3B.) With the Graterol thrill gone, Bickford takes on the 7th, but inexplicably throws a meatball to Davis for a 2-run bomb: 5-2 Mets. Game over? Looks like it. so Dodgers scrounge for yet another newbie for the 8th: Feliz (Navidad?), who was OK. But then shame on yet another newbie Shane Green (Shawn Green), for going wild with 2 HBP, 2 BB for a run. Real relief by Gonzo, but way too late. Final: Mets 7-2.

Aug 16-18: Aargh matey. The woeful Bucs come to town. We need to sweep.

Game 1- Figures, after scoring 14 the day before, the Dodgers can’t hit the next night — going scoreless until the 7th. That’s when the Dodgers’ most unlikely hitter, who was 0 for last 5 games and just castigated on Dodger Nation posts, went from perdition with rendition to redemption with a mighty blast to tie the game at 1. Cue Mad Max come to bat in the 8th, after being plunked the last AB, turned on a fastball for 413 feet of Air Muncy — and a first lead of 2-1. And oh yeah, yet another couple of errors: Trea chunked a grounder at SS, and Belli threw a bunt into RF. That play was a horrible non-call by all the umps, as clearly the runner was inside the 1B line and interfered with the throw. Still, we all practice that throw as having to be well inside, with the 1st baseman yelling “inside” and setting up way inside.

Pitching: Crazy bullpen game. Buihl was a 1st inning opener, followed by yet another unknown rookie in the callup parade named Andre Jackson for 4 scoreless. The dude looked pretty confident and had a great change for a number of K’s. Followed by scoreless innings from Vesia, Graterol who got a bases loaded last out bailout from shutdown Treinen, and a save of the 2-1 win by a rejuvenated Jansen.

Game 2- Roberts seems to not take this game seriously enough by sitting his hot 2-3 hitters Muncy and Turner (both!). Then he bats Belli 4th?! That’s a big hole in an important spot. So Dodger get 1st 2 men on base in each of 1st and 2nd innings, but don’t score — partly due to the stupid lineup. For example, Smith’s fly in 1st would have plated a run if he batted 4th not 3rd. We can’t have a swing and miss Belli batting 4th! Bad enough we have a struggling Lux in the starting lineup. At least he got Beaty into the lineup (a good thing: 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI).

Then we got into trouble in the 3rd when we had players out of their normal position: Taylor had been playing CF, but for some stupid reason he is in RF, where he misplayed a fly into a triple (and Belli in CF doesn’t back him up quickly). Then Lux at 3B makes a bad throw to 1B but gets bailed out (a throwing angle he is not used to), followed by yet another bad throw by Lux to score the tying run in the 4th. Now again in the 3rd we get runners at 2nd and 3rd, but this time we get AJ up and he plates 2 runs with a single. Tied 2-2 in the 5th, Seager leads off with a double double, but Smith fails to advance him. Belli out. AJ take a walk. Beaty battles and comes through with a huge double to score 2, and give the Dodgers a 4-2 lead. Dodgers got 3 leadoff doubles but did not advance the runner once — shame on you. Ended up 3-16 with RISP.

Pitching: David Price gave us 4.2 good innings. His only 2 runs were aided by errors (Lux) and a misplay of a fly (Taylor). Evil Knebel closes out the 5th and hurls a clean 6th. In the 7th, the usually reliable Bickford was, and so was Treinen clean in the 8th. Now the 9th for the closer, Jansen. Unfortunately Dodger castoff Tsutsugo does it again: a leadoff double. Kenley hurls high cheese for the K — 1 out. Jansen then loses command and walks Polanco, so now 1st and 2nd — tying runs on. We’re all sweating. Jansen ahead but misses low and gives up a hit for a run — now 4-3 with 2 on. Do the Bucs stop here? Yes! A final groundout. Breath. Just enough for the 4-3 win (4-8-2), to go 28 games over .500. (Probably will need to end up 40 games over to get to 101 wins.)

Game 3- Dodgers sweep Bucs off the plank with a 9-0 drenching. As it should be. Offense explodes for 4 homers: Muncy (2), AJ, Seager. Pitching highlight was a 7.1 inning shutout close by up-and-down Mitch White (1st close that long since 1984).

Now bring back the fading Mets for the weekend.

Aug 13-15: Dodgers visit Mets for 1st time in 2 years. Dodgers need a series win.

Game 1- Dodgers sailing along behind Urias with a 4-0 lead after 5. Roberts pulls Urias (looking tired) and Knebel holds the 6th. But the Dodgers implode with a give-away in the 7th: after 2 outs (both K’s), Roberts 1st mistake was to pull Graterol, and then replace him with a rookie (our recipe for disaster all year). Roberts waited too long to bring in Treinen to shut it down, but not after giving up 4 runs to tie the game and rob Urias of a well deserved 14th win.

Then Freaky Friday the 13th came to haunt further in the 9th. Pujols is called back as PH for Barnes to sac bunt, but he pops out. But a balk is called, so the runner advances to 2B anyway. Then Trea gets HBP but gets called back after review (hit the bat). Trea takes strike 3 (oh no), leaving it to Muncy. Max then gets “green lighted” (fan shines a green light onto his face!). But Mighty Max swings — and misses to end the inning (ugh!). Jansen comes in and pitches a clean 9th, striking out Alonso (you can breath now, but I would have walked Pete). So we go to extras — and to our Dodger doom.

But wait — Freaky Friday the 13th turns as Will Smith leads off the 10th by opening his stance and turning on a fastball tailing in on him for a long home run! Dodgers in unknown territory take a 6-4 lead. Kenley is sent out for a 2nd inning to save it. Hold your breath again. Roberts intentionally walks the winning run (dangerous) but fortunately it works this time, as the next batter flies out to end the game 6-5. Smitty the hero, with a nice effort from Jansen.

Game 2- Stop the presses: Dodgers win back to back extra innings games! This time only 2-1, with both teams garnering only 4 hits, including a solo jack. Unlike last night, this game was a sleeper, as the Dodgers were no hit through 6. Hero Will Smith got our first hit — a solo jack — in the 7th, to tie the game 1-1. Our bullpen no hit the Mets over the final 3 innings for the save, following Buehler’s great 7 (1 run, 4 hits, 10 K). But I (not Doc) would have let Bickford finish the game. my god, he got the 1st 2 in the 10th, looking sharp. Then Roberts pulls him? With only 1 more out to get? Pshaw! Final point: why was Roberts making so many 2-for-1 pitching changes? He was shuffling players in and out and all over the field — that leads to errors (silly). And that really helped our offense, right? Not. IMHO, way over managing.

Game 3- For the sweep. After being no-hit for 6 last night, Dodgers unload on Mets starting early rolling 3’s: 3x3x3x3x2 = 14 for two touchdowns (14-16-1). Poor Mets didn’t know what hit ’em, with a barrage of 5 homeruns, including 2 by Muncy, and a PH jack by Beaty. Trea set the tone with 3 for 3 to start, then JT and Smith went nearly back to back in the 1st, with Muncy going yard for another 3 spot in the 2nd. Dodgers rolled another pair of 3’s in the 6-7th to put it away for good.

Pitching: Scherzer was strong again, but was let down by a lot of sloppy Dodgers’ defense. First, Smith picked up a dribbler and threw to 3B too late instead of the sure out at 1B. Then Trea dropped a DP throw to make both runners safe, and later botched a grounder. Followed by Seager getting befuddled and not taking the sure out on a bouncer. So instead of 2 easy innings, Scherzer had to grind out it out throwing an extra 10-15 pitches. Given the weary bullpen, Roberts should have let Scherzer pitch the 7th. But instead he pulled him for yet another newly called up Nieto who was awful, and had to go. It was dicey replacing him with yet another sketchy reliever, Uceta, with bases loaded and 1 out. And expected, Uceta gave up a long fly that could have cut the lead to 9-7, but thankfully fell just short of the warning track. But that did make it 9-4. Fortunately, the Dodgers put up 5 more runs to make all that moot at 14-4. Fun watching the Mets go with a pair of position players to pitch the 9th, and the Dodgers feasted for 2 more runs.

Aug 10-12: Dodgers need a series win. Will start off with Scherzer, so need to win the 1st game.

Game 1- Shutout shoutout! Great 3+ innings by both starters, until downpour caused a 1:45 hr rain delay, so removed both at a scoreless juncture in the bottom of the 4th. Dodgers got the offense going next 2 innings with 1 and 3 runs, started by Seager dinger, as Dodgers take a nice 4-0 lead and as usual, try to hold on. Dodgers load and leave the bases in the 7th and again in the 8th — could have been fatal, but turned out to not matter. Game punctuated by a frustrated Muncy who went king tomahawk for a monster mash (“Go get it out of the ocean!”) to make it 5-0. Seager MVP with a 3/4 cycle; AJ hitting the ball hard still; Trea shows speed has no slump; Belli a mix of hard hits and K’s (still can’t hit the high fastball); Will Smith got a couple clutch hits; good to see Matt Beaty get a PH single.

A parade of the bullpen ensued after the delay, with all comers looking good — including 2 newbies: LHP Piehl (pitched Sunday) and RHP Connor Greene (just called up to be the 133rd pitcher this year LOL). Also VIP return: after 3.5 months, Evil Knebel made his return (but had no feel for his curve). All told, Dodgers got a season high 15 K’s in their 1st shutout in weeks.

Finally, observing the roll of 5’s: Dodgers 5-0; Giants and Padres were both in 5-5 games late. 3-4 games separating these 3 teams.

Game 2- Rinse and repeat: no score early when another rain delay (53 minutes), then Dodgers got the offense going, led by a resurgent Belli with a pair of just long enough bombs. Even David Price chipped in a double and RBI to lead team to an 8-2 win. AJ still hot with 3 hits. Trea has a forgettable defensive game (2 errors and could be 3 on a muffed popup collision with Muncy — that should never ever happen).

Game 3- Dodgers bats sleep in: only hit leaving the infield was by Pujols in the 1st. Only 1 hit outside of 2 infield singles! Other weakness stats: 0-5 RISP, 8 LOB.

Wasted opportunity and wasted good pitching from Mitch White who lasted 4 innings. His only mistake was a low fastball to Harper — don’t pitch him there. The pen was very good again, shutout style. When we give up only 2 runs on only 4 hits, we should win.

Aug 6-8: Our “cousins” come for a freeway series. They always treat us badly, as the Dodgers struggle to score against the Halos, year in and year out.

Game 1- Just as predicted, Dodgers can’t score boo, even with a stacked lineup (except for Barnes) that didn’t include Belli (until Mookie left the game for sore hip). So they wasted a good effort by David Price, Treinen and Jansen (looked better at 95 velocity). But we go into extras, where Dodgers suck due to no one left in the pen to rely on — although I would have saved Graterol for the 10th. Cleavinger gave it up on his first batter, but we still could have tied it if Muncy had caught that popup (a catch he makes 9 out of 10 times, but not against the Angels). Give the Dodgers a little credit for battling for 1 run in the bottom of the 10th, but Pujols whiffed badly and red hot AJ hit a sharp grounder to end it. Dodgers now an unbelievable 1-12 in extras, and that beat goes on.

Game 2- Reversal of fortune, as Dodgers come back for a 5-3 win. Dodgers offense bookends with 2 early and 3 late, with the game winner a 2-run double by CT3 to drive in Seager and Smith. Urias one bad inning (surrendering 3, 2 ER) cost him a win. Highlight was Graterol rocketing a 102 mph tailer (2-seamer) for a swinging K past PH Shohei Ohtani. Lowlight was Muncy dropping yet another popup for a go ahead run. Big picture: how delightful to watch Trea Turner fly all over the field and play stellar 2B. He stole 2nd without hardly a play, and made a flying catch of a popup to end the game. And for fun: a Turner to Turner to Muncy turned DP (who cares about Tinker to Evers to Chance).

Rubber game 3- Dodgers dominated this game 8-2 (8-11-0), starting with leadoff Trea Turner scoring all the way from 1st on a squirter through the infield by Muncy — speed kills. Followed by hits from AJ and JT, so 1st 4 reached and 2 scored. 2nd inning was highlighted by a PH 3-0 blast from Tio Albert good for 2 more runs, making it 5-0 after 2. Buehler struggled all game with fastball command and had to rely on his slider for the most part — giving up 2 runs on 4 hits through 6. Dodgers then trotted onto the mound an assortment of never heard of newbies (our 143 pitcher, or so it seems): Quackenbush (no, not Groucho Marx) and then Biehl — where do they keep coming up with these guys? Other excitement was a fan on field chase that ended badly for him. Add a 2-game Belli bomb streak, with today’s blast about 430 feet — some hope.

So now, on to Philly.

Aug 3-4: Highly anticipated short series with Astroisks has arrived. Get out your trash cans and trash talk.

Game 1- I told the Dodgers to save some runs for the Astros. Cruel baseball has teams score big followed by a shutout. And it wasn’t even that close, as Dodgers lost 3-0.

Pitching: Buehler pitched a strong 6 innings, giving up just 1 run. But his team gave him no support again, so he takes the loss. Struggling Gonzalez gave up a 2-run homer to extend the loss to 3-0.

Game 2- Much more fun, as Dodgers’ offense opened up with 4 HR’s, led by Mookie’s 2 solos. Dodgers took an early 7-1 lead, and it looked like a laugher. Monumental 1st Dodger start for Max Scherzer, hurling 7 innings with 10K’s, leaving with a 7-2 lead. But the pen made us sweat: Kelly looked great until he hung a center-cut curve to Correa for Astros’ 2nd HR. (Glad Kelly didn’t throw any pitches behind Astro hitters again.) Dodgers ended up out homering Astros 4-3.

Then Jansen in the 9th really made us sweat after giving up a 2-run blast to close it to 7-5, and still no outs. Good thing Treinen was heating up in a hurry. We didn’t want to see Kenley face Altuve, who was on deck. So our prayers were answered when Jansen was able to pick on a rookie for a K and end the game (whew!). Unfortunately Kenley showed us he is not now reliable enough to be our closer.