July 5-8 (4-game series)- Dodgers come into Miami with a 9-game winning streak. Marlins headed by ex-Dodger skipper Donny Baseball who loves to tweak our boys with stolen bases galore and pitch arounds of our hot hitters. He brought 2 of our cast-off relievers with him: Dylan Floro and Yimi Garcia. But Dodgers hang out sign: “Gone Fishing!”
Game 1- Nice 8th inning comeback to tie, but streak over on 1 pitch, 1 swing. Just not quite enough bite on that curve that ended up outside corner above the knees. But the Dodgers had their chances to score more than 2 in the 8th, with bases loaded and no outs. Scored 2; reloaded the bases; but CT3 popped out and AJ swung and missed for a K.
Frustrating 3rd and 4th innings for Buehler, as he was sailing along with 2 outs in the 3rd but then the wheels came off. Hit batter followed by 2 hits and an error for 3 runs. Then Dodgers gave away a 4th run in the 4th with another throwing error on a stolen base. Frustrating to watch the Marlins under Mattingly run wild on the Dodgers yet again. Can’t hold runners on, can’t slide step, can’t throw them out. Seems every throw by our catchers bounces.
Game 2- Stupid and terrible that the Dodgers can’t score more than 1 against the Marlins, especially with 9 hits and 14 LOB. They deserved to lose. Great outing by The Cat Gonsolin (2 H, 0 R) wasted by lack of runs. Also wasted was a lot of gutty, scoreless relief pitchingThe capper is how the Dodgers literally threw the game away. Triple ugly on 3 bad throws. And the devil smiled. (Will Smith can’t throw the ball off balance, but JT has to block the ball!)
Travesty that Lux fails to get his glove on a 2-hopper that would have ended the 6th without a run, so tying run scores. Whew on a big escape with bases loaded still in the 6th and a big hitter up, as Roberts inexplicably brings in a just called up rookie in a pressure spot (you can breathe now). Then we go to the 9th, with Alexander on the ropes as usual, and bases full with 1 out. Full count (oh no!) and … swung on and missed! Now comes Treinen to get us to extras. Wild finish to 9th: WP kick save by ump, followed by indecision by JT that almost cost us the game, but a stretch save by Pujols! Challenge goes to Dodgers, and we go to extras — where the Dodgers suck (1-8 now), but Fish aren’t much better.
Key play/call in 7th on yet another steal attempt by Fish on close play. Call was out, and upheld on review. Dodgers still struggling vs. runners stealing. This was a good throw by Smith and a little late tag by CT3 that withstood the challenge (barely). Dodgers don’t apply tags well, but CT3 is good at keeping the leather on to get a call when runner’s hand or foot comes off. This looked like runner may have been tagged out twice.
Only Dodgers scoring was a 1-run minimum out of 4 hits including a triple! Big squander. Left a couple on in the 8th and 9th.
No-no curse: note that this season of loads of no-hitters has attached a curse of a losing streak. Cubs have lost 11 straight since they no-hit Dodgers. And they are not alone.
Game 3- See games 1 and 2 — ugh! Why can’t I bear to watch these games against the Marlins. All 3 games were tied in the 8th, and the last 2 games were Fish walk offs. After a wild LOB fest yesterday tied at 1, the teams exploded for 4 home runs each today. While the Dodgers reverted to form: only one big inning (5 runs, including a 3-run HR by JT) then bats go back to sleep, the Marlins put up a picket fence of 1’s until the walkoff 3-run knock in the 9th. (Note: never pitch a RH power hitter up and in — just never. And Jansen surrendered the would be winning run on an inexplicable center cut 2-seamer instead of a high cutter to the crafty lefty. Kudos to McKinstry for his murmur of “die another inning” protest with a shocking game tying homer in the top of the 9th. But Roberts brought in Uceta — game over at 9-6.
So frustrating that the Dodgers held the Fish to 1 run (in 9) yesterday, but could not hold them under 6 today. Guess too many bullpen games has depleted our corps, so we were stuck with rookies Reed (2 runs), White (3 runs), Uceta (3 runs) — with all 3 giving up dingers. Add the bad news of Kersh on the shelf until after the break.
Rant: Fish still running wild on Dodgers. Barnes had his 3rd straight game with catcher’s interference (what’s with that?). Lux still can’t catch grounders (this one clanked) — watch the ball all the way! (What I coach.)
Game 4- Dodgers repeat game 3: score 5 in one inning, tack on a solo run to end up scoring 6. But this time they had solid pitching to hold onto a 6-1 win. Urias hurled 7 strong innings (yay).
Rant: Curious that red hot JT, fresh off a 3-hit game including a homer, got sat today. Guess he was tired from all those hits and running the bases (sarcasm).