The Los Angeles Dodgers have showed true grit in finally eliminating the Washington Nationals from the NLDS with a 4-3 win and moving on to face the hottest team in baseball, the Chicago Cubs.
Last night, Dodgers faithful got a surprise when Clayton Kershaw came into the game just after midnight to relieve Kenley Jansen in the ninth inning.
“At the at the end of the day, if we don’t win that game, we’re going home, anyway, so what does it matter?” Kershaw said. “I just wanted to be available, and it ended up to the point where I could help out tonight.”
Kershaw went to Manager Dave Roberts in the seventh and offered his services.
“I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. Am I dreaming right now?’ I couldn’t believe it,” Jansen said later, just socks on his feet and ski goggles on his head, leaning against a wall in a clubhouse hallway. “I’m like, ‘Is Kersh warming up? Is he really out there?'”
Rich Hill threw 81 pitches before he was pulled, beating out the Giants Johnny Cueto in a 1-0 pitchers duel. The win extends the Dodgers to a three game lead in the NL West.
“Everything felt solid. Mentally, I felt great, body feels good,” Hill said. “Something that I’ve emphasized throughout the entire season in Oakland and carried over here into L.A. is just stay within the moment, a pitch-to-pitch approach and really just making sure you execute each pitch.”
Hill came to the Dodgers in a last minute trade with the Oakland A’s but had been shelved due to a blister.
The Dodgers have the opportunity to sweep the Giants tonight before beginning a three game series with the Chicago Cubs who beat the San Diego Padres 6-3 yesterday.
The LA Dodgers (38-33, 2nd NL West) have won five of their last six games including a sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers completed over the weekend. The next series against the Washington Nationals (43-27, 1st NL East) won’t be as easy.
Clayton Kershaw (10-1, 1.58 ERA) will be facing off against undefeated Stephen Strausburg (10-0, 2.90 ERA) and remains unbeaten by Kershaw.
The Los Angeles Dodgers (31-27,2nd NL West) put on a show for their fans much to the dismay of the visiting Atlanta Braves. The Dodgers completed their third sweep of the season after beating the Braves 4-2, 4-0 and last nights 12-6 beat down in which every starter had a hit and Corey Seager blasted two home runs.
“Corey’s doing what Corey’s doing, but there were a lot of productive at-bats and you see Trayce [Thompson] on base three times,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Some big hits throughout. It was good to see us open up a little bit.”
The LA Dodgers have had their hands full with the San Francisco Giants and mustered only one victory, 3-2 Saturday night, in their four outings. The Dodgers were happy with the beginning of last nights game, getting off five runs in the first inning alone. You could say that the Dodgers are happy to leave after dropping game four 9-6.
“You score five runs in the first inning, you expect to win the game,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
There is no time to dwell as the Dodgers host the Arizona Diamondbacks in their season home opener in which Kenta Maeda will get his first Major League. Maeda is coming off six scoreless innings against the San Diego Padres.
Following the D-Backs series, the Dodgers will get another shot at the Giants when they come visiting for a three game series.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have had a strange way of managing their club over the past two seasons. In 2014, they would take the NL West Championship but then turn around and change General Managers. Then in 2015, after winning their third straight division title, (and for the first time in franchise history) the franchise turns around and fires Manager Don Mattingly (who had a 446-353 record with the Dodgers) who signed on with the Miami Marlins. Now the Dodgers are hoping that they have not messed with the chemistry that the team had.
“I don’t really want to get into details of conversations other than they were good, open, honest . . . as we kept talking, it just became evident this was best for both parties,” Mattingly told reporters via a conference call.
The team lost players and added players and the projected 2016 lineup looks to be:
1. Howie Kendrick, 2B
2. Yasiel Puig, RF
3. Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
4. Justin Turner, 3B
5. Andre Ethier, LF
6. Corey Seager, SS
7. Yasmani Grandal, C
8. Joc Pederson, CF
BENCH: Enrique Hernandez, 2B/OF
BENCH: Chase Utley, 2B
BENCH: Carl Crawford, OF
The NY Mets/LA Dodgers battle continues tomorrow at 8 PM in Dodgers Stadium. Clayton Kershaw came into the game needing a victory and after seven innings and three hits, the Dodgers walked away with a 3-1 road win.
“I don’t think anyone was going to outpitch Clayton Kershaw tonight,” Mets third baseman David Wright said. “I wish we could have won here, obviously so that we could prepare for the next round and do it in front of our fans. But Kershaw was just a beast tonight. It was going to be tough to beat him when he was on like he was. Hopefully we can take care of business in L.A.”
Now it’s down to one game at home for the Dodgers that will match Zack Greinke (the MLB ERA Leader) against the Mets’ Jacob deGrom.
This series has been a tough on on the boys in Blue. Although they managed to sneak a 0-2 game two, the rest of the series was hard to swallow. 13 runs to six over the span of the series, the Dodgers could never get their bats working.
“Not real sure to say one thing or the other,” Manager Don Mattingly said when asked about his teams lack of scoring. “We’ve got to consistently just continue to have good at-bats and get guys back in there.”
The LA treated a crowd of over 43,00 fans to a late night treat as Howie Kendrick broke a bat slamming a walk off single in the 9th inning against Fernando Rodney.
“The big thing was to get a pitch up that I could hit. It’s always good to come through for my teammates,” Kendrick said after the game.
This is not your fathers LA Dodgers Team, in fact, it hardly resembles last years team. The team lost 17 players to trades (Kemp, Gordon, Haren) and free agency. Replacing that lot are 16 new faces to include SS Jimmy Rollins, C Yasmani Grandal and Howie Kendrick.
“At the at the end of the day, if we don’t win that game, we’re going home, anyway, so what does it matter?” Kershaw said. “I just wanted to be available, and it ended up to the point where I could help out tonight.”
