Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
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Giants
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Dodgers
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7:10 p.m.
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Los Angeles, Ca.
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LF
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Aoki
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SS
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Rollins
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2B
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Panik
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RF
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Ethier
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CF
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Pagan
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1B
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Gonzalez
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1B
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Posey
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2B
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Kendrick
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RF
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Maxwell
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C
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Grandal
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C
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Susac
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LF
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Crawford
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3B
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McGehee
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3B
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Uribe
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SS
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Crawford
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CF
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Pederson
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P
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Lincecum (R)
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P
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Anderson (L)
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You knew it was going to be bad when Brandon McCarthy called for a trainer and walked off the mound on Saturday night, and worse when it came out that he’d pitched several innings through elbow pain as his velocity steadily decreased. You hoped it wasn’t going to be this bad, though. As we all feared, McCarthy tore the UCL in his elbow. He hasn’t yet decided if he’ll have Tommy John surgery, but he’ll have Tommy John surgery. His season is over. He almost certainly won’t be back until next summer.
Let’s pause for a minute just to emote: UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH. This sucks. I wish I had a more eloquent way of putting that. I don’t. This sucks. So. Much. Though McCarthy had clearly had some home run problems, he’d also been blowing hitters away. Only three pitchers had a higher whiff percentage. Only one had a higher K%-BB%, and as you might have heard, Clayton Kershaw is kind of okay.
What I really don’t want to hear is that the Dodgers should have seen this coming because of McCarthy’s extensive injury history, because let’s get a few things straight. One, McCarthy’s history has consisted of almost entirely shoulder injuries (many) and getting hit in the head with a liner. If this was a shoulder injury, then yeah, complain all you want. It’s not. The shoulder isn’t the elbow. Two, approximately 140% of major league pitchers blow out their elbows every year. (Not a typo. That’s just science.) Literally every pitcher is at risk of this. That McCarthy had shoulder issues doesn’t make this more likely.
Not only that, there’s the human factor here. McCarthy’s an entertaining Twitter presence; he’s also a guy who’s had to miss so much time in his career. I can’t imagine how this feels. It can’t be easy. But there’s plenty of time for that, I suppose. For now, the Dodgers have called up Adam Liberatore to replace McCarthy on the roster. Scott Baker is all but assured of another start. Presumably, Mike Bolsinger or Joe Wieland or Zach Lee or Carlos Frias get a shot before Hyun-jin Ryu returns, whenever that is, or a combination of several of them. Brandon Beachy exists, at some point. Ross Stripling probably does too. Stop it with Julio Urias. Just stop it. Stop it — at least for another six weeks or so — with Cole Hamels and Johnny Cueto.
If there’s a silver lining, maybe it’s that this topic will drown out the fact that Alex Guerrero isn’t starting tonight, because clearly and obviously Don Mattingly hates you. Brett Anderson against Tim Lincecum, so maybe baseball just hates you. And why not?
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