Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The magic number, with San Francisco losing to Arizona today, is seven. Seven! The Dodgers have 16 games left. It’s been over for a while, but man, it’s really over.
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Pirates
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Dodgers
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7:10 p.m.
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Los Angeles
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RF
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Polanco
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LF
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Ruggiano
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2B
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Harrison
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2B
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Kendrick
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CF
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McCutchen
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1B
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Gonzalez
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3B
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Ramirez
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3B
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Turner
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LF
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Marte
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SS
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Seager
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1B
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Morse
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C
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Ellis
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C
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Cervelli
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RF
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Heisey
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| SS |
Mercer
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CF
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Pederson
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P
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Liriano (L)
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P
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Kershaw (L)
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Which is why I just cannot get up in arms, again, over Chris Heisey. Let’s just quote from yesterday’s thread:
Seems simple enough to me, though: He sees an outfielder who hits from the right side, on a team that’s without the injured Yasiel Puig, Enrique Hernandez, and Scott Van Slyke. (Van Slyke is dealing with a hand injury and may or may not be available this weekend.) That makes Justin Ruggiano, leading off tonight, a given, and it forces Joc Pederson in against lefty Jeff Locke. You really want Andre Ethier? Or Carl Crawford? And does any of this matter right now, as we simply wait out the regular season? No. It does not.
I mean… yep. Sub in Francisco Liriano for Jeff Locke, and, yep. If you’re wondering why I’m talking about this again, well, just look at Twitter. (Or don’t, probably.)
Anyway, it’s fun to see Howie Kendrick back in the lineup, but it’s going to be more fun to watch Clayton Kershaw. He’s miles ahead of the NL Cy Young crowd in FIP, but with both Zack Greinke and Jake Arrieta well ahead of him in ERA, it’s going to be difficult for him to capture a considerable amount of votes with an ERA that begins with “2,” and yes, that’s bizarre to think of his 2.12 mark as “too high.” If Kershaw throws a nine-inning shutout tonight — which he almost certainly will not, but still — that’ll get down to 2.03. It’s not at all impossible he gets it below 2.00. Baseball is weird right now.
Oh, and Chris Hatcher has allowed two earned runs in 15 innings (with an 18/4 K/BB) since returning from the disabled list. If only there were people saying “don’t give up on him, he’s still got the chance to be really good” out there. If only…
