Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers go for the series win this morning as they send Zack Greinke to the mound. Everyone knows how good he has been this season, but the funny thing is, he isn’t even the best pitcher on his own team (thanks, Clayton Kershaw).
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Dodgers
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Phillies
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10:05 a.m. PT
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Philadelphia, Pa.
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SS
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Rollins
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2B
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Hernandez
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2B
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Kendrick
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CF
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Herrera
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1B
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Gonzalez
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3B
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Franco
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C
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Grandal
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1B
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Howard
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RF
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Ethier
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RF |
Brown
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LF
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Crawford
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SS
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Galvis
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3B
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Callaspo
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LF
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Asche
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Pederson
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C
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Ruiz
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P
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Greinke (R)
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P
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Buchanan (R)
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But man, Greinke has been flat-out great. Not 2009-great, but great nonetheless. He makes it much more palatable that the Dodgers didn’t land a Johnny Cueto, Cole Hamels or David Price at the trade deadline. But you already knew that.
Seamless Transition Alert: You probably also knew the Dodgers’ base running is God-awful. How awful? It’s the worst in the league.
Bottom-three teams on the bases, according to BsR:
- Mariners: -12.6
- White Sox: -14.9
- Dodgers: -16.1
Yeesh. That was on full display last night. Joc Pederson tried to go first-to-third on Jeff Francoeur. Say what you want about Frenchy, but that dude still has a cannon. It was a close play, but Pederson didn’t pick up third base coach Lorenzo Bundy and, apparently, wasn’t aware of Francoeur’s prowess in right field. Yasiel Puig tried to score from third base with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning. It was clearly the wrong decision and probably had some bad luck involved, but Don Mattingly was none too pleased.
To be fair, it was a “dumbass” decision. J.P. Hoornstra got some video of Mattingly’s comments post-game.
Don Mattingly didn't hide his criticism of Dodgers baserunning errors. Said he's seen same mistakes for four years: http://t.co/0fSSbtNjwB
— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) August 6, 2015
And this just isn’t on Puig. He actually has the second-best BsR on the club at 1.1 (0.1 behind Howie Kendrick). It’s clear the entire team sucks at base running. Many have made note of it here, on Twitter, etc. It is a problem and it very well might come back to hurt the Dodgers come playoff time. My solution: Just hit a bunch of dingers so you don’t have to worry about that pesky base running.
Anyway, it’d be pretty cool if the Dodgers won today. It’s not only my birthday, but a couple other commenters are also celebrating their birthdays today. Just sayin’.
