Yankees 3, Dodgers 0: A Lefty Started

The Dodgers lost to the Yankees tonight, 3-0, in a game where the Yanks started a lefty. Given the Dodgers track record against pitchers who throw from that side, this shouldn’t be a surprise by now, honestly.

Homers late from New York captured the win for them, as the Dodgers pitching staff otherwise held their own, but it’s hard to say any of that matters all that much when the offense didn’t plate a run.

Julio Urias, like Jose De Leon last night, didn’t have his best command tonight. He took 78 pitches to get through 3.2 innings, leaving with the bases loaded. However, he didn’t end up surrendering any runs despite allowing four hits, walking three, and striking out just two.

Part of the reason for him escaping trouble is Louis Coleman, who entered to get one batter and got out of a bases-loaded jam by inducing a grounder to Corey Seager to end the threat. J.P. Howell started the fifth by recording an out, but he was replaced after that by Ross Stripling.

Stripling got 1.2 innings of scoreless ball for the Dodgers, surrendering only a single during that time. Unfortunately, Stripling was left in for the seventh instead of bringing in Joe Blanton or Grant Dayton or whoever, and during that inning he surrendered two homers to right field that put the Dodgers down 2-0. Jesse Chavez got the eighth started by giving up a homer to Gary Sanchez to make it 3-0, putting the game even further out of reach.

Yeah, it was way out of reach.

The offense is not doing much to get me off my theory that any team the Dodgers face in the playoffs should just throw lefty starters at them constantly. Does it matter if they’re good or not? No, just use an all-lefty pitching staff and you’re probably gonna win.

Tonight, CC Sabathia pooped all over this lineup, giving three hits and a walk while striking out seven over 6.1 shutout innings. Then again, they didn’t fare much better against three righty relievers, who limited the Dodgers to two hits the rest of the way.

Truly a waste of my afternoon.

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Of note is the fact that Urias picked off another runner today, putting him at six and leading the majors despite only pitching 72 innings this year.

Urias has 6 pickoffs now, the most in MLB, and he's not been a full-time SP at all. #MLBPlus

— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) September 13, 2016

Urias has a pair of great pickoff moves, which tends to make it difficult for the runners to get a decent secondary, much less steal a base.

Also, Yasiel Puig pump faked a throw to the infield for no reason.

Basically the lone bright spot in this sea of misery.

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The Dodgers are now 81-63 overall and 34-36 away from Chavez Ravine. The lead in the NL West is temporarily down to 3.5 games, as the Giants are currently underway against the Padres.

The Dodgers will finish the series against the Yankees tomorrow afternoon at 10:05 AM HST/1:05 PM PST/4:05 PM EST on SportsNet LA. The pitching matchup will be Clayton Kershaw (1.89 ERA/1.74 FIP/2.05 DRA), but who knows how long he’ll go tomorrow, against Michael Pineda (5.07 ERA/3.79 FIP/2.82 DRA), whose peripherals have always looked better than his results for his career.

Would be nice if Clayton could actually pitch better than Brock Stewart would, and if the offense would actually score a run or two.