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Big Night For Alex Call

When Freddie was asked if he felt this was a reset game, he said no.  He was asked again saying the team was 2-11 RISP on Monday and he chuckled and said I did not know that, and I do not think anyone on the team thought about that.  He also added nobody will be thinking about tonight’s game on Wednesday. Win or lose, they turn the page.  It is the fans and journalists that tend to sit on last game results, and want answers.

Like Will, he did not appreciate the questions about any batting title competition.  “Talk to me with a week to go and I might have an answer.  But not in August.”

Doc/Prior/Lehman/Geren/AF/BG are paid to look into the previous game and to determine how to attack that night’s game.  The players are paid to play.  They are not robots, so I bet there is more thinking about Monday’s game than Freddie let on to.  I know Teoscar Hernández was thinking about it.  He made multiple good plays in the outfield, including one where he did come racing in to make a catch.  He also had a 2-hit night and got his 75th RBI.

When Emmet Sheehan was asked how he thought he did, he said that his pitching line wasn’t pretty, but he thought he pitched well.  Doc and Freddie thought he pitched well. This was his first game this year going 6 innings, and it was his 2nd consecutive game he threw 91 pitches, right at 15 pitches per inning, so fairly efficient.  He had 15 whiffs, 10 on his slider, which was his best pitch.  He had issues with his command with his 4-seam fastball.  The pitch was often starting at the top of the zone and then rising out of the zone without inducing a lot of swing and miss.  This was a pitch he got a lot of swing and miss in 2023.

Emmet made two horrible pitches; and they were horrible.  The first was a 4-seamer to Brenton Doyle at the top of the zone that Doyle jumped on and hit a 2-run HR.  The second bad pitch was a change he threw to Kyle Karros who crushed it for his 1st MLB HR.  Both HRs came with 2 strikes.  It would have been better had he not allowed both HRs, but otherwise he had more positives than negatives in this one.  You take the positives, file away the negatives for the next time, and move on.

 

One negative that he is going to need to eliminate is his lob throw to 1B about 75 feet (yes exaggeration) over Freddie’s head.  But Miggy Ro showed why defense is so important.

 

Three nice scoreless innings in relief from Jack Dreyer, Ben Casparius, and Anthony Banda.

Alex Call was the hitting star in this game.  Coming into this game, Alex was 4-23 including 1 double, no RBI, 4 BB, 6 K.  He went 4-5 on Tuesday.  On his 1st AB on Tuesday, he slugged a 453 foot HR for the longest HR of his career, and the longest for LAD so far in 2025.

 

And yet it was only the 5th hardest hit ball for LAD in the game:

  • Shohei Ohtani – 115.9
  • Will Smith – 107.5
  • Alex Freeland – 107.2
  • Freddie Freeman – 106.4
  • Alex Call – 106.3

Alex was a triple shy for the cycle. He was joking after the game saying that his teammates said if he hit it, he better keep running.  Unfortunately he struck out.

 

It would not be Colorado if we did not see Shohei crush a HR of his own:

 

Will Smith seems to be coming out of his mini-slump.  He went 3-4 with a BB.  He leads NL in BA and OBP.  He is also 4th in OPS at .926.  That is impressive enough, but especially so for a catcher.

Buddy Kennedy got his 1st hit as a Dodger, a RBI single driving home Alex Call in the 3rd and a 7-0 lead.  Mookie, Freddie, Teo, and Miggy Ro each had a pair of hits.  Poor Alex Freeland batted twice, hitting the ball >100MPH both times, and accounted for 3 outs.  It was great to see him barrel it up twice, but not getting anything out of it is tough for him.  Then again, that is baseball.  He may get optioned, but he belongs in MLB.

On Wednesday, Shohei will be starting for LAD, and is scheduled to go 5.0 innings.  He will be facing 27 year old RHP Tanner Gordon, making his 9th start.  He has not pitched well this year with a 7.98 ERA and a 1.80 WHIP in 38.1 IP.

 

MiLB GAME SUMMARY REPORTS

 

OKC Comets 12 – Tacoma Rainiers (Seattle) 8

This was an offensive game that also had some key pitching moments that LAD fans were waiting for. OKC scored 12 runs on 19 hits.

The hitting star for the night was once again Ryan Ward.  Ward was 4-6 with 2 HR and 4 RBI.  He now has 31 HRs on the season, and 111 RBI, tops in MiLB for both metrics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noah Miller was 3-5 with 2 doubles (8) and HR (2).  He scored 3 runs and 2 RBI.

Esteury Ruiz was 3-4 with 2 BB, 2 runs, and a RBI.

Luken Baker, Ben Rorvedt, Austin Gauthier, and Kody Hoese all had 2 hits.  Rorvedt (3) and Hoese (22) each hit a double.

After Landon Knack finished 4.2 IP and José Rodríguez picked him up in the 5th, Dodgers fans were waiting for what was coming next.  Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott were making their initial rehab outings.

 

And what could have been his best relief outing of the year, Bobby Miller wrapped up the game.  While it may look odd, he pitched himself out of trouble.  He walked the first batter of the 9th, and allowed a single.  Then Gauthier threw a DP ball away and a run scored.  With runners on 2nd and 3rd and nobody out, Miller struck out the next 2 batters and got the final out on a routine F8.  This has been a situation that Bobby Miller has melted down on, but tonight got out of it with an unearned run.

 

Box Score

 

Quad Cities River Bandits (KC) 13 – Great Lakes Loons 4

Kendall George had a three hit night.  He also stole his 83rd base, but got caught twice, and has now been caught 20 times (80.6% success rate).

No other Loons hitter had more than 1 hit. There were 4 Loons batters with doubles:

  • Zyhir Hope (24)
  • Joe Vetrano (16)
  • Elijah Hainline (5)
  • Jake Gelof (17)

Not much positive in the pitching.

 

Box Score

 

Modesto Nuts (Seattle) 14 – Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 8

Charles Davalan made his professional debut, and had a pair of hits going 2-4, with a BB, and a K.

 

Emil Morales also went 2-4 with a BB, and a pair of runs and RBI.  He hit his 4th HR at RC.

 

Landyn Vidourek also made his professional debut, but he went 0-4.

Sterling Patick started and completed 5.0 innings, allowing 2 runs, both unearned.  He allowed 3 hits, 1 BB, and registered 7 K.

 

Box Score

 

 

Jeff Dominique

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tedraymond
tedraymond
21 minutes ago

Good to see the Dodgers have a “that’s more like it” Coors Field game. It provided everyone with an opportunity to get out any slumps and feel good about things.

What a breakout game for Alex Call! Of all people, he hit the longest HR of the season for the Dodgers. Add another three hits and maybe we can see the last of Conforto playing LF on a regular basis. Or, what is not unusual for the Dodger FO after a productive game, he’ll be benched for the ever failing Michael Conforto.

Emmet Sheehan pitched well enough to get into the sixth inning. The BP was very effective when called upon. What I enjoyed that with a big lead they came in and had no walks.

With so many runs scored last night, it’s not unusual for a team to have trouble scoring the next game. But, this is Coors Field and the Rockies. Besides, the team had trouble scoring in game one.

Very much the type of a Dodger game the fans expect at least 60% of the time.
I know it’s Colorado, but this series could wake up the hitters and have the pitching to be more efficient.

Carry on.

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