We learned before the game of two roster adjustments from my projection. One came as a surprise, and one should not have been. Soft tossing LHRP Ryan Yarbrough was left off the roster in favor of…take your pick, Michael Grove or Caleb Ferguson. I had Grove making the roster but in favor of Ferguson rather than Yarbrough.
The second adjustment was not much of a surprise. Kolten Wong was added over Amed Rosario. Arizona is primarily a RHP team, making the choice of the LHH Wong over the RHH Rosario rather straightforward.
Before the rosters were finalized, Clayton Kershaw was named the starter for Game 1 and Bobby Miller the starter for Game 2.
Kershaw’s start was an unmitigated disaster. A line drive that should have been caught by James Outman pops out the heel of his glove and is incorrectly (IMO) ruled a double. But the next four…single, single, double, HR.
A 6-3 ground out, a BB, and double, and Kershaw was done after 35 pitches. He did not get through the first inning for the first time in his career.
Every ball hit was a hard hit.
- Ketel Marte – Double – 115.7 MPH
- Corbin Carroll – Single – 109.6 MPH
- Tommy Pham – Single – 99.4 MPH
- Christian Walker – Double – 105.7 MPH
- Gabriel Moreno – HR – 110.8 MPH
- Lourdes Gurriel Jr. – 6-3 – 96.7 MPH
- Alek Thomas – BB
- Evan Longoria – Double – 98.8 MPH
Emmet Sheehan relieved Kersh, got the final two outs, and the 1st inning was mercifully over.
In the 2nd, Sheehan was not that much more effective than Kershaw was in the 1st. A monstrous HR by Corbin Carroll started the inning. A single, HBP, double, and sac fly plated 2 more.
Sheehan pitched a very respectable 3rd and 4th scoreless innings. After Shelby Miller pitched two scoreless innings with only an infield single, it was Michael Grove’s turn. On a 14 pitch AB, Alek Thomas slugged a HR to give the DBacks a 10 run lead. He did retire the side after that.
The two lefties followed, and they retired 6 of the 7 batters they faced. The one they did not retire was a Tommy Pham HR off Alex Vesia in the 8th.
The Dodgers finally got on the board in the 8th. With one out, Mookie and Freddie drew walks. Will Smith followed with a two-run triple.
After 11 runs, on 13 hits, including 4 home runs and 4 doubles, the DBacks hand the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw an embarrassing loss. But it is only one game. The NLDS winner needs to win 3. The Dodgers won the first game last year and then went down in defeat in three straight games. I harken back to the 1959 WS Game 1 when the Dodgers lost to the ChiSox 11-0. They came back and won it in 6.
You just have to wonder if that shoulder was a problem for Clayton. He will not use it as an excuse, but he has never been hit as hard as he was. His fastball and slider had no life, much less late life. His curveball was nowhere close to being his coveted Uncle Charlie.
His postseason ERA is now at 4.49. You just have to wonder if his HOF career is really coming to an end. Since he is 13-13 in 32 post season starts, you cannot say that the Dodgers have wasted him.
Now we are on to game 2, and the Dodgers turn to a rookie, Bobby Miller to face a possible CY finalist, Zac Gallen. The Dodgers are going to need to get some offense in order to win this. Can Mookie and Freddie lead the offense in Game 2?
Pitching wins championships, and when you have none, it’s very hard to win in the postseason. A great lineup never scores as many runs in the postseason as they do in the regular season because they’re facing the best pitchers, and under a lot of pressure. That’s why you make sure you have strong pitching before the playoffs.
I don’t expect the team to go anywhere, likely they’ll lose on Monday too and this is going to be as painful as it was last year. I said this early in the season.
Kershaw, Lynn, and a bunch of rookies in their first seasons, is not much of a pitching staff. Not enough to get all the way through the postseason.
Would love to see what someone like Theo Epstein, who has won championships with multiple franchises, and builds rosters around strong pitching can do with the Dodgers resources.
This is just my opinion. How many crushing postseason defeats do we have to endure? I think Andrew Friedman’s tenure has run it’s course. Pitching needs to be their top priority this winter.
I hope I am wrong, I love this team no matter how many excruciating postseason losses they rack up.
If AF’s tenure is done with the Dodgers it’s on his own accord, I just don’t see the ownership group letting him go. In my opinion the inability to go big and get quality big league pitching at the trade deadline is his Achilles Heal this time.
No, he could not predict Julio being a doofus or Rodriguez backing out of an agreed to deal, but when your lone midsession acquisition is Lance Lynn and Ryan Yarborough it underscores AF’s big weakness. Jordan Montgomery would have been a nice piece.
He also couldn’t predict thay May anf Gonsolin would go down again and that Syndergaatd would pitch do badly.
And just to clarify, the series is only at 1-0 even though it feels like 11-0
Couldn’t? Both pitchers have a long and established history of injuries and major arm surgeries. Not that hard to predict when there is a track record.
Friedman is not the problem.
There’s no logic to jump from last night’s result to blaming AF.
Blame Roberts if you want to.
Blame Roberts? Ludicrous. Blame the players. They did not perform. They couldn’t score off of a pitcher who had an ERA over 7 at Dodger Stadium. Outman misplayed that first so called hit pure and simple. Not performing is on the players, not the manager. This is why I think the off days between the wild card and the teams that get a bye is way too much. Make them play three games in a row starting the day after the season ends and start the Division series on Thursday.
Isn’t it Friedman’s job to build the roster and acquire pitching? To make sure they have a rotation when they’re in the postseason?
I figured the Dodgers would need to score. But score 12?
One game. I’m not ready to throw in the towel.
Kershaw had nothing. That was obvious. Why didn’t someone see that? The team could have started anyone they wanted and they went with him?
But, fact is, in this game it would have made little difference. The offense didn’t show up against a pitcher they’ve lambasted before. The bats need to wake up. I think they will.
We have a history of slumping.
That is true. It just can’t happen in this series. Not again.
I read Roberts said Kershaw will start Game 4. That could be an elimination game. The bats had better wake up. Gotta score 8;;
Because they don’t have anyone. Miller is starting game 2. Who else? Their choices are Lynn, Pepiot, or a slew of middle relievers. Not good choices.
Anybody who came here to write a post mortem just go away. It’s one game. Remember last year? How big that first game we won against SD was? Yeah, neither do I. Only a coward turns away from a fight. Arizona! 0-1. Have a heart.
Smith looked really good in all his at bats, I think. After the first inning I mostly watched OSU / CAL and a TV show.
The only team that had a bye that won was the Astros. This needs to be fixed. Same thing happened last year. Cull some games from the season and make the division series seven games. I shut the game off after Kersh got lit up and watched USC-Arizona instead. USC hung on by the skin of their teeth to win in triple overtime, 43-41.
This is weird! Is MLB one of the only sports where byes are a disadvantage?
This playoff format does suck. The greedy commissioner only cares about money.
The commissioner cares about what the owners care about. The owners care about money (no surprise). The format is not changing.
I think a lot of us here have differing opinions on this. Dionysus is not giving up until the last out, (god bless him). Bear dislikes the week off, and thinks it makes a difference (it could effect the pitchers more than the position players), Badger recognized the lousy pitching staff and thinks they need to win by outslugging their opponents (he’s not wrong). Norcal and Dave think the injuries played the most part, and it’s hard to predict (not with May and Gonsolin). Not sure what Jeff D thinks yet.
Before the season started, I predicted some things that ended up being right, and some things that ended being wrong. I predicted the vets would suck (JDM, Peralta, Heyward) and I was very wrong. They’ve been great. I predicted that relying on the injury riddled May and Gonsolin was a huge mistake, and I was correct on that.
Let’s look at the facts.
The Dodgers are the only team in MLB without a single pitcher to throw over 135 innings and make 30 starts. Kershaw injured shoulder an all made 24 starts, and tossed about 130 frames. Nobody else was close. Although to be fair, if Urias wasn’t an idiot he might have reached those marks.
The Dodgers have no rotation and a dreadful pitching staff. Over the course of the regular season they can get away with it when the offense scores 900 runs. But in a short playoff series? Not a chance.
The rotation is an old injured Kershaw, Lance Lynn who is also at the end of his career and several rookies (Miller, Pepiot, Sheehan). The rest of the staff isn’t impressive either. They have a few decent relievers that can get some outs. Graterol is very good most of the time. Phillips is their best reliever. Fergeson and Vesia are serviceable, and at times good. The rest of the staff consists of Michael Grove, Ryan Brasier, Joe Kelly and reliable Shelby Miller. If you’re giving playoff innings to Michael Grove, that’s bad.
There is no way this pitching staff is going to win a World Series. Sorry, but that is just reality. I think Friedman put together a good team, but the pitching is super weak. Stop relying on injured pitchers. Get the walking wounded off the roster earlier in the season and find reliable starting pitchers. Winning 100 games and losing pathetically in the first round of the playoffs is not going to fly in Los Angeles.
I think I had 94 wins and it would be enough to win the West. I thought Syndergaard would be helped by Prior. I had no idea May would go down so quickly. I figured Gonsolin would be on the DL again, and hoped he wouldn’t need surgery but was not surprised by it. Kershaw? I figured his starts would be spaced out and he’d be available for postseason. (got that right) And though I knew he had behavioral problems before, I had no idea Urias was this stupid. I figured if needed we’d be successful at the deadline. (meh) As for the rookies, I was hopeful they would contribute. But to expect them to carry the load? No way. Not against teams that would be peaking at the end of the year (as opposed to August).
To quote Everett McGill – “damn, we’re in a bad spot!” But his gang got out of it. They did so because they had a leader with the capacity for abstract thought. We have that in Doc Roberts, a UCLA man. I still like our chances.
Wow. At least dinner was good. Thankfully, USC was playing……poorly and made for an exciting game they should have won handily.
AF has got to put together a pitching staff without a half dozen, questionably healthy pitchers. There seems to be 3-4 rehabbing pitchers they try to have ready for the playoffs and they never pitch for the team….ever. Go sign both the FA Japanese pitchers. No to Kershaw. No to Ohtani. Don’t even consider Buehler, May, or Gonsolin part of the rotation until they prove without a doubt they can be depended on for a full season. I know there is no way to guarantee health for the season, but as least start that way. If there is a question then put them in the BP.
I agree with Scott in that I’m so tired of these highly successful regular season results and then fail so often in the postseason. More times than not it’s has been the pitching that has led to early exits.
I’ll give the offense a pass. With the team losing by double digits it would be hard to focus at the plate. Probably wanted to finish the game as quick as possible and erase the experience and move on to the next game.
And, whatever they do, DON’T Carry on from this debacle.
The cure for the torture of a great season followed by a quick playoff exit is to have a lousy regular season.
Now that I’ve solved that are there any other problems that I can help with?
Targeting a Wild Card would represent a lousier season. Those teams often seem more ready to play.
Milwaukee did not enjoy their advantage of not being idle for 5 days.
11-2?
Down in the dugout Roberts glowers
Up in the booth Joe Davis frowns
In the owners box Mark Walters grins
Attendance fifty one thousand
nod to Danny Kaye
Last nights abysmal outing by Kersh masked the fact that the offense stunk. Again, they failed to show up in the playoffs. The lack of offense worries me more going forward than the pitching.
True. Kershaw took one for the team