Dodger Killers

                                  In baseball, some players just seem to really do well against some opponents. Over the years, several players have gained reputations as Dodger killers. Many of these players you will know. Some might surprise you. I will use several stats to establish who these guys are. 

                                1. Willie Mays: The Giant great hit Dodger pitching to the tune of .309. He also has the most career homers against LA, 98, of course that includes the totals from Brooklyn. Willie had 1,414 at bats against the Dodgers. He had 437 hits against them, the most he had against any team. His OPS was .995 against the Dodgers and he drove in 251 runs against them. Only his 269 against the Cubs was higher. He had 191 extra base hits against Dodger pitching. 18 of those were triples.

                                2. Hank Aaron: The Braves slugger had 95 home runs against the Dodgers; he batted .302 and 247 runs against them. He walked, 199 times, more than he struck out, 175. His OPS was .955. He had 436 hits against LA. One less than Mays. 185 of his hits went for extra bases. The 95 homers he hit were topped only by his 97 against the Reds.

                                3. Stan Musial: Musial was a real Dodger killer. His BA against Dodger pitching was .341. 212 of his 522 hits against the Dodgers went for extra bases, 74 left the park. The Giants and Dodgers were the two teams who he had an OPS of over 1.000. Musial walked 249 times against Dodger pitching and struck out just 90 times. He drove in 271 runs against them. He drove in 312 against the Giants. He once hit 5 homers in a doubleheader at Ebbets Field. He earned his nickname, “Stan the Man” that day.

                                4. Mel Ott: Ott was a career .304 hitter against Brooklyn. He amassed 404 hits, 82 doubles, 7 triples and 71 homers. He drove in 244 runs against Dodger pitchers and his OPS was .951. The Giants were a much better team than the Dodgers for most of his career. He also had more walks that Ks, 244-133. 

                                 5. Barry Bonds: Although he is fifth on the most homers against the Dodgers list, 64, Dodger pitching kept him to a career BA of .263. Conversely, his OPS against LA was .977. It was over 1.000 against most of his opponents except the AL teams he faced in interleague play for a couple of years. He drove in 155 runs and had 39 doubles and 5 triples against LA. He is one of the few HR hitters with more homers than doubles and triples against the Dodgers.

                                 6. Ernie Banks: Mr. Cub and the owner of the quote, “Let’s play two!” Banks started out as a SS and moved to 1st base later in his career. He won back-to-back MVP awards in 1958-59. Most of Ernie’s damage against the Dodgers came via the home run. He hit 64 against LA. Dodger pitchers though kept his bat at a .261 clip. He drove in 180 runs against the Dodgers; his OPS was .786. He had 312 hits against them. 

                                7. Ralph Kiner: Kiner had a short MLB career, only 10 years. So, for him to be in the top 7 of home run hitters against the Dodgers is pretty amazing. Kiner was a third baseman who played for the Pirates his entire career. He was elected to the Hall in 1975. He also was a long-time broadcaster for the Bucs. All of his 201 games against the Dodgers came when they were in Brooklyn. He batted .278 with 61 homers and 161 driven in. His OPS against the Dodgers was .974. He walked more, 149, than he struck out, 119.

                              8. Eddie Mathews: Played 3rd for the Braves for many years, Mathews hit 512 homers in his career, one more than Mel Ott. I saw him play against LA many times, and the man could crush a baseball. Mathews did not hit for much average against the Dodgers, just .258. He hit 60 bombs against the Dodgers and drove in 160 runs in 304 games. His 286 hits included 48 doubles and 8 triples. His OPS versus LA, was .839.

                             9. Frank Thomas: Nope, not the Big Hurt, a different Frank Thomas. Thomas played for the Pirates, Mets, Cubs, Braves, Phillies, Reds and Colt-45s in his 16-year MLB career. He batted .280 against Dodger pitching and slugged 53 homers driving in 148 runs. He played 3rd, the outfield and 1st base. He is the first player on this list that is not in the Hall of Fame.

                            10. Chuck Klein: A career .300 hitter, Klein mashed Brooklyn pitching to a .347 clip. He had 316 hits against the Dodgers with 49 of them going over the fence. He also struck out less against them than he walked. He hit 62 doubles and 15 triples against the Dodgers, and he drove in 195 runs. His OPS was 1.021.

                             11. Todd Helton: The career Rockie and member of the Hall of Fame, had very good numbers against LA pitching. He batted .289 with 48 homers and 153 driven in. He added 47 doubles and 2 triples to his extra base hit total of 97. His OPS was .906. Helton played 251 games against the Dodgers and had 252 hits.

                             12. Joe Adcock: Another member of those powerful Braves teams in the late 1950’s, Adcock played 1st base, and, in his career, he slugged 47 of his 336 career homers against the Dodgers. He drove in 128 runs, but Dodger pitchers held him to a .249 BA. His OPS was below .800. At 6’4″ 210 pounds, he was powerfully built. I saw him hit a homer in the coliseum to left center that was massive. He is the second non-Hall of Famer on the list.

                            13. Fred “Cy” Williams: Williams was a center fielder who played from the dead ball era, until 1930. He played for the Cubs and then spent the bulk, 13 years of his 19-year career with the Phillies. He hit Dodger pitching for a .288 BA with 47 homers and 167 driven in. He had 291 career hits against them. He was in his 11th year in the majors when he had his first 20+ homer season. The next year, at age 35, he hit 41 homers for the Phillies, which led the NL in 1923. He hit 30 homers in 1927 at the age of 39 which once again, led the NL.

                            14. Bill Nicholson: Nicholson was a right fielder who played for the Phillies and the Cubs in the NL. He played from 1936-53. He hit 46 homers against the Dodgers and drove in 161 runs. He hit .268 against them and had 210 hits. He also had 47 doubles and 6 triples off of Brooklyn pitchers. 

                            15. Johnny Mize: Mize spent 11 of his 15-year MLB career in the National League with the Cardinals and Giants. The Hall of Famer mashed against Brooklyn, hitting .326 with 46 homers, 155 driven in and 246 hits. He had 58 doubles and 10 triples. He walked almost twice as much as he struck out. In 3 World Series against the Dodgers while with the Yankees, he hit 3 homers and drove in 8, doing most of that damage in the 1952 classic.

                            16. Willie McCovey: From the time he came into the league in 1959, Stretch tormented Dodger pitching, especially Don Drysdale, who he owned. Willie did not have a great average, .241, but he drove in runs, 162 and blasted 45 homers off of the Dodger staff. He added 30 doubles and 5 triples to his total. 

                            Other players hitting 40 homers or more against the Dodgers: Rogers Hornsby, 44, Del Ennis, 43, Frank Robinson, 42, Willie Jones, 42, George Foster, 41, and Orlando Cepeda, 40. Almost half of Robinson’s 207 hits went for extra bases. Hornsby hit .350 against Brooklyn and had 399 hits. 75 of his hits were doubles. 

                           Moving on to active players who are Dodger killers.

                            1. Paul Goldschmidt: Goldy leads all active players with 35 homers against LA. He has hit .283 against LA pitching and he has 109 driven in and 30 doubles. His OPS against the Dodgers is .872. Goldy is in the American League now with the Yankees, but the Dodgers will see him next weekend when the Yankees come to town.

                             2. Nolan Arenado: The former Rockie has 32 bombs against Dodger pitching, more than half, 17 of those came at Dodger Stadium, even though his BA there is just ,232, He has 99 RBIs against LA in his career. Many Dodger fans really wanted LA to trade for the So-Cal native.

                             3. Christian Walker: The former D-Back first baseman has 152 career homers. 27 of those have come at the expense of Dodger pitching. Of those 27, 19 have been hit at Dodger Stadium. He hits .341 there. He has 59 driven in against the Dodgers. LA was glad to see him sign in the other league He has hit 5 of those against Dodger great, Kershaw. He is tied with Arenado for the most homers off of CK.

                             4. Manny Machado: Machado has hit 23 career homers against LA. He has driven in 54 runs. His BA is meh, at .253. He has averaged almost a hit a game with 94 hits in 97 games. Other than 2022, LA has kept him pretty quiet in the post-season.

                              5. Andrew McCutcheon: The long time Pirate has 20 homers in his career against the Dodgers, driving in 50 runs while batting .253. He also has 17 doubles to his credit. Mac has an OPS over .800 against LA.

                             6.Fernando Tatis Jr.: Tatis Jr. loves playing against the Dodgers. He in his short career has hit 19 homers in the regular season against the Dodgers. He has 38 RBI’s against them. 12 of his homers have been at Dodger Stadium where he is hitting over .300. Last year he hit 3 homers against LA in the LDS. 

                           Those are the best active hitters against the Dodgers at this point in time. Schwarber and Stanton have hit 14 homers against LA with Yellich and Trevor Story next with 13. Tatis is young enough to have a shot at 40 or more career homers against LA, especially playing in the same division. But I think Willie Mays’ record is safe. 

                                                                                                                                          Mets Vs Dodgers Recap

                                       Tony Gonsolin got the start against the Mets this evening. He went 5 innings allowing 4 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks. He did not have his usual control. The Dodgers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second when Pages singled with one out. Edman was hit by a pitch. Kike then singled to center, scoring Pages. Rushing then hit a ball off of his shin guard that was not seen by the umpire and Edman scored when the catcher had to retire Rushing at first. LA would not score again. They would have rallies killed 3 times when hitting into double plays. The Mets scored 1 in the bottom of the second and took the lead with 3 in the bottom of the 4th. The Mets would score 1 more in the bottom of the 8th while Peterson and Diaz kept the Dodgers off of the board. Ohtani was 0-4 with 3 Ks. Gonsolin got his first loss of the year, and Bobby Miller, just up from AAA, pitched 2 innings allowing 3 hits, 1 run while walking 1. Final score 5-2. 

                                                                                                                                      Minor League Scores

                                       Sacramento 11 OKC 4: Ben Harris started for the Comets. He pitched 1 inning giving up 3 walks, a hit, a 1 earned run that scored on a walk. In the bottom of the 1st, OKC tied the game on Michael Chavis’ 9th homer. Loutos came in to pitch and fired two scoreless innings, he gave up 1 hit and 1 walk and struck out 3. The Comets scored 2 in the bottom of the second to take the lead. Feduccia, Gauthier and Senzel all walked with 1 out to load the bases. Dean then singled in 2 runs. Jose Hernandez took over in the top of the 4th inning, and immediately gave up the lead allowing 3 runs on a Marco Luciano 3-run homer. He would be the losing pitcher. Ater a scoreless 5th, Sacramento scored 2 in the 6th, 1 in the 7th, 3 in the 8th and 1 in the 9th for their 11 runs. OKC scored 1 in the 6th for their final run. Boyer and Feyereisen were also touched for 3 runs apiece. The Comets had 5 hits, with no one having more than 1. 

                                    Tulsa 3 Springfield 2:  Tulsa used a 3-run 4th inning to overcome their losing streak.  Powell walked, Fernandez walked, and Newell hit his 7th homer for all 3 runs. Campos went 6 innings allowing 4 hits, 1 walk, a run and he struck out 4. Reinoso, Benitez and Cabrera pitched the last 3 innings allowing just a run, 2 hits and 2 walks. Campos for his 2nd win and Cabrera his 1st save. 

                                     Western Michigan 4 Great Lakes 3: The Loons took the lead on a Jordan Thompson single followed by a double by Carlos Rojas in the 3rd. Jackson Niclaus hit a solo homer in the top of the 5th making it 2-0. The Caps tied the game in the bottom of the 5th. Hope hit his 7th homer in the top of the 6th. The Caps came back with single runs in the 7th and 8th innings for the win. It was the second game of a doubleheader. Great Lakes lost the first game, 4-0. 

                                     Rancho 9 Stockton 2: The Quakes scored 1 in the 1st, 2 in the second and 5 in the third for an 8-0 lead. Elkins homered for the first run. He followed that up with a grand slam in the 3rd. He had a perfect 4-4 5 RBI performance. Zazueta went 5.2 innings giving up 5 hits, no runs and walking 1 with 7 Ks. It was his 5th win. Munoz was the only other Quake with more than just 1 hit.