I had to endure the Kruk and Kuip show as San Francisco games are blacked out on MLB.TV in the Sacramento area. To be honest, both Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow are very fair to the Dodgers. I just have a hard time listening to Giant announcers.
If Max Muncy could face San Francisco 162 games a year, he would be a first ballot HOF candidate. I commented yesterday: Max back at #4, but maybe tonight’s the night. against Logan Webb. Sure enough, after walking in the 1st, he hit a 3-run HR in the 3rd. Coming into the game against Logan Webb, Max was 6-20 with 2 HRs He is now 8-22 with 3 HRs against Webb.
Visit to Oracle Park could be just what Max Muncy needed.pic.twitter.com/MeD57ciMj4
— Dodger Blue (@DodgerBlue1958) April 11, 2023
But he was not done. In the 7th, James Outman led off with a BB, and after Miguel Vargas flew out, Outman stole his 2nd base of the year. CT3 hit a shot down at third, David Villar gobbled it up and got CT3 at 1B. But then the dam broke. Mookie singled to score Outman, Freddie singled, and Will Smith got an infield single to load the bases. On the first pitch Max saw from Sean Hjelle, he crushed an opposite field grand slam HR. Just like Badger commented, numbers can change dramatically this early in the season. Max is now amongst the NL leaders in HRs and RBIs.
This is more like it!
Max Muncy, have yourself a night!!! pic.twitter.com/ajEY69xgks
— Blake Harris (@BlakeHHarris) April 11, 2023
Coming into the game against the Giants, Max was batting .263/.376/.589/.965 with 21 HRs. With the 2 on this night, Max has now hit more HRs (23) against SF than any other team. He has 22 HRs against Colorado. At Oracle, Max was hitting .277/.407/.529/.936.
I have not been kind to Max during the regular season, but I do not believe I have been unfair. I have no idea if this one game turns everything around for Max, but he has two more against the Giants before they head for home to face the Cubs. He LOVES to hit against the Giants.
The Dodgers top 4 hitters hit Webb as they were expected to.
- Mookie – 2-3, HR, against Webb – 3-5 on the night.
- Freddie – 1-3 against Webb, 2-4 on the night.
- Smith – 0-3 against Webb, 1-4 on the night.
- Muncy – 2-2, HR, BB, against Webb, 3-3 on the night, 2 HRs, 7 RBIs.
- Outman – 1-2 against Webb, 1-3 with a BB on the night.
Now from the pitching side. Julio Urías was a grinder on this night. He encountered multiple 3 ball counts, and surrendered multiple 3-2 foul balls. But he was masterful when he needed to be. He allowed 1 run on a Wilmer Flores HR. He was touched for 4 hits, 2 BB, and 8 strikeouts. He threw 96 pitches/62 for strikes.
After the first time through the order, the Giants refused to chase the high fastball (at least the good hitters), and sat on the breaking ball. Flores hit a changeup for his HR. Urías is now 3-0 with three quality starts, and a 1.50 ERA.
Julio Urías, 94mph Paint. 🖌️🎨 pic.twitter.com/kO8GEd5QRe
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 11, 2023
I do not know if Alex Vesia would have been summoned if the score were not 9-1, but it was, and Vesia did come in. He gave up three singles to the first three batters he faced. Will Smith went out to speak with Vesia and he promptly struck out Bryce Johnson and Thairo Estrada before Yency Almonte was brought in to face Wilmer Flores. Flores hit it hard, but right at Mookie in RF.
Almonte got the first two outs in the 8th before he hit David Villar on the knee. Andre Jackson relieved Almonte and struck out Brandon Crawford.
Jackson stayed on in the 9th and retired the side in order, striking out 2, including Bryce Johnson to end the game.
Julio Urias has made three starts this season for the Dodgers:
3/30: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
4/4: 6 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
4/10: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 KHe's been incredibly consistent for the Dodgers so far, acting as the true ace of this staff.
— Noah Camras (@noahcamras) April 11, 2023
This was a fantastic bounce back game for the Dodgers.
For Tuesday, Dustin May takes the hill to battle LHSP Alex Wood.
Max Muncy on playing in San Francisco:
"I don't like this place. It's cold and windy all the time. I do hit well here. I don't understand why, but I'm not going to complain about it."
I think he dropped this 👑 pic.twitter.com/WxB15BFpsx
— Blake Harris (@BlakeHHarris) April 11, 2023
Reports of Max Muncy’s demise were greatly exaggerated.
I hate mornings with no minor league box scores.
Thanks for sharing.
Who pissed in your bran flakes?
Get off my lawn.
I think maybe the point was missed.
I like reading box scores too. Been doing it since Jim Murray was a rookie.
I always read box scores as well. I miss reading newsprint and getting the top 10 in ave. plus HR and RBI leaders.
I didn’t like seeing a hate word gripe at the top of the comments.
Loved Jim Murray loved reading the box scores.
Chisox, Bosox, Tribe
What a night.
If you haven’t looked at the box score yet, please do. The top of the lineup was outstanding, 9 for 17. The rest of those guys? Yoiks. 1 for 19, including Martinez, Heyward and Taylor, 0 for 12 with 7 Ks. It was like there were 2 teams out there, 1-4 was playing slow pitch, the rest of the team was hitting against Nolan Ryan.
Hopefully this series will light a fire. The bad news? Urias won pitch again til the weekend.
I am happy for Max and hope his performance is indicative of his ability and not just a thing that happens every once in a while. One good game does not make a cleanup hitter.
Would there be too much pressure on Outman if he were the cleanup hitter? Maybe. He is doing well down in the order so why mess with him? Why you ask? Because right now he is the 4th best hitter on the team.
The Dodgers were debating if Outman should be on the 26 or to give him consistent at bats in OK and it seemed somewhat reluctantly that they put him on the 26 late in the pre-season. It’s the same conservative thought process that keeps Outman down in the lineup. It’s the same conservative thinking that keeps prospects at lower levels than what seems like all the other teams. It’s the same conservatism that makes them shy away from a running game.
Winning is fun. Winning 3 – 1 via a three run home run is as well but the series just finished in AZ was a lot of fun for AZ fans because of all the activity on the bases. The Dodgers are not built like AZ but they would be more fun if Outman and Betts were allowed to run more and maybe if Vargas would be used in a few run-and-hit adventures.
Good game last night. Pitching and defense plus power and speed would produce a lot of fun games whether they win 111 games or not.
Interesting takes Bum.
I had similar thoughts as I was reading about how stolen bases are up all over the league. It would appear the new rule has made something that was exceptional into something that is relatively easy. Personally I don’t think it should be, but as long as it is, should we do it too? I don’t believe so. Our thing appears to remain exit velocity and launch angle. We led the league in runs scored using it last year and so far only Tampa has scored more than the Dodgers. If we don’t need to run, why risk it?
Martinez. Wish I had more faith in him. At times he looks like a confident, competent ML hitter. Then there is last night.
Heyward. It feels like the only reason he is here is because someone else is paying him.
Taylor. Sigh.
The Los Angeles Dodgers will score because of hitters 1-4 followed by a pack of blind squirrels. It would appear our glaring weakness may be starting pitching. I await someone telling me why I am wrong about that.
That sounds a little bit like Earl Weaver Badger. I don’t want to build a team like AZ has but I do want to make things happen when things don’t seem to be happening. That means not excluding the running game.
I am more along the lines of Bums on this one. The Dodgers are not built for speed, but they do have guys who can run. Outman and Betts being two. Miguel Vargas was 27-6 the last two years in MiLB. Not a Rickey Henderson clone, but someone who can steal a base.
Last night Outman stole second and scored on a two out Mookie single. As it turned out, Outman would have scored anyway, but the game was tight at the time, and the Dodgers were going to need to dip into that bullpen where anything can happen. They got the four run lead every team looks for, and then the magic happened. But to use your words from yesterday, what if Max didn’t hit it out? They would still have a four run lead and only need to navigate three innings from that bullpen. Chances are Vesia does not pitch in that spot. But there are not a lot of options outside of Evan Phillips. Bickford had already pitched in 5 of the 10 games and Miller 4 out of the 10. Having the 9-1 lead allowed Doc to at least get Vesia into the game. Maybe his last two batters turns his season around.
LAD is a team built for power, so there is no reason to go away from their strengths to chase what Arizona has put together. But they do need to work on manufacturing runs during the regular season, because the playoffs is the wrong time to experiment.
Max’s GS was on the first pitch of his AB. When was the last time that happened. Do it more often. In his first AB, he let two pitches from very near where he hit the Granny go by, and they were called balls. They were strikes at the top of the zone. Krukow mentioned that Tichenor, the plate umpire, is known to give that pitch to the batter, but it was a pitch(es) he could handle, and something a #4 batter should look for. I had no idea my wife was paying that close attention to Muncy (she likes Outman, Freddie, Smith, and Mookie), but after the BB to Max, she spoke up and said give him a chair. I have never used those words, so maybe it came from my son at some point. But I did laugh out loud on that one.
There is more than one way to win games. I am not suggesting that the Dodgers turn into the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals, but they do have players who can run when the situation calls for it. The rule changes do give teams with speed an advantage. Why shouldn’t the Dodgers exploit that advantage when they can? The Dodgers lost 41 SB from the loss of Trea Turner and Belli, and did nothing to make up for that loss except to try and get more power.
I like Mookie, Freddie, Smith, and Outman as well. At least Mrs. D didn’t say give him the chair. She got it right.
“Why shouldn’t the Dodgers exploit that advantage when they can”
Because so far they aren’t any good at it. But I agree there are a few players who could do it. It just appears it’s not worked on much with this group. This is a “hit the ball and run to second” offense.
The hundred million dollar question is will that 94MPH fastball of Urias’ be as effective at 90-91MPH.
Will the Dodgers care if if it isn’t if he is a Padre?
High and tight low and away.
Are the Dodgers better off resigning Urias for 30 million a year for 10 years or Ohtani for 50 million a year fir 10 years. Urias is 3-4 years younger. I’d rather have Urias and maybe use the balance to get Smith on a long term contract.
There needs to be a 10 year guess regarding the DH. Othani if signed to 10 years would be the DH for 10 years. How would that affect Cartaya and Smith and others?
Also, can Miller, Stone, May anchor the rotation for the next 10 years? If so, why spend SSS on Othani or Urias?
I would rather add Soto than Othani or Urias but for $500MM I would rather have Othani.
Excellent point, Bums, about Ohtani’s being your DH for the next 10 years if you sign him. I doubt he ever plays the outfield again on a regular basis, at least as long as he’s still pitching.
I much prefer the DH role to be rotational and used to cycle players in and out of the every day lineup. Ohtani would not make that possible.
I like Soto, but I don’t like him enough to be high bidder on him. I think I’d rather spread the money around.
There is a young Korean outfielder, Jung-hoo Lee, who will supposedly be posted this winter. He’s considered a good defender, has good speed and walks more often than he strikes out. Lifetime average is .337. I’m thinking he probably won’t cost us 500 mil. And he would probably steal more bases in a week than Peralta and JHey will steal all year.
There are going to be 2-4 Korean and Japanese League players who could be posted next year that should pique the LAD interest.
I do not know why not. His average 4-seamer is averaging only 92.6 right now. Hitters like to go hunting on his fastball, but he generally leaves it up and out of the zone for hitters to chase. As Badger alluded to, get that hit me pitch up in the zone and more inside. But if he is going to continue to dominate, I would guess that he will work on perfecting that cutter that he gets RH batters with. His slurve will continue to be a solid pitch. What Julio needs is to get more late action on that changeup. He throws it exclusively to RH batters, and if it does not drop out of the zone, it is very hittable, and Flores showed last night.
Urías is a smart pitcher and I expect that he will continue to work on his out pitches.
But the real question is, will his health hold up. He has already had a significant major should surgery. Some team will undoubtedly give Urías a longer than 7 year offer, and the Dodgers will never go that long for a pitcher, even one as young as Julio. But I was wrong before when I said that the Dodgers would never sign a $300+MM player for a 10+ year term, and yet they did.
Hundred million dollar question? More like a three-hundred million dollar question.
MiLB Games:
AAA – OKC at home vs Sugar Land Space Cowboys (Houston) – Gavin Stone
AA – Tulsa at Midland RockHounds (Oakland) – Emmet Sheehan
A+ – Great Lakes at Dayton Dragons (Reds) – Yon Castro
A – Rancho at Visalia Rawhide (Arizona) – Probably Maddux Bruns
Yon Castro is a 24 year old RHP the Dodgers picked up in MiLB Rule 5 draft from NYY. Castro is from Cotui, Dominican Republic.
Could it be time for new batting coaches?
Nope