This game started out bad and got worse from there. Bobby Miller just did not have it tonight to begin the game. Before he could get an out, it was 5-0. The feared Dodger lineup looked like a AA team against Griffin Canning. Canning came into the game with an ERA above 5, 12 losses on the year and had given up 25 homers.
No problem? Well, not the case. He set the big 3 down in order in the first. Of course, having a 5 run lead takes a lot of the pressure off. As with the D-Backs game on Sunday, Roberts started pulling his starters after the score got to 7-0. Miller by then had allowed 3 home runs. He did strike out 8. But he walked 3 and allowed 5 hits. All 7 runs against him were earned.
Meanwhile the offense has disappeared once again. It looks like they will lose a game off of their lead. Just have to wait for the results of the games in San Diego and San Francisco. The best thing about this game is that another day is taken off of the schedule. They also got the news that Yamamoto will make his next start at Dodger Stadium Tuesday against the Cubs, who are back in the playoff hunt. The Cubs placed two pitchers on the IL today, Justin Steele and Jorge Lopez. Cubs also got a combined no-hitter at Wrigley in a game Imanaga started.
With Yamamoto coming back, that means someone has to be sent down off of the 28-man. Take your pick of who that might be. Right now, after tonight’s performance, it could possibly be Miller. He obviously has lost some of his luster with this debacle. Sweeney hit his second homer of the year tonight against Mitsui of the Padres. Darvish only lasted 2.2 innings in his return from the IL.
Gallen pitched 6 innings of no-hit ball against the Giants tonight. Ginkel gave up a leadoff single to Fitzgerald in the bottom of the 7th to end that. Wade followed with a homer to end the shutout. 10-1 loss. Bad game all around. OKC and Tulsa both lost their games Rancho was a loser too. Great Lakes got a win. No game for the Dodgers tomorrow as they head home to face the Guardians and then the Cubs. I have no idea what they might get from Yamamoto on Tuesday, but they must feel he will be able to go maybe 5 innings.
22 games left. 12 of those games are at home. Their next 10 games are all against contending teams. Guardians, Cubs and then the Braves before they head to Miami for three. Then six of the last nine are against Colorado. One thing I think they need is for the offense to not take nights off. That is what seemed to happen tonight. I might be totally wrong about what I saw, but I thought they swung at too many pitches that were not in the zone.
Guardians are throwing a lefty, Boyd on Friday, Alex Cobb goes on Saturday and Gavin Williams on Sunday. No starters announced for the Dodgers yet. While LA is off tomorrow, both Az and the Padres will be playing. That means that if both win tonight and then tomorrow, they will pick up 1.5 games on the Dodgers. That would put San Diego only 4 games back and the D-Backs, 4.5. Arizona did beat the Giants despite another 9th inning Giant rally. Lamont Wade drove in all four Giants runs.
The Padres ended up beating the Tigers in 10 innings. The Dodgers lead SD by 4.5 games and Arizona by 5. Things tightening up a bit in the NL west. Dave Roberts did say after the game that Miller would make at least one more start, most likely next Wednesday against the Cubs in the series finale. The Giants struck first in the 2025 free agent market; they signed Matt Chapman to a six-year-151-million-dollar contract. The Dodgers are 4 games up on the Padres in the win column and 6 up in the loss column. As I have said before, the Padres play one less game than the Dodgers.
Will be gone most of the day, have to go to the Springs and pick up a friend at the airport. Visiting from Nevada. Will check in later and then update todays scores and standings.
For Bobby Miller his next start probably means do or die. He either shows something or he will be shut down for the rest of 24. At some point you have to make a decision and give the next man in line his shot (Knack ?) or hopefully have Glasnow back.
Miller IMHO also is not an option for the bullpen. He has too many innings where he simply implodes completely. Can not have that in the playoffs. We saw last year how that script ends.
Second beat down in the last 4 games, first in ARI , now vs the Angels.
I still want to see the Dodgers give Henriquez a look. An arm like that could make a huge difference in the playoffs.
Grove, Peterson and Honeywell probably are not making the playoff roster anyway. At least not all of them.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rojas not a starter? This is what Badger said, yet he has started most of his career and not done badly. He is a super SS, but he is not a super OPS guy. He doesn’t hit many HRs but my money is on him to make the big plays at SS any time he is on the field. If it weren’t for the Mookie experiment, his stats might even look better for this season and they are already looking pretty darn good. I think he’s good for another year and I’m hoping we make the playoffs so we can see him do his magic.
One of the basic problems Dodger pitchers have had this season is throwing the HR ball. If you’re a pitcher coming back from rehab, this is about as bad a thing as can be. Having good command is not enough for a pitcher. You’ve got to have good control and not be hittable, especially, the BOMB. This is kind of killing our staff. Miller, Buehler, even Flaherty, suffer this flaw. Giving up the HR is our biggest pitching weakness. Even Kershaw is not immune any longer. This is a problem that we have not addressed as of yet and it seems to me it will be a real weakness in the playoffs. Letting teams back into a game via the HR is deflating. I love when we do it, but hate when it is done to us.
Yes Roberts keeps pulling his starters after 5 innings, sometimes 6 , rarely.leaves them in for 7. But I checked and their pitch counts.are in the 80’s by the 5th inning. At that rate letting them go one more inning puts them at near 100. Why are they throwing so many pitches?
Given that I think it would be helpful to have 2 long guys in the bullpen to piggyback. This would help the bullpen not have to use 4 relievers every game.
And in the playoffs using 4 starters some of them might need to pitch on less rest than their accustomed to. Having long relievers would help ( Knack, Glasnow, Kersh)?
With 16 games in 17 coming up here is how I look at the pitching situation for that stretch (the lineup and bench is pretty much set up):
Starters for the next 5 games according to what Roberts has said yesterday: Knack, Stone, Flaherty, Buehler, Yamamoto . I think they will DFA Honeywell or Peterson to bring up Knack. Then the decision will come if Miller gets another start on Wednesday to give the other 5 the extra day as has been the case most of the year.
Bullpen I would like to see: Kopech, Phillps, Treinen, Hudson, Brasier, Banda, Vesia, Grove/Honeywell/Peterson. Eventually need to sent down or DFA 2 out of 3 for Knack on Friday and then for Yamamoto on Tuesday.
Grove has options so one of Peterson and Honeywell will have to be dFAed. Should they call up Graterol all three of them will be gone by then.
When Glasnow comes back (fingers crossed) a decision on Bobby Miller will have to made. If he does not well next Wednesday I think that will it be for him for 2024.
Yes, the stuff is there but the Dodgers can not wait any longer for him to maybe work out his mechanics and psyche. To Those who think he is close; He has not been able to correct himself all season long. Why do you think that will happen in the last 3 weks before October ? If the Dodgers would be up 10 games in the standings they might wait til the end of the regular season but with all the injuries, the overworked pen (looking at the last 2 months) and a dog fight for the division they simply can not give Bobby Miller that additional time. And it pains me to say it cause I am one of the biggest Bobby Miller fans around. When I saw that first inning today on MLB archives I skipped breakfast because of it. Made me really depressed.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Knack being called up to pitch the opener against Cleveland on Friday.
If Glasnow and Yamamoto finish this year healthy and well, I would entertain trading them in the off season. That should raise a few eyebrows. If payroll is the lid on which free agents the Dodgers chase then dumping their cost would free up payroll to fight for Soto.
Yes, the Dodgers will need more pitchers if Glasnow and Yamamoto are gone but how much fun would it be with Betts, Soto, Ohtani, Freeman in the lineup.
Sometimes you wonder, do they game plan against pitchers every single game? This guy is trying to lead MLB in losses. I am guessing there are patterns you can pick up on film. Like the fact he sucks at pitching.
I guess it’s best just to move on from a game like that. It does not build confidence at any level.
Ted, “Dodger lineup posted on the Dodger broadcast a couple of minutes before the first pitch. Then showed the Angel pitcher’s stats for the season.”
Thanks for the report on SNLA.
That’s what I see as well and it’s inadequate in my opinion. The visiting team’s lineup and the starting pitcher’s stats are less than half of the information I want to know.
I want to see the defensive alignment, too.
In the bottom of the inning, I want the same information in reverse with the umpires listed in there somewhere.
I don’t know why they don’t do that.
Miller struggled with some of the same issues that Miller has shown. But Miller is getting worse while Buehler is showing improvement.
This was my analysis yesterday of Buehler. Miller suffers from similar issues.
Much of what I wrote about Buehlar applies to Miller, in spades.
Walker was again victimized by the home run. He just doesn’t seem to get away with mistakes. I set out to research why. His fastball seems to be the problem and he lives “thigh high” with that pitch. Even when not center-cut, thigh high gets hit. More at the top or bottom of the zone, works.
His velocity is back to where it was prior to TJ, but it’s lost movement. It’s hit at a .367 clip. His other pitches are more effective, especially his cutter, which I think he hung last night for a dinger. His changeup has been horseshit, but he never throws it. That pitch could keep hitters off his fastball. He could rally use that pitch now days, if he could improve it and threw it way more often. But he gets better every outing.
Both of the homers off Buehler were solo shots.
Miller just can’t locate his pitches. 85 pitches in 5 innings with 3 walks doesn’t look horrible, in today’s game. But a closer look reveals his issues.
He threw 29 pitches in the first inning. Walk, hit by pitch on 0&1, single, single, home run. He got ahead of the next 3 hitters and struck out the side.
The homer in the 2nd was on a 3&1 count.
Another 19 pitch 5th including homer, walk, walk. A double-play saved more damage.
It doesn’t take Einstein to figure out the problem. If you pitch behind in the count to big league hitters with no consistent command of at least one breaking pitch, these big innings, you will get rocked.
Plus they say you can see his pitches well out of hand.
We really could use one of these guys for the playoffs, obviously.
Miller just can’t locate his pitches. 85 pitches in 5 innings with 3 walks doesn’t look horrible, in today’s game. But a closer look reveals his issues.
He throw 29 pitches in the first inning. Walk, hit by pitch on 0&1, single, single, home run. He got ahead of the next 3 hitters and struck out the side.
The homer in the 2nd was on a 3&1 count.
Another 19 pitch 5th including homer, walk, walk. A double-play saved more damage.
It doesn’t take Einstein to figure out the problem.
Plus they say you can see his pitches well out of hand.
In case you missed it, this was my assessment of Buehler I posted yesterday. The same applies to Miller only more so.
“Walker was again victimized by the home run. He just doesn’t seem to get away with mistakes. I set out to research why. His fastball seems to be the problem and he lives “thigh high” with that pitch. Even when not center-cut, thigh high gets hit. More at the top or bottom of the zone, works.
His velocity is back to where it was prior to TJ, but it’s lost movement. It’s hit at a .367 clip. His other pitches are more effective, especially his cutter, which I think he hung last night for a dinger. His changeup has been horseshit, but he never throws it. That pitch could keep hitters off his fastball. He could rally use that pitch now days, if he could improve it and threw it way more often. But he gets better every outing.”
Miller’s lack of success is stunning with every pitch but his change-up.
While Batting Average isn’t every thing, it’s worth a look in his case.
By pitch type, take a look at batting average difference between 2023 compared to 2024:
4-seamer; BA up .63 pts from 23
curve: BA up .130 pts
sinker: BA up .105 pts
slider” BA up .56 pts
Change-up: BA down .33 pts. His ONLY effective pitch is his change.
That just has to be command issues.
Miller is not getting better and I think it’s one more try or shut down for the year.
Jim Bowden put out his Top 50 Prospect List today.
Rushing – 17
dePaula – 30
Normally I wouldn’t pay any attention to a prospect list from him but he had one interesting comment about dePaula. He said Juan Soto speaks very highly of him.
I would think Soto knows good hitting when he sees it.
Unfortunately no context or quote was given in the article.
Az lost to the Giants today, 3-2, picked up 1/2 game in the standings. Az now 5.5 back. Little help from our friends up north. SD will either be 4 or 5 games back depending on if they win or lose. Pads have 6 games left with the Giants.
So it’s been reported that Landon Knack will take Kershaw’s start on Friday. This is a great opportunity for Knack, who with a strong start could push himself ahead of Miller in the pitching pecking order.
The plain fact is that Knack has out-performed both Miller and Buehler this season. A convincingly strong performance by Knack could also ease some of the the uncertainty that still surrounds Glasnow, Yamamoto and Kershaw.
In my many fantasy trades, I’ve packaged Knack in many deals–for Burnes, Cease, Crochet, Skubal…
With his lumpy build, Knack is not out of central casting. But he’s got an outside chance here to be a Cinderella Man, the hero nobody expected. Everybody likes a good story, right?
Wow — Tigers just hit a full-count, two outs grand slam in the top of the 9th to take a 4-3 lead over the Pads.
Tigers stun Padres. Down 3-0 in the top of the 9th and down to their last strike, the Tigers got a grand slam homer from rookie Parker Meadows and beat SD 4-3. Dodger lead against SD is now 4.5. Since Az lost too, LA picks up a half game on them too. Lead by 5.5.