It's Come to This

 The last time there was any typing in here we were taking the San Diego Padres seriously.  Who would have expected the San Francisco Giants to be the best team in baseball.  

Well it's true.

Now The Dodgers and Giants are tied for first in the NL West and tied for the best record in all of MLB.  That's a pretty exciting detail going into the three game series this weekend.

So Dodger starters have an MLB best 2.83 ERA.  Giants starters are third best with a 3.39 ERA.  The Dodger bullpen has a 3.31 ERA while the Giants are at 3.14.

The Dodgers are hitting .242 with 1205 Ks.  The Giants are hitting .243 with 1228 Ks.

This is such an even matchup so it's going to be extra painful to watch Dave Roberts flush this down the toilet.

Dave Roberts thinks he is playing chess but what really is playing is Let's Flush This Game Down the Toilet.

Let's look at the last game.  

Max Scherzer threw six scoreless innings.  He gave up three hits, zero walks and 9 strikeouts.  He was ahead 2-0 and had thrown 76 pitches.  SEVENTY SIX PITCHES.  So Dave Roberts comes in with the hook and ten pitches later the game is tied.

There are plenty of examples of that kind of thing throughout the season.  He is too quick to pull his starters.  He makes all kinds of bad choices with his batting order.  For example, he keeps letting Cody Bellinger play.  

I know you want to get Cody going, but we are 262 ABs into his season.  Cody isn't going.  Have a seat.  Your hitting has been a bigger disaster than Joey Chestnut's 5th of July bowel movement.

5 Wins and 2 Losses

What have we learned so far?  

We have learned that Kenley Jansen is not the guy anymore.  If you can't hold the Oakland A's in check then the San Diego Padres are going to blow their shoulders out taking huge swings at your cutter.  Ok that was a cheap shot.

Sorry about that

We have learned to never give Corey Seager a day off.  He hit .667 with zero strikeouts in the first three games so Dave Roberts paid tribute to Joe Torre by giving him a day off to cool down.  He has hit .214 with 6 strikeouts in the three games since that day off so Dave Roberts knows what he has to do.  Eat your Wheaties Corey.  We need you!

We learned that Chris Taylor is OK but we are still worried about Cody Bellinger. 

Dodger hitting has been great.  The strikouts are too high but they are still hitting .310 as a team.  Starting pitching has been good.  Having a 3.02 ERA isn't good but starting the season with four games in Coors Field is going leave a lot of ERAs bloated.

The bullpen has been atrocious but every year the bullpen starts that way.  It just seems like until there are live bullets you don't really know what you have.  Who knows what to expect from David Price or Jimmy Nelson.  Hell who knows what to expect from Kenley Jansen.  The 6.11 ERA isn't going to stay that way.  Joe Kelly will be back and Bruiser Gatorade will be back.  

Overall this still looks like the best team in baseball

Well, the season is young but you could make a case for The Astros.  We'll see.  Hey that's another thing we learned.  We learned that Dusty Baker should shut up!  I hate to say anything bad about Dusty Baker but fans booing a team of cheaters that they didn't get to boo last year is right and fair.  You knew they were snakes when you picked them up Dusty so throw on an extra set of wrist bands and fill your entire mouth with tooth picks.  Fans don't want to hear it.

But I still love you #12 LF Dusty Baker 

Some Nice Thoughts

This whole deal where The Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series is the best.  It's real.  It happened.  There were some nice things said online about some of the great Dodgers from the last few years.

Matt Kemp

Adrian Gonzalez

Andre Ethier

These were guys that played like champions for The Dodgers even if they weren't there when The Dodgers were finally crowned champions.

There should also be a big middle finger to:

Logan Forsythe

Manny Machado

Brandon League

These guys were complete garbage as Los Angeles Dodgers and it's justice that they won't be around when everybody gets their rings.

2020 World Series Champions

 It happened and it was beautiful.  It took 32 years to get back to the top of the mountain but it is sweeter than ever.

There are a lot of people piling on Kevin Cash for pulling Blake Snell.  The best defense was that Snell was used that way all season and it got them to the World Series.  OK that is one way to look at it but the rest of the world was correct.  It was a truly mysterious choice.

Snell was 5 1/3 into his start.  He threw 73 pitches.  He struck out 9.  He allowed zero runs.  The line shows one earned run but Anderson let that happen.  Austin Barnes hit a single and Snell was about to face Betts, Seager, and Turner.  Those are some fierce hitters but up to that point they were 0 for 6 with 6 strikeouts.  

Why don't they fire Kevin Cash and use an app to manage The Rays.  

The thing that is tiresome about all this talk is that it doesn't give The Dodgers credit for being great.  The bottom line is that The Rays scored only one run.  Snell never pitched into the 7th inning all season.  Did anybody really think he was about to pitch a complete game shut out against a team that had not been shut out all season?

Nope

Let's stop talking about Kevin Cash filling his diaper on the big stage and talk about the best team in baseball.

This isn't some fluke that snuck in in a 60 game season.  They played under the same rules and guidelines as all 30 teams.  They had the best record in all of baseball because they were the best team.  That is why the Los Angeles Dodgers are the 2020 World Series Champions.

It IS sweeter than ever

Los Angeles Dodgers 2020 World Series Champions

This Could Be It

 Game 6 is just about an hour away.  

It's been a good series.  

The Tampa Bay offense has been clutch.  It would be nice if Willy Adames would stay in the dugout.  It's like he wants to be on TV more.

Take your .176 average and your 1 RBI and have a seat Adames!

Game 1

That went well.  

It started off looking like a low scoring pitcher's duel but it sure didn't end up that way.  Does Tyler Glasnow always look so spooked when he pitches?  Maybe that's how he always looks.  His first three innings were good.  There was a hit and two walks but he struck out 5 and allowed zero runs.  It should be noted that one of those strike outs was Joc Pederson swinging at trash and another one was a bad call to sit Justin Turner down.

If Glasnow wasn't nervous through three then it was time to be nervous in the fourth.  Max Muncy looked at strike one because that what he likes to do.  After that it was four straight balls for a walk.  Will Smith bounced one to third.  Joey Wendle made a pretty slick play on a short hop to get that out.  Then Bellinger came up on the first pitch and put it in the seats.  Instead of high fives or flying forearm bashes, everybody was going low five.  They were going really low five like five toes.  Everybody was tapping their feet together to avoid blowing Cody's shoulder out again.

Fun!

2-0 Dodgers

He walked Chris Taylor.  Chris Taylor took second base on a play that ended up being called a wild pitch but it mattered that Glasnow didn't get out of the way when Zunino threw to second.  It didn't look like it made that much difference on the throw even if Glasnow is 6'8", it just seemed important because maybe he was unraveling.  Well he struck out the next two to end the inning so maybe he wasn't completely unglued.

Kershaw gave up a home run to Kiermaier.  Oops

Tyler Glasnow then became unglued.  He walked Betts.  He walked Seager.  Turner struck out but there was a double steal in there.  Max Muncy drove one in on a fielder's choice.

3-0 Dodgers

The Rays brought in Ryan Yarbrough and he got pushed around.  

6-1 Dodgers

Statistically the Dodger bullpen has an ERA of 6.00 after one game.  We can blame Dylan Floro because he gave up 2 earned on one third of an inning but let's not do that.  Let's blame that giant stiff World Series patch that has been put on their sleeves. 

It was really great to see Clayton Kershaw keep it together in a post season game.  He went 6 innings.  he gave up one earned run on two hits and struck out 8.  He deserves good things.

The Dodgers hit .294, walked 7 times and struck out 11 times.

The Rays hit .188, walked once and struck out 10 times.

That seemed right

Dodgers 8 Rays 3

Los Angeles leads the series 1-0  

THIS IS EXCITING

 There were some pretty bleak moments in the NLCS.  A game 7 is always stressful but a late homer from Hernandez tied it and a later homer by Bellinger put the Dodgers up 4-3.  Dave Roberts left Julio Urias in with the one run lead and he got it done.

The matchup with the Rays looks pretty promising.  Let's look at it from a "tale of the tape" angle.

Starting Pitching Regular Season

Los Angeles 3.29 ERA  259 Ks        Tampa Bay 3.77 ERA 289 Ks

Starting Pitching Post Season

Los Angeles 3.33 ERA 69 Ks           Tampa Bay 3.30 ERA 71 Ks

Relief Pitching Regular Season

Los Angeles 2.74 ERA 258 Ks         Tampa Bay 3.37 ERA 263 Ks

Relief Pitching Post Season

Los Angeles 3.40 ERA 54 Ks           Tampa Bay 3.20 ERA 55 Ks

You see it all looks like a pretty even matchup.  It looks like one for the ages as long as nobody starts banging trash cans but it really looks promising when you look at offense.

During the regular season The Dodgers hit .256.  They scored 349 runs and struckout 471 times.  The Rays hit .238, scored 289 runs and struckout 608 times.  That's kind of a big difference.

It gets even better when you look at the Post Season

The Rays have hit .209, scored 57 runs and struckout 151 times.

The Dodgers have hit .256, scored 69 runs and struckout 106 times.

That's a huge difference.  The Dodgers have scored 12 more runs in two fewer post season games.

This really might be the year.