Dodgers Wait Until Last Second to Avoid Sweep
June 26, 2011 at 5:00 pm | Posted in Clayton Kershaw, Dee Gordon, Tony Gwynn | 26 CommentsFor most of the afternoon, today’s matchup between Clayton Kershaw and Jered Weaver more than lived up to the hype, matching strikeouts, zeroes, and highlights. I don’t want to gloss over that, because it’s important, but hold that thought for the moment, and let’s not pretend you’re here to talk about anything but the ninth inning.
After Kershaw had allowed a Vernon Wells dinger in the top of the ninth, putting the Angels up 2-1, bloggers like myself were no doubt working furiously on the usual “great starting pitching wasted by atrocious offense” spiel. It’s the kind of thing we’ve written so often this season that we can basically churn them out in our sleep. The Dodgers would roll over and die, particularly with Dioner Navarro and Juan Uribe, starting the bottom of the ninth. They’d be swept by the Angels, a lost season would get even sadder, and we’d all move on with our lives.
Not today, though, in large part thanks to the wildness of Angels rookie closer Jordan Walden and some favorable umpiring in the ninth. Walden led off the frame by walking Uribe, and if giving the leadoff hitter a free pass isn’t already an unforgivable sin, walking the hapless Uribe is. Dee Gordon then ran for Uribe, and as I said at the time on Twitter, “never has there been a more appropriate lineup move than running Dee Gordon for Juan Uribe down 1 in the bottom of the 9th.”
Gordon took off for second, as everyone in the stadium knew he would, and he slid in safely. Or did he? There’s no doubt that he beat the Jeff Mathis throw, but as he slid head-first over the bag, he appeared to begin to get up, so that briefly he was on his hands and knees without his midsection touching the bag, and with the tag still applied on his back. You tell me:
Still, the call was safe, and with all of the bad karma this team has had this year, I’ll happily take it. Walden still couldn’t get it together and walked Navarro, nearly hitting him with the final pitch. Jamey Carroll stepped up and sacrificed Navarro and Gordon to second and third, and let’s talk about that for a second. Yes, it worked, and yes, Sam Miller of the Orange County Register did point out to me that statistically, it was the right thing to do. It just doesn’t sit right with me, though. You’ve got Gordon, perhaps the fastest man in the sport on at second base, able to score on nearly any hit to the outfield. You’ve got Carroll, one of the few Dodgers who have shown any skill with the bat this year, at the plate. To sacrifice him and give up one of your three precious outs in exchange for a non-guaranteed chance to move Gordon up 90 feet and leave the game in the hands of Aaron Miles and Tony Gwynn… well, I know it worked, I just didn’t like it at the time.
Anyway, that put men on at second and third for Miles. He hit a fly ball to a relatively shallow center field, where Peter Bourjos collected it and threw a laser to home. Gordon and the ball arrived at the same time, and Mathis did a wonderful job of blocking Gordon from the plate. Honestly, I’ve watched this replay a dozen times and I’m still not entirely sure. Gordon, coming in feet first, clearly didn’t get through Mathis, and his first attempt at swiping with his left hand came up short. What’s less clear is whether Mathis actually got the tag down; it looks to me like he probably did tag Gordon’s backside before Dee’s second attempt with the left hand made it, but it’s hard to say for sure. Again, you tell me:
For the second time in the inning, Gordon got the favorable call, and the game was tied.
(As an aside, and this has nothing to do with the terrible injury suffered by Buster Posey, I hate the rule that allows the catcher to block the plate like this. It’s one thing to not get out of the way of a runner because you’re trying to receive the ball, and it’s another thing entirely to prevent the runner entirely from accessing the plate. As you can see, Gordon was brought to nearly a complete stop by Mathis here. That sort of thing isn’t allowed at other bases, and it shouldn’t be allowed at the plate – it’s just unfair to the runner.)
But a tie isn’t enough, and so Gwynn walked to the plate with two down. (I’ll spare you my usual “Kershaw was in the books for a loss, then to a no-decision, then got the win, despite doing absolutely nothing in the bottom of the ninth to impact any of that” business for once.) Eight pitches into the at-bat, he flicked a pitch to right field, easily scoring Trent Oeltjen, who had run for Navarro.
Tony Gwynn, hero. Baseball’s a funny game sometimes.
******
As I said before, we’d be remiss to not acknowledge the pitching performance we saw from Kershaw and Weaver. The Dodgers put men on the corners with no outs in the fifth? No problem; Weaver induced a grounder from Kershaw and flyouts from Tony Gwynn & Casey Blake. Jeff Mathis leads off the sixth with a double, followed by Weaver attempting to sacrifice him to third? Not a concern; Kershaw leaped off the mound to snag the popped bunt before turning to nail Mathis for the double play at second, in a play that must be seen to be believed (I think I’ve reached my animated GIF quota for one day, okay?)
In the seventh, each side drew blood against the other ace, though both runs could be charitably described as “lucky”. Kershaw allowing a double to Erick Aybar looks bad in the box score, but it was a bloop that landed just in between left fielder Gwynn & shortstop Jamey Carroll which Aybar aggressively turned into two bases. He was then driven in on a Howie Kendrick single to center which fell just out of the reach of a diving Matt Kemp. As a legion of Dodger fans resigned themselves to a 1-0 loss, the Angels gave the run right back in the bottom of the frame. Kershaw led off with a single, and we’re going to have to stop jokingly saying that he’s better than any pinch-hitter who might replace him, because it’s basically true. Gwynn, hitting leadoff for reasons I can’t possibly comprehend, then crushed a ball to right field, scoring Kershaw. We’ll gloss over the fact that Vernon Wells really should have come down with the ball on the warning track and enjoy the rare good fortune that comes our way when it does. Of course, Wells earned that run right back with his go-ahead homer.
This is the 12th time in Kershaw’s career he’s put up double-digit strikeout numbers, though it’s the first time he’s done it in back-to-back starts, since he also struck out 11 Tigers last week. It also put him up to 128 K’s on the season, putting him back ahead of Justin Verlander for the most in baseball. That’s impressive, but that’s not what I liked the best about today; it was the fact that he did it without a single walk. Remember when we said that the only thing holding him back from megaultrastardom was harnessing the walks? Yeah, about that: his K/BB rate from 2008-11: 1.92, 2.03, 2.62, 3.66.
Clayton Kershaw, shiny golden god.
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“Clayton Kershaw, shiny golden god.”
Long live the Minotaur!
Comment by Tim— June 26, 2011 #
“Gwynn, hitting leadoff for reasons I can’t possibly comprehend”
Hahaha great line.
Also, Kersh’s K/BB ratio this season is 4/1.
Comment by johnmano12— June 26, 2011 #
Mike, where does this game compare with kershaws other starts in terms of game score? I gotta imagine he holds at least 3 or more of the top 10 starts this year
Comment by Ucsb07— June 26, 2011 #
Tied for 10th in his career. The dinger really knocked him back.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— June 26, 2011 #
the 9th inning stopped me from wanting to hang myself. lol great game. go blue!
Comment by format— June 26, 2011 #
I was talking to my friend today about the best (only?) things going for the Dodgers… I said Clayton and The Bison… That sounds like either a great children’s book, or a rock band.
Comment by NativeWharf— June 26, 2011 #
“I hate the rule that allows the catcher to block the plate like this”
There is actually nothing in the rule book which treats home plate differently than any other bases. It’s just a play umpires don’t enforce. Catchers are no more allowed to block the plate than third basemen.
Comment by PJ— June 26, 2011 #
….and all the more reason to plow the catcher over. That would be funny to watch with Gordon against almost any catcher..
Comment by west coast ram— June 26, 2011 #
If you watch Gordon stealing 2nd, Mathis places his left foot directly in front of the base. It’s what causes Dee’s torso to rise up off the bag. Way less blatant than getting down on your knees in front of the plate, but still definitely blocking the bag. And it looks like he got his ankle turned rather painfully for his trouble.
Comment by Dave— June 26, 2011 #
Mike,
The replays are great, but even in slow motion and watching 5 times its not clear. So lets not get on the umps for this. I thought even though it looked like Gordon was getting up at second, it appears that his thigh stayed in contact. At home it looked like the tag wasn’t made. Maybe Angel fans will see it otherwise. As for bunting -Carroll has been weak with RISP and Miles hot lately. And again that chart you posted shows that bunting with no outs man on second leads to a greater chance of scoring..
Comment by DAVID S— June 26, 2011 #
Kershaw is so good it’s just ridiculous. Pitching lights out, getting a 2 strike, 2 out knock off Weav that let TGJ triple him in. That double play. Just awesome. I love Clayton
Comment by Joey E.— June 26, 2011 #
Oltjen HAD to run for Navarro BECAUSE Navarro could not tag up from second when the throw was going to a play at the plate to try and get the tying run? I am 6’0″, 295lbs and 41 years old: I would have been standing on 3rd when Gwynn came up, and walked home on the single to right field.
Terrible base running by Navarro.
On the flip side, good move by Mattingly to recognize Navarro’s mistake and rectify it with a pinch runner.
Comment by John Young— June 26, 2011 #
Totally agree. Navarro absolutely should have been on 3rd.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— June 26, 2011 #
Every time Navarro starts, I die a little inside…
MSTI, what part of blocking the plate do you not like. What is the catcher supposed to do? Just let the runner score easily? The catcher should make it as difficult as he can for the runner to score. Btw, do you think that Gordon shouldve slid around Mathis? However, I don’t think that Aybar should’ve been allowed to block second base like he did.
Comment by Brian R— June 27, 2011 #
I think that if a fielder has a ball or is directly receiving a throw that is already in the air, he should be able to block the bag. It would be too hard to get the runner otherwise. I also don’t think Mathis broke any rules.
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I want to call attention to something I think might be amazing, but it might be more common than I think. Going back to his start against Cincinnati on June 14th and ending in the eighth inning of this game (Jay Bruce in the 7th to Bobby Abreu in the 8th), Clayton Kershaw had a streak of 17 innings pitched and 59 batters faced where he did not face a left handed batter. I noticed this because both the Tigers and Angels starting lineups were all right handed batters or switch hitters batting right handed. Over this streak, he allowed 8 hits, 1 walk, 1 run, and struck out 21. If that’s not close to a record for most consecutive batters faced with a platoon disadvantage, then it’s surely a record for best performance over a streak of 50+ batters faced with a platoon disadvantage. Does anyone know how to check something like that?
Comment by Bip— June 27, 2011 #
Maybe I should call for Uribe to be DFA’d. Shortly after saying that we should bring up some combination of Sands, Trayvon, and Hoffman, and dump Thames, GWYNN, and Oeltjen, Gwynn has a career day. Bunt single, triple, and the game winning hit via a terrific at bat against a 99 mph closer. Tony lives to see another day and I eat crow. Quite tasty, I must admit.
Comment by SamAdams— June 27, 2011 #
Totally Kershawesome. Build a little ball team around this guy, and go back to the WS.
Dee: out-ish at second, safe-ish at home. On the play at home, I wonder why Gordon didn’t take the open lane, just foul of Mathis. It’s the most direct, quickest path to the plate and it forces the catcher to perform a more difficult, time-consuming swipe tag. Plus, less chance of injury, for everyone involved.
Comment by McColletti BeGone— June 27, 2011 #
Would you rather be Aybar’s ankle or Mathis’s balls this morning?
Comment by ThtsaPaddlin— June 27, 2011 #
Why do you keep saying Kershaw is so great? Okay, I will give it to him for being a talented pitcher, but he didn’t do anything Weaver didn’t also do. They both came in and pitched great games, then the Umps decided, hey, this is close, lets give it to the Dodgers. So let us get down on the Umps, and I say scream and yell until we get some instant replay. The Original LA Team, Angels got the real Sweep, it’s just not on paper.
Comment by Trace— June 27, 2011 #
Good lord. Could your bias be any more transparent?
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— June 27, 2011 #
I really hope this is a troll post, for your sake.
Comment by Bip— June 27, 2011 #
Anyone else notice that it looks like Aybar tags the ground and not Dee Gordon. After all, Dee is exactly the largest target and could easily be missed. If you look at replays from the other side, the non-super slo-mo ones, it looks like Aybar tags the ground next to Gordon. Then he falls over because he was so off balance from swiping down to the dirt next to Gordon.
As for the play at the plate… Is the rule: if a runner makes contact with the catcher or fielder holding the ball, he is out? Or am I correct in thinking that at the plate you MUST tag the runner with the ball. If I am correct, then Gordon was safe when he put his hand on the plate because Mathis not once tried to make the tag. He got kneed pretty hard in the ribs by Gordon but he did not tag him yet, so the umpire delayed his call waiting to see a tag or waiting to see Gordon finally touch the plate (which he does touch it with his hand after initial contact).
Anyone have thoughts on this? I think it’s important to realize that there is reasoning behind every umpire’s call, and it is not a case of completely missing something.
Comment by RedSoxNation3— June 27, 2011 #
IS NOT exactly the largest target** oops
Comment by RedSoxNation3— June 27, 2011 #
You must tag the runner with the ball, or with a glove that is holding the ball. It’s hard to tell from the angle of the gif up there, but it looks like the base of Mathis’ glove may have touched Gordon before Gordon touched the plate, but if the base of his glove didn’t touch Gordon, then there was no tag, as Mathis never reapplied the tag.
Comment by Bip— June 27, 2011 #
It is extremely hard to tell but I do believe that Mathis had his forearm on Gordon’s backside and not the glove.
And quite honestly it looks like Aybar missed the tag. You notice that his glove goes deep down past Gordon’s mass. His glove is definitely on the ground. You really honestly have to think to yourself “there is always a reason for an umpire’s call” sometimes they’re completely wrong, but cameras don’t always capture the finest details that may be seen by a pair of human eyes that have somethig right in front of them.
Comment by RedSoxNation3— June 27, 2011 #
[...] June 26: This is the 12th time in Kershaw’s career he’s put up double-digit strikeout numbers, though [...]
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