2011 September « Mike Scioscia's tragic illness

Dee Gordon Makes His Case

September 8, 2011 at 7:12 pm | Posted in Dee Gordon, Kenley Jansen | 47 Comments

When Dee Gordon was recalled in June, most of us were torn between “wow, Dee Gordon! This will be exciting!” and “this is far too soon, right?” In 30 games (26 starts) over the next two months sandwiched around a demotion and an injury , Gordon didn’t do much to change that impression, hitting just .234/.248/.270, yet providing a season’s worth of highlight-reel plays.

When Gordon returned on September 1 in the Pittsburgh makeup game, he had two hits, including a double. He had three the next day in Atlanta, a double the next night despite not getting into the game until the eighth inning, and three more in the final game against the Braves. After an ugly 0-5 on Monday in Washington, Gordon had three more hits on Tuesday – including a double against Stephen Strasburg that almost no one else in baseball could have stretched to two – and then a career-high four on Thursday afternoon. Since his return from the disabled list, Gordon is 16-31 with four doubles, and showing the usual combo of fantastic plays and botched easy plays on defense.

It’s not all gravy, of course; Gordon has drawn just two walks in 145 plate appearances. (Sidebar: let’s assume Gordon gets something like 200 plate appearances this season; only seven players since MLB integrated had that many PA without drawing more than two unintentional walks.) It’s pretty hard to have an acceptable slash line when you’re not drawing any walks, and his BABIP of 8.123 (may be slightly exaggerated) over that span isn’t likely to keep up.

All of which is a long way of saying that A) Gordon’s success has been really fun to watch this week, B) clearly he’s not going to keep it up, and C) most importantly, I think that as long as he stays healthy, there’s little chance the Dodgers won’t hand him the fulltime shortstop job headed into 2012. Why wouldn’t they? They’re not going to play Justin Sellers every day, and they already have at least two – possibly three – infield question marks.

On Twitter, realizing this, I offhandedly said, with little thought or research, to Eric Stephen of TrueBlueLA that given 500 plate appearances in 2012, Gordon’s line might look something like .275/.310/.340 with 38 steals and 31 errors. In retrospect, the steals might be too low, but considering that I saw replies from people both calling me far too optimistic and insisting he’d hit .300, I think that’s about in the sweet spot. Too high? Too low? Let’s hear your guesses.

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Kenley Jansen, since returning from shoulder inflammation on June 18: 40 strikeouts, 10 walks, one earned run allowed, and five hits allowed (all singles) in 86 batters faced. Uh, yes please. The lack of attention he’s receiving is bordering on criminal.

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Have fun this weekend, particularly with Clayton Kershaw looking to continue his run of domination against the Giants on Friday. (Remember what happened when he faced them in May? We bagged on Don Mattingly for choosing Juan Castro over Jerry Sands, Russ Mitchell, and Tony Gwynn to pinch-hit for Kershaw with the bases loaded, thus leading to Lance Cormier being asked to blow a tie game. Which he did. Ahhh, good times.) I’m off on a boat to an island. Chew on that for a while. See you Monday.

Andre Ethier Done For Season With Knee Injury

September 8, 2011 at 8:47 am | Posted in Andre Ethier | 17 Comments

Andre Ethier has finally decided the pain in his knee is too much, and he’s made the decision we all called for nearly two weeks ago:

Ethier will seek a second opinion on his right knee. The team and Andre have decided that since the knee has not improved, he should discontinue playing and seek all opinions to determine the next course of action.

That’s via the official Dodger twitter, and Ethier is of course not in the lineup for the first game of today’s doubleheader, with Jerry Sands and Juan Rivera flanking Matt Kemp in the outfield corners. Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times confirms that Ethier is done for the season. The funny thing is, since this whole knee business broke on August 28, Ethier’s been red-hot, hitting .400/.464/.600 in 28 plate appearances over eight games (six starts). On Tuesday, he had two hits and drove in four, narrowly being deprived of a fifth when Tony Gwynn was thrown out at the plate.

Despite that, while this will certainly disappoint a lot of fans who have tickets for the final homestand of the year, this is essentially good news. It’s good news for Ethier because if the knee is really that troublesome – and based on his performance this year, the last week aside, it has been – then it’s for the best that he stop pounding it and go see what’s wrong. It’s good news for the Dodgers because it gives them absolutely no excuse to not play Sands every single day, which is basically the most important thing we’re going to get out of September, other than cheering for Kemp and Clayton Kershaw to win their awards. And, while it’s too soon to really say this for sure, it might just be good for the club in the negotiating room, if a lousy season and injury concerns help keep Ethier’s cost down in arbitration.

That’s a conversation for another time, however. Right now, the most important thing is finding out what’s wrong with him and getting him back to the player he once was in order to help the offense in 2012. If a side benefit of that is giving Sands all the time he needs to prove himself, all the better.

(By the way, the weather forecast for Washington, DC, is once again hilariously bad today. If you think we got our fill of weather-related shenanigans yesterday, think again.)

Screw It, I Don’t Care What Dana Eveland And Chien-Ming Wang Do Tonight

September 7, 2011 at 2:47 pm | Posted in rain | 7 Comments

First, the game was on.

Then it wasn’t.

Then it was again.

Now, again, it’s not.

And that’s about all I can take of it. You’ve toyed with me for too long today, weather. And Joe Torre. And Mike Rizzo. You’d think that the simple matter of “uh, hey, should we play a baseball game tonight?” wouldn’t be something that requires our nation’s brightest scientists, but, hey, what do I know? Apparently it does require a requisite amount of “derp” after all.

This means that tomorrow’s doubleheader is back on, though let’s not pretend there’s a chance that it’ll go off without any sort of additional weather-related hitch.

I think Quizzical Nomar sums it up best, no?

Dodger Game No Longer Rained Out, Forcing Dana Eveland vs Chien-Ming Wang On Unsuspecting Nation

September 7, 2011 at 2:19 pm | Posted in rain | 8 Comments

Not shown: Kemp browsing through Best Buy for sweet deals.

Well, you just cannot make stories like this up. Earlier today, I thought it was odd that tonight’s game in Washington would be called off so far in advance of game time, particularly with the radar seeming to clear up as time went on. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one. According to a series of tweets from Adam Kilgore and Gene Wang of the Washington Post, the Nationals never officially canceled the game, despite the Dodgers’ assertion on Twitter that it was done. Kilgore tweeted:

About tonight’s Dodgers-Nats game: The teams agreed earlier today to postpone. MLB stepped in, told them to try. Rizzo talking to Torre now.

Even from beyond the grave (figuratively, let’s clarify), Joe Torre cannot help but screw with the Dodgers. And now the game is officially back on, after hours of total indecision on all sides.

Basically, this is how I imagine the conversation went.

Dodgers/Nats: Hey, it looks bad out, we’re not going to play.
MLB: Um, yes you are.
Dodgers: But we already said so on Twitter. Once it’s on Twitter, it can’t be wrong.
MLB: Shut up. You’re playing.
Dodgers: But Matt Kemp and Dee Gordon are gone. They went to Best Buy. (This is a real thing that happened.)
MLB: Well, get them back. Or else suffer through Eugenio Velez.
Dodgers: Okay, but, we already told Dana Eveland to go home. He won’t be properly warmed up.
MLB: Who cares. It’s Dana Eveland.
Dodgers: Good point. Okay, fine.

Dodger Game Rained Out, Depriving Nation of Dana Eveland vs Chien-Ming Wang

September 7, 2011 at 10:57 am | Posted in rain | 26 Comments

Per the official Dodger Twitter feed, today’s epic match-up of Dana Eveland against Chien-Ming Wang has been rained out, with a “traditional” doubleheader coming tomorrow.

As you can see from the weather.com forecast, things are pretty nasty in our nation’s capitol right now:

That said, things do look pretty clear behind the storm, and since first pitch isn’t for another 5.5 hours I do find it a bit surprising that they’re calling it off so soon. That’s particularly true because a “traditional” doubleheader – i.e., one ticket gets you in to both games, with Game 2 starting roughly 30 minutes after the end of Game 1 – is going to cost the Nationals the money they would have picked up by having two separate games. Since tomorrow’s game was already a 1pm ET start, technically today’s game will be the second game tomorrow.

For the Dodgers, this just makes their travel schedule even more difficult. Already in the midst of a stretch of 24 games in 24 days, the early start tomorrow was designed to accommodate a cross-country trip to San Francisco without the benefit of a day off. Now, that flight will be pushed back by another 4-5 hours, making what was already a tough trip even harder.

So now we’re without Dodger baseball for a night, and I throw the doors open to you. What do you want to talk about? Juan Uribe having surgery for a sports hernia today? Bill Plaschke trying to rattle the old jingoism cages by saying he’s one of the seemingly few who likes “God Bless America” during every single game? Let’s hear it.

Dodgers Overcome Strasburg, Rain to Beat Nationals 7-3

September 6, 2011 at 8:22 pm | Posted in Ted Lilly | 18 Comments

Let’s get the Stephen Strasburg business out of the way first; in his long-awaited return from Tommy John surgery, the young righty was masterful, needing just 56 pitches to get through five scoreless innings, allowing two hits. The 99 MPH (-ish, because TV guns can never be trusted) two-seamer with which he made Aaron Miles look foolish in the second inning was a thing of beauty, and it never gets old after one million viewings:

Strasburg was awesome, and seeing him seemingly on his way back to full strength after surgery was a joy. Yet contrary to what Eric Collins & Steve Lyons on KCAL would have you believe, of course, there was a whole lot more to this game than whether Strasburg was going to “come away with a win”, especially considering that the Dodgers ended up winning 7-3.

To be fair, Strasburg’s strict pitch count played a huge part in the victory, because after seeing 15 of 17 mowed down by Strasburg, the Dodgers battered five Washington relievers for eleven hits in the final four innings, including five in the sixth inning alone to plate three. Dee Gordon bounced back from an 0-5 night with three hits, including a leadoff double that just about no one else in the league could have extended past a single, Rod Barajas broke a 3-3 tie with a two-run double in the eighth, and Andre Ethier drive in four with a single in the sixth and a double in the ninth. I don’t think it’s going out too much on a limb that facing a group of nondescript relievers, including two making their big league debuts, was slightly easier than flailing against the dominant Strasburg.

For all the talk about Strasburg, it was Dodger pitching which impressed, setting a season high with 17 strikeouts, the most they’ve had since striking out that many Rockies on the last day of 2009. Ted Lilly led with nine, generally pitching well other than a second inning in which he allowed back-to-back doubles and committed a throwing error.

Oh, and Eugenio Velez got to hit again. He grounded out weakly to second base. Of course he did.

Dodgers Recall Three to Not Face Stephen Strasburg and Nationals

September 6, 2011 at 1:04 pm | Posted in Ivan DeJesus, John Ely, Tim Federowicz | 22 Comments

With the AAA season at an end, the Dodgers have recalled three Isotopes to bolster the roster, according to Dylan Hernandez: Jerry Sands, John Ely, and Tim Federowicz. Not a single one counts as a surprise, and if anything that seems to say that we should not be expecting Ivan DeJesus or Jamie Hoffmann to be making cameos, since there’s no reason to delay their recalls. If anything, I’m more intrigued to see what happens when AA Chattanooga’s playoff run comes to an end, since there’s been a lot of fun names tossed around as possible callups from that club, names like Shawn Tolleson, Allen Webster, Scott Van Slyke and Cole St. Clair.

Of the three newcomers, only Federowicz is seeing the bigs for the first time, and it will be interesting to see how they’re used. Ely is simply depth, of course, who may or may not get a start down the stretch depending on schedules, health, and Dana Eveland. Ideally, Sands will see a healthy amount of playing time as the club attempts to see if he can be counted on in 2012. Considering that Juan Rivera has been awful for the last two weeks (and remember, he was already DFA’d once this season) and that James Loney has only his recent hot streak to fall back on, you’d think it wouldn’t be too difficult to get him time, but things have a way of getting complicated. (He is not in tonight’s lineup.) (Update: Hernandez later added this, which, yay: “Mattingly wants to see Sands. Could result in more days off for Ethier and Rivera.”)

Then there’s Federowicz, who I had given little chance of being recalled in September until the Dodgers cut Dioner Navarro, this making Federowicz the third catcher on the depth chart. My guess is that he’s here mostly to get acclimated to the bigs and serve as depth rather than see any real playing time since he’s still so raw (just 115 games above A-ball). (Update: Hernandez, killing it today, confirms this as well; Federowicz is unlikely to play before the last week or two.) With Rod Barajas telling Steve Dilbeck of the LA Times that he would very much like to return in 2012, the catching situation is certainly in flux. I absolutely wouldn’t give Barajas another $3.2m, but if he wants to stay a Dodger so badly that he’s willing to do so for $1.5m or less, I’d be okay with that, since even though he’s generally terrible, his power is rare among catchers and a Barajas/A.J. Ellis combo would allow Federowicz more time to mature in AAA. Federowicz will wear #31, and while that may invite Mike Piazza comparisons, I’ll settle for at least being better than Jay Gibbons.

Of course, none of the three callups need to worry too much about getting to the ballpark on time, since it’s been raining all day in the east and the much-hyped return of Stephen Strasburg looks unlikely to happen tonight, setting up a likely doubleheader for tomorrow. Beyond tonight, the weather looks terrible in the DC area all week, and the Dodgers don’t have a day off before flying to San Francisco to start a weekend series on Friday, which raises the fun-but-ultimately-meaningless question, what happens if all three games get washed out? It’s not likely, but remains possible; other than a three-game set to end the season in Arizona, the Dodgers don’t leave California for the rest of the year.

With both teams hopelessly out of the chase, the league could choose to just not make up the dates, leaving the Dodgers and Nationals with a 159-game season. It’s not at all rare for teams to miss one game and finish with 161 games, which has happened dozens of times. Even a 160-game season isn’t unheard of, which has happened 17 times, though not since the 1991 Cubs. But 159 games? Since MLB went to a 162-game schedule in 1961, and excluding the strike years of 1972, 1981, and 1994-95, it’s happened just ten times, and even then it’s been over three decades since the 1979 White Sox did it. Of course, even they can’t top the 1971 Orioles, who played only 158 games thanks to 13 home rainouts. (Hat tip to Bob Timmermann for that info.)

Kuroda & His Mustache Fall to Nationals, 7-2

September 5, 2011 at 1:15 pm | Posted in Dee Gordon, Hiroki Kuroda, Mike Morse | 26 Comments

Through the first 109 starts of Hiroki Kuroda‘s career in America, he’d never once allowed three homers in a game. This afternoon in Washington, it took the Nationals all of 21 pitches in the first inning to take Kuroda deep three times, as Ian Desmond, my boy Michael Morse, and Jayson Werth each gave Labor Day souvenirs to fans in left field. (Morse added a second blast in the sixth inning, and while it was tough to see Kuroda get hit so hard, I can’t pretend that watching one of my non-Dodger favorites produce wasn’t enjoyable.) Despite the dingers, Kuroda still struck out nine – tied for second-most in his career, behind only a 2008 shutout in which he whiffed twelve on the day the Dodgers acquired Angel Berroa – without walking any, and settled down to retire 14 of 16 between Werth’s homer in the first and Morse’s in the sixth.

Of course, the Dodger offense didn’t do much to support Kuroda, getting back to their usual pattern after scoring 32 runs in his previous four starts. After taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on back-to-back doubles by Jamey Carroll and Matt Kemp, the Dodgers managed just five scattered singles against Washington starter John Lannan and several relievers until A.J. Ellis and Justin Sellers also had back-to-back doubles for the second run. The 7-2 final, oddly, was identical to the score of the July 22 game which had also featured Kuroda against Lannan. That game was also the last time the Dodgers had lost by more than three runs, as pointed out by KABC’s Joe Block.

On the plus side, since James Loney stepped aside in favor of Russ Mitchell until entering as a pinch-hitter and going 1-2, we didn’t have to suffer him bunting ahead of Kemp. So that’s something. Speaking of Mitchell, I don’t mind getting him a start every now and then, but I’m not sure what the point is of putting him at first base, regardless of trying to get Loney out against a lefty. With Casey Blake & Juan Uribe each out for the season, the Dodgers’ third base depth is thin; while Aaron Miles has been okay at second, he’s ill-equipped to handle third, since he doesn’t have a strong arm and has made errors there in each of the last two days. If Mitchell is going to start, it should be at third, though if anything, I’d be interested to see how Sellers can handle the position in anticipation of his future career as a utility man.

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Dee Gordon went 0-5 with three strikeouts today, marking the first time in the five games since his return that he hasn’t had at least one hit. He hit leadoff, as he has done in each of his last ten starts (dating back before his shoulder injury), and since his OBP is now at only .276, I’ve already seen some question whether Mattingly is too blinded by his speed and not cognizant enough of on-base skills at the top of the lineup. It’s a very fair point, because OBP is king at the top, and Carroll – hell, even Ellis, now hitting .281/.410/.391 after a 2-4 today – would seem to be better equipped to get on base in front of Kemp and others. In this case, however, I’m not sure I agree. Remember, the goal in September for this club should not be so much to win games as it should be to gain information on players going forward, and in Gordon’s situation, you want him to get as many plate appearances as possible. It’s the same reason why watching him make errors on balls that Sellers or Carroll may have had doesn’t bother me that much. If hitting him leadoff for the rest of the year slightly hurts the team’s run expectancy but gets him another 10-15 plate appearances, that’s a trade I’m more than okay making. We can revisit the ideal batting order next year; for now, let Gordon see as many pitches as he can.

Kershaw Good But Not Good Enough As Dodger Winning Streak Ends

September 4, 2011 at 2:21 pm | Posted in Blake Hawksworth, Clayton Kershaw, Juan Rivera | 41 Comments

Clayton Kershaw stuck out ten Braves today without walking a single batter, the third time in his career he’s struck out double digits without allowing a walk. He allowed just two earned runs over seven innings, not at all helped by Aaron Miles‘ poor throw to second on what might have been an inning-ending double play ball before any runs had scored, and even chipped in two hits of his own at the plate.

By almost anyone’s standards, it was an excellent outing… and yet, it still felt disappointing. That’s how high our expectations are for Kershaw right now, because any time he pitches and the Dodgers don’t come away with a win, it feels wrong, even if it’s not entirely his fault. Through six scoreless, he was nearly untouchable as the Dodgers built a 3-0 lead on Matt Kemp‘s 32nd homer of the year, a three-run job in the third. Unfortunately, that was all they could do against Atlanta rookie Randall Delgado and three relievers, and Kershaw ran into trouble in the seventh, allowing two singles before Miles’ throwing error. A wild pitch and a Brooks Conrad single later, and the game was tied at three.

Blake Hawksworth took the loss by allowing the Braves to walk off in the ninth thanks to a Jose Constanza single, wild pitch, and Martin Prado single. For Hawksworth, that’s the fifth consecutive game in which he’s allowed at least one earned run; in each of the previous three, he let in two. Since the All-Star break, he’s allowed 14 earned runs in 19 innings – I’m not sure what’s going on with him, but he may just be pitching himself into a DFA following the season.

Despite the loss, it’s hard to be too disappointed that the Dodgers only won two of three against the likely NL Wild Card team, seeing their winning streak end at six. They head up to Washington for another day game tomorrow, a series which will see the return of Stephen Strasburg on Tuesday.

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For the third time in two days, Don Mattingly had James Loney attempt to sacrifice bunt, and it’s absolutely killing me. Did we not learn anything yesterday? It’s bad enough to try to give up Loney, who’s only the hottest hitter in the league right now, but then it also effectively gives up Matt Kemp, because with first base open he’ll inevitably get walked. Just because it worked out in the end yesterday doesn’t make it the right play, and we saw that again in the seventh today. With Kershaw on second and Dee Gordon on first with no outs, Mattingly asked Loney to bunt Gordon over, which probably would have led to the Braves walking Kemp – who had already homered – in favor of the increasingly ice-cold Juan Rivera. The last thing you want to do there is take the bat out of the hands of your two hottest hitters; Loney was unable to get the bunt down and struck out, as did Kemp. The Dodgers came away with nothing, thanks in large part to a call that made absolutely no sense.

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Last year, we had a good time keeping track of Ryan Theriot‘s TOOTBLAN count, i.e., “Thrown Out on the Bases Like a Nincompoop”. I’m starting to wish we’d had a running count of the times Steve Lyons referred to Andre Ethier as a “Gold Glove caliber” outfielder, which is of course laughable. To Ethier’s credit, he made a very nice play in the bottom of the ninth to possibly save the game, though to my eye it took him so long to get to the ball that it probably didn’t need to look as spectacular as it ended up being.

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Unlikely first impression alert: in a continuation of the phenomenon I’ve previously discussed regarding guys like Rod Barajas, Jay Gibbons, and Orlando Hudson, people haven’t really noticed what’s happened to Rivera. Through August 15, he hit .341/.385/.512 with two homers in 91 PA, which is excellent. Including today’s 0-4, he has just 12 hits in his last 71 PA, which, not so much. I’m open to the idea of giving him a shot as a bench piece next season, let’s just cool it on the idea of extending him right now or guaranteeing him any sort of regular job. Toronto’s run by smart people, and he was DFA’d for a reason.

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Earlier today, I noted that an under-the-radar reason for the Dodger hot streak may have been that Kemp was moved from cleanup to third in the order at precisely the time the streak got going. I neglected to mention that friend of the blog Howard Cole had been calling for the move at the OC Register since at least July. As I mentioned I do think that the run has been a team effort – who knows what might have happened if James Loney hadn’t finally woken up – but getting Kemp more at-bats and Ethier fewer absolutely makes sense.

Dodgers Winning With Roster in Flux

September 4, 2011 at 7:17 am | Posted in Clayton Kershaw, Don Mattingly, Matt Kemp | 29 Comments

The Dodgers used 20 players in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Atlanta, their 11th win in 12 games. Of the 20, only eight – Matt Kemp, James Loney, Andre Ethier, Jamey Carroll, Tony Gwynn, Rod Barajas, Kenley Jansen & Hong-Chih Kuo – were seen as certainties to make the Opening Day roster when camp started, and Barajas & Ethier made only cameo appearances in the game. (Aaron Miles, A.J. Ellis, and Mike MacDougal also did make the Opening Day roster, but at least two got their spots due to the injuries of others and none seemed likely to do so when camp opened.)

Going in the other direction, of the 20, only eight again seem assured of being Dodgers in 2012, but it’s not the same eight – Kemp, Ethier, Jansen, Ellis, Javy Guerra, Dee Gordon, Scott Elbert and Nathan Eovaldi. You’ll also likely see some of the Loney / Juan Rivera/ Justin Sellers group return, though none should be so confident as to start purchasing homes at the moment.

On a smaller level, it’s even happening on a day-to-day basis. Take the first two games of the series in Atlanta, for example. Loney, Kemp, and Rivera hit 2-3-4 both days, yet the other six spots in the lineup were essentially completely different (Sellers did play both days, but had different spots in both the field and the batting order.)

In fact, since the streak started on August 22 in St. Louis, Don Mattingly has rarely tossed out consistent lineups. Just look at the number of hitters who have started games in each of the nine batting spots over the 12 game stretch:

1st: (5) – Carroll, Sellers, Aaron Miles, Gwynn, Gordon
2nd: (3) – Loney, Gwynn, Sellers
3rd (1) – Kemp
4th (3) – Rivera, Ethier, Loney
5th (4) – Ethier, Casey Blake, Miles, Russ Mitchell
6th (5) – Miles, Loney, Blake, Barajas, Gwynn
7th (4) – Barajas, Ellis, Carroll, Trent Oeltjen
8th (4) – Sellers, Carroll, Ellis, Eugenio Velez
9th (6) – Regular five-man rotation + Dana Eveland

That’s a lot of changes for a 12 game span; over the 138 games of the season, Mattingly has penciled in 121 different lineups (not including pitchers, which bumps it to 134). You’ll notice, however, that there’s one position that never changes, and that’s Matt Kemp hitting third. “Of course Kemp is going to play every day,” you might say, “because he’s awesome.” Indeed he is. However, over the first 126 games of the season, Kemp started and hit cleanup 125 times, with Blake getting one start when Kemp had a day off on June 10 in Colorado.

On August 22, with the club having lost five of their last seven and nine of their last fourteen, Mattingly finally bumped Kemp up to third, where he’s started each of the 12 games since with three homers and a .999 OPS. The Dodgers, as you know, have lost just one of those games, and even that was mostly due to Eovaldi’s poor start last Sunday against the Rockies.

Now, there’s a lot of reasons the Dodgers have played so well lately. Loney coming back from the dead is a big one, as is getting great production from behind the plate in the post-Dioner Navarro era and Ethier bouncing back from his knee controversy with some big hits. The rotation has been good more often than not, and the bullpen has been very good, though mostly under-the-radar. (I almost included “more Rivera, less all the other guys who weren’t Rivera” here, until I noticed that Rivera has actually been pretty lousy during the streak, with just six hits in 43 plate appearances.) Shockingly, guaranteeing that your best hitter – arguably the best hitter in the league – sees more plate appearances and always hits in the first inning has been a big positive as well.

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Clayton Kershaw goes for win #18 today against Atlanta rookie Randall Delgado as the Dodgers try to finish off a sweep of the Braves. Arizona’s Ian Kennedy moved to 18-4 yesterday, and MLB Network’s Mitch Williams – with Joe Morgan gone, perhaps the only commentator more consistently off the mark than Steve Lyons – thinks that’s a big deal in the Cy Young race:

Williams believes Kennedy and Halladay’s home ballparks give them a clear advantage over the Dodgers lefty.

“Kershaw is 9-0 at home but if you put Kennedy or Halladay in Dodger Stadium they would be 9-0 at home too,” Williams said. “Chase Field and Citizens Bank Park are band boxes so Kennedy and Halladay have to pitch.

Kershaw has indeed been excellent at home, where in 14 starts he’s allowed just 74 hits while putting up a fantastic 107/24 K/BB mark. It’s just too bad he hasn’t been able to match that on the road, where in 14 starts he’s allowed a disturbing 80 hits and a terrible 105/26 K/BB mark.

Uh, right. Thanks for playing, Mitch.

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Might we see more unexpected callups than previously thought? I still think that Jerry Sands and Tim Federowicz are locks to come up in the coming days as the AAA season winds down – Ken Gurnick reports that Ramon Troncoso was called up this morning – but Gurnick also thinks we might see some of the AA arms sooner than anyone figured:

Mattingly said that the Dodgers will call up a few more players from Triple-A when Albuquerque’s season ends on Monday, perhaps Jerry Sands and Tim Federowicz, and a few more when Double-A Chattanooga is finished with the playoffs. Allen Webster, Shawn Tolleson and Cole St. Claire have been considered.

We’re going to talk about this more in the offseason, but the Dodgers should not be spending a single dollar on adding relief pitching this winter. It’s one area they’re extremely deep in, and we’ve seen that spending big money on non-elite relievers rarely makes sense; Matt Guerrier has been fine, yet hardly making enough of a difference to be worth his contract.