GAME THREAD DODGERS/ROCKIES

Last year was a perfect storm that sadly ended a game early

 

yup
left a couple down the middle and up
leMEHieu missed one, arenado missed two
better to be lucky than good i guess

 

was truly terrible
like eric gregg terrible
fine to give a pitcher one side of the plate, but not both
you're supposed to establish a zone and stay consistent
that's what pissed both turner and blackmon off...
just abominable

 

agreed
a couple guys with career years (taylor, barnes) and others (joc, kiké) coming through at the key moments
bummed that kersh and kenley had a couple blips, but wouldn't have gotten there w/o them
still pissed at whatever idiot made the decision to start darvish for game 7
whoever it was...

 

DODGERS GAME PREVIEW
Buehler, Freeland and awards recognition
by Eric Stephen | True Blue LA — 32 minutes ago



The latest Dodgers weekend attempt to track down the team ahead of them in the National League West comes Saturday night against the Rockies, with two of the best pitchers in the league facing off at Coors Field.

Walker Buehler won’t win the NL Rookie of the Year; Ronald Acuña Jr. and Juan Soto have seen to that. Likewise, Kyle Freeland is well behind the NL Cy Young Award-vying triad of Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Aaron Nola. But both have still been fantastic, and a big reason why the Rockies and Dodgers have the two best records in the division.

Buehler has a 2.92 ERA this season, and with 115 strikeouts in 104 innings is trying to become just the fifth Dodgers rookie with more strikeouts than innings (minimum 100 innings), and only the third without previous professional experience in Japan.

Buehler has whiffed a career-best nine in two of his last three starts.

Over his last seven starts Buehler has a 1.48 ERA, allowing seven total runs with 51 strikeouts and 14 walks. The Dodgers first need to make the postseason but if they get there it wouldn’t be a shock if Buehler is the Game 2 starter, if they earn the luxury to line things up as they want. It’s probably not a coincidence that the current rotation order has Buehler following Clayton Kershaw.

Freeland has been terrific in his second year, with a 2.96 ERA in 28 starts. If we stop right there, that’s enough, since in the previous 25-year history of the franchise only one Rockies pitcher has qualified for the ERA title and posted an ERA below 3.00 — Ubaldo Jimenez (2.88) in 2010. Jimenez’s 161 ERA+ is the only one in Rockies history to top Freeland’s current 157 ERA+.

What sets Freeland apart this year is how he has excelled at Coors Field, with a 2.27 ERA in 12 starts. He’s allowed five runs in his last five starts at home, and the last time he gave up more than two runs in Denver was on June 10.

Since Coors Field opened in 1995, the only pitcher to post a sub-3.00 ERA in at least 10 Denver starts was Jorge De La Rosa (2.76) in 2013. Tyler Anderson, who starts Sunday for Colorado, posted a 3.00 ERA on the dot at home in 12 home starts in 2016.

AWARDS SEASON

Freeland ranks fourth among NL pitchers with a whopping 6.7 Wins Above Replacement, the Baseball-Reference version, behind the aforementioned trio of Nola, Scherzer and deGrom. Freeland’s peripherals haven’t quite matched his results so his FanGraphs WAR is 3.3, but that’s still tied for eighth in the league, tied with teammate German Marquez. That duo, plus Jon Gray (3.2 fWAR) rank in the top 10 among NL starters, which gives an idea of just how strong the first-place Rockies’ pitching has been.

 

Sucks that they never caught on that Darvish was tipping. Personally, I would have started Wood. He proved he earned a shot with his game 4 performance.

 

totally agree
inexcusable the opposition catch something your own guys can't
and yeah, wood should have been given the ball

 

:grandal: