The game was delayed an hour and 50 minutes due to a hail storm. But that did not deter the Dodger bats in the series finale on Thursday. 14 runs on 18 hits, including 5 doubles, a triple and a HR.
The offense was led by the three Dodgers starting in the All Star game.
- Mookie Betts was 2-2 with a BB and sac fly. Both hits were doubles (17). Mookie scored 3 times with 1 RBI.
- Freddie Freeman was 2-3 with a HBP, 1 run, and 3 RBIs
- JD Martinez was 4-6 with 2 runs, 4 RBIs, and a HR (19).
Combined, the three All Stars went 8-11, 6 runs scored, 8 RBIs, reached base on 10 times with a sac fly. I know Badger will not count JDM’s first hit, but I will.
Max Muncy had a 2-6 night, with a double (6) off the wall and a sharp single to right. He got 3 RBIs to break out of his month plus long slump. He was 3-42 before that double, dating back to May 31.
Miguel Vargas also got a key triple. It was his team leading 4th on the season. He was 2-46 before the triple. Will Max and Miggy continue the hits in KC? Stay tuned.
Jason Heyward was 3-5 with 2 doubles (11), 2 runs and a RBI. Jonny DeLuca was 1-2 with a run scoring single. James Outman was 1-4 with 2 runs scored, and a nice running catch on a wet outfield in the 1st inning. David Peralta was 1-4 to continue his hot June – .367/.406/.567/.973 (64 PA).
The one hitter that did not get a hit was Austin Barnes. But he navigated Emmet Sheehan through his first road game, and one being at Coors. As every one of the pitchers note, Sheehan loved pitching to Barnes.
Emmet did not let the weather delay affect him. Jurickson Profar got the leadoff single. He got Ezequiel Tovar did hit into a force out, but Ryan McMahon singled and moved Tovar to 3rd where he scored on the Elias Díaz 407 foot sac fly to Outman.
Sheehan retired the side in order in the 2nd with 2 Ks. In the 3rd, Profar had the only contact on Sheehan’s change on the night with a 105 MPH single. Tovar and Díaz later had soft contact singles, with Díaz bringing home 2. Tovar’s hit was 73.4 MPH and Díaz’s was 72.2. But they all count.
Emmet finished off the 4th and 5th with one single. For the night, Sheehan allowed 3 runs on 7 hits, 0 walks, and 6 Ks. He threw 88 pitches in 5.0 IP. He got his first taste of Coors, and Barnes called for the changeup at the right times.
Sheehan’s pitch repertoire:
- 4-Seam Fastball – 60 pitches – 6 whiffs
- Sliders – 17 pitches – 1 whiff
- Changeup – 11 pitches – 4 whiffs out of 5 swings. The change works better in the higher altitude of Denver, and Sheehan kept the pitch down with late dive.
The bullpen has been getting a lot of heat this season. They were on a little bit of a roll, and then got beat up on Wednesday. However, on Thursday, three pitcher came out of the pen and threw 4 scoreless innings. Yency Almonte and Victor González each threw clean innings with 2 Ks. Justin Bruihl was just recalled today and pitched the final two innings. He did allow a single in each inning, but both were erased on double plays.
This was a complete team game victory. It was especially poignant due to both Arizona and San Francisco losing. The Dodgers have moved into 2nd, and now trail Arizona by just 2.0 games. Arizona is going to have a tougher time now that Merrill Kelly has gone on the 15 day IL with a calf inflammation.
San Diego has lost their 5th game in a row, and are now 8.0 games out of the WC. The Dodgers could have an advantage this weekend. The Dodgers have 3 games at KC, Arizona has 3 games at LAA, San Francisco has 3 games at a hungry NYM. San Diego has 3 games at Cincinnati.
Bobby Miller will face off against KC’s 25 year old RHP Alec Marsh, who will be making his MLB debut. I am looking for Miller to get back on track after two poor outings. Friday’s game will be the end of the actual first half of the season (81st game).
06-29-2023 MiLB Game Summary Report
OKC Dodgers 4 – Sugar Land Space Cowboys (Houston) 2
Justin Hagenman started his 4th game for OKC. He completed 4.0 innings allowing the 2 runs. Staked to a 4-0 lead in the top of the 4th, Justin gave up back to back HRs to open the 4th to cut the lead to 4-2. He retired the side and turned the game over to the bullpen. Hagenman struck out 6 in his 4.0 IP.
Alec Gamboa was recently recalled to OKC (06/28). He followed Hagenman and completed 2.2 scoreless innings. He allowed a single and walk in the 7th, and after the 2nd out, Gus Varland was summoned to get the final out of the inning.
Alex Vesia and Wander Suero pitched scoreless innings to close out the victory, with Suero earning his 8th save, in 8 save opportunities.
All of the scoring was done in the 4th. In the top of the 4th, Devin Mann and Hunter Feduccia led off with singles, and Mann moved to 3rd. Mann scored on a Bryson Brigman force out. Justin Yurchak singled and Drew Avans walked to load the bases for Kole Calhoun. Calhoun tripled to plate all three runs and a 4-0 lead.
- Jahmai Jones – 2-5
- Hunter Feduccia – 4-4, 2 doubles (12)
- Kole Calhoun – 1-4, triple (1), 3 RBI
Amarillo Sod Poodles (Arizona) 12 – Tulsa Drillers 7
Nick Frasso had perhaps the worst outing of his career. He was only able to record 1 out. 6 of the 7 hitters he faced reached base. 4 runs crossed the plate, and Antonio Knowles relieved Frasso with runners on 2nd and 3rd. The first batter Knowles faced slugged a 3-run HR, and Amarillo put 7 on the board after only 0.1 innings.
Ricky Vanasco made his first appearance of Tulsa and surrendered a 2-run HR in the 3rd. Kevin Gowdy followed in the 4th and gave up 2 runs on 4 singles, a SB, and balk.
Trevor Bettencourt was not the answer as he gave up a run in the 6th on a single, SB, single. John Rooney was the lone Drillers pitcher to complete a clean inning.
Tulsa opened the scoring when Imanol Vargas hit a double to score Jorbit Vivas.
Kody Hoese hit a 2-run HR in the 2nd. In the 4th, Diego Cartaya opened the inning by reaching on an error, and scored on a Yusniel Diaz triple (1). Diaz came around to score on a ground out.
Yusniel Diaz opened the 6th with a base on balls and came home on Carson Taylor’s 5th HR. But Tulsa could not get any closer, and are now 0-2 in the 2nd half.
- Jorbit Vivas – 2-4, 1 run
- Carson Taylor – 2-4, 2 runs, HR (5)
- Kody Hoese – 2-4, 1 run, 2 RBI
- Yusniel Díaz – 1-2, 2 BB, 2 runs, 1 RBI
- Imanol Vargas – 1-3, 2 BB, 2 runs, 1 RBI
Great Lakes Loons – Lansing Lugnuts (Detroit) – Game postponed. DH on Friday.
Kendall Williams will start one of the games for Great Lakes.
Visalia Rawhide (Arizona) 6 – Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 4
The Quakes absorbed their first loss of the second half on Thursday night, falling to the Visalia Rawhide by a final of 6-4.
Visalia starter Wyatt Wendell turned in six solid innings to earn the win and Rawhide first baseman Riquelmin Cabral had three hits, two runs scored and an RBI to help Visalia end a three-game skid.
Kenneth Betancourt had two hits and three RBIs, including a two-run double off of Wendell in the fifth, as the Quakes pulled to within three, at 6-3.
Wendell settled down and retired the final six batters he faced though, getting through the sixth inning.
Rancho starter Madison Jeffrey (0-3) allowed three runs (two earned) in two innings of work in the loss.
Visalia closer Alfred Morillo tossed a 1-2-3 ninth for his fourth save of the year.
The Quakes will send Peter Heubeck to the mound on Friday night.
- Simon Reid – 2-4
- Kenneth Bettencourt – 2-4, 3 RBI
- Kyle Nevin – double (11)
- Rayne Doncon – double (14)
- Kenneth Bettencourt – double (9)
- Jorge Puerta – double (11)
- Luis Rodriguez – double (3)
We could have used some of those runs to win yesterday’s game. Good to see the hitters explode like that. The 3 All Stars contributed like, uh, All Stars. Heyward and Peralta look like they’ve finally woken up this season. Even Max helped out. Good to see that some blondes can pitch. I doubt very much that Barnes has anything to do with that. We really need to replace him as it’s getting embarassing. KC should be good for us. They’ve got some pretty looking women…………
Friedman traded AJ Ellis at the deadline to acquire Carlos Ruiz a couple of years ago. Will he do the same with Barnes? He looks completely lost at the plate.
We scored 8.
Barnes has value.
Grove for Bruihl. It’s a revolving door. Any more starter help down there?
Miller is 3-1. 4.13 ERA. Keep taking the ball meat, trust your stuff, throw strikes … but not center cut rook. Major League hitters clobber that cheese.
ok, back to observing stillness. A few minutes at a time in my orbit.
Good job by Sheehan. Especially at Coors Field. Also, congratulations to our 3 all stars. Now, hopefully they get it right and name Will Smith to the all star roster. Unfortunately, this latest Kersh scare means he probably should not pitch in the AS game.
Jeff, Where has Kendall Williams been and has there been any traces of improvement since we last saw him?
He was the center-piece of the M. White deal, right?
Of coors Muncy made contact with the ball, he’s the cleanup hitter.
This disdain for Austin Barnes is puzzling to me. HE IS A BACKUP CATCHER THAT THE PITCHERS LOVE. Not just LAD pitchers, but the Team Mexico pitchers raved about Barnes. He is an ideal pitcher’s catcher. He is making all of $3.5MM. So the cry is to bring up Hunter Feduccia. I have been an advocate for Feduccia longer than most out there even knew who he was. He too will be a backup catcher.
The Dodgers do not win Game 6 of the NLCS if Walker Buehler could not find his game early in the 2nd inning. After three straight singles to start the 2nd to load the bases, Austin Barnes walked out to Buehler and let him know to just do what Barnes was calling. Don’t think…just pitch. Not the exact words, but that was the meaning. After the game, Buehler gave all the credit to Austin Barnes, and said he just turned the game over to him. Others have said the same thing. Kershaw never brushes off Barnes.
Feduccia cannot do that for the Dodger pitching…right now. Will he ever be at that level? Hard to say. I hope so.
But you want to give up a catcher the Dodger pitchers want, for what 10-15 more hits over the next three months? You are willing to lose an edge the pitchers have for a few more hits. Who do you think wins that battle? The fans or the Dodger pitchers? Maybe if the Dodgers got the extra 10-15 hits out of Max Muncy and/or Miguel Vargas they would not need those AB hits.
It wasn’t that long ago that fans were saying Miguel Vargas was going to walk away with NL ROY. After April, James Outman was headed to Cooperstown. Then there were those that said the Dodgers do not need any RH bat because they have Jonny DeLuca. Michael Busch, another pure hitter who has succeeded at every MiLB level cannot find the same success at MLB. MiLB statistics DO NOT translate into MLB stats.
Austin Barnes’ career MiLB batting metrics were .298/.388/.443/.831. Hunter Feduccia’s career MiLB stats are .266/.365/.429/.794. People want to forget that Barnes was a top ten catching prospect for multiple years. Yes, Barnes is having an absolutely horrid year at the plate, and yet the pitchers are going out of their way to say how valuable he is behind the plate. I just do not think fans understand the relationship between catchers and pitchers, or how important it is. They look at offense and stop there. Maybe I am a little more attuned because my son was a catcher. He was a hit first catcher, but he had several pitchers who loved to throw to him. Multiple teams wanted him to be a ML Bullpen Coach, including one sure to be HOF manager who really loved the way Andy played and thought.
Smith has been getting more play time, and I believe that will continue. The Dodgers need his bat, and since JDM is an All Star as a DH, Will is going to have to watch from the dugout when Barnes is catching.
Teams do not like to trade for catcher’s at the deadline because of their unfamiliarity with the pitchers. Barnes is not going anywhere. Now maybe next winter the Dodgers could find another home for Barnes. It will not be hard to find a home for him. Maybe he will follow Kershaw to Texas. Maybe he will retire and sign with the Dodgers as a roving catcher instructor, with the same salary, and start his ascent to managing. I think he is a better candidate than was David Ross, and Ross has not done too badly.
As long as Austin Barnes is a Dodger catcher, I will support him. I have been supporting him for as long as fans have wanted to get rid of him. And yet, he is still with the Dodgers. I may be a lone voice out there, but when it comes to catchers, pitchers should have the last say.
I yield my bandbox.
A list of the top ten “most hated” MLB teams, according to the Twitter data, can be found below:
1. Los Angeles Dodgers – 9016
2. New York Yankees – 8712
3. Houston Astros – 7658
4. New York Mets – 6326
5. Atlanta Braves – 5822
6. St. Louis Cardinals – 4692
7. Philadelphia Phillies – 4552
8. Boston Red Sox – 4270
9. San Diego Padres – 4124
10. Kansas City Royals – 3642
Not that he would have been considered as a LAD potential, but KC traded Aroldis Chapman to Texas for a LHRP, Cole Ragans, and 17 year old OF in the DSL, Roni Cabrera.
Dodgers activate Hudson from the 60-day IL.
Robertson optioned to OKC.
Venasco dfa to make room for Hudson. He was the guy we just traded for while giving up somewhat promising Luis Valdez. So we basically gave up Valdez for nothing.