Game of the Week: June 5: WASH @ LAD

[Commissioner Erick]

Washington Nationals (30-26) @ Los Angeles Dodgers (38-21)


LAD: Clayton Kershaw (8-1, 2.08)
WASH: Max Scherzer (6-3, 3.67)


If you like pitching, tonight's contest between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals should be a real treat. The Dodgers have confirmed that Clayton Kershaw will go for them tonight. Washington will likely start Max Scherzer on an extra day's rest himself, though that hasn't been confirmed.

Nonetheless, a Kershaw-Scherzer pitching matchup sounds like appointment baseball.

After a mediocre showing against the NL Central the last two weeks, the Dodgers have slipped into second place, a half game behind the Giants in the NL West.

The Dodgers wanted to keep Cody Bellinger in the minors for seasoning, then called him up after two weeks, and now have him batting cleanup. After roaring out of the gates, he hasn't homered since May 20th and his batting average is down to .219. His slump has roughly coincided with a stretch where the Dodgers haven't exactly been bad, but going 6-7 is still well below their expectations.

It's hard for the Dodgers to truly be bad with such a deep lineup around Bellinger. Six players have at least six home runs, and a seventh, Corey Seager, has five with a .325 average and 34 RBIs. Still, the Dodgers offense hasn't been operating at peak performance with him having a rough go of it in the cleanup spot.

Also, Paco Rodriguez has been a dog the last few weeks. He allowed a 4-2 Cubs lead to balloon to 6-2 by giving up a home run to Kyle Schwarber on the 28th. On the 30th, he gave up a single to Kolten Wong, his only batter. On June 1st, he entered into a game with a 6-2 lead, walked Matt Adams and Wong, and watched them both score when Stephen Piscotty hit a home run off Josh Fields. The next day in Milwaukee, he gave up a home run to Travis Shaw in a tie game that turned out to be the difference.

With the offense scuffling a tough, and Rodriguez not getting it done in the pen, the Dodgers can at least rely on Kershaw absolving their misgivings. Kershaw's FIP and WAR lead the league, as he has a 2.49 FIP and 3.1 WAR. His 2.08 ERA his second to teammate Julio Urias. His eight wins are second to only Pittsburgh's Gerrit Cole. His 91 strikeouts trail only Noah Syndergaard and his opponent tonight in Scherzer. He's been dominant.

His last outing was his first loss. He allowed four runs to the Cardinals in 7.2 innings, despite walking one, fanning nine, and not allowing a home run. That screams fluke. One stat that shows off how dominant Kershaw has been, is how opponents fare during the first three innings of the game. Kershaw has allowed a .139 average and a .401 OPS against before the fourth inning. Against just lefties, the average stays the same at .140, but the OPS drops to .357. Left-handers in general hit just .211 with a .519 OPS against him.

Long story short, Kershaw is great. He's almost untouchable for lefties. And he turns hitters into the caliber of pitchers at the plate early on.

This spells bad news for a Washington team with several great left-handed hitters. Bryce Harper is the National League's premier player. He leads the league in RBI's with 47, is fifth in home runs with 14, and is first in on-base percentage with a .457 clip. He has 52 walks, 14 more than second place Freddie Freeman. He's both incredibly talented, and as a result, incredibly terrifying for pitchers to face. The combination has him leading the league in WAR at 3.3.

He may be the best player in the game, and at 24 years old, he's only getting better. His one weakness thus far is that he has a very mortal .806 OPS against lefties, which is unfortunate against Kershaw.

Daniel Murphy is third in the NL with a .369 batting average, and his .401 OBP his fifth. His line-drive oriented stroke has him second in doubles with 20. He's maintained his average against lefties with a .354 average. However, a day after racking up five hits, he strained his rib cage muscle yesterday, which is unfortunate against Kershaw.

However, the Nationals do have some ferocious righties to throw at Kershaw, including Ryan Zimmerman. With a .377/.628/1.062 slash line, each of Zimmerman's triple slash components are the best in the league. The Z Man has been smacking the ball, and is the right-hander needed to battle against Kershaw's lefty neutralizing ways. How he does against Kershaw may determine who wins the game.


Questions for the GM's:


For Zerxes Clocklamp, after a rough early stretch Max Scherzer has kicked it into gear. With Stephen Strasburg blowing out his elbow, will you pitch Scherzer as often as possible?

Daniel Murphy has had a sensational start, but he's dealing with strained ribs. Will he sit against Kershaw?

Your outfield outside Harper has been banged up or ineffective. Adam Eaton is set to come off the DL, which should help, but what do you do to shore up your outfield?

For Troy Allenbaugh, you've oscillated between not giving Cody Bellinger enough responsibility, to perhaps giving him too much responsibility. What is your plan with him today and them going forward?

You've given Austin Barnes more playing time than Yasmani Grandal. Why is that?

Your key guys in your pen have been terrific this year, led by the sensational Kenley Jansen. However, some of your middle relievers and specialists haven't been as good. Do you plan on upgrading?

[dodgerstroy]

For Troy Allenbaugh, you've oscillated between not giving Cody Bellinger enough responsibility, to perhaps giving him too much responsibility. What is your plan with him today and them going forward? Cody will be returning to the minors as Guti has recovered from his injury. We have discovered a few tweaks that need to be made to his swing and our hitting coaches at AAA have devised a plan to get him back on track.

You've given Austin Barnes more playing time than Yasmani Grandal. Why is that? We were going to hand the reigns to Barnes this year and transition Grandal before the end of the season. With the way Barnes has played we are now looking at a long term extension for Grandal. We will see shortly, discussions have began.

Your key guys in your pen have been terrific this year, led by the sensational Kenley Jansen. However, some of your middle relievers and specialists haven't been as good. Do you plan on upgrading? We want to see if our guys can work through their issues, but they are on a sort leash. We have open discussions with a couple of teams that would bring a huge upgrade to the bullpen. Our current guys are Strikeout masters and have just been hit with a little bad luck.

[Commissioner Erick]

Dodgers 5 Nationals 4


WP: G. Dayton (2-2)
LP: B. Treinen (1-2)
SV: K. Jansen (15)



Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer are two of the very best pitchers in baseball. Neither made it past 5 innings. Fortunately the Dodgers, they were better able to capitalize on the Nationals mistakes than the Nats were able to capitalize on theirs.

Los Angeles got 4 shutout innings from its bullpen and scored three unearned runs to push the Dodgers to a 5-4 win over the Washington Nationals.

Washington, meanwhile, couldn’t capitalize on three Dodgers errors, missed opportunities that led to a wrenching loss. How each team took advantage of defensive mistakes was the deciding factor in the win.

The Dodgers struck early in the first inning. Yasiel Puig hit a one-out single before Anthony Rendon botched a play, allowing Logan Forsythe to reach. After Joc Pederson walked to load the bases, an Adrian Gonzalez fielder’s choice brought home the first run of the game.

The Nationals took the lead the honest way, with key extra base hits from hight-handed hitters off Kershaw. After Adam Eaton, returning from the DL, led off the third inning with a double, Chris Heisey blasted a double to center field to get the Nationals on the board. In the fourth, superstar Bryce Harper hit a single into the right-center field gap. Ryan Zimmerman followed with a hit, before Jose Abreu blasted a three-run home run to give Washington a 4-1 lead.

Eaton singled later in the inning, with Hong-Yu Lin doubling Eaton to third. Washington was conservative and held Eaton at third with two outs. Daniel Murphy followed by striking out with two in scoring position continuing the theme of missed opportunities.

In the fifth, Anthony Rendon reached on an error to lead things off. He followed by stealing second base, giving Washington a prime opportunity to add to their lead. However, Harper struck out, Zimmerman’s sharp line drive was hauled in by A.J. Pollock, and after Abreu was intentionally walked, Trea Turner flied out to end the threat.

The Dodgers got closer in the bottom of the fifth. Puig launched a home run to start, before Forsythe doubled and Pederson singled him to third. Adrian Gonzalez could only ground out, but it made the score 4-3 Washington.

After 5 innings, Kershaw’s day was finished. Grant Dayton worked around a two out error in the sixth to pitch a scoreless frame.

After Chase Utley scorched a line drive single to begin the sixth, Blake Treinen was brought in to replace Scherzer. A Lin error allowed Pollock to reach and Utley to go to third. Treinen struck out Puig and
Forsythe, on what should have been the second and third outs of the inning. However, thanks to the error, Pederson walked, and Gonzalez singled in the go-ahead, unearned runs to give the Dodgers a lead.

From there, the Dodgers’ bullpen held. Dayton worked around a walk and stolen base to strike out Abreu with a man in scoring position to finish his second inning of work. The maligned Sergio Romo and Paco Rodriguez each retired a batter each in the eighth, before Chris Hatcher worked around a double and walk to retire Daniel Murphy with two on.

A double and a third Dodgers’ error put runners on the corners of a one-run game with one-out in the ninth inning. Kenley Jansen buckled down, striking out Jose Abreu and Trea Turned to strand the tying run at third base—yet another example of missed opportunities doing the Nationals in.


Questions for the GM’s:


For Xerxes Clocklamp, a brutal lefty on the mound, plus banged up ribs for Daniel Murphy. You still batted him leadoff and watched him strikeout twice, hit into a double play, and leave seven guys on base. Will you be more careful with day-to-day injuries in the future?

You got Adam Eaton back and he looked good out there with two hits. What do you expect to see from Eaton over the rest of the year?

Against Kershaw and a good bullpen, Bryce Harper struck out twice, but also had a hit, a walk, and a stolen base. Assess what you got from him in the game.

For Troy Allenbaugh, you again decided to change Cody Bellinger’s role, now moving him into Triple A. What is the plan with him this year if there is one?

You mentioned Romo and Rodriguez were on short leashes, but each responded with big outs. Does that help afford them longer leashes?

Yasiel Puig has had a strong season. He had two hits and two runs scored, including his 11th home run. There was some questions as to where he’d fit into Dodgers plans, but he’s solidified himself as a key part of your franchise, has he not?