As advertised, my Reddit chat on the Dodgers took place Friday. It was a lot of fun for me — I always like to hear (or see) myself talk — and we covered a lot of ground. This format brings out the best in me, since I’m better at typing than speaking extemporaneously. And I enjoyed the questions.

A few highlights:

Q: What’s your favorite, lesser known, Dodger story/fact?

A: There are going to be some folks for whom this is anything but lesser known. But there’s the year Jim Gilliam retired to become a coach – then unretired after the season began in May 1965 and became not a fringe player, but an integral starter for the championship team.

Q: Everyone talks about opening day 2013, the no hitter and the playoff moments but do you have a favorite “normal” regular season Kershaw start?

A: Hmm … what comes to mind is the 2014 NL West clinching game against the Giants, when he put on a complete display of what would make him the NL MVP. Not only dominant pitching, but he also had that behind-the-back snag on a comebacker and a triple! Probably the best all-around game of his career.

Q: What do you think went wrong in the 2022 NLDS

A:

  1. Hitting.
  2. Hitting.
  3. Hitting.
  4. A tsunami of bad luck/timing in which three quality relief pitchers self-destructed, one after another. People criticized the Dodgers for not getting Phillips into the seventh inning of Game 4. That’s fine, but Yency Almonte had been nails, striking out all five batters he had faced. I had no issue with him in that spot.

Reminds me of the Urias relief appearance in 2021 NLCS Game 3. No reason to expect that to go as badly as it did. He was rested and familiar with that role. But it imploded, and the series was never the same.

If you’re a Dodger fan, be sure to check out the whole chat.