Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
We’re not really the sum of all our parts. We’re more the multiplication of them.
The fractions of ourselves don’t neatly add up in tidy columns. They clash and they explode like calculus.
So just in the past several days, the answer to Yasiel Puig involves finding the product of this:
Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers
By Jon Weisman
Mike Bolsinger’s offspeed was on point tonight.
Working primarily with a curve and slider in the 80 mph-and-below range, Bolsinger pitched a solid 5 2/3 innings, and the Dodgers extended their winning streak to three with a 8-2 victory over Cincinnati.
In his second big-league start of the season, Bolsinger struck out six and allowed three hits, blemished only by a two-run home run by Adam Duvall that cleared Joc Pederson’s glove by inches.
The Emirates ceremonial first pitch at Dodger Stadium on Monday was a strike.
Reds at Dodgers, 7:10 p.m.
Chase Utley, 2B
Corey Seager, SS
Justin Turner, 3B
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Trayce Thompson, LF
Joc Pederson, CF
Yasiel Puig, RF
Yasmani Grandal, C
Mike Bolsinger, P
By Jon Weisman
No one’s really a fan of an eight-man bullpen and a four-man bench, but it has basically made sense for the Dodgers the past seven days, and they plan to continue that way for the next several.
Dave Roberts said today that the Dodgers would probably retain the eight/four split into their upcoming road series in New York and Chicago, a roster construction that began when Charlie Culberson was optioned May 18 to make room for Mike Bolsinger.
By Jon Weisman
No matter what crazy, crazy heights Clayton Kershaw achieves in the regular season, for some, it will always be about what he hasn’t done in the playoffs.
Even after he’s done well in the playoffs.
No, Kershaw hasn’t won a World Series yet, and no one (least of all him) questions whether that’s the ultimate prize. But anyone paying attention should notice that the narrative of Kershaw as a postseason failure doesn’t hold up.
His 3-1 victory on three days’ rest in New York last October in Game 4 of the National League Division Series confirmed — not for the first time — Kershaw’s ability to deliver in the fall, but there are still those who don’t even acknowledge it.
So here I am, back again. I’ve done this before, but let’s recap, from good to bad.
By Jon Weisman
With the Dodger bullpen depleted, with the Dodger offense tired, Clayton Kershaw gave Los Angeles exactly what it needed.
Inning after inning of zeroes.
Despite a late rush, Kershaw’s streak of double-digit strikeouts ended tonight. But nothing else of his season-long dominance did, as he sliced through the Cincinnati Reds on 102 pitches for a 1-0 Dodger victory.
This was the first time in seven starts since April 15 that Kershaw didn’t whiff at least 10 batters. No matter. He has already tied his career high with his third shutout of the season.
Cincinnati basically had one window against Kershaw, and that came one second into the game. Zack Cozart hit the unceremonial first pitch down the left-field line for a double. Billy Hamilton bunted him to third, and Kershaw went 3-0 in the count to Joey Votto.
But two strikes later, Votto lined to short, and two more pitches later, Brandon Phillips grounded to third. For the rest of the game, the Reds would get one runner to second base, and one other runner to first base.
Trayce Thompson, preparing for his eight consecutive start, works in the indoor cage before tonight’s game. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
Here’s a quick update on some of the Dodger newsmakers over the past 24 hours …
Ross Stripling
Getting optioned to the minors after winning Sunday’s game didn’t shock Stripling, who told SportsNet LA’s Alanna Rizzo that it was always the plan that he would be optioned around this time — though certainly current circumstances made the decision more obvious.
Stripling added that the plan is for him to throw three innings when he starts for Triple-A Oklahoma City, according to Andy McCullough of the Times.
Dave Roberts said that Stripling could be used in the rotation or out of the bullpen when he returns to Los Angeles.
Ross Stripling, whose season began with 7 1/3 no-hit innings April 8 in San Francisco, pitched three shutout innings Sunday in his relief debut. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
Regrouping after throwing 582 pitches in three games at San Diego — and losing one of their pitchers to the disabled list in the process — the Dodgers are bringing up two fresh arms for their pitching staff.
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By Kevin Cook
Besides an Adrian Gonzalez home run or the mere mention of Vin Scully, what else gets Dodger fans excited when they visit Dodger Stadium? The Hat Shuffle, of course.
Maybe I’m biased. I’m the senior motion graphics designer for the Dodgers, and I’ve designed the Hat Shuffle for the past seven seasons. I also might just be the Hat Shuffle’s biggest fan.
It didn’t start out that way. When I first joined the Dodgers in August 2009, I didn’t quite get the allure of the game, I think mainly because most Hat Shuffle games I’d seen at other sports stadiums were either too easy or impossibly difficult.
But done right, the Hat Shuffle is a really fun game, and when you visit Dodger Stadium, you should expect to have fun regardless of the score. Realizing that fun is the main priority of what we do here was a good first lesson in my new job and one that I haven’t forgotten.
So I didn’t just want to do the same old Hat Shuffle that I’d seen elsewhere. Our in-house creative team here is constantly pushing itself to do something different every season and better than the previous season. That same effort goes into the Hat Shuffle. There’s been an evolution of complexity to the game every season, and that isn’t by coincidence.
By Jon Weisman
When it was all over, Yasiel Puig and Dave Roberts discussed the highs and lows of Puig’s day after today/tonight’s 17-inning Dodger victory.
His ninth-inning baserunning mishap during A.J. Ellis’ bunt was in the back of Puig’s mind when he drove in the game-winning runs, eight innings later, according to The Associated Press:
Yasiel Puig points back to the dugout after hitting a tiebreaking two-run single in the 17th inning. (Denis Poroy/Getty Images)
By Jon Weisman
The Dodgers won.
They won, 9-5, over San Diego, in 17 innings, despite the albatross of a bad week and a rough season hanging over them. They won, despite the specter of a third consecutive walkoff loss howling all around them.
By Jon Weisman
It has been, if one weren’t to mince words, an ugly time.
The Dodgers have lost four straight, six of their past seven, 16 of their past 25.
Since April 25, when they were 12-7, the Dodgers have played .360 ball and have lost eight games in the standings to the National League West-leading Giants, who are 17-8 in that span.
On Saturday, the Dodgers lost when Chin-hui Tsao threw 12 of his final 14 pitches of the game out of the strike zone, forcing in the game-winning run.
“We’re finding different ways to lose games and I haven’t seen this one,” Dave Roberts said afterward. “It’s a tough one and to try to defend it, having a hard time.”
The only thing harder to watch than the final score of the games has been the frustration of the fans, because that’s really whom the games are for.
I’ve been blogging about the Dodgers a long time now, coming up on 14 years. This is when I usually step up and make my attempt at “it’s always darkest before the dawn” arguments. I’ve hesitated, not because I believe any less in those arguments, but because I believe less that the audience for those arguments is willing to hear them.
Nonetheless, there are certain fundamental things I feel worth saying, however succinctly. You either buy in, or you don’t …
Denis Poroy/Getty Images
By Jon Weisman
Alex Wood struck gold as he struck out almost every San Diego Padre he faced tonight.
In only six innings, the 25-year-old set a career high with 13 strikeouts, then left the game with two runners on and the Dodgers clinging to a 2-1 lead. San Diego would then tie the game in the bottom of the seventh, and for the second night in a row, the outcome was left to the teams’ bullpens.
By Jon Weisman
Adrian Gonzalez is in the Dodger starting lineup for the first time since Monday, ending his longest absence since.
Gonzalez, who came off the bench in the eighth inning of Friday’s game, went 8 for 21 with a homer, two doubles, three walks and a sacrifice fly (1.059 OPS) from May 10-15, but then left Monday’s game in the sixth inning with lower back pain after going 0 for 3.
The 34-year-old leads the Major Leagues with 1,629 games played since 2006 and hasn’t missed more than six games in a season since his rookie year in 2005.
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Yasiel Puig homers in the fifth inning. (Denis Poroy/Getty Images)
By Jon Weisman
Kenley Jansen had allowed one run in the first 42 games of the season. Then he allowed two runs with one swing.
In a game that was topsy, turvy and topsy again, Melvin Upton Jr.’s two-run homer off Jansen, after an odd, pop-fly single that second baseman Chase Utley couldn’t corral, gave the Padres a walkoff a 7-6 victory at San Diego over the Dodgers.
It was the first walkoff homer Jansen allowed in his seven-season MLB career.
Upton’s homer negated a two-out, two-run homer by Justin Turner in the eighth inning after Carl Crawford’s pinch-hit single that had rallied the Dodgers to a 6-5 lead.
Frankie Montas at Spring Training in February, post-surgery. (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
Frankie Montas, the fireballing right-hander acquired with Trayce Thompson and Micah Johnson from the White Sox, has been a mostly forgotten man since he had rib resection surgery February 12.
But Montas threw two innings Thursday in an extended Spring Training game Thursday at Camelback Ranch, the Dodgers said, and is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment Saturday with Double-A Tulsa.
A potential starter or reliever, the 23-year-old struck out 108 in 112 innings with a 2.97 ERA for Double-A Birmingham, before striking out 20 in a 15-inning trial with the White Sox. In his last appearance of 2015, he struck out seven in four innings of one-run ball October 4.
What happens when three old friends in crisis fall into an unexpected love triangle? In The Catch, Maya, Henry and Daniel embark upon an emotional journey that forces them to confront unresolved pain, present-day traumas and powerful desires, leading them to question the very meaning of love and fulfillment. The Catch tells a tale of ordinary people seeking the extraordinary – or, if that’s asking too much, some damn peace of mind.
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