The Dodgers plan to start left-hander Julio Urias in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series against the Braves on Wednesday, J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group was among those to report. Meantime, they’re turning to Tony Gonsolin on Tuesday as a result of Clayton Kershaw’s back spasms.
The Dodgers, who finished the regular season with the majors’ top record (43-17), are unexpectedly in a hole right now after dropping Game 1 by a 5-1 score on Monday. That means if Gonsolin & Co. don’t get the job done this evening, the 24-year-old Urias could be facing an immense amount of pressure in his upcoming start.
Despite his young age, Urias is not a postseason greenhorn. He has already amassed 23 2/3 playoff innings and delivered a 3.42 ERA for his career, and he has thrown eight frames without allowing an earned run in two outings this fall. Before that, Urias gave the Dodgers 55 innings of 3.27 ERA/3.72 FIP ball with 7.36 K/9 and 2.95 BB/9 in 11 regular-season appearances and 10 starts.
Why would it be unexpected they would lose a game? No one expected either team to sweep realistically.
Maybe unexpected that they would lose the first game out of the gate, with Buehler on the mound… I’d say that was pretty unexpected.
Especially since Max Fried gave up 4 runs in 4 innings to Miami.
I know I wasn’t expecting the Dodgers to lose.
It’s really not that surprising because we have sucked really bad against lefties this entire year.
He gave up four runs once so what. Otherwise he was contending for the Cy Young award all year. Max Fried is an ace.
At this stage, with two quality teams, either team winning or losing should not be unexpected.
Why? Buehler has a blister that clearly affected his command. The Braves had the healthy ace going
If buehler was 100% sure. But he wasn’t
I really hate that about Kershaw but at least he will be able to pitch the last game of the season for the Dodgers. Silver lining!
Your favorite teams GM would give their right nut to have kershaw start a playoff game for them
Keep hating
No, he absolutely would not lol what’s it going to take to get Dodgers fans to realize he hasn’t performed to expectations in the postseason?
This fact is painful to fans. Denial. But I do feel for Kershaw – good guy.
An equal strike zone would be cool
Anderson getting away and down. Gonsolin is not
Cant wait for electric strike zones. These umps suck
The Dodgers are turning around and complaining on pitches that are hitting the k-zone. Turner has done it once or twice. Smith and Joc have done it as well. Sack up and figure out what the zone is. I can see the beef on Pollock strike three, but the Dodgers are complaining about pitches that are in the zone.
You’re not wrong. Have to play the zone
But Just looked it up though in Baseball Savant. Thru 4, Anderson has 20 called strikes and Gonsolin 9
Gonsolin is the one who’s shown superior control. It certainly supports an uneven zone
Away pitchers+ pitch description is best visual. For Braves. Home=Dodgers. Anderson has 7 strikes I count that didn’t touch the zone at all. Gonsolin has 1 maybe 2
Moreso, he’s getting calls all around the plate. That’s a lot of counts for the ump to screw with. If you’re gonna have a wide zone in one direction, fine. But 2 different zones isn’t cool in the playoffs. Let the teams decide. Not the umps forcing counts
baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?game_pk=635931…
I guess if your team is getting more close calls you don’t notice it as much as when your team isn’t. Anderson wasn’t in the zone consistently or as much as Gonsolin, so I guess it’s not that much of a surprise that Anderson got more close calls simply because he had more of them. Umpires aren’t perfect, and I don’t think this one has done that bad, at least not bad enough to cost the Dodgers anything.
Anderson didn’t look good. His change ups kept landing short, his fastballs up high. He certainly wasn’t sharp.
I think it was Smoltz that said be careful what you wish for with a computer zone. I think there’s a lot of pitches, especially high like he said, that aren’t called strikes but actually are. I think hitters are going to be more frustrated with robo umps than human umps.
Cmon man. He’s given the Braves 2x more called strikes, and it’s 7-1 on out of the zone calls. That’s 7 at bats changed from 0-1 to 1-0. Or 1-2 to 2-1
With both of these offenses, that’s a huge swing. You are smart enough to know that’s a major difference for hitter and pitcher
It’s an inconsistent zone. There’s stats to prove this. It’s not close. In a playoff game it should be more even
Sure man, I’ll concede your points. The umpire has obviously favored the Braves, changing counts in their favor and against the Dodgers hitters. We will never truly know how this game could’ve turned out and how it negatively affected the Dodgers and their chance to win the game. For all we know, the Dodgers could be the ones up big right now.
Wow, horribly missed strike three call on Turner.
Not trying to start a fight or anything. I would just like an even game. Both teams are built on fantastic hitters who work the count. Tough to do that with a zone that’s been stretched in multiple ways
Braves have still played a great game and hit the pitches when thrown. Just frustrating to watch hitters struggle, but At least partially because they have legitimate complaints
That was really bad on turner, I honestly said that out loud while typing the other comment. Absolutely
That guy’s an idiot. He has no points.
buh bye
Click the link toasty. It’s pretty clear
I honestly would love a month of robot umpires. Batters are going to be pissed. Pitchers are going to be pissed. Managers are going to be pissed.
Robots have no feelings, they don’t feel bad because you’re struggling and need a close pitch, or because they missed a call on you earlier and they’re giving you one back, or because they’re giving you the benefit of the doubt because you’re an all-star. The zone is the zone. There’s going to be some angry players that will be taking pitches that are now strikes.
I think like most other recent changes, it’ll take some adjustment and then they’ll get used to it
I could see pitchers being more upset than hitters over time, but with the low zone. Framing becomes obsolete (maybe not that extreme but impact would be significant imo)
I would be completely open to a trial. I’ve been saying it for years. Playoff games are too important to justify it with “well it’s the human part of baseball”, to me at least
@laughing@, quit your whining. The Dodgers pitchers got some pitches called strikes last night that were 3 inches off the plate.
Play nice fabulous. Especially when you’re wrong. If you want to squint and say Buehler got one too far outside, you can see Fried had a very similar pitch called a strike as well. No complaints last night about the zone because there was none needed
The dodgers got zero calls on pitches that were not touching the square of the strike zone last night. Neither did the Braves. Yesterday was a very even game. Don’t make things up to insult me
baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?game_pk=635881…
Gons was getting 2 inches up and away.
SoCal, you’re not wrong on one pitch. It was outside. That was the only true out of the zone call he got.
The other 2 called on the corner, were in fact on the corner, according to the link. Again just change it to home pitchers. Orange is called strikes
You think part of the problem is Smith? The first pitch on Markakis looked like it was in the k-zone, but the way Smith caught it no umpire would call it a strike. There was another similar pitch to whoever grounded out to 1b to begin the inning, I think Freeman.
some blame goes there yeah. He’s generally a very good framer so I would be surprised if he was sole issue though
I can remember at least one pitch Smith kinda stabbed at and it wasn’t called On the corner. Not sure if we are thinking of same AB honestly. the gaps were significant enough on the starters though, I kinda doubt it’s just catcher.
In the end, Braves have done their jobs, and that includes stretching the zone if you can get the call
Excuses, excuses,excuses. How many excuses can you make?
When you have data to back up your opinions and “excuses”, it’s called understanding
If the ratio was flipped you’d be on here yelling way worse than anything I said
Kolarek should not be doing his own innings. He never did in the regular season. Why now?
That’s the deciding run. Of course it is
I hear you. But to be fair the Dodgers were down big at that point and Roberts didn’t want to burn the pen. Heck, he threw Alex Wood in there. That is definitely a white flag the way he’s thrown the ball the last 2 years. Sure, had he known that the Dodgers were going to erupt in the 9th he would have put someone else in there.
Albies huge, Matzek huge, Martin huge. Tomorrow is going to be a massive game as Urias is very hard to beat. Go Atlanta.
Yep. At end of the night, Braves did enough to win it. That 9th was intense, I’m sure for you too
I want this series to go long, not only because I’m a dodger fan. But this has been some fun baseball, even when yelling at the TV. Haha
When Bellinger & Seager were both at the plate I knew something was going to happen as they were ‘due’. I didn’t agree taking O’Day out as I hate the lefty v lefty philosophy. Long way to go, anything is possible with these two great teams.
Really? Not a fan of lefty/lefty, from pitching perspective? Interesting
I’ll say this. I think it depends on the hitter. They mentioned it in game, but Bellinger lead mlb last year in HR vs lefties as a LHB. So assuming that matchup is an automatic out is dangerous
Then there’s guys like Joc, who haven’t learned how to hit lefties 6+ years into his MLB time. That’s obviously a great matchup. But you can also expect if it’s late in the game, he’s not taking that at bat
Not trying to dog you, but can I ask what you don’t like about the strategy?
I believe good pitchers can get any hitter out. O’Day sidearm or submariner is hard to elevate out of the park, and the fact that he’s an off speed pitcher as well puts the hitter off their swing and the hitter has to generate a bit more power off a pitcher like O’Day if they want to put him out of the park. The lefty lefty matchup is over emphasized I believe. If you are a good hitter you should be able to hit both LH & RH pitching. Seager hit .279 4HR 11rbi v LH pitching which indicates he’s not inadequate against lefties.
O’Day gave up 1 home run all season to a RH batter, and only 1 hit in 10 ab’s v left handed batters all season.
I hear you. Fair points. Wasn’t trying to bust chops, I was honestly curious, and I can see where you are coming from
O’Day is the pitcher you put in the game when you need a groundball. In that situation, you need a groundball. I would’ve liked to see him face at least another hitter or two.
Last night was a tactical defeat for the Dodgers, but it might have woken the sleeping dragon. Braves were on their heels for the first time this post-season, and L.A.’s batters found their groove.
That was somehow an understatement.