Fife Has The Whole Series In His Hands, As Dodgers Go For Series Win

Well last night was fun right? We had to scrape ourselves off of the floor, but it was tons of fun. The Dodgers are playing well right now, and the rest of the division is not. A rarity we haven’t seen, well ever this year. The Dodgers still have their problems of course. Their defense is still shoddy, the offense is still somewhat inconsistent, although getting better by the day, and the manager still utterly clueless on how to manage a bullpen. That eighth inning was another example of how NOT to manage a bullpen. If the Dodgers hadn’t scored in the bottom of the ninth, then they only had Dominguez, Matt Guerrier, and Brandon League left in the bullpen. When is Mattingly going to learn that Paco is not a situational reliever? Well, at least we won so I can only complain so much.  But things are looking up.

Last night’s 4-3 win brought the Dodgers to within five games of first place. This is the closest the Dodgers have been to first place in, well….since opening day. The Dodgers have won six of their last seven, and seven out of ten. That’s the way you make up ground.

The series win is in Fife’s hands-Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

The roster is even improved. No Luis Cruz, no Ramon Hernandez, no more Moylan. That’s three bums off the roster. Now if they can just finally jettison Guerrier, then we may be in business.

Today is getaway day for the Dodgers, as they finish off a seven game home stand. I fully expect Mattingly to roll out his getaway day lineup. After today’s game, the Dodgers embark upon a nine game road-trip beginning with three games in Colorado starting Tuesday night. Let’s hope the Dodgers have a happy flight.

So the Dodgers are like a soap opera this year, because these are the days of their lives. Yasiel Puig has been like their guiding light, and sometimes the team has seemed like General Hospital with all of their injuries. But this afternoon, as the Fife turns, the Dodgers will be going for the series win against Philadelphia. You could say Fife has the whole world in his hands. Or the whole series, whichever pun your prefer.

Right hander Kyle Kendrick will be pitching for the Phillies today. Kendrick is enjoying a resurgent season. He is 7-4 with a 3.46 ERA. Kendrick has struggled against the Dodgers. He is 5-4 with a 7.58 ERA in ten games. He’s given up 32 earned runs in 38 innings against the Dodgers. So that’s good news. At Dodger Stadium his ERA is 9.18! He has a 3-2 record though of course. (Aren’t pitcher wins awesome!) Look at me sounding like the stat kids. Anyways, Kendrick’s dreadful pitching against the Dodgers hopefully will lead to a lot of runs today. Although Kendrick’s last start against San Diego saw him throw eight innings of two-run ball while whiffing six to pick up the win. So how has Kendrick fared against this current group of Dodgers? Take a look at the numbers below. Holy crap! Is Skip Schumaker really hitting .450 against Kendrick?

PA

AB

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

30

30

8

3

0

1

4

0

4

.267

.267

.467

.733

Skip Schumaker

21

20

9

2

0

2

3

1

1

.450

.476

.850

1.326

19

16

5

2

0

2

7

3

1

.313

.421

.813

1.234

12

12

5

0

0

0

0

0

3

.417

.417

.417

.833

8

8

0

0

0

0

0

0

3

.000

.000

.000

.000

6

3

1

0

0

0

0

3

1

.333

.667

.333

1.000

5

4

1

0

0

0

1

1

0

.250

.400

.250

.650

A.J. Ellis

4

4

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

.500

.500

.500

1.000

3

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

2

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1.000

1.000

1.000

2.000

Total

111

103

32

7

0

5

15

8

15

.311

.360

.524

.885

So the Dodgers have teed off of Kendrick in the past. But what about Fife? The Dodgers will counter with right hander Stephen Fife. The reliable Fife has turned in three quality starts in his last four. Fife won his last start against the Giants, when he turned in another quality start, allowing three runs on four hits through 6.2 innings. His first major league start came against these same Phillies last year. Fife went six frames, allowing one run on four hits, and was not involved in that decision. This season Fife is 2-2 with a 3.46 ERA, and 30 whiffs against only 10 walks in 34 frames. The Phillies are just 1 for 10 against him, as most of the current Phillies players have never faced him.

PA

AB

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

3

1

0

0

0

0

0

2

0

.000

.667

.000

3

3

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

.333

.333

.667

3

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.000

.000

.000

3

3

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

.000

.000

.000

Total

12

10

1

1

0

0

1

2

1

.100

.250

.200

Check out today’s lineup. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be originally. Everyone is in the lineup, with the exception of Mark Ellis, who is of course sitting for Schumaker. And Jerry Hairston is at third base today. Otherwise, the lineup looks the same, which makes me happy to see.

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Kyle Kendrick (38) throws during the seventh inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.-Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

It’s interesting how winning just makes everything better. Doesn’t it? Losing just isn’t fun. And I love having fun. Enjoy the game today at 1:10 PM on Prime Ticket. We’ll have our usual recap up after the game, so hop over here to check that out. Oh and one more thing before I sign off. Something extroirdinarily awesome has finaly happened. I’ll let the embedded tweet say it all.

Oh and the Blue Jays signed Ramon Hernandez. So we can all have a good laugh at that too! Happy days are here again. Go Blue!