Dodgers Fly Into Washington, Greinke Goes For 6-0 Start

Dodgers Lineup @ Washington

Gordon 2B

Crawford LF

Hanley SS

Gonzalez 1B

Kemp CF

Ethier RF

Uribe 3B

Olivo C

Greinke P

Zack Greinke-5-0 vs. Jordan Zimmerman-2-1

The Dodgers fly into the nation’s capital after their crushing series loss to the Marlins on Sunday afternoon, that may have cost them Yasiel Puig for a few days. The right fielder made a valiant leaping try to catch Jeff Baker’s long game winning double against the top of the right field wall. Puig hit the wall and came down pretty hard, and just missed making another spectacular catch. Puig was given some concussion tests that all came back negative. He’s just banged up and listed as day-to-day. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mattingly give him a day to catch his breath. Puig gave it his all guys, he really did. Too bad the Dodger bullpen is so god awful.

Greinke looks like he’s photobombing this pic-Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Meanwhile Hyun-jin Ryu is meeting with specialists in Los Angeles to get a second opinion on his shoulder. No MRI is scheduled for the moment, they’re just examining him. But we’ll see. Hopefully they get this thing taken care of quickly. I can’t take these injuries anymore.

One pitcher goes down, another comes back. Clayton Kershaw is all set to return Tuesday night. The Dodgers pushed him back a day so Greinke could go on regular rest. So tonight the Dodgers will give the ball to Zack, who is undefeated in 2014. Greinke is 5-0 with a 2.04 ERA.

The birdman has been nearly unhittable this year. He has whiffed 46 and walked just 6 batters. He’s got a strikeout to walk ratio of nearly 7-1. His whiff per nine rate is 11.7, and his walk rate a low low of 1.5. Right now he has a streak of 18 consecutive games of five innings or more and two earned runs or less allowed. During this streak he is 12-1 with a 1.72 ERA, the longest such streak in the majors since 1914. You know we talk a lot about Kershaw and rightfully so. But Greinke is also very good. He could very well win the Cy Young award this year.

Greinke is 3-0 with a 1.78 ERA against Washington, with 22 whiffs and four walks in four starts. He’s only made one start at National’s Park at Washington D.C. In that start he allowed just one earned run on seven hits in six frames, but picked up a no-decision.

The only National that’s given Greinke and real trouble is Denard Span. The outfielder is batting .290 (9 for 31) off of Greinke with a double, a triple, and four runs driven in. The rest of the Nats are hitting .275 (19 for 69) against the birdman.

RBI

OBP

SLG

Denard Span

.290

.333

.387

Ian Desmond

.000

Kevin Frandsen

.500

.571

.500

Jayson Werth

.167

.286

.167

Danny Espinosa

.000

Adam LaRoche

.800

1.400

Jose Lobaton

.333

Anthony Rendon

.000

.333

.000

Gio Gonzalez

.000

Nate McLouth

1.000

4.000

Ross Detwiler

Craig Stammen

.000

Total

.275

.333

.406

Washington will counter with Jordan Zimmerman. The 27-year old right hander is looking for his second straight win. Last start he threw 6.2 scoreless frames in a 7-0 win over the Astros. Zimmerman has said he is focusing more on getting ground balls than strikeouts. Could have fooled me, as he has a whiff per nine rate of 9.5 with 35 whiffs in 33 frames.

Jordan Zimmerman-Photo from rotorob.com

Zimmerman is tough. He’s 2-1 with a 3.27 ERA this year. Last year he won 19 games, and finished with an ERA of 3.25. Zimmerman has not fared well against the Dodgers. He is 2-1 with a 6.67 ERA against the boys in blue. He’s allowed 29 hits in those 21 innings pitched.

The Dodgers are batting .378 (28 for 74) against Zimmerman, with a few guys that have gotten their licks in. Hanley is hitting .450 (9 for 20) with a home run, and six runs driven in. Matt Kemp is hitting .417 (5 for 12) with a double two home runs, and seven runs driven in. Check out the rest of the damage that the boys in blue have done versus Zimmerman.

RBI

OBP

SLG

Hanley Ramirez

.450

.522

.650

Adrian Gonzalez

.333

.417

Matt Kemp

.417

1.000

Andre Ethier

.300

.364

.300

Carl Crawford

.375

.444

.500

Dee Gordon

.250

Justin Turner

.667

1.000

Juan Uribe

.000

Paul Maholm

.500

1.000

Total

.378

.418

.581

The Dodgers should option Fife back down to Albuquerque and recall Paco. I would expect to see the club announce this at some point before the game but we’ll see. Fife had to make the spot start on Sunday opposite Jose Fernandez. Fife pitched admirably, and came away with a no-decision.

Also note that Bryce Harper, also known as kid-hype, is out until after the all-star break with torn ligaments in his thumb. The Dodgers instead will see replacement Kevin Frandsen, who used to play for the Phillies.

The Dodgers are 4-2 on this current road trip, and are 18-14 on the season. They have slipped into third place now, two games behind the Giants in the NL West race. We’ll see you after the game. Happy Cinco De Mayo everyone!

Game time – 4:05 PM

Go Blue!

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