Dodgers Need Greinke To Hit Several Homers Today

Dodgers Lineup vs. Giants-5-10-14

Gordon 2B

Puig RF

Hanley SS

Gonzalez 1B

Kemp CF

Crawford LF

Figgins 3B

Butera C

Greinke P

Matt Cain-0-3 vs. Zack Greinke-5-1

Now the Dodgers have to win two in a row just to get a series split. Damnit I’m so pissed. Although I did realize I reached a bit of a milestone over here at Lasorda’s Lair last night. Sort of like the Dodgers winning their 10,000th game.

Last night’s frustration induced recap was my 1,200th article written here. Can you believe? 1,200 posts. Where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday that I wrote my first article over here. I guess time flies when your club is pathetically losing every game.

I just wanted to say thank you to every single reader that we get. Thank you for every single comment, or page view that you bless us with. We always appreciate all of our readers. Here’s to another 1,200 posts guys! Cheers!

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Friday night’s game was very frustrating. I was aggravated. As you can probably tell from my recap last night. I’m sorry guys, but I’m only human. I can’t take anymore losing. My tolerance for losing is very thin these days. I just think a 230 million dollar payroll should get you better than third place, and a 6-11 record at home. But you know how I feel about this year’s Dodgers. They stink.

I stand by what I said earlier. A small roster purge would help the club tremendously. No I don’t mean purging the good players. Of course I am not talking about purging Jansen, or Hanley, or anything stupid like that. I’m not dumb. What I mean is purging the backend of the roster. There are about six or seven washed up veteran bums that need to be released. If you watch the Dodgers every game, you know who they are.  I won’t list them right now. Rest assured though, if the club keeps playing like crap I will at a later time.

But don’t expect things to change anytime soon. It’s ok to be upset with the club right now. It’s ok to be frustrated, and throw your hands in the air and yell that the club sucks, and call them Bums. To be honest they deserve it for the way they’ve been playing. I mean I love the Dodgers no matter how lousy they play. But I won’t blow smoke up anyone’s butt. I tell it how it is. I’m a straight shooter. When the club sucks, I’ll let everybody know. And boy do they stink right now. They stink like hot garbage, as Nick Hamilton would say.

The lineups that they’re putting out don’t help at all. Juan Uribe is still out with a mild hamstring strain. We still don’t know how long he is going to be out for. In the meantime Chone Figgins is at third base today. God what a joke this season has been. Do the Dodgers really believe they can win a world series with Figgins, and Turners, and Buteras? You know they can’t.

The Dodgers stink at every aspect of the game right now. I still don’t know why they can’t win at home though. The only thing I can think of is that they don’t see the ball well there. The opposing clubs sure don’t have any problems hitting at Dodger Stadium.

Last night’s game got a bit chippy. With Puig getting yelled at by Madison Bumgarner. When interviewed after the game Bumgarner said something like he was complimenting Puig of his home run. Yeah sure you were Bumgarner.

The Giants suffered a big blow in Friday night’s 3-1 win. In the second inning Paul Maholm hit Brandon belt with a pitch in the hand. It turned out that his thumb was broken. That’s a huge blow to the Giants. Belt was playing really well, and now it looks like he’s going to be out for a while.

I don’t know what the Giants are going to do, so it’s going to be interesting. Can’t Mike Morse play some first base? Maybe they would put him there, and use Gregor Blanco or somebody like that in left. Or they could put Arias there. Maybe. They could even stick Posey there on some days I guess. Either way at least we don’t have to deal with Belt for a while. Maholm should have hit Pagan instead. Right in his greasy hair. You missed Maholm.

This afternoon the Dodgers will face Matt Cain. The right hander cut his finger while making a sandwich, and has been on the DL for the last couple of weeks. He’s being activated today, and he’ll be countering Zack Greinke.

Cain hasn’t pitched since April 23 when he gave up seven earned runs in six frames to Colorado, but still somehow won. The Giants won that game 12-10. Cain this year has gotten off to a rocky start. He’s 0-3 with a 4.35 ERA. His FIP shows as 4.53, so he has in fact been pretty poor this year. The Dodgers actually beat him on April 6, when he gave up five earned runs to the Boys in Blue. That’s one of the Dodgers two victories against the Giants.

Cain is 5-11 with a 3.58 ERA against the Dodgers. In 14 starts at Dodger Stadium, Cain is 2-3 with a 3.00 ERA in 14 starts. I don’t know why Ethier isn’t in the lineup today considering he kills cain to a tune of .429 (30 for 79). The Dodgers have hit 12 home runs against Cain. Gonzalez and Kemp each have four long balls.

The Dodgers will counter with Zack Greinke. Greinke only pitched three innings last week during the rain delay game back in Washington. Of course the Dodgers lost that game, but Greinke should be very well rested. He should be able to go 115 pitches today. So we should not see the bullpen. Although, I did forget to mention that the bullpen had a good night last night.

Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Greinke is 5-1 with a 2.35 ERA this season. He’s whiffed 47 and walked just seven, but he has allowed seven home runs. That seems to Be Greinke’s only weakness this year. Greinke is 1-0 with a 3.12 ERA in three starts against the Giants. He beat Cain and the Giants back on the April 6 game. Greinke is normally pretty dynamite after Dodger losses this year, but I think the only way the Dodgers can get a win, is if Greinke himself hits a home run or two.

That’s what the Dodgers need today. They need Greinke to go deep, because we all know the rest of the position players are not going to hit.

The Dodgers will try to somehow pick themselves up off the floor this afternoon. We’ll be here after the game to document everything, win or lose. The game apparently is televised on Fox Sports 1, if you have that channel. Otherwise you can catch the game on Sportsnet LA and the Dodger radio network at 1:10 PM.